WORD 2day

27th May 2013

Hoarding wealth, heaping treasures, gaining profits, bank balance and swollen wallets... these seem to be the dreams proposed for a 'normal' person today! And to have these realised, a person seems to go to any extent... cheating, fraudulence, betrayal, letting down, perfidy and even killing and devastation find their place in today's world. And to some one who wishes to remain sane and distant from such craze, the world seems a strange place. Before long, they begin to feel discourage and distraught. It is to them the Lord speaks today. To those, whose endurance is failing, the Word speaks today and them, it wants to encourage! One  may wonder what would happen to these who are termed 'idiots' and 'good for nothing'... to them is the Reign of God promised. You wish to know how that would be made possible: "for all things are possible for God!"

We are the IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF THE TRIUNE GOD

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

26th May 2013

The Solemnity of the Holy Trinity is not merely a celebration of the Mystery of what God is, but it is a reminder of WHAT WE ARE!

We are the Image and Likeness of God... We are created in the image and likeness of God and We are called to be the image and likeness of the Triune God...for the world today.

To be the Image of the Father: FAITH, 

that is...

... to reflect God's PARENTHOOD in the stewardship we show towards the creation and the care we extend to each other as brothers and sisters! Humaneness comes from here.

... to possess the PATIENCE that God has with us, creating us, making a covenant with us and open and merciful every time we break that covenant! Forgiveness sprouts here.

To be the likeness of the Son: HOPE,

that is...

... to live with the OPTIMISM of a child, to see in all that happens and despite all that happens around us, the mysterious presence of God! Serenity springs here.

... to submit in OBEDIENCE like a real disciple; for one who loves obeys the commandments as Christ obeyed the Father! Salvation sprouts here.

To be the likeness of the Spirit: LOVE,

that is...

... to be filled with COMPASSION, to burn with love for the other, leading to action that manifests faith and hope within! Mission begins here.

... to create COMMUNION of hearts wherever one is, fighting against all source of division, discrimination and discord! People of God are born here.

May God today make us Exemplars of Faith. Hope and Love!

Glory to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit...Now and forever. Amen.

O my divine Bread from heaven!

WORD 2day

25th May 2013

'Their ways are always before him, they will not be hid from his eyes.'

The verse from the first reading says it all...like a mother who has her eyes always on her child, as she is about all her odd jobs...always looking at what the child is upto, what the child is playing with and what the child needs...that is how God looks at each of us...telling us, as another verse says, "beware of unrighteousness". The readings remind us of our origins.. We are from the hands of a God who has loved us into existence! We were children... all of us, we were children so innocent and pure and to be always that, is our call. To remain children...  not meaning merely weak and vulnerable, but being totally dependent on God, truly simple and innocent and spontaneously loving towards each other. Let us heed the call and inherit the Reign of God.

FEAST OF MARY HELP OF CHRISTIANS

24th May... Mary Help of Christians...

These are terms that are so so sweet to the ears of any salesian! Don Bosco's Madonna, Our Lady Help of Christians, is celebrated today with so much joy and gratitude for the guidance and providence felt through her all through the year and all through the life of a salesian. 

At times, I have felt (as I do even now), that the title Mary Help of Christians, is a bit too sectarian and fanatic sounding. However, the term has a historical significance that cannot be denied or done away with. It is not merely a title but a faith expression of a people of a particular period of time, who experienced God's closeness to them through a special intervention of the Blessed Mother of God. 

The battle of Lepanto won in the 16th century was a victory of the Christians over the Muslim oppressors; and Don Bosco's experience of a ever present mother in the Blessed Mother, specially when the Waldensian anti-catholics were up against him, made him polemic about the Lady help of Christians. For a Salesian today this experience is not merely handed down from Don Bosco as a tradition, but experienced and shared on a daily basis with a presence of this Mother, so close and caring. The invocation Mary Help of Christians, Pray for us...could be traced back right up to John Chrysostom of the 4th century, historically seen from the 16th century; but is identified with a spirituality lived and passed on by Don Bosco to his sons and daughters.

Though today many, like me, substitute this invocation with a neutral 'Mary Our help', the original title evokes a specific faith experience that underlies an affectionate relationship a Christian should have towards this Heavenly mother so graciously gifted to us by the Saviour. Mary Help of Christians, Pray for us.

WORD 2day

24th May 2013

Relationships of true love... are signs of the presence of God! The readings today invite us to a reflection on this dimension of our daily life. The first reading draws our attention to a 'faithful' friend and the Gospel speaks of the faithfulness that should exist between two persons brought together in holy matrimony. Faithfulness is the key, to understand the Word today. God made the covenant with the people and till the end God remained faithful to that covenant. Hosea draws a parallel to this faithfulness of God, by projecting Israel as the spouse of God, but an unfaithful one at that. Faithfulness can make us in ordinary life, a shelter, a price-less gift to the other, a life-saving remedy; and in faith life it can make us worthy of God! In a time when we see all around us breach of trusts, breakage of hearts and bribery made a rule, Faithfulness is the imprint of God within our beings!

WORD 2day

23rd May 2013

Have salt in yourself and be at peace with one another - a queer combination! But that is the mind of Christ. Be righteous yourself, but do not judge others. Let not your righteousness cause you to look down on others, for that will already be a loss of righteousness, in Christ's terms. Righteousness - Being Right - or in very simple terms being good. The most crucial problem of our times is that we have lost the sense of sin, said the illustrious theologian Karl Rahner. Subjectivism, relativism and individualism have taken away the simplicity of Christian life. We believe something, profess something and live something totally different. Let us strive to bring the Christian Simplicity back into our lives. Let what we pray, what we believe and what we live be the same... this was the earliest mode of Christian living. Without straining to find out where down the line have we lost it, let us resolve to make it present today, here and now.

WORD 2day

22nd May 2013

The Holy Spirit present amidst us is the guaranteeing element of our rectitude. St. Paul writes to the Corinthians saying, "no one who speaks by the Spirit says, 'Jesus be cursed' and no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" (1Cor 12:3). Jesus introduced the Spirit to us as the Divine Counselor and that is what the first reading today underlines - the Wisdom, following which we are sure of being on the right. Speaking on the feast of the Pentecost the Holy Father said, 'the Spirit creates disorder in the Church' and added 'through the variety of charisms and gifts the Spirit inspires.' It is from this disorder that the glory of the Lord will go forth. Monopolising is not Christ-ian...'do not forbid him' Jesus tells John today in the Gospel. The onus is on each of us to behold the charism and the gift that the Spirit has entrusted each of us with and live it to the full. The more we live it, the more we love the Spirit and the more we love the Spirit the more we love life! LET US LIVE OUR FAITH EVERY MOMENT OF OUR LIFE.

Pope Francis Speaks on the Holy Spirit

WORD 2day

21 May 2013

We seem to live in days of delusion. Injustice and Corruption at all levels, falsity in every field from politics to sports, total despise to human dignity both at the public and private spheres of life, killing of the innocent and oppression of the weak, throttling the throat of the have-nots with the arms of greed - everything that we see around cries foul. Is this what the book of Sirach, calls the 'temptations' to be prepared for, the 'time of calamity', ot the 'testing in the fire'? Be whatever it may be, the invitation is clear - to be prepared, to be steadfast, and not to turn aside! The metaphors of Jesus with the image of a servant  and the child, converge on one point - to be dependent on the Lord! 'Cleave to him and do not depart', challenges the wisdom of Sirach. To remain in Him, is the constant call. Everlasting joy and mercy are with Him..and we shall surely possess it in abundance and share it with the rest, if and only if we remain with the Lord.

WORD 2day

20th May 2013: Monday, 7th Week in ORDINARY TIME...

After a long time it reads, 'Ordinary Time'... the challenge of 'faith' is to keep it alive during the 'ordinary' time, during the ordinary moments of life! High excitements, peak experiences, moving moments, miraculous events, adventurous fortunes... these bring out the best of our faith expressions! But the test is the ordinary phase of life, which is the reality for the most part of our life. Those are the moments, when we will have to see the presence of God in every ordinary thing, every ordinary person around and every ordinary experience of the day...that is the Wisdom that resides in the creation that the first reading speaks of today. And when we are faced with that challenge and we find it so difficult to really see through and perceive the element of God, we are taught today to pray, 'Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!'