Fourth Sunday in Advent-year B

4th Sunday in Advent


Good morning every one. I am so happy to welcome you all to celebrate today’s holy Mass. My special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and every one who is here today, dear friends every time we come to church we celebrate God who sent His only Son Jesus to us, every time we come to Church we celebrate the Son who willingly accepted to be incarnate as human among us and every time we come to Church we celebrate the Holy Spirit the giver of life.
Once a mother was making breakfast for her children Kevin and John. They were fighting with each other on who would get the first pancake. The mother thought that was the best opportunity to teach them a lesson and she said, “Boys, do not fight with each other. If Jesus were here now, he would say “Let my brother have the first pancake” Then Kevin turned to John and said, “John, you be Jesus”
Today we celebrate fourth Sunday in Advent. Today’s gospel talks about Jesus, Mary and Joseph; it talks about Joseph saying he was engaged with Mary. The Holy Bible says that Joseph was a pious man who did everything according to the will of God.
Once a man approached a disciple of a famous rabbi and asked, “ tell me why your master conceals his miracles. I have personally witnessed his miracles and even collected data that shows the authenticity of his divine wonders. Then why does he do this?” The disciple said, “Yes, I myself observed these miracles. I think I can give answer to your questions. First the master recoils from being the center of attention and secondly he is convinced that his miracles should take them to God not to himself”.
Joseph was a man who focused only on god and that is why we do not hear much about him. When we are like him, God will continue to shower upon us his countless blessings.
We then meet with our Blessed Virgin Mary in the gospel today. It is about annunciation. The angel Gabriel brought the good tidings to all. Though Mary hesitated in the beginning, she said, ‘let it be done according to your will’ and thus she completely participated in the salvation story.
There is a beautiful story about St. Jerome. One day Jesus appeared to him and said, “Jerome, what will you give me?” Saint Jerome who was a famous writer then said, “I will give all my writings to you” Jesus said, “It is not enough”. He then said, ‘I will give you my life of mortification and penance”. Jesus said, ‘that is not enough”. Jerome began to cry and said, “I do not have anything to give you” For that Jesus said, “Jerome, you can give me your sins”.
When we give God what we are and who we are, there we participate in the divine plan of love and kindness. Our Blessed Mary surrendered herself to God and thus became the mother of Jesus. Let us give ourselves to God.
Today’s gospel talks about the birth of our Savior, the Messiah; Jesus who was the Only Son of God became like you and me and lived among us. He brought life and light to all saying, “those who follow me will never die but will have life everlasting”.
Some years ago, a cloister of a Carmelite convent was opened to the public. Many people visited and saw how the nuns were living. Then a man who was visiting looked at one of the nuns and said, “sister, look at the house pointing to a big beautiful house that was standing on a hill far away, if you were given a chance to live in that house, would you have left that house to have become a poor Carmelite nun, praying, fasting and doing spiritual activities twenty-four seven?”
The nun looked at him and said, “That is my house”.

Jesus who is divine became human for us. He became one among us to show the unconditional love of God and we who follow Him and we who come to Church and receive all the church’s sacraments learn to humble ourselves before God and others like Mary and Joseph, we too will give birth to Jesus; we too will bring His love and kindness to all. So let us keep Christ who is the Only Messiah and Saviour. Amen.

Second Sunday of Advent-B

Second Sunday in Advent- John the Baptist Sunday
Good morning every one. I am happy to welcome all our parishioners, visitors and every one who is here today and I would also thank you all for coming out today to celebrate Christ. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we hearing the constant calling of our Lord Jesus to follow Him, every time we come to church we experience the healing power of Christ and every time we come to church we are asked to live out the message namely love and forgiveness of Christ our Lord.
One day a man spotted a lamp by the roadside and he picked it up, rubbed it vigorously and a genie appeared. “I will grant you your fondest wish,” the genie said. The man thought for a while and said, “I need a spectacular job and job that no man ever succeeded at” The genie smiled and said, “you are a housewife”.
Today we celebrate the second Sunday in Advent and this Sunday is called John the Baptist Sunday. John the Baptist the forerunner of our Lord Jesus Christ came to prepare the way of the Lord. His message was, ‘The Lord is coming, let us prepare the way”.
Today we are called to become John the Baptist and prepare the way of the Lord for those who want to come to Him to experience the love and kindness.
John the Baptist’s message contains three important things namely calling, healing and living out the message.

1. Calling: Once a prisoner who lived in a solitary confinement for years and who never saw or spoke to anyone saw an ant coming to his cell. The man was so happy to the ant and he took the ant and put it in the palm of his hand and was amazed at it’s beauty and fed the ant with one or two grain. He was transformed by seeing an ant. Then one day he realized that it had taken him ten years of solitary confinement to know the beauty of that little creature. A same kind of experience happened to El Greco the Spanish painter. One day he was sitting in his dark room and his friend called him saying, ‘ the Sun is shining. Come out to the light and he said, ‘ No I will not because it would disturb the light that is shining within me’
Those who intensely search the Lord will always find Him. Every baptized person is given the gift to find Him through means of prayers and other spiritual practices. When we look for him, He will manifest Himself to us. Once we experience the Lord, then like John the Baptist we too will begin to call others to the light namely Christ our Lord.

2. Healing: Once while three monks were going to a village to preach the Good News came to a river bank and realized that they had to cross the river to go the village and then they saw a beautiful woman also standing on the bank wanting to cross the river, so one of the monks carried her on his shoulder and thus they all crossed the river. When the monks came back to the monastery, the other two monks went to all and said what had happened. They all came to the one and said, ‘We monks are not allowed to touch a woman and you carried her on your shoulder’. They all criticized him and it went on and on for many days and then one day, the monk called the other two and said, “By the way, I carried the woman and let her go many days ago and why are you still carrying her in your minds?”
Healing comes when we leave certain things behind. When we hold on to unholy things of ours and others, we distant ourselves from Christ but instead when we leave our old ways of hatred, revenge and jealousy, we become new in Christ our Lord.

3. Living out the Gospel message: Once a pious catholic had a neighbor who never went to church or did any spiritual thing in his life. Every Sunday when Joe went to Church the other man went fishing. Every time the man saw Joe, he always said to Joe, ‘Joe, I am going fishing, are you going to join me?” Joe used to say, ‘I am going to Church” then one day the neighbor looked at Joe and said, ‘Joe, how come every time I go fishing I invite you and you never invite me to church. That day Joe experienced something new.
Living out the gospel message means helping others to know the love and kindness of God. Today so many people do not come to Church and so many are not experience the love and forgiveness of God not because they are bad or they are unholy but because they are not feeling welcomed. We do not extend Christ’s love and kindness to them. Let us become John the Baptist and call them to the Lord. Amen.

year- B Advent-1

Keep Awake the Lord is coming

Good morning every one. I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Mass and my special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and every one who is here today. I would also thank you all for coming out today to celebrate Christ. Dear friends, every time we come to Church we celebrate Advent, yes we celebrate the coming of Christ in our midst. Every time we come to church we celebrate Christ who is already with us and every time we come to church we celebrate the presence of Christ in our brothers and sisters.
Today the Holy Catholic Church celebrates a new liturgical season called Advent. Advent means coming of the Lord. Christ is coming and we have to keep awake to welcome Him.
Once while a priest was preaching his homily noticed a man sound asleep. As the priest preached louder and louder, the sounder the man slept and at point the priest stopped preaching and looked at the man next to him and said, ‘would you please wake him up” The man looked at the priest and said, “wake him up yourself. You put him to sleep”.

Keep awake the Lord is coming. Today’s gospel invites us to keep awake because the Lord is coming in an unexpected time. All we have to do is keep awake to welcome him. Once while a man was sleeping, he had a terrible dream in which he was being chased by a lion and when he was running, there came running in front of him a tiger and then he realized that he was being surrounded by so many ferocious animals, so what should he do to escape? All he should do is just wake up. Yes, waking up means getting ready to welcome the Lord.
There is a revealing story of a monk who lived in a desert. He was so tormented by temptation that he could not bear it any longer. So he decided to abandon his monk life and go somewhere else. As he was putting on his sandals to get out from there, he saw another monk was also putting on his sandals. “Who are you?’ he asked the stranger. “I am yourself” was the reply. “ I am going to go with you wherever you go. Just learn to deal with yourself. Keep awake and you fill find Christ in everything and that will give you strength to deal with anything.
The unexpected time of His coming brings deeper meaning to our life and faith. As we struggle to predict the exact time of His coming, we develop a deep sense of hope in what we do. We begin to expect each and every day for the coming of the Lord by keeping His loving commandments.
We who believe in Him know that He never left us and He is always with us. Then why are we talking about His second coming? Now at present, those who believe in Him and practice their faith see Him face to face but on the last day, not only believers but also every one, good and bad, faithful and unfaithful will see Him face to face. Yes, everyone will see Christ our Lord on the last day.
As He promised he would come in an unexpected time, until then we should continue to practice our faith.

Once during a battle between Christians and Muslims, a Christian soldier was giving water to wounded Muslim soldiers as they lay suffering without water under the hot sun. And he was brought before the king and accused of being a traitor. The king heard the charges and looked at the soldier for explanation. The soldier then looked at the king and said, “when I was walking through the battlefields, I saw no Muslims and no Christians, only the face of Christ in every man”. The king then calmly said, ‘Continue what you are doing”. Dear friends, the Lord is coming and with hope we should continue to help those who are in need.

Conclusion: The season of Advent invites us to keep awake and welcome the Lord who is going to come in an unexpected time. So let us keep awake by putting our faith into practice. Amen.

CHRIST THE KING

CHRIST THE KING

Good morning every one. I am so happy to welcome you all to celebrate today’s Holy Mass and my special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and every one who is here today and I would also thank you all for coming out today to celebrate Christ the King. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we celebrate Christ who gives us life-everlasting, we celebrate Christ who glorifies and honors us saying, “Enter into my Father’s house”
Once a man died and went to the Judgment and St. Peter met him at the gate and said, “Before you meet with God, I thought I should tell you, we have looked at your life and you really did not do anything particularly good or bad and we do not know where to send you. Can you tell me anything that you did that can help us make a decision?’ the man said, Once I was driving along and came upon a woman who was being harassed by a group of men and I faced that leader of the gang who was a big macho guy who weighed over three hundred pounds, “I slapped him and said, “Let the woman go”. St. Peter looked at him and said, “when did this happen?” He said, “About two minutes ago”.
Today the Church celebrates the feast of Christ the king. Jesus who was born among the poor and who did miracles and wonders and He who proclaimed the kingdom of God and invited the people to love God with all they were and He who again and again said, “God loves you all with His unconditional love” Jesus who was rejected by the Pharisees and the elders of the Church and was crucified and died on the Cross came back to life and before entering into heaven, He promised that He would come back to take us with Him. He promised that He would come to glorify us. Yes, the just judge will come not to punish us but to let us know that we all belong to His Father.
Once a Canadian man who was on a bus in Sweden said to the man who was sitting next to him, “ Canada is the most democratic country in the world. Any one can easily approach the prime minister and discuss things with him. Then the other man said, “it is nothing. In Sweden, the King and the people travel on the same bus”.
When the man got off the bus, the Canadian was told by other passengers that he had been sitting next to the King Gustav VI.
Jesus our King came down to be one with us. He judges us with compassion and love. He is our just judge and He will never condemn us but instead He will forgive and give us life that will never end. Jesus does not ask us anything that we cannot do. He is our example and model and by fulfilling God’s will, he showed us how to do things and accept others.
Once a man who was passing by a road, noticed a blind child begging with a sign saying, “I am blind, help me with money”. Every body passed by but on one helped the boy. The man put some coins in the bowl and rewrote something else on the sign pad and went away. When other people who were passing by noticed the sign and began to put coins and money in the bowl, and the boy was surprised. All he knew was a man came earlier and rewrote the sign but he did not know what he wrote. That evening the man came by again and boy recognized him and asked what he wrote the man said, “ Son, it gives same meaning, though I used different words. He said, “ I wrote, “ Today is such a beautiful day but I cannot see. I am blind”

Anything we do to the least of our brothers and sisters, we do unto the Lord. The Last judgment is based on not how tight we were holding out hands to pray to God but how often we stretched them out to help others. Our spiritual and religious life should extend to help the people who are in need. So let celebrate Christ every day extending our help to the least of our brothers and sisters in need. Amen.

THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS

The parable of the talents

Good morning everyone. I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass and my special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and every one who is here today and I would also thank you all for coming out today to thank God in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit for all our gifts and talents. Yes we are all given so many talents and gifts; so many possibilities and ways to use them wisely.

Once a lady died and before entering into heaven, St. Peter said to her, “Before entering into heaven, I would like to test your talents and you should at least spell a word correctly”. She said, “What word?” any word. She spelled L-O-V-E, Love and thus she entered into heaven. Then St. Peter was taking a break saying to her, “If any one comes to heaven, just do what I did”. And while she was waiting at the gate, there came her ex-husband. She looked at him and said, “What are you doing here?” “ I took a heart attack. Is it heaven?” yes before entering into heaven, you should spell a word correctly. He said, “what word?” she said, “Czechoslovakia”.

Winston Churchill once said, “We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.” We are all given enough talents and gifts for ourselves and as well to help others. If we know how to use them wisely, then we will constantly enjoy our life. God who is so compassionate and loving and who sent His only Son Jesus to us blessed us abundantly. He filled us all with so many gifts and talents. From life comes out only life and from fullness comes out only fullness and from God comes out only goodness and we who are created by His loving kindness are all filled with wisdom and knowledge; love and kindness. We are all highly blessed with so many gifts and talents and in order to enjoy them, we should keep using them.

But at the same time it is not easy to use all our talents or gifts; because of our humanness, we will not use them effectively. We may just let it go.

One day a boy was called to the principal’s office. The principal looked at him and said, “Son, you are in big trouble because you cheated on your written test”. “No, I did not”. “Yes, you copied off your friend John”. The boy said, ‘No, John cheated off me” then the principal looked at him and said, “ for example, for the question, what did Mr. Santa do under the tree?” your friend John wrote, “I don’t know” and you wrote, “Neither do I”.

Hidden talents and gifts should be discovered and be used properly. Instead of saying, “ I do not have any gift or talent when we look at what we have, we can do so much in this world” And that is all we see in the Bible too, every time God called people, they all said, ‘God, I do not have any talent to do this job’ but because of divine power, they all eventually explored the tremendous human potentiality in them.
There is a beautiful story about Martha Berry who had a vision of helping poor children. She wanted to build a school for them and she did not have any money but only a vision. Then she got an appointment with Mr. ford and told him about her vision.
He then reached his pocked and took a dime and gave it to her. She was not insulted or felt ridiculed instead she used the dime to buy seeds and sowed them in her garden. After three or four harvest, she got enough money to buy an old building and thus she made her vision came true and then she went to Mr. Ford and told him what she did with the dime. The man was so impressed and donated her more than million dollars for her school.
We are all given so many gifts and talents and it is our duty to use them wisely for the well being of others and for our society. The great thing about our God is He has not left us here helpless and Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit who filled us with talents and gifts. Though our Master is away for a while, we are given so many gifts and talents to use them. Let us multiply them. Let us use them wisely to make this world, our society and our home a spiritual place where we can experience the love and kindness of God our Father every day. Amen.

All Souls day

Good morning every one. I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s holy Mass and my special welcome to our parishioners, visitors and every one who is here today and I thank you all for coming out today to celebrate Jesus. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we come to know that we are not alone but God is with us, every time we come to Church, we are asked to celebrate life and death and every time we come to church, we celebrate the life, death and the resurrection or new life of Christ our Lord.
Since many of you could not come last Wednesday for ‘All souls day’, today we are going to recall the day. Why does our Catholic Church celebrate ‘All souls day?’ Because it is our duty to pray for the faithful departed who are in purification place or purgatory. Our prayers and spiritual practices will help them purified and cleansed before entering into eternity or heaven. They enter into light and dissolve into it; yes they all become glorious and shining light. There will only be happiness and unending joy. If they are still in purification place, they need our help our prayers. And that is why we celebrate all souls day.
There is a non-biblical story in which, St. Thomas asks Jesus, “My Lord and My God, Where is the end?” And Jesus then looks at Thomas and asks, “Thomas, have you discovered the beginning?’ Then He says, “Where there is the beginning, there shall also be the end”. Jesus says that He is the Alpha and Omega; He is the beginning and end. Everything comes from Him and ends in Him. There is no salvation without Him and no one can go to the Father except through Him. When Jesus was ready to go to the Father, St. Thomas and all the apostles asked Jesus, “Jesus, where are you going and how can we know the way?” Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life and no one can go to the Father except through me and any one who follows me will have light of life.
There is a Buddhist story in which a mother once went to Buddha and bowed before him and said, “Buddha, I know you are merciful and compassionate. You have the power to raise the dead to life and my only child died, please bring him back to life” and Buddha looked at her and said, ‘I will bring him back to life but before that I want you to go into the village nearby and get a bowl of sugar from any family in which death never occurred or happened. And the story ends saying that the mother went into the village and never came back meaning death is an ordinary thing and it happens to all. We cannot destroy or overcome death. And there are religions like Hinduism believe in reincarnation.
But we who believe in Christ and we who come to church and practice our faith have completely different faith. Yes our Christian faith is after life. We believe not in death but in life. Yes, Christ by dying destroyed our death and by rising restored our life and any one who believes in Him will have life everlasting.
Jesus our Lord during His public ministry healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, made the lamb walk and raised the dead to life to show us that sickness or death cannot destroy us. We belong to life and light; we belong to happiness and joy. The central point of the celebration of all souls day is not only praying for our departed beloveds but also keeping our faith alive and active.
Death can never take away our ability to communicate with our departed beloveds. We have the power of prayer and through prayers, we can easily communicate with them. People who are spiritual will never lose touch with the departed. Death cannot bring us down or depress us. We off course grieve because of our humanness but at the same time, we know we belong to Christ and He will look after us. When we know the reality that we do not belong here but we are all pilgrim people, we will begin to celebrate life every day. Death tells us that we have to celebrate life every day.
Death came through the disobedience of one man but by the obedience and sacrifice of Christ life came into this world. Those who believe in Christ should think only about life. Life can be celebrated only by living and loving. When we do everything for the glory of God our Father in Jesus Christ then life will blossom in this world. Let us focus on life and make this world a beautiful place to live and love. Amen.

All souls day

The beginning and the end are the same

Dear friends in Jesus Christ,
Today the Catholic Church celebrates ‘All Souls day’. Yes, we celebrate Jesus because as He promised He took our beloved departed brothers and sisters with Him in heaven. When the apostle Thomas asked Him, “My Lord… where are you going and how can we know the way?” Jesus the Master and the teacher of all said, “I am the way, the truth and the life and anyone who comes to me will never taste death”. Our departed beloveds believed in the love and kindness of God and because of their faith, they are in heaven with Christ celebrating life everlasting. Faith is the answer for everything.
There is a non-Christian story in which a mother goes to Buddha and says, “Dear Buddha, I know you have the power to raise the dead to life. You are a great Master and my only son died yesterday and please bring him back to life and give my joy back” Buddha looked at her with compassion and said to her, “woman, I do have the power to bring the dead to life and I can give life to your son but before that I want you to go into the village and find a family that never faced death and from that family bring me a bowl of sugar”. The story ends saying that the woman went into the village and never came back to Buddha meaning death happens to all and it is every day phenomena.
But for us Christians death is not an end. It is a new beginning; beginning to life everlasting. We do not die and that is why we say, a person passed away, moved on. Yes, from this life, he went to eternal life. Heaven is our home and what are we doing here, we are here to experience divine love and forgiveness. We are sent here to spread the good news to all saying that God means love, God means forgiveness.
After death, we go to heaven to celebrate life. Then you may ask about eternal punishment and purgatory. Purgatory means purification, a place where we will be purified. It is a preparation place to enter into heaven. Then what is eternal punishment, eternal punishment means without God. Where there is no God that is called eternal punishment or Hades and hell.
Today we pray for our brothers and sisters who passed away from this life to eternal life. Our prayers help them to be purified well in purgatory and go to heaven. Every prayer we do in the name of Jesus help them to go to heaven and if they are already in heaven, our prayers be used for the people who do not have anyone to pray for. And also our prayers help us to get ready to join them and thus one day we being with all saints and holy men and women praise and glorify God our father. Amen.

Humility is a good virtue

Humility is a virtue
Good morning every one. I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. My special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and every one who is here today and I would also like to thank you all for coming out to celebrate Christ the Lord. Dear friends, every time we come to church we celebrate God who sent His Only Son as human like you and me and every time we come to church we celebrate Christ who humbled Himself to live among us and every time we come to church we are called to humble ourselves before God and others.
Once an elderly lady came to Church and the friendly usher welcomed her and said, “mom… where do you want to sit?” she said, ‘I want to sit in the front row?’ the usher said, ‘No, mom, the pastor’s sermon is so boring and he will put you to sleep?” the woman said, “do you know who I am? I am the pastor’s mother”. The usher who was so embarrassed looked at her and asked, “Do you who I am?” she said, “no”. he said, “thank god. I am so happy”.
Humility is all about coming down. In today’s gospel, Jesus our Lord by seeing the Pharisees and scribes, tell the people to humble themselves before God and others. Yes, our Lord Jesus Christ humbles Himself and become a man for us. He humbled himself to accept the cross and die for us all. Following the Lord means we have to come down like Him in every way. We cannot receive the gospels without coming down; we cannot understand values and important of the sacraments, if we do not come down. Yes, when we humble ourselves then we become followers of Christ.
There is a story about King Philip the father of Alexander the Great. He employed two men whose only responsibility was to address him twice a day. Their morning duty was going to king Philip saying, “Philip, remember that you are but a man” and in the evening, they would ask him, “Philip, have you remembered that you are but a man?”
When we humble ourselves before God and others we do not need to go to Heaven because the heaven will come to us. That is what happened to St. Paul who was a well-educated rabbi. He did everything well and He had so many followers and disciples. Every synagogue invited him to preach the divine words because He preached with pride and power. But on the way to Damascus, He had a vision; vision of humble Christ who asked him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecute me and I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. At that moment, Saul became Paul and humbled himself before God and others saying, “everything my education and my wealth are nothing before the love of God”
Once a spiritual Master had completed a tour around the world and then all his friends came to him and asked, “Are you not proud of yourself that everywhere you went people adored and honored you. They listened to every word that you uttered?’ The Master humbly looked at them and said, “No. The donkey went into Jerusalem, and they put garments on the ground before him, they sang Hosanna and praise. He was not proud. He knew it was not done to honor him but for Jesus who was sitting on his back. When people honor me, I know it is not for me but for the one who sent me. It is for the one who protects and loves me”.
Once Winston Churchill was asked, “ Are you not proud to know that every time you make a speech, the hall is packed to overflowing?” Winston replied, “It is quite flattering. Whenever I feel that way I always remember instead of making a political speech, I was being hanged, the crowed would be twice as big”.

Dear friends when we humble ourselves before God and others, life will open a new way for us. Yes, we will come to know the presence of God with us twenty-four seven. Our fears, anxieties, pains and suffering will be gone forever. We will never feel alone. We will experience love and kindness, happiness and joy every day. We know God is Almighty and there is a reason for everything.
Once a traveler who was resting under a walnut tree, as he relaxed saw a pumpkin on a thin vine. Then he thought to himself that God did not create things in order. This big walnut tree has small size walnuts and this thin vine has huge pumpkin. He laughed to himself saying, “If I were the creator… that time, a walnut from the tree fell on his head with force, there he was enlightened and humbled then he said to himself, “if a huge pumpkin fell in my head, I might have been dead. God has reason for everything.
So let us humble ourselves and thank God for sending His Son Jesus to us and thus we can and may inspire all who want to know the love and kindness of God. Amen.

Mission Sunday

Mission Sunday



Good morning every one. I am so happy to welcome you all to celebrate ‘world Mission Sunday’ today. My special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and every one who is here today and I also thank you all for coming out today to celebrate Christ our Lord. Dear friends, every time we come to church, we come to know how God sent His Only Son Jesus Christ to us, every time we come to Church, we celebrate the sending of the Apostles into the world and every time we come to Church, we are called to go everywhere and preach the Good News to all.
Once a missionary went to a distant land to preach the good news. While he was walking with a guide, he asked different questions about the people, culture, language and food. Then at one point the missionary looked at the guide and asked, “what about cannibals. Do you have cannibals among you?” The guide laughed at his question and said, “No, Father; we do not have any cannibal because the last one we ate it yesterday”.
Today our Catholic Church celebrates mission Sunday. Today we pray for all our missionaries who preach the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ to all and also pray for ourselves to know that we are by the very sacrament of baptism called to be missionaries of the Good News.
One day a man visited a spiritual Master and offered him two gold coins and asked, “Master, what should I do to become a missionary to preach the good news to people?” The master without answering the man picked one of the gold coins that he gave him and threw it in the river. The man right away jumped in the water and searched to find the coin when he could not find it, he asked the master, “Where did you throw the coin?” For that the master took the other coin and threw it in the water and said, “Right there”. Then the master with compassion looked at the man and said, “Son, if you want to be a missionary, you should first know how to unbind yourself from all material things”
When our Lord Jesus Christ called the Apostles to follow Him, the first thing they did was leaving behind everything and then He asked them to go everywhere to preach the Good News. The Good news has the power and freedom. The good news will unbind us from everything that controls us. Jesus gave them wisdom and knowledge. He gave them freedom and will to go everywhere to proclaim the Good News.
One day a man came to a spiritual master and said, “Master, I want to be a lay missionary and go everywhere like the apostles to preach the Good News. But before that I want to stop drinking or at least I want to know the limit” The Master looked at him and said, “look at those four people when you see those four people as eight people, then stop drinking and you will be fine” The Man said, “Thank you, master. But by the way, master, they are not four people but only two”.
Today we are all called be His missionaries. Yes, by the very sacrament of baptism, we are called to preach the good news to all. We should tell the people that God loves them and Jesus still continues His miracles and wonders. It is important to let every one know of His kindness and compassion.

And as today’s gospel says when we love God almighty with all our heart, mind and body and love our neighbor as ourselves then we complete our missionary call. Amen.

Render unto God-29th sunday year A

Render unto God who belongs to Him…

Good morning every one. I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s celebration. My special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and every one who is here today, I would also thank you all to celebrate today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to church, we celebrate our belonging to God Almighty, every time we come to church we celebrate the revelation of God Almighty in Jesus Christ and every time we come to church we celebrate our image and likeness of God in Christ.
Once a little boy wrote a letter to God that was forwarded to Ottawa and the prime minister was happy to read it and then He asked the people to send ten dollars to the boy. When the boy got the ten dollars, he was so happy. Then he wrote a thank you note to God saying, “God, I am so happy that you sent ten dollars but by the way I noticed that you sent the money through Ottawa and as usual they kept most of it.
In today’s gospel, a group of Pharisees and Scribes come to Jesus and ask, “whether they should pay taxes or not?” They wanted to put Jesus in trouble and they wanted to trap Him from His answers. But Christ our Lord says, “Render unto Caesar what belongs to him and unto God what belongs to Him”.
When Jesus asked the people whose image is on the coin and whose inscription is there, they said, “Creaser’s” then He said to give that belonged to Caesar and then He added saying, “Render unto God what belongs to Him”
The question today is what belongs to God. Whose image and likeness we carry? If we are created in the image and likeness of God, then we have to give ourselves to God alone.
Once a real incident happened in one of the South American counties where people grow banana. By exporting banana, they make their living. Once the ships that carry their bananas to different countries came late, instead of coming on Wednesday, they came on Saturday evening. So people were so busy loading them in ships except one man. When people asked him why. He said “ tomorrow is Sunday and I want to go to church not loading bananas’. People were laughing at him saying, “If you do not do it now, you are going to lose more than fifty thousand dollars. You will become so poor. The ships are leaving by tomorrow. And he instead of harvesting bananas went to church that Sunday. When he came home, he noticed all ships left the port except one because it had some mechanical problem. When the ship was ready to leave, they didn’t want to go empty handed, so they went to that man whose banana was not sold yet and said to him, “we would like to pay you three times more and please give your bananas”. He made more money that year than any one else because he respected the image and likeness of God in him. He loved God and practiced his faith.
Jesus our Lord says we should give to God what belongs to Him. Yes we belong to Him and when we give him, we will find things different.
There is a story about a man who went to parish in France where he bought rather inexpensive necklace and when he came back to his country, he wanted to find out the value of the necklace and took it to a jeweler and asked the price, the jeweler put it under the magnifying glass and examined and said, “$ 50,000 thousand dollars. The man was so surprised to know the price and he took it to another jeweler and asked the same question, the man too put the necklace under a magnifying glass and studied and said, “about $100,000dollars. The man then looked at the jeweler and asked why is it so this much… the man then asked him to read what was written in the necklace that said, “To Josephine from Napoleon”. The value of the necklace came from its identification with the famous person. Likewise our value and dignity come from Christ our Lord. When we are with God, we will be valued so high.

In today’s gospel, Christ our Lord says, “Give to God what belongs to Him”. Yes when we give ourselves to Him, we will come know more of everything. Let us be God’s children and help others to know their value and dignity in Christ. Amen.

Thanksgiving Sunday

HAPPY THANKSGIVING



Good morning/evening every one. I am so happy to welcome you all to celebrate thanksgiving Mass today. My special welcome to all our parishioners, cottagers, visitors and every one who is here today and I would also thank you all for coming out today to celebrate and thank Jesus for everything. Dear friends, every time we come to church, we thank God our Father for sending His only Son Jesus to save us and every time we come to church we thank Jesus for sending His Holy Spirit upon us all and every time we come to church we thank God through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit for our family, friends and all.
One day an elderly man in Toronto called his on in Calgary and said, “Son, I am so sorry to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; forty-five years of misery is enough. The son was not happy and said, “dad, what are you talking about. Please do not do anything. Then he called his sister in Halifax and explodes on the phone. Then the sister called the dad and said, ‘Dad, please do not do anything until we come home. Let us talk. We will talk to mom. Please do not move out” The old man hangs up the phone and looked at his wife and said, “honey, our children are coming home for thanksgiving. Now what do we tell them for Christmas?”

This day, on this thanksgiving day, we especially thank God for everything. When we thank God, we will be given more. The gospels say that those who have more will be given and those who do not, even what they have will be taken away from them. Yes, people get more because of the way they show their gratidute, respect and love. That is why St. paul says that we should thank God continuosly and enjoy our spiritual gifts.
One day a woman looked out of her kitchen window and noticed her neighbor hanging out her laundry to dry. Then she noticed that the whites looked gray and the colored looked dull. She said to her husband, “ what a shame the woman does not even know how to wash her clothes clean. Then she notice on the third week, the whites sparkled in the sunlight and the colored clothes were radiant. The woman looked at her husband and said, “finally our neighbor learned how to do laundry clean”. Her husband then said, “well, it should yesterday I washed our kitchen window”.
Sometimes we all ask ourselves thinking, ‘why should I thank God?” Nothing is going well. The world is a terrible place to live. If we read the newspaper or watch TV, all we haer is bad news and more bad news. But if we know how to keep our windows clean, then we will look at things differently and thank God for everything that is happening in the world. God is good and He will never abandon His children. The God who was so kind enough to send His only Son will not reject us in any way. All we have to do is thank God without ceasing and then we will find meaning in everything.
In today’s gospel, we see the parable of the wedding feast. The king is preparing a feast for His Son Jesus and invites the pharisees, scribes and all but they refused. They were called again and they not only refused but they mistreated the king’s servants. There is an Arabian fable which tells about a man who went to his neighbour and asked to borrow a rope. “I can’t lend it, because I am using it to tie up a pile of sand.” his neighbour answered.“But,” the man came back, “you can’t tie up a pile of sand with a rope.”To which his neighbour replied, “Oh, yes you can.. In fact, you can do anything with a rope when you do not wish to lend it to your neighbour.”
When the king invited them for the wedding feast, they all came up with different excuses. But on the other hand, ordinary, simple people gladly accepted the invitation and participated.

Dear friends, today we are invited to particiapte the wedding feast of the Lord. Yes every time we come to church, we do participate the festival. When we particiapte with thankful heart, then we find more meaning in everything. When we particiapte with gratitude, we find more life and happiness in everything. So let us thank God today for everything and celebrate our life every day. Amen.

27th sunday

The owner and the tenants

Good morning/evening every one. I am so happy to welcome to all for today’s Holy Mass. My special welcome to all our parishioners, summer parishioners, visitors and every one who is here today and I would also thank you all for coming out to celebrate Jesus our Lord. Dear friends, every time we come to church we celebrate the God Almighty who is the owner of the creation; every time we come to church we celebrate Christ the Only Son of the owner and every time we come to church we celebrate our life in Christ our Lord.

One day a doctor looked at his patient and said, “I have a good news and a bad news today”.

The patient looked at the doctor and asked, “What is the good news?”

The good news is that the tests show that you still have twenty-four hours to live.

And what is bad news?

I forgot to tell you yesterday.
Once a gallery owner looked at a painter and said, “I have a good news and a bad news for you?’What is good news?
A man came in and asked whether the price of your paintings would go up after you die and I said yes and he bought every one of your paintings.
What is the bad news?
The man was your doctor.



Today’s gospel is full of good news and some bad news for people who went away from the Lord. The owner- God Almighty who created every thing was happy to see them all growing and flourishing; celebrating life and praising their Creator. When everything was in order and there was a rhythm of peace and harmony; He let the synagogue leaders and temple priests; Pharisees and the scribes to bring His unending joy to all. But they by their shortcomings and human weakness failed again and again. Thus He sent His prophets, kings, Holy men and women to bring them back to them to Him but they instead of accepting and listening to them, they beat one, stoned another and killed many. The Master then sent His only son thinking that they would listen to His Son but they instead killed him. They thought that by killing His Son, they could inherit everything but the Master took the Vineyard His creatures away from those bad people and punished them all according to their sins.
1. Every time we come to Church we celebrate God who is the owner of all creation: After disobeying God, Adam and Eve were hiding from Him and God who came to visit them called them and said, ‘Adam… Adam where are you?” I am hiding because I disobeyed you”. Then God who smiled said, “Adam, this is my house and how can you hide from me?” Since everything belongs to God, how can a person run away from God or hide from Him. Every time we come to Church we celebrate the God who is the source of all. In today’s gospel, we see how God planned everything according to His will and then let people look after them. But they faltered but still He did not loose hope in Man, and then He sent prophets, kings and Holy men and women whom people refused and went away from Him. But God’s way is special and unique and He found something unexpected one, Yes, He sent His Son Jesus.
2. That is why every time we come to Church we celebrate Christ the Only Son of God. Once a Hindu sage was having the life of Jesus read to him. When he heard that His own people rejected Him in Nazareth, the sage said, “A Rabbi whose congregation does not want to drive him out of town is not a rabbi” And when he heard how it was the leaders of the church who put Jesus to death, he said with a sigh, “ It is hard for Satan to mislead the whole world, so he appoints prominent ecclesiastics in different parts of the globe” And Today Jesus Himself says how He is going to be killed because He came to claim responsibility and authority for His father’s property. He came and proclaimed that everything belonged to Him and He came to give them life and happiness; there He was rejected. But His very death opened paradise to those who believe in Him.
3. That is why every time we come to church we celebrate our life in Christ our Lord. Today we are given the responsibility and power to look after the vineyard. Every time we do something for the least of our brothers and sisters, we do to the Lord and every time we come to church and receive the church’s sacraments, we prepare ourselves to enter into the kingdom of God. Amen.

The parable of the two sons

Good morning/evening every one. I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. My special welcome to all our parishioners, summer parishioners, visitors and every one who is here today, and I would also like to thank you all for coming out to celebrate today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we celebrate Christ who said “yes” to His Father to come down to be with us and every time we come to Church, we say “yes” to God our Father and every time we come to Church we help out brothers and sisters in need to say, “yes” to Jesus who loves us unconditionally.
Once a man saw an ad in the newspaper for a job in a zoo and he got the job dressing like a monkey and was entertaining people. Everything went well for several months. And one day he was so happy and jumped up and fell into the lion’s cage. He was so frightened and was praying to God saying, “God, please save me and I will come back to church and do everything well” and he became to cry. The lion that was so furious looked at him and said, “Do not shout. We both will lose our job”.
dear friends, in today’s gospel our Lord Jesus Christ tells the parable of the two sons. He said to the first son, “Son, go and work in the vineyard and he said that he would not go and then he changed his mind and went. The father said the same thing to the other son and he gladly accepted but he did not go.
Once an old rabbi was dying and all his disciples came to him and were talking great things about him. One disciple said, ‘His wisdom can be compared to that of Solomon. This man always did everything well and helped people to have right judgment. Then another disciple said, “His faith is equal to that of Abraham. Because of his faith filled preaching, many people came back to God and then another disciple said, his patience is that of Job. He was very patient and kind person and every one went on and on about his greatness. When they all left the rabbi’s wife looked at him and said, “your disciples are thinking highly of you and why are you still looking sad’ the rabbi looked at her and said, “My modesty. No one mentioned my modesty”.
The son who said to his dad, “Yes’ but did not go to the vineyard in today’s gospel is compared to all the teachers of the law, Pharisees, scribes and elders. They kept the commandments and divine words but they failed to recognize the kingdom of God and Christ our Lord. They were always looking up thinking that God would shower upon them manna forgetting their own brothers and sisters in need. They wanted to be praised and be glorified but they did not set an example for others.
On the other hand, people who were outcasts, tax collectors, rejected and the poor who did not say, ‘yes” in the beginning did understand the love and kindness of God our Father in Jesus Christ and thus did what He commanded.
Once a well educated catholic scholar and an uneducated convert were asked to say something about their faith. The educated catholic scholar got up and full of pride began to read a verse from the Bible saying, “My soul glorifies the Lord my Saviour…’ when he finished reading every one got up and clapped their hands and some were asking once more. Then the uneducated convert got up and recited the same verse from the bible by heart. This time there was a deep silence and every one sat still. Then at the end the educated catholic got up and said, “ my faith was knowledge based and the old man’s faith was heart and soul based”.

Some times people whom we consider unfaithful, not so pious or unreligious and non-spiritual get closer to God and experience more of His love and kindness than we do.

Conclusion: Dear friends, some times or most of the times we have the character of the both sons, we say “Yes” then change our mind and some times we say “no” then we do what according to His will. Let us say courage to say to the Lord and know the love and kindness of God our Father. Amen.

Walking on Water

Walking on Water
Good morning/evening every one. I am so happy to welcome you all to today’s Holy Mass. Our special welcome to all our summer parishioners, cottagers, visitors and every one who is here today. I would also thank you all for coming out today to celebrate Christ. Dear friends, every time tough we come to Jesus with our fears and anxieties, He blesses us with love and kindness; though we come to Him with doubts and questions, He blesses us with faith and hope and though we come to Him with empty-handed, He fills us with unending joy and happiness.
One day a man sent a mail to his friend who was living outside of the county and wrote, “your cat is dead”. The man replied him saying, “You should know how to deliver bad news tactfully. You should first say, “your cat is acting out” then you might say “your cat is missing” and then finally “you should say that your cat is dead”. And a month later the man sent a mail saying, “Your mom is acting out”.
One day man’s house was on fire, so he ran up to his roof for safety. Then all his friends came standing in the street below holding a stretched-out blanket for him shouting, “jump…jump” The man said, “No, I do not trust you. If I jump, you will pull the blanket away to make a fool of me”. They said, “no, we will not. It is serious, please jump”. The man then said, ‘I do not trust you. Lay the blanket on the ground and I will jump”.
What is faith? Faith is complete trust in some one or something. To St. Thomas who doubted the resurrection, Christ our Lord said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.
When we talk about faith, the first person who comes into our mind is Abraham the father of faith. He was called by God at the age of seventy-five to leave behind everything and follow Him. Abraham without hesitation followed God. As God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac for him, He without any hesitation followed the will of God. Because of his faith, God abundantly blessed him, was filled with wisdom and understanding and thus he achieved enlightenment in God almighty. The difference between knowledge and enlightenment is when we have knowledge we use a torch to show the way and when we are enlightened, we become a torch. But Abraham too doubted, questioned and struggled with his faith.
We all know the story of Job the pious man who worshiped God five times a day and kept all God’s commandments. But when Job was older and was approaching his end, his faith was tested. He began to lose one by one everything that he had. Job who was a faithful man never cursed God instead he said, “I trust in God. Naked I came into this world and naked I shall return”. But Job too doubted, questioned and struggled with his faith.
One day a farmer forgot to take his prayer book with him. He said to God, ‘dear God, without my prayer book, I cannot recite any prayer. So now I am going to recite very slowly the alphabet five times and you who knows everything put the letters together and make a prayer’. That night God called all his angels and said, ‘today of all prayers I heard, this is the best prayer because he is a very faithful man and it came from his simple and sincere heart’.
All the apostles were called to follow the Lord in their older age. Though they were older, their faith was not stronger. They too doubted, questioned and struggled with their faith. In today’s gospel, Jesus who asked Simon Peter to walk on the water, says, “you of little faith, why did you doubt”.
But as they doubted, questioned and struggled with their faith, their search to find meaning continued, they struggled to find God continued and because of their unceasing faith, they did find God.Dear friends, today when you see your children, grandchildren, friends and others do not practice their faith, you doubt, question and struggle with your faith and you begin to drown in doubt, there if we cry out to Jesus saying, “Jesus, save me… He will hold our hands tight and say, ‘you of little faith, why do you doubt. Trust in me and they will change. Walking on water happens when we have complete faith in Christ, we do need to change others but all we have to do is increasing our faith in Christ and everything will change automatically. Amen.

25th sunday in year A

GENERROUS LANDOWNER

Good morning/evening every one. I am so happy to welcome you all to celebrate today’s holy Mass. My special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and everyone who is here today and I would also thank you all for coming out today to celebrate Christ. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we celebrate the divine generosity of Jesus our Lord and every time we come to church we celebrate our human generosity towards our neighbors and others and every time we come to church, we are blessed to deepen ourselves into divine and human generosity.
Once Genie appeared to a man and said, “I am going to give you anything you want but with one condition”. The man said, “what is the condition?’ Genie said, ‘whatever you ask you will get it but it will be doubled to your neighbor. The man said, “what?’ I said, “ Your neighbor will get twice as much what you get”. The man did not even think a second; he right away said to Genie, “beat me half dead”.
In today’s gospel, Jesus talks about a god who is so generous and compassionate. Our God is slow to anger and ready to forgive. He gives us all more than what we ask. When we go to Him, we will all be filled with love and kindness. The divine generosity of God surpasses everything.
Once a spiritual master had a neighbor who lived a carefree life. The woman never went to Church or practiced her faith. On weekends, all the spiritual master heard from her house was music and dance. Every time he saw people going in and out of her house, he thought to himself, “This lady will never be happy after death. She will have eternal punishment”. Then one day the lady died and a month later, the spiritual master also died and went to heaven where the angels, all saints, holy men and women came to welcome him and then he noticed a strange thing. Yes, the lady was among the holy people. He got so mad and went to God and asked, “God, why is she here celebrating everlasting life?” God looked at him and said, “Son, you kept all my commandments and did everything well and that is why you are in heaven and she is here because at the last moment, she really felt sorry for all her sins and purified herself and now she is with me celebrating unending life. I am generous with her because she is also my beloved child”.
God our Father is so generous and that is why though people went away from Him, He sent His only Son Jesus Christ to us. God knew the suffering of His son, He knew His son’s crucifixion and death and He still sent Him because we are His children and He loves us unconditionally. It is more than when we come back to Him; yes it is all about how we are coming back to Him.
If God who is our Father is generous then we who are children should also be generous. That is the duty of His children being nice and generous with others. When we are generous and compassionate towards others, we will experience the presence of God everywhere. The world is still a place to live because of the generosity of God our Father.
One day a man shared his personal spiritual experience with a group saying, ‘when I an alcoholic, my family hated me. My wife separated from me and went away and my children also went away with her. They expected me to change but I did not know how. Every time I visited my parents and siblings, they all again and again said that I should change and I did not know how. Then at last I met with one of my friends who comes to church and practices his faith thinking that he would say the same thing, “Change” but instead he looked at me and said, “friend, I accept you as you are and I love you”. That moment I experienced the love of God and I changed. I have been sober for seven years and my wife and children came back and all my siblings are nice to me again. I changed because of my friend’s generosity. He did not condemn or judge but instead he accepted and showed me love.
Dear friends, every one’s spiritual experience is different. Some people may find and experience divine love earlier in life and others may find later but God loves them both equally. In the sight of God every one is precious and important. It is very important to be generous like our Father. And we are all filled with both divine and human generosity. Jesus the perfect example of both divine and human generosity showed compassion and kindness to all.
Once a great religious war broke out in the land and the three pillars of religion namely scripture, worship and charity appeared before God and began to complain, “Dear God we did everything well but we could not stop the religious war out there, we are afraid, religion is going to disappear”
God looked at them and said, ‘do not worry. I will send something bigger than you all and he will save people’s faith in me”
They said, “who is greater than we are?’

God said, “self-knowledge that can bring back divine and human generosity” and he will do greater things than any of you have done. Yes, let us be aware that we belong to God only and then divine and human generosity will begin to flow in and through us. Amen.

The Key to the kingdom of God

The key to the kingdom of God

Good morning/evening every one. I am so happy to welcome you all to celebrate today’s holy Mass. My special welcome to all our parishioners, summer parishioners, cottagers, visitors and every one who is here today, and I would like to thank you all for coming out today to celebrate Jesus. Dear friends, every time we come to church, we join the apostles and say, “Jesus you are the only Son of God. You are the beginning and end and everything comes from you and goes to you alone. We cannot live without you. Every time we come to church, we come to know the importance and value of the keys of the kingdom of God and every time we come to church we come to know that we ourselves are the key to the kingdom of God.



Once a priest went to give anointing of the sick to an old lady. Then the old lady thanked the priest and said, “Father, soon I will be rocking in the bosom of Moses”. The priest said, ‘It is not the bosom of Moses. It is the bosom of Abraham”. The old lady then said, ‘at this age, I do not care whose bosom it is”.

Then the next day, she saw her name of the local newspaper’s obituary. So she called up her friend and said, ‘did you see my name in the obituary”. Her friend so frightened and shivering voice said, ‘yes, I did. Where are you calling from, heaven or hell?’

When the old lady died, the funeral director looked at the man and said, ‘do you want your mother in law embalmed, buried or cremated? The man said, “Please do all the three and I do not want to take any chances.



1. Dear friends, in today’s gospel, Jesus who was at a non-Jewish place called Caesarea Philippi asked his disciples who did people say that He was and they told Him all about what people said about Him. Then the Lord looked at them and asked, “Who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter who came forward in the name of all the other disciples and said, “Your are the Messiah, The Only Son of God. You are the saviour, the Lord. You are the beginning and the end. Every thing comes from you and goes to you alone. We will not have life without you”. Jesus then said, “you can not say on you own all these things unless you are given divine awareness from by Father. You are highly blessed by my Father. One day a man went to a spiritual Master and said, “Master, I want to be enlightened under your guidance, please help me”. The Master looked at him and asked, “By the way, before entering into the house, where did you leave your shoes, on your right or left?’ The man was confused and went away. Because he did not have full awareness or divine awareness to be enlightened. In today’s gospel, the apostles had the divine awareness and deep faith and thus they could courageously proclaim that Christ is the Messiah. Dear friends, these days we see the Holy Bible everywhere. There are more than two bibles at every home. But people can even open the bible only if they have divine blessings and divine awareness. One day I visited a family and they were using the Bible as the door stopper and the sad thing was I was the one who gave the bible to them. If we have divine awareness, then we too join the apostles and say, “Jesus you are the Messiah”.

2. When the apostles proclaimed that Christ was the Messiah. Jesus gave the keys to the kingdom of God to Simon Peter. Key means responsibility. It is a special call to suffering and difficulty. It is a special call to accept humiliation and criticism in the name of Christ and His kingdom. One day a spiritual Master went to a town to preach the good news. In the beginning, every one came to him to listen. When he preached with love and kindness, they clapped their hands and when he said jokes, they laughed and laughed. But eventually their enthusiasm and happiness disappeared. They one by one left him. He was alone preaching finally. Then one day a man came to him and said, “now there is no one here and why are you still preaching”. The Master said, ‘I preached before so that people would change and now I preach so that they would not change me”. I know a woman who went to talk to here grand child and bring her back to church but unfortunately the grand child changed here now this grand mother has more than 400 online friends via face book and she stopped coming to church and spent more time online.

3. Dear friends today we are the key to the kingdom of God. Every time people see they should come to know the love and kindness of God our father. They should come to know that they are not alone but Christ is with them. We should help them to unlock their divine grace and blessing. Amen.

We walk by faith

Walking on Water

Good morning/evening every one. I am so happy to welcome you all to today’s Holy Mass. Our special welcome to all our summer parishioners, cottagers, visitors and every one who is here today. I would also thank you all for coming out today to celebrate Christ. Dear friends, every time tough we come to Jesus with our fears and anxieties, He blesses us with love and kindness; though we come to Him with doubts and questions, He blesses us with faith and hope and though we come to Him with empty-handed, He fills us with unending joy and happiness.
One day a man sent a mail to his friend who was living outside of the county and wrote, “your cat is dead”. The man replied him saying, “You should know how to deliver bad news tactfully. You should first say, “your cat is acting out” then you might say “your cat is missing” and then finally “you should say that your cat is dead”. And a month later the man sent a mail saying, “Your mom is acting out”.
One day man’s house was on fire, so he ran up to his roof for safety. Then all his friends came standing in the street below holding a stretched-out blanket for him shouting, “jump…jump” The man said, “No, I do not trust you. If I jump, you will pull the blanket away to make a fool of me”. They said, “no, we will not. It is serious, please jump”. The man then said, ‘I do not trust you. Lay the blanket on the ground and I will jump”.
What is faith? Faith is complete trust in some one or something. To St. Thomas who doubted the resurrection, Christ our Lord said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.
When we talk about faith, the first person who comes into our mind is Abraham the father of faith. He was called by God at the age of seventy-five to leave behind everything and follow Him. Abraham without hesitation followed God. As God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac for him, He without any hesitation followed the will of God. Because of his faith, God abundantly blessed him, was filled with wisdom and understanding and thus he achieved enlightenment in God almighty. The difference between knowledge and enlightenment is when we have knowledge we use a torch to show the way and when we are enlightened, we become a torch. But Abraham too doubted, questioned and struggled with his faith.

We all know the story of Job the pious man who worshiped God five times a day and kept all God’s commandments. But when Job was older and was approaching his end, his faith was tested. He began to lose one by one everything that he had. Job who was a faithful man never cursed God instead he said, “I trust in God. Naked I came into this world and naked I shall return”. But Job too doubted, questioned and struggled with his faith.
One day a farmer forgot to take his prayer book with him. He said to God, ‘dear God, without my prayer book, I cannot recite any prayer. So now I am going to recite very slowly the alphabet five times and you who knows everything put the letters together and make a prayer’. That night God called all his angels and said, ‘today of all prayers I heard, this is the best prayer because he is a very faithful man and it came from his simple and sincere heart’.
All the apostles were called to follow the Lord in their older age. Though they were older, their faith was not stronger. They too doubted, questioned and struggled with their faith. In today’s gospel, Jesus who asked Simon Peter to walk on the water, says, “you of little faith, why did you doubt”.
But as they doubted, questioned and struggled with their faith, their search to find meaning continued, they struggled to find God continued and because of their unceasing faith, they did find God.
Dear friends, today when you see your children, grandchildren, friends and others do not practice their faith, you doubt, question and struggle with your faith and you begin to drown in doubt, there if we cry out to Jesus saying, “Jesus, save me… He will hold our hands tight and say, ‘you of little faith, why do you doubt. Trust in me and they will change. Walking on water happens when we have complete faith in Christ, we do need to change others but all we have to do is increasing our faith in Christ and everything will change automatically. Amen.

We become what we eat

WE BECOME WHAT WE EAT

Once former president of the united states George Bush said, “I do not like broccoli. And I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. Now I'm President of the United States and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli.
We all like some foods and avoid others. We become what we eat. Today every food industry tries its best to sell healthy food to people. And people do know their physical, mental and emotional health depend on what they eat. Even we do not hesitate to travel from place to place to find healthy and good food. Our approach towards life and living; happiness and joy; buying food and eating them are being changed. We are so aware of who we are and how we want to live.
Our Lord Jesus Christ in order to keep His disciples and followers spiritually and socially awakened and enlightened asked them to eat His body and drink His blood. When we eat His body, we become like Him. We begin to reflect His love and forgiveness in our every day living. Once before first communion, I explained to children the importance of receiving the body of Christ on Sundays. I showed them how to keep their left palm on their right and when the priest says, “The body of Christ” they had to say, not thanks or O. K but Amen, which means I believe. And then I asked them to come and receive the communion. I gave them non-consecrated bread. Then I asked them how it tasted. And every one of them said, “It tasted like cardboard”. Then I called their parents and seriously asked them not to feed their children with cardboard.
I heard a story that during Second World War time, thousand of children were orphaned and left to starve. Many were rescued and placed in special camps. But they had a big challenge of sleeping in nighttime because of the fear of waking up in the morning to find out that they were homeless. Then someone thought of giving each child a piece of bread to hold at bedtime, and they found children could sleep peacefully. During the dark hours the bread was a reminder that they had eaten and would eat again tomorrow. For those children, bread was a symbol of life and survival. The bread gave them hope and meaning.
Jesus the Messiah before His suffering at the last supper took bread and prayed to God and blessed it and broke it and gave it to His disciples saying, ‘eat it, this is my body. Do this in memory of me’. But after Christ was crucified and died and even when He came back to life, the disciples did not break any bread in His name. They completely forgot it and moved on with their lives. Since they did not keep His loving commandment of breaking bread in His name, they could not see His presence. Like the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, the disciples were confused and sad. They were almost giving up their hope but Jesus appeared to the disciples and took the bread, blessed and break and gave it to them. In the breaking of the bread, they again recognized Christ the Lord. They began to say to each other, were not our hearts burning within us, were not our minds filled with life and happiness.
Yes, dear friends every time we come to church and break the bread we too like the apostles; we too like the disciples and followers of Christ will begin to experience His presence among us.

Good soil

YOU ARE THE GOOD SOIL




Good morning/evening everyone. I am so happy to welcome you all. Our special welcome to all our summer parishioners, cottagers, visitors and everyone who is here today, I would also thank you all for coming out today to celebrate Christ. Dear friends every time we come to church, Jesus the sower sows the word of God in us and every time we come to church, He makes the words of God that are sown in us to grow and multiple as thirty, sixty and hundred fold and every time we come here, He makes us laborers of His harvest to go out and help people to know His love and kindness.
In today’s gospel, Jesus says that the words of God like seed are sown in every one of us and according to our reception of them; they grow and multiply in us.
One day a news reporter went to a remote village to interview a man and saw the man sitting in the morning at home smoking and drinking. The news reporter asked, “ please tell me the secret for your living long without having any physical or mental problems” The man said, I live long because I drink and smoke and have fun and I do not worry about anything. The reporter looked at him and said, “you look so old, May I know how old you are? The man who spent his whole life enjoying such as drinking and smoking and not doing anything said, “I am thirty-six”
There are people today live without any aim or spiritual goal and they are like pathway. The words of God may fall in them, but without any use. They disappear without any use.
And there are people like rocky ground, when they hear the word of God, they became so happy and want to do something but when little challenges come along, they leave behind the words of God and disappear.
Once a woman from different denomination came to me and said, ‘father, I would like to be catholic and we taught her the basic things about Christianity. Jesus in His whole life taught about only two things namely divine love and His forgiveness. After a year, she became catholic and she was so happy to come to church for three weekends and then one day she came to me and said, “I don’t want to be catholic anymore and I asked her why. All she said was, I don’t like that lady and that person” and then she never came back.
These people are like rocky ground; they might receive the word of God but without any use.
And words of God do fall on thorny bush too. They get rooted and begin to grow well but before they bring fruits, they are soaked by worldly pleasures and material things and they disappear.
Once a spiritual master was asked by some villagers to send a priest to their village and the master instead of sending one priest, sent four. The other disciple who saw what the master was doing asked him, ‘Master, why do you send four but they asked only one”. The master said wait and see. While all the four were traveling, one priest left his priesthood and went home and the other thought it was hard, so he also gave up and the other thought he wanted to do something different and finally only one reached the village.

Finally the good soil,
One day a man shared his experience saying when I was young I was an alcoholic and my family, children and friends expected me to change but I could not. I used to practice my faith but I was not liked very much and I left the church too. Then one day I met a man who became a good friend to me. And I shared my stories and he said. “I don’t want to change and I accept you as you are. There I felt a great change in me. Yes, everything changed in me”. We all change and become new when we feel accepted and forgiven. Let us not judge others but accept them as they are. They will change too. Amen.

The kingdom of God
Good morning/evening every one. I am so happy to welcome you all to celebrate today’s holy Mass. And our special welcome to all our summer parishioners, cottagers, visitors and everyone who is here today and I also would like to thank you all for coming out today to celebrate Jesus who is the kingdom of god. Dear friends every time we come to church, we come to know that we belong to the kingdom of God where we experience love and kindness and every time we come to Church, we come that the kingdom of God is among us giving us life and joy and every time we come to Church we ourselves become the kingdom of God.
In today’s gospel, Jesus our Lord speaks about the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is like a person who sowed good seeds in his field thinking they would grow and multiply as thirty, sixty and hundred fold but while everyone was away or sleeping, an enemy came and sowed weeds. Then the laborers came and asked the Master, “Master, we know you planted only wheat but we see weeds also. “Shall we go and remove them?”The master said, “no, my friends. Let them grow together and we shall remove them at harvest time.
Story number one: Once the famous scientist, writer and painter Leonardo Da Vinci who painted the famous last supper was searching for a man who could pose Jesus Christ in the painting. He looked for a man whose face would have a divine peace and calmness, whose face would reflect love and kindness, forgiveness and mercy and Da Vinci finally found a man near Milan and then He asked him to pose as model for Christ the Lord and the man gladly accepted. And thus Da Vinci finished painting Christ and then one by one he painted all other apostles except Judas Iscariot who betrayed our Lord. By then He spent more than two years and then He began to search for a man whose face would reflect ugliness and revenge and deception and other horrible characters and after a long search, Da Vinci finally found a man who exactly fit for his ideas and He asked him to pose for Judas and this man also accepted and he thus finished painting the last supper and thanked him. While they were saying good bye, the man looked at Da Vinci and asked, “Do you remember me?’ Da Vinci said, “No… I do not”. The man then said, “I am the same person who posed for Jesus Christ two years ago and now you asked me to pose for Judas Iscariot”.
Da Vinci asked what happened to you and the man said, I who was good became bad and I was like a wheat plant but now like a weed”. The master sowed only good seeds not weeds and He who planted good seed will wait until harvest and then He will remove good from bad.
Then Jesus said, “the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed which is the smallest of all seeds and when it begins to grow it becomes a tree where birds and animals come for shelter.
Story number two Once a famous agriculture company mailed postcards where there glued some mustard seeds to people saying, “if you have faith the size of mustard seed in our products, you will see big change in your life”. And few months later, a man sent a letter to the company saying, “I sowed your mustard seeds and now I am getting good tomatoes”.

Jesus is the mustard seed. Yes, He was born unknown among the poor and the rejected and had only twelve apostles and today Christianity is still growing and everyone who comes to Church experience unconditional love and kindness of God our Father through Christ our Lord.
Jesus then compares the kingdom of god to a woman who uses yeast and with the right mix, the flour begins to grow, the kingdom of God means bringing result and making things grow and today we are called to become the kingdom of God and thus people who are away may come back and know divine love and forgiveness. Amen.