Saturday, December 7, 2013

18-c

18th Sunday.
Good morning everyone, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to church, we prepare ourselves to go back home namely the divine abode, heaven. Every time we come to church, we begin to store up treasures in heaven and every time we receive any of church’s sacraments, we receive blessings upon blessings to know more about our heavenly home.
Do you know why men die before their wives? Because they want to.
A husband and wife were fighting over who was going to make coffee. The wife said that the Bible says that it is husbands’ job making coffee. where in the bible you found it. The wife opened the bible and it said, ’Hebrews’.

1. Meditation
2. Transformation
3. Action
Today’s gospel invites us to think about our eternal home-heaven. Reflecting or meditating upon heaven will change us into new spiritual beings. There are so many saints and holy people meditated upon the glory of God and thus gave less important to earthly things and knew how to use material things to find heavenly things.
1. Reflection or meditation:
Meditation is a form of prayer that helps to deepen our faith in God. Our faith in God will help us to differentiate things namely earthly and heavenly. There are saints like St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Theresa of Avila and De Sales who spent time in meditation and prayer to know God more fully.
Once St. Thomas Aquinas theologian who wrote Summa Theologica namely summery of theology stopped writing and his assistants came to him asking, “Father, what happened to you. you are a famous theologian and you changed people’s understanding about Catholicism and why are you not writing?’ And St. Thomas said, “Some moths ago, as I meditated and reflected upon the mystery of God and thus I experienced a glimpse of Almighty and before that experience all my writings and fame are nothing”.
Those who experience the presence of God will know how to hold on to heavenly things and store up treasure only in heaven.
2. Transformation
Reflection and meditation upon God will transform a person into new spiritual being. He will become new and will know how to leave behind things that stop him from loving God and divine things.
once a man found an eagle’s egg and put it in the nest of a hen. some days later, the eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them. All his life, the eagle did what the chickens did, scratching earth for food and running around for fear of others. Years went by, the eagle grew old and then one day, he saw a majestic bird flying in the sky so big and beautiful. He asked the neighbor who he was, the neighbor said, “He is called eagle king of birds. He belongs to the sky and we belong to the earth”. And the old eagle believed, lived and died a chicken- because that is what he thought he was.
But we belong to the sky and our prayer and meditation and coming to church will slowly transform us into new spiritual beings. As we spend time in prayers, we begin to find God in everything we do. God called us to know that we belong to the sky. we are heavenly beings.
3. Action:
 
 
Once during a battle between Muslims and Christians, a Christian water boy was giving water to wounded Muslim soldiers as they lay suffering under the hot sun. He was brought to the king and was accused of being a traitor. The king asked what he was going to say. The soldier bowed before the king and said, “As they were suffering I saw no Muslim or Christian, all I saw was the face of Christ in every suffering person”. The king praised him saying, “You are the true disciple of Christ”.

17-c

17th Sunday-C
Good morning every one. I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Brothers and sisters in Christ, every time we come to Church and ask God with faith, we receive of things thirty, sixty and hundred fold and every time, we come to church and search God with hope, we find Him in our brothers and sisters and every time we come to church and knock the divine door with love, it is wide opened and takes us to heaven where we will be surrounded by angels and archangels, saints and holy men and women.
In today’s gospel, The apostles is asking Christ saying, we heard all other rabbis teaching prayers and different methods of spiritual worship to approach God and John the Baptist too taught his disciples to pray and we see you going to lonely places, deserted areas and top of the hills alone and praying to God. We see you different in your approach and sayings, your miracles and wonders bring more people to God and please help us to pray like you. We want to be like you.
Some times we see how grandchildren come to their grandparents and parents and ask them to help in their prayer life. They go to them because they see something new, attractive and spiritual in them. They see how they create a non-judgmental surroundings. They do not criticize or put others down instead they find the presence of God in every person. Not only children and many people are being attracted to people who pray more and thank God for everything that is happening around them.
Once a grand child looked at his grandpa being sad and asked, “Grandpa, I never saw you being sad and why are you looking sad”. The grandpa said, ‘you know what there are two wolves fighting with each other in m, one is good and the other is bad”. The boy innocently asked him which one is going to win grandpa. The grandpa looked at him and said the one I feed.
People accumulate more wisdom and knowledge through their prayers. Prayers shape a person into

1. Ask:
My Father will give you anything that you ask in my name. And then a man came to Jesus and Jesus said, “What do you want from me?’ I want to see again, Jesus. please help me. Do you believe that I can do this for you and when he said, “Yes”, I believe and then the man immediately regained his sight and began to praise and glorify God. By asking, he received sight and faith. His faith in God multiplied hundred fold. He then began to follow Christ.
And before we ask, we thank God for what we are given. we praise His holy name and we worship and adore Him for our life and living. What we with our power can do we should do.
One day a man as he was walking noticed a fox with a broken leg and he wanted to know how the fox was feeding himself and then a strange thing happened, a lion came bringing a piece of meat and dropped before the fox. The man was so surprised to see the greatness of God and thought to himself, If God does great things to a limping fox how much more he would do to me. so he went home and began to pray and ask God continuously for food but nothing happened and then one day God appeared to him and said, “Son, you should have taken the lesson from the lion not from the limping

16-c

16th Sunday-CGood morning every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time you come to Church, God speaks to us in silence and every time you come to church and pray silently, Christ our Lord showers upon you the Spirit and heals you all and every time you receive the church’s sacraments, we understand the language of silence.
Once a man tried his best to find a job but nothing happened and then at last he got a job in a local zoo. All he had to do was just dressing like a monkey and entertain people. Though in the beginning, he could not do it well and then he began to entertain people well jumping up and down, rolling over and screaming and yelling. One day as he was jumping, he fell into the lion’s cage. He knew that he was going to die. He began to cry and cream saying, “ please, Lion let me go and I don’t want to die”. The lion came closer to him and said, ‘Do not scream and we both are going to lose our job”.
Today I invite you all to meditate upon the value of Silence. People say that Silence is gold. Silence is the source of great strength. Silence is a fence around wisdom. When all the noise is gone there is only God.
One day a man went to his spiritual Master and said, “Master, I want to find god and what should I do”. The master said, ‘go and close your door and be still and the silence will teach you the way to find God”.
UNQUIET SILENCE Today we see many people practicing silence but sometimes their silence is more like an exterior absence of words or a stillness from noise. They do not use words but their mind is unquiet, filled with words, noise, ideas, questions, doubts and conflicts. They are confused inside and they are having mind conversation. Silence is only on the surface but inside they are so confused and talking louder and louder. This is called unquiet silence.
Once a teacher wanted to show his students a new technique of shooting an arrow. They covered his eyes with a cloth and then he shot his arrow. when he opened his eyes, he saw the target with no arrow in it and when he looked at his students they looked so embarrassed because their teacher failed. He asked them what lesson he intended to teach them and they said, “you wanted to teach us how to shoot at the target without looking. The teacher said, “No’ I wanted to teach you if you wanted to achieve anything you should not forget your target and keep an eye on the target. Concentrate. and practice of silence helps you to concentrate and keep an eye on your target.
SPEECHLESS SILENCE persons under sudden shock and deeply excited by fear also experience silence. This silence may be wordless and it may give someone for sometime speechlessness or momentary silence. But it does not have lasting peace in it. It only causes confusion and chaos and it also creates anxiety and tension.
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TRANQUIL OR MINDFUL SILENCE Mindful silence is not forced by external or internal factors. It is natural and spontaneous, active and sublime. It wells up form the depth of one’s personality and overflows with a certain rhythm. This silence radiates energy and emanates vitality. In its very essence, you see peace and joy. For example, in today’s first reading, As Abraham was sitting in stillness and silence, there happened something extraordinary. He began to recognize Angels. And we see how he conversed with them and invited them to dine with him. The angels delivered a good news to him. All these things happened because of his stillness and silence and all these things happened because of his deep connection with God in silence. when all the noise is gone, there we see only God.
And in today’s gospel reading, What is Mary doing? Though every one was so busy and running around and even her own sister Martha was anxious and worried about cooking, cleaning and doing something, She was sitting at the feet of Christ silently and because of her stillness, she began to recognize every word that came from the mouth of God. she knew that people do not live on bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of God. And Christ our Lord says that being in stillness at his feet is the better way and being in silence and listening to Him is the way to experience peace, harmony, joy and happiness. Only practicing silence, we recognize angels around us and only in silence we experience God in Christ and only practicing silence we become god’s Messengers to our brothers and sisters in need. So let us practice silence and find God in our brothers and sisters Amen.