the Sunday of Lent

Third Sunday in Lent

Dear friends in Jesus Christ, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Every time we come to Church, we celebrate the forgiveness of Christ our Lord, we hear Jesus saying that there is no sin that can not be forgiven by Christ our Lord and every time we come to Church, we learn to reconcile with God, others and ourselves.
Once two hunters chattered a plane to fly them into forest territory. Two weeks later, the pilot came to take them back and he looked at the animals they had shot and said, “This plane won’t take more than one wild buffalo. And we have to leave the other behind”
The hunters were not happy and said to the pilot, “But last year, the pilot let us take two wild buffalo in a plane this size”. Then the pilot thought for a while and said, ‘since you did it last year, I think I can do it this year also” So the plane took off with three men and the two wild buffalos. But the plane could not gain height and crashed into a neighboring hill”.
Fortunately the hunters escaped and one hunter looked at the other and said, ‘where do you think we are?” The other said, “I think we are two hundred meters left of where we crashed last year”.
It is human nature to fall again and again into same kind of sin. One day we think and promise to God saying, “I will never do it again and we will be fine for a week or two. Then because of our human condition, we will do it again”. The third Sunday of Lent is all about keeping ourselves pure and clean. Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and when we let in bad thoughts, ideas and actions like in Jerusalem temple where people let cattle, sheep, dove and others animals and it becomes like a market place. Because of their worldly approach towards divine things, the place of worship became a place of business and trade. When we do the same thing again and again, we distant ourselves from spiritual things and begin to justify what we are doing.

The Lord came and said, ‘keep my father’s house holy. This is the place of worship and connects yourselves with God and you cannot serve two masters. Take away the unholy things and be holy as your heavenly father is holy”
Once a man came to a spiritual master and said, “I would like to find God. I would like to connect myself with higher being. I want to be satisfied spiritually and please help me” The master looked at him and said, ‘find a way to drop the “I” in you and you will find God and be satisfied spiritually”.
Yes, when we have the courage to leave behind what hinders us to connect ourselves with God, then we make ourselves holy and pure.

Once a disciple came to the master and said, ‘Master, I read the whole bible and so many inspiring spiritual books and I still struggle to find God” The master repeated the famous monastic phrase, “Sit in your cell still and the cell will teach you”. When we are still in the presence of God, we learn more about God, others and about us.
Conclusion:

" You are the body of Christ. " (1 Cor. 12:27)

Saint Paul tells us: "You are the body of Christ." If Jesus lives in us and we in him, then we are his body, we are his temple. God then lives in us, and all those who want to can bear this presence of God everywhere in the world, manifesting the omnipotence of He who is the Creator of all things. If we wish it, God who lives in us can be communicated to the entire world! All that is necessary is that we ask for this, with all our heart, with a profound and sincere faith, like that of the Virgin Mary.

God, who lives in us as in his own house, can perform miracles, in us and through us, beyond anything we could imagine! Let us think of Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus, who bore God's presence in her, and who was declared the patroness of all missions, even though she had never left her cloister of Lisieux! If we truly believe, God will make us into apostles who, without leaving our humble workplace, will go throughout the world bearing the presence of God that is so necessary for peace in the world and the salvation of souls!

Let us prepare ourselves for the holy communion we will receive during this Sunday Eucharist, let us not miss our opportunity: let us offer to God a home worthy of Him, without any traffickers or merchants to pollute it. Like Mary who kept the Word of God in her heart as well as in her home, let us welcome the Lord with a pure heart, free of any attachment to creatures, entirely devoted to the things of God, the Father of us all and in us all!

Second Sunday in Lent

Second Sunday in Lent

Good evening/morning every one. I am so happy to welcome you for today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we celebrate the love of God, every time we come to church, we celebrate the forgiveness of Christ our Lord and every time we come to church, we are blessed to experience divine love and forgiveness in our brothers and sisters.
Today we celebrate the second Sunday in Lent. This season invites us to deepen our faith in God through the means of prayer, fasting and helping others. We are especially called today to know that we belong to God and He is our Father.
One day a baby camel looked so sad and depressed. The Mother looked at her with kindness and said, “Child, why are you looking so sad and depressed?” The baby camel looked at his mother and said, “Mom, why do we have long legs with three toed feet?” The mother laughed at him and said, ‘these long legs and the feet help us to walk comfortably in the desert in son” And why do we have long eyelashes?’ they protect us from sand in the desert my son. God gave us everything for a reason my son. The son again looked at his mother and said, “Mom, tell me why do we have a big hump on our back?’ The mom said, because God is so good to us and He created us with the big hump to store water so that we could survive in the desert for long time without water”. Then the baby camel looked at the mom and said, “If God is so good and created us in such a way to live in the desert, what are we doing here in Toronto Zoo?’
Some times we all struggle to fix on earth, because it is not our home, we belong to heaven and we are all heavenly creatures and then what are we doing here on earth facing challenges and sufferings, pain and hardships? And how can we separate ourselves from them? The only way to separate ourselves from earthly things is Prayer. Prayer takes us to God and every time we connect ourselves with God, we disconnect from unwanted earthly things.
One day a holy man was traveling with a group of people in a beautiful ship. Before the departure, all people came together and prayed to God for protection and they noticed that the Holy man did not pray and then before and after meal, every one prayed but the holy man did not. Then one day they faced with huge waves in the ocean and they were all in big danger, so every one knelt before God and prayed for life but the holy man did not utter a single prayer. So the people got so mad and said, ‘you are a holy man and you supposed to pray to God but you did not. Why are you not praying at all? The holy man looked at them and said, “Would you ask a fish that is in the water to take a bath. I live, move and have my being in prayer. My whole life is prayer. Yes, prayer should be our way of life and when we keep Christ at the center of our life, our whole life becomes a prayer.
In today’s gospel we see the immense power of prayer, when our Lord Christ prayed to God on the mountain, His face was shining like the sun, His cloths became dazzling white and there came Moses and Eliza were talking to Him. The disciple who were with Him were all amazed to here a voice from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased’.

When we have a strong prayer life, we too like our master will see a new spiritual reality in our lives. This season of lent invites us to explore ourselves in the presence of God and others and this season invites us to enter deeply into our spiritual life through the means of prayer, fasting and works of charity. Let us deepen ourselves in Christ and listen to the divine words that are still echoing in every person’s heart, ‘you are my beloved son and with you I am well pleased” Amen

First Sunday in Lent

First Sunday of Lent

Good morning every one, I am so happy to welcome you all to celebrate first Sunday of Lent. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we celebrate God, who sent His Only Son Jesus to be our Savior and good shepherd, every time we come to Church, every time we come to Church, we celebrate Christ in the Holy Spirit who willingly suffered for our salvation and every time we come to Church, we renew our baptismal promises that give help us to say “No” to evil and “Yes” to God alone.
“The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near, repent and believe in the Good News”

These forty days of Lent invite us to explore ourselves in the presence of God and others. We begin a humble journey today like our Lord Jesus Christ who after His baptism, though heard His father’s voice from heaven, “Son, I am so happy that you accepted to be human and suffer for their sins and experience their weaknesses. Son, you are mine and you will do it” Baptism at Jordan shows how our Lord humbled himself before His Father and gave Him divine energy to accept sufferings. Yes, the sacrament of baptism makes us children of God and invites to accept suffering for others. Christianity is all about neighbor. When we help others and wipe their tears, we become better followers of Christ.

Right after baptism, the Spirit took Christ to wilderness where He spent forty days and forty nights in prayer and fasting. The Lord was tempted by Satan in the wilderness asking Him, “if you are the Son of God, change this stone into bread” Jesus said, ‘we do not live on bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of God” yes, we live, move and have our being because of God. Taking Him to a pinnacle of mountain, the devil asked Him to jump to prove that He belonged to God and Jesus said, “do not test the Lord your God and then the Satan began to beg Him saying, “I will give you everything. I will make you king of the earth, adore me” Jesus said, ‘get away from me Satan”.
Once a devil, transformed into a beautiful angel of light, appeared to one of the holy fathers of the desert and said, “I am the Angel Gabriel and I have been sent to you by the Almighty”. The monk looked at the angel and replied, “you must have been sent to someone else. I have done nothing to deserve the visit of an angel”

With that very word, the devil vanished and never came to the monk at all.
Our prayer, fasting and other means of Lenten disciplines help us to discover ourselves and thus we put God first. We will have enough grace to say to no to our tempter. We then hold on to Christ our Lord.
Jesus, after His forty days and forty nights prayer and fasting, began His public ministry. He came to Galilee and proclaimed the Good News saying, ‘The Kingdom of God has come near, repent and believe in the Good News”
Dear friends, on Ash Wednesday when we received the holy ashes on our foreheads, the church used the words saying, “repent and be faithful to the Gospel”. Being faithful to the Gospel means loving God and others. It means trusting in His love and accepting His forgiveness. As we celebrate the first Sunday of Lent let us renew ourselves in the presence of God and be faithful to the Gospel. Amen.

paralytic man

TAKE UP YOUR MAT AND GO HOME




Good morning every one. I am so happy to see you all and welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. My special welcome is to all our parishioners, visitors and every one who is here today. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we hear Jesus saying to us, “pick up yourself and be strong; I am with you”. Every time we come to Church, we hear Jesus saying, your sins are forgiven and be happy and every time we come to Church we experience His love and kindness and say, “we have never seen anything like this”.
One day a dad was talking to his son about the miracles and wonders of Christ our Lord. The son said, “Dad, what is your favorite gospel story?” The dad said, “There are so many my son, so may. The one we heard today in the Church is also my favorite”. The son said, “Dad, tell me the story of the gospel?’ The dad said, “It is the story about the paralyzed man”. Every time I hear about the story, I think about our neighbor Joe because Joe was exactly like the paralyzed man. When his wife died last year, he felt so abandoned and stopped doing every day thing. He even stopped going to church and then his friends like the four people who carried the paralyzed person to Jesus went to Joe and said, “we are here to support you. We are going to pray for you” They supported him spiritually and emotionally and then Joe came out of his pain and suffering.
Today we meet with so many paralyzed people. They may be paralyzed because of lose or some failures or anything else. All they need is people to help them.
What do we see in today’s gospel? Jesus is healing the sick and talking to people. People from every walk of life surrounded him. It was impossible to reach Him. But because of the friends and neighbors; because of relatives and family members who wanted to help the paralytic person, he could reach Jesus. They did not give up instead they went up the roof and from there they let the man down to Jesus. Jesus was so amazed at their faith and healed the man.
Today the question is do we have friends, family members, relatives and neighbor who have strong faith. Do we have people who can help us to experience Jesus and His healing? It is not about the faith we have, it is also equally important to have friends and family members who have stronger faith because when we lose hope, when we lose faith and love, they might extend their help and they might say to us, “it is o.k. Do not be worried. God will never abandon you. He will protect you and He will heal you and strengthen you.
I know that we all meet people or have people who will come to us and say, “ it is because of what you did, you are sick and God punished you. It is not going to be fine. You should learn to live with it” There are people who will constantly discourage of what we are going through.
Conclusion:

Today we need strong spiritual guide and friends to whom we feel comfortable to share our suffering and pain; with whom we might open ourselves knowing that they might help us to experience the unconditional love of God in Christ and it is also important to be a good neighbor, friend, family member and relative to others who struggle spiritually, emotionally and physically. Amen.

Six Sunday in year A

Martin was a young soldier in the Roman army. Elegantly dressed, he was mounted on his horse one day when he was accosted by a leper begging for alms. The sight and the stench of rotting flesh was so repulsive to the sensitivities of young Martin that his first instincts were to ride off on his horse. But something inside him made his walk up to the beggar. Since all he had was his military coat, he cut it in two and gave half to the leper while he wrapped himself with the other half. It was a very cold winter day. That night in his dream he saw Christ clothed in a half coat saying to the angels around his throne, “Martin has clothed me with his garment.” This event was the turning point in the life of him who was to become St Martin of Tours.


Good morning every one. I am so happy to see you all and our special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and every one who is here today to celebrate love. Dear friends, every time we come to church, we are given the divine gift to experience the healing power of Christ our Lord. Every time we come to church we are asked to be healers of others especially those who are away from the divine love of God and every time we come to church we ourselves become the healing of Christ.

The misery of the leper
One day a man saw a little white spot on his hand and then he showed to his wife saying, “this is strange and I washed and washed, it still stays on my hand. What is this?” His wife looked at the white spot on his hand and said, “my dear husband, it is nothing. God is always good to us and He blessed us with beautiful children. You have a good job and we practice our faith and nothing will happen to us. Let us bless the Lord always but the husband was not happy so the wife said to him, “let us give few more days and see” a week later, they noticed so many white spots on his hands and they even began to oozed fluid.

She then said to her husband, “Go to our priest and show to him because in those days priests were also health officials. The priest quarantined or separated him from the rest of the community and kept him for fourteen more days to see what kind of skin disease he had. Then on the fourteenth day, the priest called the man and every one from the community and said to the man, “you have leprosy. You are banished from the community because you are unclean and thus he gave him a bell saying, anytime you see a person you have to scream ringing the bell, “I am unclean, unclean”. So the man was removed from the society and was put in an isolated place to die.
The mercy of the Lord
In the leper colony, he heard people talking to each other about a holy man saying, “His name is Jesus. He heals the sick, gives sight to the blind, makes the lamb walk and even He raises the dead to life” when he heard the miracles and wonders of Christ, the leper developed a deep faith in Christ and then he began to look for him. But many years went by, but Jesus never showed up. Nevertheless the man never lost his faith; he strongly believed that Christ would one day pass that way. As he hoped Christ the Lord was passing through that region and he rushed to Christ. This time he did not say, I am unclean, unclean or he did not ring the bell instead he cried out with the loud voice and said to Christ, “Lord, Jesus heal me” Jesus our Lord stretched out His hands and touched him physically, emotionally and spiritually and said, ‘Be made clean”
The man never lost faith in Christ. The man never lost hope in Him and thus he who experienced the healing power of Christ went everywhere to proclaim the good news of love.
Conclusion:

Today we are asked to preach the good news of Christ our Lord, today we are asked to stretch out our hands and touch people who are in need and thus they may come to know that they are not alone but Christ is with them. Amen.

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.