Behold the lamb of God (second sunday-)

Behold the lamb of God

Good evening/morning every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Our special welcome to all our visitors today. Today we hear John the Baptist looking at Jesus and saying to his disciples and all others, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”. “Ecce Angus Dei....”

This happened before our Lord Jesus Christ was being baptized. As Christ was coming to river Jordan, John the baptized looked at Him and said, “Ecce Angus Dei... behold the lamb of God... He said that Jesus is the lamb of God because He is taking away the sins of the world.

The book of Exodus says when Moses went to king pharaoh asking the people of God to let go, he refused to let them go and then god brought so many natural calamities on the people of Egypt and then finally, God said to sacrifice a lamb and sprinkle the blood of the lamb on doorposts and thus when the angel passes, they will be saved. Thus the Passover happened.

What does all of this have to do with Jesus? The Gospel of John describes Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament Passover Lamb. In the Old Testament a lamb’s blood saved the Hebrews from disaster before they left Egypt and now the blood of Jesus, the New Passover Lamb, saves us from our sins.

And thus before giving out the Holy Eucharist, the priest showing the holy Eucharist says, “Behold the lamb of God.... namely He is the lamb of God, the only son of God, the one who is fully divine and fully human and He suffered and sacrificed Himself for the sake of humanity.
The Christ whose birth was foretold by many prophets and kings and whose birth was announced by angle Gabriel to Mary. As He was born, the shepherds in and around Bethlehem came to worship the new born King.
Even the wise men learned the exact time of His birth and came to worship Him offering gold, frankincense and Myrrh. He came to serve not to be served. He came as an innocent lamb of God.

Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Yes, He is not only taking away our original sin but also our actual sins. The sins that we commit because of our human frailties. The Holy Bible says even a holy man sins seven times a day and in order to say “No” to our sins and Yes to love, we need Christ the author of life who takes all our sins away and make us all holy and blameless in the sight of God our Father.

Then the priest says, ‘Blessed are those who are called to the supper of the lamb”. These words are found in the book of revelation where the word lamb is used more than thirty times. The apostle John who wrote the book of revelations invites us all to the supper where we share divine love, kindness and compassion.

Then we respond saying, “ Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof but only say the word my soul shall be healed”.

These biblical verse was used by Centurion as he came to Christ our Lord one day and bowed before Him saying, “Lord, I know and believe that you are the Holy one of God and you do miracles and wonders in the name of your Father. My servant is at the point of death and please help me”. Christ the Lord said, ‘I shall come with you”. When the Centurion heard the immediate availability of Christ, He was overjoyed and was happy. Yes, dear friends, when we go to the Lord and submit ourselves to Him completely, we will begin to experience unending joy and happiness because Christ does everything for us. He said, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof but only say the word my servant will be healed “ and instantly the servant got healed.

Every time we come to Church, we receive instant healing of our body and soul. we receive blessings upon blessing. So let us celebrate Christ who is the true lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Epiphany of the Lord

The Epiphany of the Lord.
Good morning every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Our special welcome to all our visitors today. Today our Holy Catholic Church celebrates the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord. Epiphany means manifestation. Christ our Lord manifests Himself as the divine Savior to the world through the Magi.
Dear friends, every time we come to Church, Christ our Lord manifests Himself through His divine words, every time we come to Church, He manifests Himself through all the Church’s sacraments and every time we come to pray and celebrate Mass, we are all given a special blessing to find Christ in our brothers and sisters in need.

On coming to the house, the three wise men knelt before Christ and worshipped him. Then they offered Him gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. They offered Him gold to indicate that the child who was born is the king of kings and the Lord of all. Every thing was created through Him and only for Him.

Then comes frankincense to let every one know that the child who was born is not only human, He is also divine. In those days and even today incense is used to worship god. It is gift to God and the wise men knew that the child is a divine Savior and then they were offering Christ the gift of Myrrh. It is an anointing oil that was being used for the dead bodies to indicate the child who was born is fully human and fully divine and though He is divine, He will accept death for the sake of humanity.

The three wise men who came to worship the Savior announced the world the light that has come into the world.

today we are here to know about the fourth magi. Yes, the fourth magi who does not bring the prince of peace gold, frankincense or myrrh but brings himself to Christ. we are the fourth magi. every time we come to church and offer ourselves to God almighty through Christ our Lord, we become the fourth magi. every time we find Christ in our brothers and sisters in need, we become the fourth magi and every time we do what Christ our Lord commands us to do, we are the fourth magi. Amen

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.

12th sunday-c

12th Sunday in ordinary time-C
Good morning/evening every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Our special welcome to all our parishioners, cottagers, visitors and every one here today. Dear friends, every time we come to church, we are blessed to join the apostles and say, ‘Jesus, you are the only Son of God and Savior”. Every time we come here, we praise and glorify Christ and say, “Jesus, you are the beginning and End and because of you, we live, move and have our being. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we are given enough grace to take up the cross and follow the Lord.
Once after reading this exact gospel, a bishop looked at people and said, “Now I am going to bless you all with your crosses. So please life your crosses up, thinking that they were going to lift their pain, suffering and challenges up but instead, they all lifted up their spouses”.
In today’s gospel, Jesus our Lord says, if you want to become my disciple, renounce or deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me”
Once a man who was really suffering because his cross, continued to pray to God saying, “God, please kindly take this cross away from me. you may give any cross except this one. His prayers went on for many months and then one day, God appeared to him saying, “ My child, I heard your prayer and I am going to remove your cross and I am also going to let you choose your own cross”. He then took him to a big place where he was so many crosses, big and small, heavy and light. He looked at all the crosses but he did not like anything at all. he then finally looked at a little beautiful cross in a corner and he right away grabbed that one saying, “Dear God, please let me have this one. I will be so satisfied with this little cross”. God said, “Of course my son, you can have this little cross”. As he was walking out with that beautiful little cross, God said, ’Son by the way, you should know that this is the cross, you were all along crossing”. Then God said, “I will never give you anything that you can not carry”.
That is our God. He loves us unconditionally and fills us all with more strength and courage.
And in today’s Gospel, Jesus says, If we want to become His disciples, we should deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him.
1. Becoming His disciple means, investing more time to know the invisible. It is going beyond reality. We are so limited with what we see and understand. But as disciples of Christ we are so blessed to know the invisible through visible that is Christ our Lord. He was an ordinary human person like you and me and taught us how to surpass visible things and connect ourselves with invisible and heavenly things. we should sit at His feet and listen to His divine words as Mary did. people criticized her for sitting at His feet and listening. Even her own sister came to Jesus and said, “Jesus, tell my sister to help me. she is just sitting at your feet and listening to what you are saying’. She is not active but passive. She is not productive but useless. And Christ our Lord, looked at her and said, “Martha...Martha... you are busy and anxious and you are worried about so many world things but look at your sister Mary. She has chosen the best part and that will never be taken away from her. Becoming a disciple of Christ means, just sitting at His feet and listening.
Jesus says if you want to become my disciple, deny yourself .It means denying your human nature and hold on to your new self. As Christ died on the Cross for our sins, we became new in Christ. We are God’s children. we should let the old self go. We should replace our old angers with new acceptance; we should replace our hated with love and forgiveness. Denying oneself means having courage to let our anxiety and stress go and embrace with peace and harmony.
Jesus our Lord asks us to take up our cross and follow Him.
A disciple is the one who reflects the Master and by seeing the disciple, the world will come to know the Master. if we are to be disciples of Christ, then we have to like our Master should carry our crosses, not for our own welfare but for the sake of others and for our community. As we carry the cross, then we will begin to have a deeper spiritual experiences and join the apostles and say, “Jesus, you are the only son of God. you are the beginning and end. with you, everything becomes possible.
Therefore let us deny ourselves and carry our crosses and follow Christ our Lord. Amen.

33-Sunday-c

Dear friends in Christ Jesus, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to church, we meditate upon the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, every time we come to church, we profess our faith saying, “ Christ who has died and is risen will come again, not to judge us but give us life that will never end. Every time we come to Church and receive any of church’s sacraments, we begin to prepare and celebrate our unending life with Christ our Lord.
In today’s Gospel, we are so blessed to know how the end is going to be and what the gifts we are given to face it.
1. On the Last day, the divine created universe will begin to react differently. The Sun and the Moon; the stars and the sky will begin to manifest the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. yes, Our Lord Christ very particularly communicated with His disciples about His second coming. Though Christ our Lord openly spoke everything, sometimes because of their limited understanding and human condition, the disciples could not understand everything. Even today, though we live in an advanced sophisticated world, we too still struggle to understand so many things. And that is why, when Christ our Lord was taken up to heaven, the apostles looked sad and confused and then the angel of the Lord appeared to them and said, “ O men of Galilee what are you looking up in the heaven?’ The Christ who was taken up to heaven, will come back in the same way surrounded by angels and arch angels”. Yes, Christ our Lord is coming. He is coming not to punish us but to take us with Him so that where He is we may be too.
2. On the day, the divine created earth will begin to react differently. there will be earthquakes and destruction; calamities, war and famine. The whole earth will be shaken and many false prophets and people will appear among us and proclaim that they are the living son of God, they are Christ but we who believe in Christ will know how to identify the coming of Christ. We know that the coming of Christ is not to destroy us but to give us life. we are all given enough grace and blessing to know the difference between good and evil. we know how to say “No” to pain and suffering and Yes to love and forgiveness because each and every day, we put our faith into practice and love more and more everything and forgive more and more everything.
3. Today the question is how can we know the presence of God with us? Today’s gospel says that there is a way to know the living presence of God among us. yes, as we face spiritual challenges, we do not need to be afraid of what to say and how to react and all we have to do is just put our strong trust in the Lord. Christ who loves us so much will give words and show how to react according to the situation. many prophets, saints, holy men and women experienced the presence of God
Conclusion: So we are here not to be afraid of the destruction, war and calamity but to celebrate and live our life to the fullest. Because Christ is coming not to punish us but give us life that will never end. Amen.