Jesus is our leader, Heaven is our goal

It is nice to see our children are studying well and are aiming for a bright future. They are aimed to become business admistrators, computer professionals, doctors, engineers etc. etc. The parents try hard to fulfil their dreams as well. Let us think for a while. How many of our parents tell their kids that they bring up children, going to the church, prayer and happy life etc. should lead to one ultimate goal -the heavenly goal - to reach Heaven or Salvation? "I am a wanderer in earth" (Psalms 119:19), "My citizenship is in the Heaven" (Philippi 3:20).

You may recall St Maria Goreti, who lost her life at 12. When Alexander forced her to sin, she resists, she repeatedly tells, it is sin, it is sin, you will not enter heaven. We saw her depth of faith in her words. How did she get this depth? Must have got from her parents, pastor or religious. She has deep faith in God even her tender age. We could provide only what we have. How could a parent penetrate faith in their kids if they do not have? If a pastor do not have adequate faith in himself, how could he pass it on to his folks? Is there any deviation from our belief that Jesus is our leader and Heaven is our ultimate goal? Is our work, thoughts, prayer and sacramental life are for the Heavenly goal? or any other aims of this world? Do we have the courage to say to our kids that even if you fail in your board exams, do not commit sin? Let us rate our faith. Is it up to the martyrs?, Is it up to the saints? Is it up to the Apostles? If it does not come up to this, then how much? When the religious serve faith in the community, parents should proclaim it in their homes.

Let us pray Lord! have mercy on me. You had filled so much of faith in me. I do not know where I have lost it. Pardon me. Fill me again with your gifts of faith so that I would be able to aim Heaven as my ultimate goal and Jesus as my leader. Mother Mary intercede for me. Thank you Jesus, Praise you Jesus, adore you Jesus.... Jesus.... You are sufficient for me.... Praying for all for a deep faith... Virgin Mary Daughter of Heavenly Father pray to your Beloved Son so that we may filled with the virtues of Faith.....

Ways to live without sin

If we listen to some people, they deny the very existence of sin. Others, although agree that there exists sin, casually consider it and believe that it is very common. Even the followers of Christ believe that it is not possible to live without sin. When I was talking in a gathering about sin and repentance, one elder brother stood up and said that it is the imagination of you the Charismatic that this is sin, that is sin etc. Such people were present during Jesus' time as well. Many people followed Jesus after seeing miracles done by him, and several thought that if they follow Him, they would get free food! However, Jesus says, "I am the bread of life (John 6:48)". "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you" (John 6:53). People began to say that this bread is hard to digest. They never followed Jesus. Lack of awareness about sin is a major weapon of the powers of darkness. Satan has been successful in creating an image in many people that there is no sin and repentance is meaningless.

The modern world is under the influence of this bondage. I also thought it is hard to follow the word of God and I cannot live without committing sin, until Jesus came to my life and after received Him as my Lord and saviour. This happened during a JY retreat, when I was a first year Pre-Degree student at SB College, Changanacherry. I tried to see sins according to the word of Jesus. I began to pray, Jesus, teach me to see myself as you see me. The result was so frightening that I could see only my shortcomings, hatred towards many, lack so many nice things in my life and so on. Jesus told to the woman who caught in adultery, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, (and) from now on do not sin any more" (John 8:11). I do not believe that if she couldn't, Jesus would not have said that "now on do not sin any more". That woman got transformed into a new creation, became saint and never followed her past. After that incident, she was always with Jesus, has undergone DTP and has become a powerful witness. This is the act of transformation one undergoes, if anybody surrenders their life to Jesus. Is there any way to live without sin? Let us go back to the word of God. "In my heart I treasure your promise (word of God), that I may not sin against you" (Psalms 119:11).

If we fill our hearts with the word of God, we would never commit any sin. It will lead when we walk, protect when we sleep, advice when we rise up. "If I have made an agreement with my eyes and entertained any thoughts against a maiden?" (Job 31:1). Whenever we see something beautiful for the eyes, Praise the Lord for creating such a marvelous thing! You may not sin. "Behold the rainbow! Then bless its Maker, for majestic indeed is its splendor; It spans the heavens with its glory, this bow bent by the mighty hand of God" (Sirach 43:11-12) "If you choose you can keep the commandments; it is loyalty to do his will. There are set before you fire and water; to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand' (Sirach 15:15-16). If anybody decides out of God's love that he wants to live without sin, the Holy Spirit will help him. But it is not that easy. It requires commitment. St Paul says, "In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood" (Hebrew 12:4). How many of us consider sin as a life and death issue? How many of us are ready to shed blood to give up sin? "In whatever you do, remember your last days, and you will never sin" (Sirach 7:36). If we observe the life style of many we are forced to think that they came to this world for permanent residentship. No my dear, we have to leave this place one day! "Maranam varumoru naal oarkkuka marthya..." (Death will take you one day). "Each of us shall give an account of himself to God" (Romans 14:12). How could I sin if I have understood that my most loving God left Heaven and came down to this world and died in the cross to redeem me? "But we will not sin, knowing that we belong to you" (Wisdom 15:2). We constantly get showers of Blessings to live according to His will, provided

"I HAVE ASKED HIM OF THE LORD"

After many years of prayers and sacrifices we were thrilled with joy when realized that God has given us the gift of new life. Praise and worship spontaneously arose from our heart. Lord spoke me through one of my prayer partners that we will be soon blessed with a baby boy and should be named him Samuel, later confirmed when we got the passage of Hanna’s prayer from the Book of Samuel. Last four months were really joyful for both of us especially during the moments of prayers. Having suggested praying for the sanctification of the unborn, many of our friends who are expecting their babies have been shared the scripture passages to be prayed over the unborn. Psalm 139:13-16, Jeremiah 1:15, Gal 1:15 are some of them. We were most certain about the day of conception of our Sam. Offered several rosaries for his sanctification and anointing. We have intensified our prayers for all the unborn babies too. Main prayer intentions these days were an end to abortion and the safety of unborn as well as the gift of children to childless couples. As usual, we have started making rosaries and donating to couples that are going through difficult times all over the world.

During our group prayer, Mini’s praise points were nothing but thanking God for sparing her from morning sickness! It was true that she did not have any sickness or any other early pregnancy related discomforts. Pregnancy was so cool. Our joy turned another dimension when you, Sam started kicking your mom so early especially during praise and worship session of our family prayers and during the sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist. You have been consecrated every day to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

In the meantime, we were anticipating, marking the calendars, making travel plans, your Baptism and many like things. However, it was obvious that you didn’t want to come to this poor world. While in your mother’s womb you realized that you got a loving Father in Heaven, and a Blessed Mother too, to spend your eternity. We are sure you must have asked this to your Lord God. And Lord who is so fond of babies, especially the unborn, really granted your petition. We realized later that we are unworthy to raise such saints in earth. And Dearest Sam, the way you came out of your mother’s womb were also amazing, without causing any hurt to your mom. And you were alive!

Your favorite Scripture passage, the Jeremiah 1:15 we read for you everyday, really became flesh in your life. “I have sanctified you before you were born”. You were Baptised in “the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” soon after your birth. We will always cherish in our memory all the things happened after. The way the doctors and nurses cared for you. Although you were only 85 grams and 8 inches long, you have got the dignity of a human being. This is so remarkable in a world that they think that a baby becomes a human only after nine months of pregnancy and subsequent birth!

Although you have left your mom’s womb, you have left inerasable scar in her heart. She received Jesus in the Holy Communion for you too and the Holy trinity dwelled in your heart every day. After two days of hospital stay, grieving about your loss, we understood one thing; Lord is running short of Saints and Angels. And you made it Sam! A distant dream we all have.

When we were about to say good-bye to the staff, they also sent their condolences to us. Seems that they aren’t aware of this scripture passage, “ If we live, we live to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom 14:8). There were lots of memoirs of you. We liked your beautiful footprints on the card. There were so many beautiful pictures of you. It was so heart breaking to see one of them, Your mom holding your body as the “Pieta”, the broken body of Jesus in Mary’s lap!

Are these all about the emotions and pain of a mom? Not so!

It was my Sam conceived in joy.
It didn’t matter you are with me or not
You are just one tiny life to share – To
raise with hope and love and care.
But now I stand, a father left with
empty hands, not in grief, but in hope
that Lord will send me many beautiful
Angels from Heaven soon!!!!

We extend to you the Blessing of the United Hearts of Jesus and Mary!

Love You so much......Sunny & Mini

"Prayer Life" - miracle which makes a youth "Jesus Youth"

Are you tired of hearing these? "Pray well"; "Pray without ceasing"; "Awake and pray". You should not. This is all about the life of a Jesus Youth.

When you feel there is no progress in your spiritual life, when you realize you are good but not a saint, when you find your ministry is atrophied, lost interest in Christ and His Church, instead of examining your methods or other causes, ask yourselves first if you have prayed enough, and to what extent God really has first place in your lives. In the world we live today, a Christian who does not pray will not only be mediocre but as our Holy Father affirms, a "Christian at risk", vulnerable to any attck of the enemy or any change of circumstances.

You could stay united to God all through day and night. On rising, begin your day by saying, "Thy Kingdom come!" Make a habit to raise your mind and heart to God at the start of every activity and say to Him: "Lord in Your name!" In Your name I am going to School; In Your name I will study or work; In Your name I set out for job or return home; In Your name I will pray or engage in ministry; In Your name I will relax or go out with my friends, In Your name I am going to sleep. In this way,
everything becomes a prayer, an opportunity to encounter God; everything takes an eternal value and becomes effective means for ministry, because we are not doing this in our own, but God and us together, and that too is called prayer, to abide in God! But this does not mean that you should give up all your devotions, meditations and Rosaries. I did not say that. Those should be in its place.

Dear friends, I invite you to understand about prayer with some more depth. Think of prayer as a sunbeam. Its rays stretches down from Heaven. It nourishes the lilies and roses. It royally clothes them in light. Thus arrayed, they bloom and their beauty give glory to God. When we surrender to prayer much, we also beautiful in God's eyes and gives glory to God.

Prayer is a surrender and a sacrifice. But we must also accept the way prayers are answered. The Lily receives what it needs to be nourished and grow. We, through prayer, receives what it needs for salvation. If the Father knows what the Lily needs, does he not know our needs as well? Let us accept what He sends us, in humility and gratefulness, like the Lily dancing in the sunlight.

Married life as a way to holiness

Today I like to address our married couples because many of us are married and many will enter the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.

God does have a plan for sex. God’s plan honors marriage and the honest marriage act. Scripture praises marriage as an image of the mystery of the union of Christ and His Church (Eph 5:21-23). Within marriage the sexual union of the spouses ought to be a true marriage act. In his letter to families, Pope John Paul II the great teaches, “In the conjugal act, husband and wife are called to confirm in a responsible way the mutual gift of self which they have made to each other in the marriage covenant”. This is the divine norm for human love. On the other hand, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, and masturbation all contradict this norm. So does contraception.

When two people get married, their souls are united. There is a spiritual union of a husband and wife, and the two become one. My dear married couples; you should realize this great mystery. Our Lord says in Mathew 18:19 that “Whenever two of you on earth agree about anything you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven”. I am convinced that these words were specifically given to married couples. Try to understand the power of the word of God! Now you pray for whatever with this conviction.

The marital embrace is the very sign of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony. If that sign is undermined and destroyed, the marriage is going to be destroyed. Let us think this in a different angle. The celebration of the Holy Eucharist is the greatest _expression of the priesthood. What would happen if a priest at the altar mess up the liturgy, not properly vested, being completely irreverent, and doing all kinds of unfortunate things at the altar of God? You would be truly outraged by the sacrilege that is happening. If the union of husband and wife in their physical embrace is the very sign of their marriage, what does it say about how much they think of their marriage if they are going to destroy the very sign of marriage?

On the day of marriage, the couples vow to one another and to God that they will love each other every day for the rest of their lives. As soon as they contracept, or take a decision in their heart, that they postpone the gift of life for a certain time, it is no longer an act of love – it is an act of using one another – and it violates not only the dignity of the person, but it violates the marriage vows and it violates the very purpose of human sexuality as God has created it.

God is three “Ls”! Love, Life and Light. During matrimony, God pours His love, life, and light to the couples’ hearts. Because of their self-love, they reject the love of God and later life itself, and ultimately they reject the word of God (John 10:10).

If it is okay to use one another in the perspective of self-love, then it is perfectly acceptable to use one another in any other form. This is exactly what our children are witnessing: two parents who have no respect for one another, two parents who do not love one another, because we have two parents who are being selfish toward one another.
What we need to do is get back to the very basis of what God Himself has given to us in marriage. Some of you might be remembering the scripture readings for the wedding, addressed by St Paul (Eph 5:21 ff). This we do not understand and do not want to hear! “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord; and husbands, love your wives”. This doesn’t mean, “Women, you are now the slave of the household; and husbands, you can just snap your finger and think your wife should do anything you want”. But rather, the word submit means, “to be under the order of”. That doesn’t mean to be “under order to” but rather “under the order of”. So what is the order that is given to the husband? To love his wife! That means to seek her good, to always serve her, to do what is the best for her. It is a very different perspective than what most of us think when we read these passages, but it is absolutely essential.

The conjugal love of husband and wife must be a prayer. It is the sign of the sacrament. Because the marriage is a spiritual union first and foremost, it must be built up spiritually. A couple has to pray together, and then that spiritual union is going to have a spiritual _expression in the physical realm when the two are united in marriage. When the couple is accepting their own dignity – first of all, as male and female, when they accept and uphold the dignity of the other as male and female, when they build up their marriage through spirituality and prayer, and when the _expression of their marriage becomes something which is truly holy – there is going to be an unbreakable foundation and the children born from that union are going to see the example of two people who truly love one another, and they are going to understand who they are.

A child is the living, tangible, and fleshed sign of the love of a husband and a wife. When we look at our children, we should be able to see in that beautiful little face the love we have for one another in a living human form. That is why children are to be conceived in love, raised in love, and filled with love. This is the single call given to the married couples. This is the single call given to every Christian family: to be holy, to help one another to become saints, and to raise up new saints for God. There is only one way that we can become saints, and that is to love, to become who God created us to be.

Let us renew our marriage commitment, look at the love of Our Lady and Saint Joseph to model us, accept our dignity, and build up the unity through prayer and love. So that the end result will be two saints who are parents and a multitude of new saints who are their children.

Praying for all the married couples!

The "Visitation" and the dignity of human life

Meditation of the second decade of the Joyful Mystery brought many reflections to me. Thanks be to God! I am so moved by Luke's Gospel, especially the chapters 1 and 2. I would like to narrate some of the insights. Please read Luke 1:39-45.

Our Blessed Lady, who is with baby Jesus, is going on a very difficult journey some eighty or so miles down from Galilee through the deepest valley up into the mountain region of Jerusalem. That was about 7,000-foot climb to reach the residence of Zechariah and Elizabeth. She finds Elizabeth also with child. As the two women converse, the two babies within them are also conversing. St John the Baptist, when he hears our Lady's voice, leaps with joy in his mother's womb. At that very moment, original sin was removed from the soul of St John and he was filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. At that blessed moment, we hear that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and inspired by the Holy Spirit, she cries out, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb" (Luke 1:42). Here we have a double inspiration by the Holy Spirit with both Elizabeth and St Luke telling us the exact same thing: that Our Blessed Mother is the most blessed among women, and also blessed is the fruit of Her womb.

Elizabeth, inspired by the Holy Spirit, proclaims the truth that people had difficulty with for the first several hundred years of Christianity when she says, "How is that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?" We have here the first public proclamation from a human person that Mary is indeed the Mother of God. This is very hard for some people to understand. How can God have a mother? Jesus, who is God, has no beginning – He is an eternal person – so how is it possible that He can have a new beginning in the womb of this most extra ordinary of all women? It is not that He has a beginning as a person in the womb of His mother, but He has a beginning as a human being in His mother's womb.

For those who are in favor of abortion, and define the age of the unborn to be aborted, this passage is very important. Here we have a baby who is at six month's gestation leaping in His mother's womb when he hears our Lady's voice. Our Lady, at this time, is probably three or four days pregnant. She heard from the Angel Gabriel that the Holy Spirit was going to descend upon Her and that She was going to receive the Son of God, and She set out immediately. She is already proclaimed to be the Mother of God and Jesus, at this time in our Lady's womb, we know that Jesus would still be microscopic. My scientific knowledge tells me that the embryo has not even implanted in the uterus. That means the embryo is making its way to the uterus. Yet today we have people who want to claim that a baby is not a baby that the humanness of a child is not there. And we have Christian people who want to make the same claim! We need to show them this passage.

Our Lady went in haste when She heard that there was another woman who was in need because she was with child. Our world needs to recognize the same thing. The greatest need of our world today is to recognize the dignity, not only of the woman with child, but of the child within the woman. If we truly want to be of service to the world, we should uphold the rights and the dignity of the human person from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death. Since we are all equal, if the unborn are not human, then neither are we. If it is okay to destroy them, it is okay to destroy us. It is interesting how even the pro-abortionists would argue against that position. They think that their life is somehow important, but the lives of other people are not.

We need to pray in a very profound way that as Our lady in Her great charity went in haste to visit Her relative who was in need, that now She will come in haste once again because Her children are in need – great need. We must recognize our own dignity and the dignity of every person – especially of those in the womb, those who are handicapped, those who are sick, and those who are elderly.

As Jesus and Mary went up to the outskirts of Jerusalem to visit St Elizabeth and St John and the truth was thus proclaimed, pray and beg our Lord for the grace to send His Mother so that these same truths can be upheld and proclaimed in our Nation in our day.

Again, I beg you to pray the Rosary everyday and offer the decade on "Visitation" for the safety of all the unborn. At the end of each decade, pray this ejaculatiory prayer, "Jesus, protect and save the unborn".

"God has called me to be ...."

It was intentional that I did not complete the title. How would you fill in the blanks? yes you guessed it! "a great saint".

Called to be holiness or called to be a great saint is not something we can ignore or think that it is reserved for a few. It is for each and every one of us. We can say that we are not holy ourselves, we are quite sinful. St Paul tells us that Christ has given grace according to the measure of His gift, or according to the measure of our call. He has given the grace to live it. Lord says that "He has come to call sinners, not the righteous". He did not come and call you because we are so good, but we are so bad. If any of us sit back and say that " I can't make it, because I am a sinner". Our Lord would respond, "that is exactly why I have called to be a saint".

If we keep on protesting that we can't do this, then, it is not from the Lord. And we know that it is from the opposing party, the father of all lies. This party keeps on persisting that it is not for us, and it is entirely for certain people God has elevated, such as Bishops, Priests, nuns and certain charismatic preachers. And why do you still aiming for that apple which is not accessible?!

It is true to say , "I can't do it", because we can't, but with God's grace and mercy, we can! and only by His grace. This is the first thing we have to understand. We will never be able to do it by ourselves, but "I can do everything in Christ who strengthens me" (Philippi 4:13).

Look at those people our Lord has called as Apostles; tax collectors, fishermen and so on. He has called as one of His Apostles one of the people who would have been considered to be the worst of sinners, a tax collector. Jesus looked at Matthew and told him, "follow me". He got up, followed Him, and changed his life radically. Hold on this word, "radical". We need to have a radical change in our life. Now Jesus came to each one of us and done the exact same thing. The question is whether we have responded like Matthew. If we have not, then it is not too late. But Matthew responded too quickly, and I didn't.

When we look at the grace and call, we immediately recognize that God does not change His mind. He has called us by name, He has called us to be a great saint. That means we have to do exactly what Matthew did. We have to change our life. We have to throw our old garment and put on the new one. We have to grow in the fullness of Christ.

When we look at many saints, Paul, Augustine, Mary Magdalene, we realize that being a great saint is not anything that is beyond us. By ourselves, Yes! but not beyond God! God knows what He is doing.

"He has chosen us, called us, sanctified us, and appointed us to be a great saint".

"Sanctify yourself, for tomorrow God will perform imracles in your life" (Joshua 3:5).

"The boat will not sink"

Back in 1917, our Lady came to three little children in Fatima and She asked specifically that reparation would be made for crimes and blasphemies against Her Immaculate Heart. One might say, “What does that mean?” Today we see that blasphemies against our Lady are increasing and running rampant, even by Catholics or so-called Catholics. We have lots of people who are denying articles of the faith with great regularity. It is getting to the point now in our society, where among those who wish to call themselves Catholic, we find ourselves to be fewer and fewer who really believe in much of what the Church actually teaches. We see many things that are happening around us, and all we can say is that things are getting a lot worse; they are getting a lot closer. The number of hurricanes and tropical storms set a record last year; the number of earthquakes set a record last year. The number of natural disasters is beyond what anybody can seem to comprehend.

Now what we can do is, of course, do not get panic. All we need to do is to remember what St Little Therese pointed out with regard to the Apostles. When Jesus was sleeping in the boat with Apostles and the water was entering the boat, they were panicked because of the storm; Jesus was sound asleep. They woke Him up, and Our Lord rebuked them and said, “You of little faith”. Did they really think with Jesus in the boat that the boat was going to sink? That should be self-evident to any of us. We may notice that the Church is like a boat that is taking in water from all sides. It is sinking! But Jesus is in the boat, and as long as you are in the boat with Jesus, the boat will not sink. Jesus promised us that the jaws of hell would not prevail against the Church. That is a guarantee from the lips of our Almighty Lord! So long as you are in the boat, you have absolutely nothing to fear.

It will appear to many that Jesus is sound asleep. It is a constant complaint that we hear that Lord is not answering to His people’s prayers. The suffering that people are enduring is becoming more and more manifest by the day, and getting more extreme. Remember! These are great gifts from God. And while it may not seem that He is answering our prayers or listening; we should have faith and stay in the boat. Do not be stupid and try to jump out of the waves and wind and all the enemies that are out there.

The only way we are not going to jump boat is if we keep our focus on Jesus. The only way – and I mean the only way – we are going to remain faithful is if we pray. If you do not know Jesus Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament, you will not make it. It is just that simple. If you are not spending time with Jesus in prayer, you are not going to make it. Jesus is right here in the bow of the boat, in the Tabernacle, silent, passive, hidden in that simple and humble host. But He is right there in the boat, and as long as we are with Jesus, we are going to be fine. But if we take our focus off of Him, we are in serious trouble.

Ask St Peter when he tried to walk across the water. As long as he was focused on Jesus, he was just fine. As soon as he took his focus off of Jesus and watched the wind and world, he began to sink. We will be no different. Spend time in prayer every single day. I do not mean while you are relaxing and watching TV, cranking off a little prayer on your way out the door or scratching the sign of the cross in a hurry when you go to sleep. Spend at least one hour in prayer, if you are an ordinary Catholic (I mean, if you are not involved in any ministry). Throw that stupid TV away, first of all, and pray. How much time every day do you spend in front of the TV? How much time every day do you spend in front of the Tabernacle? Who is your God? That is what we really need to ask ourselves.

We have to choose today whom we will serve. If you are going to say, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord”, then prove it. Words are powerful. Put into practice. Jesus Christ is truly truly present in the Tabernacles of the world. Spend time with Him. Get to know Him. Get accustomed to the way that He deals with things, and then be at peace, because even if He does not seem to answer your prayers, even if He seems like asleep in the boat, it does not matter. He is God! As long as He is in the boat, it will not sink. As long as we remain in the boat, we will be saved!