Reflection - 33

 “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thes 5:18

St. Paul commands that to be joyful always, to pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances. May God bless us to have constant joy, constant prayers and absolute thanks in all circumstances which God had done in our life.

BE JOYFUL ALWAYS

 JOY is a short form of three words-Jesus, others and you. True joy comes from Jesus. Luke 2:10 says, “But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.’” Jesus is good news of great joy. Jesus is the source of our joy. When we do not have Jesus, we lose our joy. The Magi from the east rejoiced when they found the baby Jesus. (Matt. 2:10) How can we be joyful in our difficult human situation? Romans 5:3-4 says, “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, confidence; and confidence, hope.” So we can be joyful in sufferings because there is God’s plan behind them.

PRAY CONTINUALLY

 What does Paul mean “pray continually”? “Pray continually” means that God’s people must have a constant spirit of prayer. Praying is spiritual breathing. Praying is deepening our love relationship with God. Prayer is a powerful weapon against anxieties, temptations and despair. Jesus is the good example for a prayerful person. Jesus prayed from the beginning of his ministry to the end. (Lk. 3:21) Jesus prayed very early in the morning (Mk. 1:35) Jesus prayed at night (Lk. 21:37). Jesus’ last words recorded in Luke were a prayer: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.  Once His disciples  asked him to teach them to pray. So he taught them the Lord’s Prayer: “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.” So as we are the children of Jesus we must pray for others. We must pray for God’s kingdom to come in our hearts, our neighbours and our nation. Through this prayer we come to God our heavenly Father.

 GIVE THANKS IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES.

Many times and many situations we will ask some questions to ourselves that Why is it so important to have a thankful attitude all the time?  How can we give thanks in all circumstances? We should give thanks to god in all circumstances even in suffering. Our Lord Jesus Christ shared his last meal with his disciples. His heart was heavy with the suffering he had to face. Yet he took the cup, gave thanks and shared it with his disciples. He also took the bread, gave thanks and gave it to his disciples. So we also should have the mind of thankful to God for giving this beautiful life, our call to priesthood, care and love which we are receiving from Lord Jesus. So dear brothers let us live in an attitude of gratitude even in the small things of life.

Let us be joyful always, pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for us in Christ Jesus.

Bro. Rijin P. Elias

 Reflection - 32

Luke 13 :- 6 - 9

I would love to connect this parable with a sweet and short story that touched me....

A father who had just brought a brand new car. He was evidently pleased and proud to have such a beautiful vehicle. Sometime later, he was looking through the window of his house, and he saw his young son playfully scratching on the car with a stone and peeling the paint. The man got angry. He rushed to his son, remove the stone from his hand and violently beat upon his little fingers till they were bleeding and broken.

Later he came to realise that what he was doing, he rushed his son to the hospital. The boy was taken to the operation theatre. There was no way to save the fingers of his child. They had to be removed. His son was wheeled out of the room after surgery. And the first words he said to his father in a state of realization were, “Daddy, I'm sorry I damaged your car”. After that he added “Daddy when will my fingers grow...?” this was emotionally too much for the father to handle. He went out and killed himself.

This incident was obviously quite shocking. It is because of the anger of the father, he did not give a second chance to his son, and he cruelly smashed his fingers. The worst thing is that he did not give himself a second chance.  He killed himself because of his guilt.     

Through the parable of the fig tree we can see that the owner gave a second chance to the fig tree by the request of the vine dresser. So the point of reflection should be we giving a second chance to others as well as ourselves ...not like the father in the story...

We are inflexible and rigid with our thoughts that baffles our mind from a second chance to others as well as ourselves.

We are built up with many strict rules, and make others to follow it, which may be right or wrong, and are quite in tolerant to forgive, for any deviation, from these rules. Keeping these strict rules in our heart, we sometimes forget the heart, which has love, mercy and compassion towards others.

So my dear brothers even Jesus did give a second chance to everyone even the one who crucified him...                         SO WHY CANT WE??

Bro. Kuriakose Paddikkan

                           

                                    REFLECTION - 31

John 10:11-17

 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me just as the Father knows me and I know the Father and I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶ I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. ¹⁷ The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life only to take it up again”.

               This is one of the most familiar passages that we have undergone through in our seminary life. So as we are going to become future shepherds, let us reflect to this passage in a new dimension. After 5 or 6 years by God’s grace we would be ordained priest in the Universal Catholic Church. The formation we had undergone is to make us one with Christ and His bridegroom, the Church. As every year passes by we are called to be closed to God and be one with Christ. In the present scenario, seminarians or priests have a thought pattern to study and score good marks and later to hold big-big authoritative position. Through this we may become administratively high stated person, but not one with Christ. We will be like the hired person who will run away seeing the wolf leaving the Lord’s flock that is when trial and tribulations come upon us. But it is necessary to study and gain good marks, but our heart should have the urge to be one with Christ not authority. if so after we are ordained priest any trial or tribulation will come, we would be like the good shepherd who is ready to sacrifice his life for his flock.

We all know who the real good shepherd is, it is our Lord Jesus Christ. As we all are undergoing philosophical studies, we come across many teachings that are against our lord and his church. We are not called to bind with that teaching, but this study should lead us closer to the good shepherd. This study should be the reason in deepening our faith and not in decreasing or losing the faith. So my dear friends in Jesus Christ, let us try to walk with the real good shepherd and be a good shepherd in the Universal Catholic Church. Let us ponder how we can be good shepherd now and in the Future.

                                                                 

                                                           Bro. George Vadakethil

Reflection - 30

‘Life is not as you take, life is as you make it’

Life Journey (ITHACA)

         

Contemporary would literature reminds us the valuable facts of life through the poem Ithaca. Here the expression Ithaca means life journey and it originated from Greece. Ithaca develops the concrete notions of life which connects the entire meaning as well. Life is a long journey which focuses the destination, but as a matter of fact destination always unknown and unpredictable.

Ithaca propagates that the life is a process of journey, which cannot expect the and-point. And it shows the long road, where we may encounter so many obstacles and treble’s like, problems at work, financial worries, family problems, or have lost a loved one and so on. Here all life indicates that there will be bitter experiences and its consequences.

Life always seek destination, but nobody knows it, and unseen.  Life is a destiny that points the destination.

Hence Ithaca concludes that each and every movement is life, life is not the movement that frolic us, life not the movement that disasters us or life is not the movement something that surprises us…………..

So my dear friends as a meditation point,this poem gives striking views about our life. And also it rises a solicit question- how we all are dealing our life?  Obviously we the seminarians always have a kind of prediction that our life begins after ordination.

My dear friend is it true?

Yes friends, it is not true. Because our priestly life is not begins with after ordination. Essentially when we have decided to join the religious life, and then own words our priestly life started. Here the poem gives the splendid point that EACH AND AVERY MOVEMENT IS LIFE. I think we have to hold this kind of mentality through our life, that each and every movement is life. That will lead us to reflect about our spiritual, intellectual and pastoral life

EACH AND AVERY MOVEMENT IS LIFE

Thank you. 

 Bro. Mathew Ct.

 Reflection 29-

My dear brothers in Christ Jesus,

 Let us begin our meditation by thanking the Lord for the new day and peaceful night.

For our today’s meditation we have the passage from Psalm 46:10, “be still and know that I am God”. As we have decided to be priests and religious, it is definite that we will come across various kinds of tribulations and dilemmas based on personal, spiritual and academic aspects. As the result of all these problems, gradually we may lose our faith in God and depends on one’s own caliber and talents. At last, life become a great failure. Now in order to get rid of all these problems one may complain to God saying, why I have such a sorrowful life, why you’re punishing me with lot of troubles etc. But the ends of the day we fail to find out a solution from the Lord due to the lack of acknowledgement of God’s power.

 Primarily we must accept that God is powerful, He knows the minds of every one and he never rejects any. Therefore we have to acknowledge God’s power. Secondly, stop complains and demands from God. Beware that God is not a sales man who acts according  to your will, therefore submit to His holy will and say as Jesus said your will be done. Thirdly, limit your words in the book of Job Chapter 40:3-5 once Job stopped speaking then God began to speak for Job. So let us give an opportunity to God’s holy will on you and take into your mind Be still and know that I am God.

Tigi Karakunnel

Reflection 28

Good morning everybody....

In this fine morning I would like to invite your attention to the concept of commitment. As human being when we think about the concept we could understand that, it is very much related to our life. If take a family as example, we could say, the husband should committed to his wife, like wise wife also should have commitment towards her husband. It there is lack of commitment among the family members, it will lead the family to a great trouble or disturbance.

As seminarians or priest, when we think about commitment, we could understand that, it is very much attached to our personal life, and also we should think about it very seriously. As chosen people we all should have a commitment towards our lord Jesus Christ by whom we are called. If want to think about commitment very seriously at first we should know what is really commitment is? When we think about the concept commitment, i would say, it is a kind of devotion towards something or somebody. So as a follower of Christ we ought to have a kind of devotion towards our lord. If we have lack of commitment in our seminary life, it will lead us a great trouble or disturbance. Which means when we have lack of commitment in our personal life, it will affect our spiritual life, personal prayers, and our community activities etc.

If we go through the holy bible we could able to see many people who have shown a great commitment towards our God. Let us take our father Abraham as an example for a committed person. We see the call of Abraham in the book of genesis; it says ‘that Now the Lord said to Abraham “go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that i will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and i will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessings. I will bless those who bless you and the one who curse you, i will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So I would say, Abraham was a very good example for a committed person.

Respected fathers and my dear brothers, we should have a kind of mind in our personal life. When god instructed Abraham to go from his family members and from his nation, he blindly obeyed his god by whom he was called. There was no a place for doubting but he blindly obeyed his God. As seminarians we also have such mind in our personal life. So this is the right time to think about ourselves, how much I committed to my lord? And am I really committed to my superiors or my fellow brothers? Or are we really acting as committed people. Let us reflect upon it.

Thank you

Libin Pappachan