How To Make Our Life A Blessing For Others

Many people observe spiritual life as one filled with tears and sorrows. They think it is a matter of saving our souls somehow, moving stealthily and struggling towards perfection. But the third letter of St. John speaks; ‘Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul’. These are the words written to Gaius, one of his disciples.

We should not be afraid. Our God is mindful of us. He is aware of the struggles that we go through in our life. He knows our efforts to succeed in spiritual life. God looks so tenderly in to our needs, failures and shortcomings. Even though you may fall, he will let you wake up by giving you a helping hand. For, our Lord wants and deeply desires our souls to be joyful.

God wants our life to be prosperous and fruitful

It is not merely the good state of the soul that He desires. God wants our life to be prosperous and fruitful in all the realms of life. If you are a farmer, God wants you to live for Him in that profession. It is also His wish that your agricultural land produce in abundance to make you economically stable.

Do not give up if your land does not produce well. Ask and pray to your Almighty God to bless your possession. Toil with your Lord. He will bless you abundantly. Isaac could harvest plentifully in the barren land of Garar when he worked hard with the Lord.

Do not be afraid of the painful and challenging life situations that you go through. Your God is ready to bless you. He promised Abraham that ‘You will be a blessing’ (Gen. 12:2). It means that Abraham is an instrument in the hands of the Lord to bless the land and nation. In order to be a blessing in your family, office, school, profession… entrust all who trouble you into the hands of the Lord and pray for them.

Promise of the Word of God

The Word of God promises; ‘You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be happy, and it shall go well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; you children will be like olive shoots around your table. Thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. The Lord bless you from Zion. May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life.’ (Ps. 128:2-5). Read with care, these words reveal an order of blessings. First you are blessed, then your family and nation. Now gaze at the face of the Lord who promised to bless you, lifting your eyes from the life situations clouded with despair. Repeat the promises that He has given you. Once you pray using the Word of God, Satan who pushes you back will run away with fear. You will be filled with God’s light and joy.

I pray a lot, but nothing happens?

Now you may think that you pray very much but the life situations remain unchanged. What should be the reason? There is no change for God’s Word and His promises. They should not be doubted. Reasons could vary in this case.

God has chosen a specific time to bless each one. It depends on our eagerness and success in using this specific time plan to be blessed in life. For example, an old man would have enough leisure time. His blessing depends on the way he uses the time given for him. He can never enjoy life, if he complains and murmurs every time. Thus he causes pain to himself and others. Instead if he uses this free time praying for his family, children and grand children, it would make the difference. Through him the family as well as the future of the land will be blessed. He can be fruitful even at this old age.

Suppose an officer is very punctual in his office, anyone who approaches him happily meets his/her needs. People would like to approach him for help. He is a blessing and cause of joy in other’s life. Instead if he causes trouble in the life of others making them come again and again for a single need… when people realize that it is useless to approach him… He is a curse for others and the nation.

Each human being is called to bear fruit

Make an examination of conscience and learn where you stand. As a fruitful tree or a block to others happiness? In order to be fruitful in life, we should live for God. One who works hard for himself/herself cannot find true satisfaction in life. If we deny ourselves and thirst for the kingdom of God, real joy and happiness will enshroud our life. We are not sure whether we will be alive for the next moment. What is given to us is this moment. Use it carefully and with great love. Be a people builder.

How was it that the thief on the right side of the Lord, could obtain salvation? He used his opportunity well. He had a little time, but it made difference in his life.

Let us think of prophet Elisha who responded promptly to the call of the Lord. ‘He returned from following him, took the yoke of oxen, and slaughtered them; using the equipment from the oxen, he boiled their flesh, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out and followed Elijah, and became his servant.’ (1 Kg. 19:21). The yoke and oxen earned him day-to-day living. But he was ready to burn it, as not to return to the work again. His decision was firm. There may be many temptations calling you back. Unless you kill them, they will kill you. Say ‘Amen’ to the Lord at the proper time.

Let us pray: Lord, I thank you that you call me now. Give me the grace to turn my heart to you unconditionally. The blocks for my blessing are in me. Give a repentant heart. Let me become an instrument in your hands. Holy Mary, mother of God, St. Joseph, pray for us. Amen.

- – - written by K.J Mathew

The Lord’s Prayer Explained

Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” So He said to them, “When you pray, say:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us day by day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.”

The disciples of Jesus came to Him while He was praying, asking for a lesson in prayer. They had seen Him pray always, and they knew that His robust prayer life was the secret behind the miracle power at work in His life. His fervent prayer life gave Him power to exercise of demons, sicknesses and nature.

Our Lord responded saying:

Our Father in heaven: This signifies approaching God on the basis of intimate relationship. Only children can call the master “Father”. Only those who have come to the saving knowledge of God through Jesus Christ can call God father. This is the first step in prayer that produces power. You must turn back to God.

Hallowed be Your name: This is worship. Our prayer must include worship. Though children of God, we must devote ourselves to worship, service and praise of His name. To worship means to submit yourself to God’s will and His plan. Paul in Romans 12:1 that the church ought to submit their bodies onto God as a living sacrifice. It is called a sacrifice because our own fleshly desires are against what the Spirit wants, but in doing this, we desire to put God’s will first. He calls this sacrifice a spiritual act of worship.

Your kingdom come: Jesus before His ascension said to His disciples, “the Kingdom is within you” (Luk.17:21). He was referring to the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of those who believe. There is a work of sanctification by the Holy Spirit (2 Thess.2:13). Through this, we live our lives with a view towards the end, when Jesus will be returning as King over all. 1 John 3:3 says, “Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” Our prayer must be made with this view that there is an end coming, so we prioritize God’s kingdom in all that we do.

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven: God’s will is that everyone becomes saved and comes to the knowledge of truth (1 Tim.2:4, 2 Pet.3:9). Heaven is a perfect place, and God desires that the earth be perfect just like heaven. Every good thing that is in heaven he desires for His people on earth. Through faith and prayer we make our requests to God on the goodness of what His Word says, that we may enjoy heaven on earth.

Give us this day our daily bread: After you have put God first in worship, devotion to His kingdom, and saving of souls, then you can ask for your own daily bread. This refers to your daily needs. God is committed to providing our needs, but we need to put His will and His desires first. When we make God’s desires our desires, He will in turn give us the desires of our heart.

And forgive us our sins: When a person becomes saved, God wipes away all their sins of the past. Sin breaks the fellowship of God with man. Following salvation, it is not expected that there be any sins in your life.

See what 1 John 1:6-9 says:

If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If there has been opportunity for sin, either by commission or omission, we can trust God’s Holy Spirit to reveal this sin to us so we can confess it and make the necessary amends.

…as we forgive those indebted to us: God expects that there be no grudge in your heart as you approach Him in prayer. We are instructed by Scriptures to love one another as the mark of the new life we have in Christ Jesus (Joh.13:35). Unforgiveness is deadly. When we hold unforgiveness against another person, we defile our own selves, and it stops the flow of God’s power to us (Heb.12:15).

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one: God is the one who keeps us from the afflictions of the evil one. James 4:7 says “submit yourselves to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you”. Your submission to God’s authority in the place of prayer will commit Him to protecting you. There are temptations that we face daily in the world around us, but through prayer we receive the strength to overcome and be victorious against the schemes of the enemy. Prayer fortifies us against the plans of the enemy, while we are led by the Spirit of God to the fullness of our destiny.

How Guardian Angels Help Us

“Catholic belief”, writes Father Husslein, S.J. “does not rest with merely acknowledging the existence of guardian spirits given us by God. It goes further and asserts as of absolute certainty that every human being has his/her own Guardian Angel. In the next place, it is also a universal Catholic belief that not merely every just man, every child of grace, but in fact every single human being here upon earth, whether Christian or non-Christian, whether in grace or in sin, actually remains during its entire life under the care of a Guardian Angel. It suffices to describe this as absolutely certain. Moreover, it is generally held that each human being has its own distinct Guardian Angel not assigned to anyone else.”

The words of our Lord also point to this conclusion: ‘See that you despise not one of these little ones. For, I say to you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.’

How Guardian Angles Help Us

1. In warding off dangers to body and soul
2. In preventing Satan’s suggesting evil thoughts and in removing occasions of sin and helping us to overcome temptation.
3. In enlightening and instructing us and fostering in us holy thoughts and pious desires.
4. In offering to God our prayers and in praying for us
5. In correcting us if we sin
6. In helping us in the agony of death, in strengthening and comforting us.
7. In conducting our souls to heaven or to purgatory to console us there.

It is thus our Guardian Angels watch over us, keep us, lead us. They see in their charges, souls of priceless value since they were redeemed by the Blood of God.
Although they cannot penetrate the inner sanctuary of human hearts which God has reserved for himself, they do all they can to help us. However, it is in our power by an act of our free will to expose our intimate thoughts to our angelic companion. And it is to our advantage for such confidence in his enlightened guidance is of great benefit to our soul.

After God and our Blessed Mother, he is surely our best friend, and if we really love him, we will have no secrets to hide from him. We do not sensibly perceive him. We hear no whispered warnings in our ear. Our hands cannot touch him nor do our eyes look up to him. Yet invisibly he is with us. From the first moment of life he guards us and he will not have completed his task until as we trust, we shall gaze with him in glory on the vision of God.

Solicitude of our Angel Guardians

Father Faber, one of the greatest writers over the celestial beings, touchingly describes the solicitude of our Angel Guardians: ‘Ever at our side is being lived a golden life. A princely Spirit is there, who sees God and enjoys the bewildering splendors of His face even there where He is, nearer than the limits of our outstretched arms. An unseen warfare is waging round our steps, but that beautiful Spirit lets not so much as the sound of it vex our ears. He fights for us and asks no thanks, but hides his silent victories and continues to gaze upon God. His tenderness for us is above all words. His office will last beyond the grace, until at length it merges into a still sweeter tie of something like heavenly equality, when on the morning of the resurrection we pledge each other, in those first moments, to an endless blessed love.

Till then we shall never know from how many dangers he has delivered us, nor how much of our salvation is actually due to him. Meanwhile he merits nothing by the solicitudes of his office. He is beyond the power of meriting, for he has attained the sight of God. His work is a work of love, because his sweet presence at our side he knows to be a part of God’s eternal creative love towards our particular soul.’ Read more about Guardian Angels.

In him we have an unseen friend and benefactor, an intimate and never-failing companion in our journey through life. How often perhaps have we almost felt his presence and his power upbearing and rescuing us from danger! How indeed shall we ever repay him for the love that he has shown us? Let us ask the Precious Blood to be our thank-offering for so great a favor as his companionship.

A Story Of Migration

The Bible itself is a story of migration; an exodus of generations. Abraham was nomadic! His grandchildren were immigrants in Egypt. Even Jesus was in exile in Egypt. Kudos! Migration is the true spirit of Christianity. Migration is a new point of evangelization and solidarity.

I know, it is hard to digest. We often feel alienated and dejected. We are ‘rootless’, well, sometimes ‘ruthless’ too. We are aliens in very strange terrains. But, one who accepts a stranger accepts the Lord: ’I was a stranger and you made me welcome’ (Mt. 25:35). I dare to say, migration is a divine vocation; a vocation for re-evangelization of the world.

What is Migration?

Migration is the movement of people from one location to another for temporary or permanent living. It is presently a worldwide phenomenon. This covers persons of various categories, such as migrant workers and their families, students, refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced persons, stateless persons, victims of human trafficking, particularly women and children, and others.

The migration story is a key to Biblical ancestry. The Lord said to Abraham: ‘Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s home, and go to a land that I am going to show you. I will give you many descendants, and they will become a great nation. I will bless you and make your name famous, so that you will be a blessing.’ Genesis 12: 1-2

That was the starting point of the migration of the ‘God chosen’ man; a true vocation by the God Himself. Abraham recognised this divine call and migrated to Canaan; an alien land.

Abraham’s second migration was from Canaan to Egypt to survive from the famine in Canaan. In Genesis 15, God tells Abram his role in this ‘migration story’. The Lord said to him, ‘your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land; they will be slaves there and they will be treated cruelly for four hundred years’ (Genesis 15: 13)

The story continues in Abraham and Sarah’s desire for children. At Sarah’s insistence, Hagar, the Egyptian slave-girl, the foreigner, bears Abraham a child, Ismael. Eventually they are exiled into the wilderness and God promises to make Ismael a great nation – the same promise given to Isaac. (Genesis 21)
The migration story continues with famine causing Isaac to settle in the land of Gerar as an alien. (Gen. 26:2) It picks up with Jacob travelling to another land for a wife. Later he is forced to flee because of his sons’ violence. God directs him to Bethel. We eventually learn that Jacob settles in ‘the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan.’ (Gen. 37:1)

The story of Joseph in Old Testament is a true story of giving asylum to an entire community. Eventually, they are becoming a larger community in the foreign land. God’s plans are weird!  Those jealous brothers sell Joseph into slavery and being transported to Egypt and rising to power. It comes full circle, when famine strikes over much of the world and Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt seeking grain. The circle is complete when Joseph’s father and brothers, their families, flocks, and all they possess leave Canaan and migrate to Goshen, where there is food. (Genesis 37-47)

The book of Exodus begins with a story of persecution of infant boys. They are all to be thrown into the Nile. However, one, who would in today’s language be referred to as a ‘Unaccompanied Alien Child’ is rescued from the river and raised in Pharaoh’s palace. His name was Moses. Moses becomes an exile in Midian due to some unfortunate events.

In Midian, Moses marries Zipporah and is eventually called by God to return to Egypt because, in God’s words, ‘The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’ Moses wonders how he could possibly do this and God replies, ‘I will be with you.’ (Exodus 3:1- 3:12) Moses returns to Egypt, and facilitates the Hebrew Exodus through a series of plagues and dialogues with Pharaoh. When his people are finally permitted to leave, they leave most refugees leave, without much time to pack, but with God leading them.

The uprooted story continues throughout the Bible and the story of the exile of the Israelites. This can be followed in Kings, Chronicles, Esther, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Amos. Literally everyone is on the move and most are going into exile. This includes the prophets, the priests, and the people. Exile shows no mercy, however there are persons who did not and do not go into exile.

Migration of Jesus

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, to which his parents traveled because of the census and taxation. We know that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph settled for about two years in Bethlehem, until after the Wise Men’s appearance.

Once the three kings left, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him. Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son.” (Matthew 1:13-15)

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph became ‘asylum seekers’ in Egypt. Without travel documents, they cross the border, looking for safety and sanctuary. Someone takes them in. Someone welcomes them and protects them.

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon: ’Build houses to dwell in; plant gardens, and eat their fruits. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters. There you must increase in number, not decrease. Promote the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you; pray for it to the LORD, for upon its welfare depends your own.’ Jeremiah 29: 4-7

The first and primary duty of each migrant is to work hard for the well-being of the country they are migrated in. A Christian migrant needs to pray for the host country.

A vision of Isaiah announced this: ‘In the days to come the mountain of the temple of Yahweh shall tower above the mountains… All the nations will stream to it’ (Isaiah 2:2). In the gospel Jesus Himself prophesied that ‘people from east and west, from north and south, will come to take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God’ (Lk 13:29), and the Apocalypse sees ‘a huge number… from every nation, race, tribe and language’ (Ap 7:9).

The Bible begins with the ‘migration’ of God’s spirit and ends with John in exile on the Isle of Patmos – between those two events the uprooted people of God seek safety, sanctuary and refuge.

- – - written by Santimon Jacob

Know More About God’s Plan For You

What is God’s plan for you? To know his plan for you, you need to ask him what the rich young man once asked him – Luke 18:18 – ‘Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ God’s plan for you or rather his ultimate objective for you is eternal life. It is to lead you to eternal life that God plans every aspect of your life. He plans everything – right from the kind of skills you require to your vocation, family, environment and even your flaws and failures.

God’s Plan For Many

God blessed Saul with tremendous oratory skills so that Saul, after becoming Paul, could use this skill to proclaim Christ to the Gentiles and thereby gain eternal life. Zacchaeus the chief tax collector was given a flaw to contend with in his earthly life so that he could gain entry to eternal life. The flaw was that God created him as a man of short stature. Had he not been of short stature he would not have climbed the sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus and subsequently not have had Jesus come to his house. The Patriarch Abraham was given a failure in life by giving him no child. Ultimately it is this failure that increased his faith in God to such an extent that led him to be called as the Father of Faith and consequently to eternal life.

David’s vocation was transformed from that of a Shepherd to a King. This was God’s way of calling David into a fellowship with him and thereby leading King David to eternal life. Moses was ordained by God to live in the family of the Pharaoh despite being a Hebrew. Had he not been found by the Pharaoh’s daughter he would have been slaughtered. In the case of Moses it was the Pharaoh’s family that triggers his path to eternal life. Later on the family that he was born into becomes the cause of his flight to the desert where he encounters God and is commissioned for the mission of leading the Israelites to the land of milk and honey.

John 17:3 gives us the definition of eternal life as taught by Jesus – ‘And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.’ In a nutshell, eternal life is nothing but a personal relationship with the Trinitarian God – The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.

God’s Plan for Our Blessed Mother

One person who experienced eternal life right here on earth was the Blessed Mother. She was the obedient daughter of The Father, the mother of The Son and before being the mother of the Son, the Spouse of the Holy Spirit. The most prominent sentiment that the word Mother brings to mind is Love and the sentiment that the word Spouse brings to mind is Sharing. Therefore, if one were to device a 3 point formula practiced by the Blessed Mother for eternal life it would be – Obedience to the will of God, Love for God and sharing, which is nothing but giving your neighbor what he deserves or in other words love for the neighbor.

Since we haven’t attained the spiritual maturity that the Blessed Mother had attained when she became the mother of Christ through her detachment with the world and its objects of comfort, the barriers to eternal life as far as we are concerned are the world and our own shortcomings. This experience is very evident in the life of a number of people who pursued Christ. Mark 10:46-48 ‘And they came to Jericho; and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude, Bartimae’us, a blind beggar, the son of Timae’us, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent; but he cried out all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’

Here we see the crowd following Jesus trying to prevent Bartimae’us from calling him for help. This is what the world or the people around us always try to do. They will always prevent us from approaching Jesus for help. In such a situation, it is for us to swim against the tide and say NO to the world around. Imagine what would have happened to Bartimae’us had he listened to the crowd? It was because Bartimae’us dealt appropriately with the crowd that he came to know Jesus (eternal life).

St. Augustine, one of the greatest leaders of the church had to say NO to his carnal passions so that God’s plan for him could materialize. It was only after he dealt with this serious shortcoming of his that God’s plan for him materialized. Zacchae’us the chief tax collector had to deal with his greed for wealth en route to eternal life. The woman who suffered from hemorrhage for twelve years had to deal with the crowd before approaching Jesus. Saul after his Damascus experience and before he was commissioned to be the apostle of the Gentiles, had to deal with his pride and ignorance concerning Jesus before God could use him.

Away From Sin

Therefore, being Sin conscious and dealing with our sins is just as essential a step in the direction of the revelation of God’s plan for us as is breaking away from the crowd and practicing detachment with the world.

We need to identify which of the seven cardinal sins viz. anger, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy and gluttony or a combination of them is/are ruling us and systematically eliminate them before we can think of practicing detachment.

Ephesians 1:9-10 has this to say ‘For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ. 10 As a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth’.

To know more about the will of God, practice 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 16-18 – ‘Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.’

Let us pray: ‘May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give us a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of our hearts enlightened, that we may know what is the hope to which he has called us what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might Amen.’

- – - written by Lajan Miranda

Why Is Jesus Christ’s Blood So Powerful?

The death of Jesus is meaningless to many people. The mention of Christ’s blood is distasteful to them. The message of Jesus death, His blood and the work of redemption are still foolishness to a people who would like to believe that man could save himself by his own goodness.

The first shedding of blood

In the book of Genesis chapter 3:7, we learn that Adam and Eve were naked and ashamed when they disobeyed God. ‘So they sewed fig leaves together to make themselves loincloths.’ For the first time, blood was shed that the nakedness of Adam and Eve might be covered. ‘Yahweh made clothes out of skins for man and his wife and they put them on.’ (Gen.3:21).

Jesus Blood – The object of our faith

Man is unable to redeem himself because he is a sinner. By shedding His blood, Christ became the ‘way’ to provide forgiveness for sin, there by satisfying the holy demands of the Heavenly Father. This is why St.John says, ‘He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world.’ (1Jn.2:2). Jesus blood is the object of our faith, as St.Paul states, ‘And we are justified through the free gifts of His grace by being redeemed in Christ Jesus who was appointed by God to sacrifice His life so as to win reconciliation through faith.’ (Rm.3:25).

Without the Blood of Jesus Christ and His grace it would be impossible for man to have victory over sin. And during the Last Supper, Our Lord offered Himself in an unbloody yet real sacrifice when He uttered the following words,’For this is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins.’ (Matt. 26:28). Truly, this ‘shedding of blood’ or ‘pouring out of blood’ took place and formed one of the glorious mysteries of our faith.

Why is there Power in Precious Blood of Jesus Christ?

There is power in the Precious Blood of Jesus because the Blood represents His Divine Life. The blood that Christ shed right from the time of His circumcision till His death on Calvary was not that of goats and bulls, but His very own divine life blood. ‘Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness’ (Heb.9:22). In the Old Testament, the forgiveness of sins is related to the slain animals symbolically bore the punishment for sin that the people deserved. People were forgiven and pardoned for their sins, but the blood of their sacrifice did not justify them. But the death of Jesus Christ who knew no sin, who was Holy and blameless and pure, was able to pay the penalty for our sins. This one sacrifice Christ accomplished ‘once for all’ brings us back into fellowship with God. This ransom penalty was paid for every believer in Christ and the entire world over.

The believer is not only a pardoned sinner, but also a justified saint declared righteous in the sight of God, because the benefits of Christ death at Calvary have been applied to his account. ‘Having died to make as righteous, is it likely that he would now fail to save us from God’s anger? For the power of the Precious Blood to be appropriated in one’s life, one has to turn to Christ in sincere faith and repentance.It is said that the Blessed Virgin venerated the Most Precious Blood of her infant Son on the day of His circumcision as she collected the first relics of His Precious Blood on a piece of cloth. On that momentous occasion she united her tears with that of the Word Incarnate on account of not so much of the sensible pain but of His supernatural sorrow for the hard-heartedness of mortals.

Healing of painful memories and cleansing of guilt conscience

Millions of people live in a never ending cycle of hopelessness and despair because they cannot forget about the past hurts, trauma and sorrowful experience they have undergone in life. They are constantly tormented by past memories that can lead to mental depression, anxiety and even suicide. These haunting memories of the past cannot be simply erased just be medication or by seeing a psychiatrist or by consuming alcohol or by morbid ways because I want them to be, when I have lived a life of sin and have not been for confession for several years and receiving the Holy Eucharist in the state of mortal sins and have become a slave to it.

‘A good confession is like deliverance.” And so anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be behaving unworthily towards the body and blood of the Lord.’ (2 Cor.11:27). Satan knows our weaknesses and uses our past to trap us, to let us dwell on our past sins, guilt and traumatic experiences. Praise and thank the Lord Jesus Christ that His Precious Blood washes away every dead work from our conscience, and also cleanses our minds from every thought of past and present sins.

‘How much more effectively the blood of Christ who offered himself as the perfect sacrifice to God through the eternal Spirit, can purify our inner self from the dead action so that we do our service to the living God.’ (Heb. 9:14). The healing of our painful memories takes place when we call on the name of Jesus and humbly ask His Precious Blood to set us free from this bondage.

The Precious Blood of Jesus is pure, and cleanses our minds and hearts from every past and present sins and hurts. We become pure in God’s sight. The moment the shed blood of Jesus has been applied to our hearts and minds, our past is buried; it is gone forever and no longer remembered in glory. To dwell once again on it is an insult to Jesus. There was never a sin believing confessed and taken to Christ that has ever baffled His power to cleanse it. This fountain has never been tried in vain, but that blood is available for all our sins.

The Old fulfilled in the New Covenant

Sacrifice is the highest form of religious worship which man offers to God as an act of praise, thanksgiving, petition or atonement. The most singular and pre-eminent sacrifice of the Old Law was the immolation of the Paschal Lamb which celebrated the sparing of Israel’s firstborn from the fatal sword of the Angel of Death in Egypt at the time of Moses and Pharaoh. The imagery of sacrificial blood from slain animals is made more vivid and meaningful if we recall Moses’ words from the Book of Exodus,’And he took the blood and sprinkled it upon the people, and he said: This is the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you concerning all these words.’(Exodus 24:8). This old sacrifice took a new form in the New Testament when the Immaculate Lamb of God offered Himself on the altar of the Cross to redeem mankind from sin and the slavery of Satan.

Christ Teaching on His Blood

Jesus Christ, in His teaching as well as by His death, emphasized the importance of His blood. He said,’ I tell you most solemnly if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you will not have life in you.’ (Jn.6:53). Here He stressed the literal necessity of His blood, and referred directly to His blood. At the last Last Supper Jesus called attention specifically: ‘Drink all of you from this , for this is MY Blood of the covenant, which is to be poured for many for the forgiveness of sins.’Christ was not the only one who stressed the importance of His Blood, for the apostles also emphasized this.

The Apostles teachings on Christ’s Blood

The Apostle Paul emphasized the efficacy of Christ’s blood in his ministry. St.Paul the Doctor of the Precious Blood owing to his evident fondness to preach on it in his epistle (Rm.3:25; Eph.1:7; Heb.9:12). St.Peter also highlights the role of Christ’s blood in our salvation in (1Pt.1:16-19).St. Johnstated in the book of Revelation (Rev.1:5-6).

As was true of the Old Testament sacrifice, Christ could have died in any one of several ways, For reasons known to Him, God found it necessary to become man to die physically by shedding His blood, so that man would be redeemed. If Christ had not shed His blood, His death would not have fulfilled the prophetic Scriptures. Jesus shed His Precious Blood for all who shall believe in Him. He is not the Christ of a caste or a class, but the Christ of all conditions of men. . His Precious Blood is absolutely essential and indispensable for our salvation.

Without its mark upon us, we are unfit to come into the presence of the Holy and righteous God, it is the message that every believer needs to understand. In a prayer of deliverance the Precious Blood of Jesus is always mentioned, as it is very efficacious. Even demons recognize the Power of the Precious Blood of Jesus. If demons know it, the how much more should we?

July: The Month of Precious Blood

Pope Pius IX instituted this feast in thanksgiving for his return to Rome from Gaeta after the revolution of 1848. The month of July is the month of Precious Blood of Jesus Christ. The Feast is celebrated on July 1st. St. Gaspar Buffalo founded the order of the Precious Blood.

The lives of saints are replete with devotion to the Precious Blood making special mention of St. John Chrysostom, St. Austin, St. Gertrude and St. Catherine of Sienna who is considered the Prophetess of the Precious Blood for putting emphasis on it as the solution to the ills of her time. The Scriptures makes it clear that if we reject Jesus Christ’s Precious Blood we have offended God’s Holy Spirit. (Heb.10:28-29).

Are You Praying The Right Way?

In the Holy Bible, there are two types of occasions where Jesus does not respond positively to prayers.

Occasions of Praying in the Wrong Way

One is where a group of people ask Jesus to perform some miracles in their town. They asked Jesus to perform some miracles as they wanted to get excited by the miracles. None of them had a personal need or desire for a miracle. (Lk. 4:23, 23:8).

The second is where people ask Jesus to do something by complaining about somebody. ‘Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things.’ (Lk. 10:38-41).

Here Martha is going to Jesus with a grievance. But she does not get any solutions from Jesus. But she gets only some advice from Jesus. The real need Martha had was that Martha should be able to do her work easily. And Martha should have prayed, ‘Jesus, I am burdened with a lot of work. Please make my work easy.’ Even though the grievance of Martha was genuine, she did not ask Jesus to redress her grievance. Martha did not have genuine desire to get her grievance redressed. Instead, Martha wanted and chose to blame it upon Mary, and she chose to put Mary also into the same trouble as she was facing.

Jesus did not grant what Martha had asked for. But Jesus chose to counsel her. The meaning of what Jesus told Martha was: Do not blame Mary for your troubles in life; your problems are results of your worries and distractions; Mary has no role in your facing problems; Mary is not the cause of your troubles; above all, the solution you have suggested is not going to solve your problems; stop being worried and distracted by many things, and your problems will be solved.

‘Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ (Lk 12:13-14). Again, the person who approaches Jesus is complaining about his brother. The genuine grievance he had might have been his poverty. He should have asked Jesus, ‘I am very poor. Give me enough wealth.’ But he chose to blame it upon his brother. And he wanted to get a share from the property which he had kept with him, thought illegally. Instead of trying to get his grievance redressed, he was worried about criticizing and making his brother upright.

So, instead of granting what he had asked for, Jesus counsels him: I am not going to judge and find fault with somebody as you wanted; that what you have asked me to do; do not lay the blame on your brother for your troubles; he is not the cause of your problems; and what you have suggested is not the solution for your real problems.

Prayer is not complaining

This is the way we generally pray. A wife complains about her husband to Jesus. A mother in law complains about her daughter in law to Jesus. A father complains about his son to Jesus. A son complains about his father to Jesus. A parishioner complains about his vicar to Jesus. A student complains about his teacher to Jesus and vice versa. But nobody tells Jesus his real need. And the only response from Jesus to this type of prayers is some counseling. And all say that Jesus does not heed their prayers.

So, it is very important that I pray to Jesus the right way. If our prayer is a blaming somebody for our trouble, be sure we are never going to be granted our prayer. It is not at all permissible for us to tell Jesus that somebody is the cause of our problems. When we approach Jesus, we should just tell him that we are facing this problem, and we want you to solve this problem of ours. And if we pray in this way, we can be damn sure that our problem will be solved.

- – - written by Adv. Shibu Varghese

When Answer To Prayer Delays

When we pray, we must pray for inner strength and grace to do the Will of God in our life. In Mathew 7:7 we read; ‘Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened.’ This is the promise of Jesus.

Then why do we experience the opposite of this in our daily life? All of us have experienced, at one time or another that our prayers go unheard. When I look back into my life, I too feel the same. There were times, I prayed fervently and constantly, for graces and blessings from God for days, months and years together. But it seemed to me that God was silent, absolutely silent. It led me to feel and think within that, God is deaf to my prayers.

But as the years passed, and as I continued exploring my spiritual life, a new light flashed on my mind and my outlook on life, on prayer, on the Will of God… underwent a great spiritual evolution. And the continuation of the above Gospel passage came to my mind with new light and insights as answer to my question.

‘What man is there, among you, who if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?’ (Mt. 7:9-10). This Word of God clearly tells us that why at times God does not answer our prayers. It is because when we ask for bread, it is not bread we ask, but stone, when we ask for fish, in fact it is not fish we ask but a serpent. If children ask for stone and serpent, definitely no parents will give them to the children.

Just an example

This can be clearly understood by another example. Tom was the only son of his parents. He grew up as a promising youth. When he was about to complete his SSLC he told his parents that he will do well in the examinations and then they must gift him with a motorbike. He passed the examinations with high marks. But his parents delayed giving a positive answer. They told him, that they would give a bike as a gift, when he completes his pre-degree course. He agreed.

And as he passed PDC, he came out in flying colours with first rank and the parents gifted him a motor bike. Tom was overjoyed and happily he received the gift. Parents too were happy to gift the motor bike. But after a few days, as Tom was riding on his bike, his bike collided with a running bus and Tom died on the spot.

The parents were left alone. Their only son Tom is no more. He was their hope. He was their future. Life stood empty and meaningless, dark and void. They deeply regretted for gifting their son with a motor bike. They thought if they had refused to give him the bike as gift, they would have enjoyed their son’s company even today. Now they felt sad and lonely, helpless and hopeless.

God sends the best for us

Same applies to our daily life. When we pray for graces and blessings, God in his infinite wisdom and love, does not grant us our wish, for he knows clearly what we will do with those graces, and what will happen to us in future. The graces we ask may seem to us very good. But they can turn into bad to worse like the motor bike and the accident. God knows our past, present and future. So whatever God sends us that is best for us.

When we look at our whole life from this perspective there is greater meaning to each and every deprivations and situations. Be it sickness, tragedy, hardships, misunderstanding, difficulties, trials, aridity, confusion and even death.

Nothing happens to us which is outside His plan. As the Gospel says, ‘Even the hairs of your head have been counted.’ (Mt. 10:30). We cannot try to fathom God’s ways by our feeble sense, feeble reasoning and feeble understanding. When reason is buried with prayer, faith blooms and produces fruit. But mean time we have to wait. When answer to the prayer delays, it is a clear sign that God’s wisdom is unfolding in our life, on an entirely different angle we dreamt of. In the infinite wisdom of God everything that He wills is for our ultimate good.

Always God’s love keeps some thing best in store for us, than what we have kept asking God for. Only faith, hope and love can help us to yield to His loving plans and ways. Here it is good to remember the words of St. Paul;

‘God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.’ (1 Cor 1:25).

- – - written by Little Rose

Beware of Seduction And Deception : The Modern Jezebel

Queen Jezebel was a pagan queen, married to Ahab, the king of the Jewish people. She brought pagan practices to Israel and destroyed the altars of the one living God. She intimidated God’s people and literally ruled the Israelites with an iron hand. She cunningly turned Ahab into a puppet king, using seduction and charm and thereby abolished the name of the Lord of Israel from the land of Israel.

Why do Jesus who lived hundreds of years later talk about this woman in the prophetic book of revelation? Jezebel represents a spiritual force, still at work in the world. The spirit of Jezebel represents seduction and deception. This spirit dethrones spiritual hierarchy and questions man’s priestly authority at home. The woman Jezebel in the bible killed the prophets of the Most High God and brought a reign of terror in ancient Israel.

It can be seen that God had to send two double portion anointed prophets (Elijah and Elisha) and Jehu, the powerful warrior, to contain this woman. The intensity of the battle between the prophet of the God of Israel and the prophets of Baal unfolds at Mount Carmel, when Elijah brings fire from heaven and kills the prophets of Baal. It was a dark age in the history of God’s people, a time of physical and spiritual drought.

The Modern Jezebel

The spirit of Jezebel is still active and the church is called to confront it. This spirit is not a woman or a man, but a spirit of darkness manifesting itself as a perverted and deceptive ideology. The practice of murdering unborn children in the name of feminism and the popularity of witchcraft in music and children’s literature are examples of this ideology. It takes the name of pro-choice and liberal literature. It is deeply rooted in the idea of corrupting young minds and making it lukewarm to God’s word.

It steals childhood innocence through multifaceted attack aimed at derailing the moral compass of a generation. It is easy to corrupt a generation by using politically correct statements like ‘hate crime’ and ‘individual choices’. Think of this-how did communist Russia and Nazis indoctrinate a generation? The answer is simple-catch them young. The Christian world is slipping into the slippery slope of moral relativism and is practicing lukewarm relationship with Jesus.

How to put an end to the modern Jezebel?

Jesus is calling to put an end to it. How do we do this? We should not bash people, but should stand up for the truth. The eternal truth of God cannot be diluted. We cannot serve God and Baal at the same time. We are called to take up a stand. These are testing times for the church, and God is calling righteous people to stand up. Love sinners as we ourselves are sinners, but hate the sinful ideology.

The Catholic Church honors Mary as the Lady of Mount Carmel. Mary is the mother of the word incarnate and she represents everything noble about motherhood and womanhood. God has put enmity between Mary and the devil and between Mary’s seed and the devil’s seed. She has the authority to crush the head of Satan. Call the mother of our church. Cry out to her for help. Mount Carmel represents the triumph of God’s people over Jezebel’s people and Mary of Mount Carmel will assist us in this end time battle

Today, we are called to stand under the banner of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, to destroy the sins of abortion, adultery, seduction and worldly power within us and outside us.

- – - written by Dr. Jacob C Tony

Tips To Overcome Spiritual Struggles

In a conversation some days since with a person of piety, he told me the spiritual life was a life of grace, which begins with servile fear, which is increased by hope of eternal life, and which is consummated by pure love; that each of these states had its different stages, by which one arrives at last at that blessed consummation.

The Start

I have not followed all these methods. On the contrary, from I know not what instincts, I found they discouraged me. This was the reason why, at my entrance into religion, I took a resolution to give myself up to God, as the best satisfaction I could make for my sins and, for the love of Him, to renounce all besides. For the first years, I commonly employed myself during the time set apart for devotion, with the thoughts of death, judgment, hell, heaven, and my sins. Thus I continued some years applying my mind carefully the rest of the day, and even in the midst of my business, to the presence of God, whom I considered always as with me, often as in me.

At length I came insensibly to do the same thing during my set time of prayer, which caused in me great delight and consolation. This practice produced in me so high an esteem for God, that faith alone was capable to satisfy me in that point. Such was my beginning. Yet I must tell you that for the first ten years I suffered much. The apprehension that I was not devoted to God as I wished to be, my past sins always present to my mind, and the great unmerited favors which God did me, were the matter and source of my sufferings.

Fell and Rose

During this time I fell often, and rose again presently. I was troubled sometimes with thoughts, that to believe I had received such favors was an effect of my presumption, which pretended to be at once where others arrive with difficulty. At other times that it was a willful delusion, and that there was no salvation for me.

When I thought of nothing but to end my days in these troubles (which did not at all diminish the trust I had in God, and which served only to increase my faith), I found myself changed all at once; and my soul, which till that time was in trouble, felt a profound inward peace, as if she were in her center and place of rest. Ever since that time I walk before God simply, in faith, with humility and with love; and I apply myself diligently to do nothing and think nothing which may displease Him. I hope that when I have done what I can, He will do with me what He pleases.

The Present

As for what passes in me at present, I cannot express it. I have no pain or difficulty about my state, because I have no will but that of God, which I endeavor to accomplish in all things, and to which I am so resigned, that I would not take up a straw from the ground against His order, or from any other motive but purely that of love for Him.

I have quit all forms of devotion and set prayers but those to which my state obliges me. I make it my business only to persevere in His holy presence, wherein I keep myself by a simple attention and a general fond regard to God, which I may call an actual presence of God; or, to speak better, an habitual, silent, and secret conversation of the soul with God, which often causes in me joys so great that I am forced to use means to moderate them and prevent their appearance to others. In short, I am assured beyond all doubt that my soul has been with God above these thirty years. I pass over many things, that I may not be tedious to you, yet I think it proper to inform you after what manner I consider myself before God, whom I behold as my King.

I consider myself as the most wretched of men, full of sores and corruption, and who has committed all sorts of crimes against his King. Touched with a sensible regret I confess to Him all my wickedness. I ask His forgiveness. I abandon myself in His hands that He may do what He pleases with me. This King, full of mercy and goodness, very far from chastising me, embraces me with love, makes me eat at His table, serves me with His own hands, gives me the key of His treasures. He converses and delights Himself with me incessantly, in a thousand and a thousand ways, and treats me in all respects as His favorite. It is thus I consider myself from time to time in His holy presence.

My most usual method is this simple attention, and such a general passionate regard to God to whom I find myself often attached with greater sweetness and delight than that of an infant at the mother’s breast. If I dare use the expression, I should choose to call this state the bosom of God, for the inexpressible sweetness which I taste and experience there. If sometimes my thoughts wander from it by necessity or infirmity, I am presently recalled by inward emotions so charming and delicious that I cannot even describe them.

- – - written by St. Lawrence

Are You A Lover Of God?

It is very narrow, on account of the difficulty of fulfilling its precepts; but, because of the divine goodness, to which it directs us, it may be said to be very wide. For why should it appear difficult to love God with our whole heart, soul, and strength, since He is most beautiful, most wise, and most worthy of infinite love?

It is not difficult to love that which is excellent and beautiful on the earth; but it is not to love. Does God, then, seem to do us an injury when He so strictly commands us to love Him, as if we were not bound to love Him of our own accord?

We ardently love what is beautiful in the world, because we clearly see it, but ‘God no one hath ever seen’ Thus we do not see God, but we daily behold His works, which are so beautiful, and of which the Wise man speaks: ‘With whose beauty if they, being deceived, took them to be Gods, let them know how much the Lord of them is more beautiful than they: for the first Author of beauty made all these things.’ (Sirach. 13: 3)

God is Good and Beautiful

We also experience His goodness in His daily benefits to us; and we have Him for a testimony who beholds us, and who cannot deceive: viz. the Holy Spirit, who speaks by the apostles and prophets in the holy Scripture. God, therefore, is so good and beautiful, that He alone deserves to be called good and beautiful.

But you will say, it is hard that we should, for the love of God, be sometimes compelled to lose our property, friends, and even life itself. I acknowledge that it is so to those who love not God: but to those who do love Him, and desire to possess Him, I assert that it is very easy, especially since, if we despise temporal goods for the love of God, we shall possess those that are incomparably superior to them.

Despise Temporal Goods for the Love of God

And what are these? You lose corruptible riches, but you will acquire an eternal kingdom; you lose father, brothers, and friends, but you will possess God for your father, Christ for your brother, and all the angels and saints for your friends and companions: you lose a temporal life, full of misery, but you will gain an eternal one, full of happiness.

Hear the Canticle of divine love: ‘If a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing;’ and a little above: ‘Many waters cannot quench charity, neither can the floods drown it.’ Hear, again, a lover of God; ‘Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? or distress? or famine? or nakedness? or danger? or persecution? or the sword? But in all these things we overcome, because of Him that has loved us.’ (Romans, 8:35)

Love your Neighbor and Love your Enemy

But so to love my neighbor as to share my goods with him; and, even though he is my enemy and has grievously injured me, I should be obliged not only to pardon him, but also to be kind towards him: this seems to be against nature. It may be against nature corrupted by sin, but not against nature regenerated by the grace of Christ. Does not God himself share His blessings with His enemies, and daily pardon them, and return them good for evil? ‘He makes His sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and rains upon the just and the unjust.’

Now, if God thus acts towards His enemies, it is not against the nature of God, nor the nature of men created after His image, to love his enemies, and do them good. But it is opposite to the nature of beasts, and of those, ‘who, when they were in honor, did not understand; but they are compared to senseless beasts, and are become like to them.’

- – - written by St. Robert Ballarmine

Why God Created The Disabled And The Poor

God created man, but it was man who caused sin to come into the world when Adam and Eve ate the apple in the Garden of Eden. Ever since then, sin has taken shape in the form of sickness, disease, hate, greed etc… This is not to say that people with sickness and disabilities have brought it upon themselves but that the evolution of sin has distorted what God created, which was a perfect human being in His own image.

Man’s Sin

Man’s sin has caused us to abuse the resources the world has to offer. This is ultimately creating more disease and disabilities because our water and food is poisoned by man’s interference. Sin in the form of greed, has also caused there to be a great divide between the wealthy and poor. If greed did not exist there would be enough food to feed everyone on the planet because God’s intention was to provide for his children. When sin entered our world, it caused us to be separated from God.

God created two worlds: this life, and the Hereafter. The Hereafter is the greater life – which lasts forever. This life is short, difficult, full of pain and injustice. We ask ourselves: why would God allow all this? Some people end up disbelieving in God. Their reasoning is that: if God is good, why would He allow terrible things to happen?

This life is only a Test

The answer is that this short, difficult life is only a test. The result of the test is what is important. What do you think of someone who lives for a hundred years, having everything he or she ever needs – wealth, fun, friends – but then ends up for the rest of eternity suffering in Hell because of his or her disbelief and evil deeds? Would you say that person was fortunate, or unfortunate?

And what would you say about a person who lived life suffering poverty, illness or oppression – but enters Paradise because of his or her belief and good deeds, and is given great things to enjoy – forever? Would they be unfortunate, or fortunate?

Like a child who is afraid of the Doctor

The suffering in this life is like a child who is afraid of the doctor. He is so scared; and he does not understand why his parents – who love him – would put him through such an awful thing. But the parents know that, if the child suffers a little by going to the doctor, it will be BETTER for him – for the rest of his life. That is what God knows – and we are just little children. We may dislike something which will actually be good for us, and we may like and desire something which may be bad for us. It is God who knows – and we do not.

I think, God created the Universe in different forms especially to maintain the balance of the world to enable living things lead a perfect and decent life. All the creations are in the universe are in the intention of maintain the balance. He had given the humans the sixth sense and self-determination to live independently to lead our life in a way He wants to be.

As the nature of the earth is also different and it is necessary the creations has to be in different shapes and nature to exist in that environment. Like all other creations among human poor, disable etc. are created in the same manner. Our behavioral patterns also deciding factor on this. Actually we do not know the benefits in those creations and Creator only knows.

Helping the Poor

Christians are commanded to help one another but we are also called to help those who are less fortunate than we are. Proverbs 21:13 is among the most powerful calls from God to help those who are hungry because “If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.” First John 3:17 states that, “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?” Job wrote, “I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist them” (Job 29:12).

God asked, “Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood” (Isaiah 58:7)? We also need to “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy” (Prov 31:8-9). In fact, “The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern” (Prov 29:7).

The world is only a Trial

According to Him the world is only a trial. If we all are created identically how could we identify ourselves? How do we get our daily needs to lead our live? So people have to be in different forms and stages and to perform different duties and works to fulfill the requirements of all human. How do we do charity to get God’s nearness, if there is no poor?

If He didn’t create us with hunger and thirst, the entire world would be in a state of stand still. No one moves. It is the urge of hunger and thirst only made us to move to find our needs to fill our stomach and made the world in motion. If there is no sexual urge there won’t be a single creation except the direct creation of the God. Only the Adam and Eve exist.

If we lead a life instructed and expected by the God we will be sent to the heaven and others to the hell. This is called trial and needs reward or punishment. We know a trial version is in a stage of changing process and is not permanent but to test practically the maximum usage or output of a product, to decide whether we launch/buy it or not.

God judges our world’s life as our trial period and gives us accordingly. Then the original life begins, which is in the hereafter.

Is It Possible To Pray Always?

A Church in England; the priests of the nearby parishes are summoned for a priestly gathering, prayer, sharing and reflection. “Pray without ceasing” (I Thess. 5:17) – it was the subject of their talk.

How could one pray without ceasing? As we are engaged in many responsibilities, is it possible to pray always? How come we are able to perform our duties well, while always in prayer?

The discussion grew serious on the subject. At last the president of the meeting, an old learned priest concluded; “this subject is very complicated and confusing. So let us submit these issues as a thesis in the next meeting. Basing on that we will continue our discussion…”

Hearing this, the woman who had been serving the tea exclaimed; “Oh my God… why another meeting to understand the meaning of this Word of God? How simple is the advice of St. Paul?”

“If it is too simple, explain to us the meaning;” said the priest.

She responded with calmness; “How long had I been praying without ceasing. As I open my eyes in the morning, I would thank the Lord for the good day. Seeing the Sun rising, I would pray, Jesus, Sun of justice, rise in the sky of my heart. When I take the tea, I would pray, come Holy Spirit and quench the thirst of my soul. As I clean the room, I will pray for sanctification in my life. As I cook the food I will remember my Lord becoming bread and wine for me. Seeing my children I would reflect that we are the children of God and contemplate on His providence. The vision of river, plants and streams make me think of the greatness of God who created them. What I do and what I see are prayers for me.”

As they heard this, they thanked the Lord that these mysteries are hidden from the wise and revealed to the simple.

There may be many who studied a lot on prayer and consumed their life without sincerely praying at least once in life. Though we have many commentaries and dictionaries of Bible in our shelf, we may not find it serious to reflect on the Word of God.

We have many notebooks and piece of papers filled with thoughts and reflections which we have accumulated through years. Without putting them into practice, we are running after new ones. New books, new CDs and new meditation techniques… When are we going to live them? Is our life a failure in our pursuit after the intoxicating effect of knowledge without recognizing the flaw of our souls? Do not forget the old notes while going to attend the new retreats.

Do not forget the old striking Words marked in your Bible and go in search of the new ones. God will bless you.

Prayer: Lord, deliver us from the intoxicating effect of knowledge, grant us the wisdom to put into practice what we have already acquired. Amen.

- – - written by Benny Punnathara

Sow Your Interests In The Good Land

Sow your interests in the good land, that you can reap a bountiful harvest.

Jesus always read the signs of the time to speak to the people around him. He could distinctively and clearly explicate the situations, irrational rituals and burdensome traditions through his thought-provoking parables. He used to mesmerize the crowd, pronouncing each word authoritatively, unfurling the dark spots that remained untouched for years. More so, triggering the lot through parables loaded with challenges and queries which provoked them to ponder and prune the unessential aspects of religious life.

Sowing your interest means, directing your life prudently and meticulously in the right way as per your choices. One has to consider this: decisions and choices are absolutely OURS. Blaming others or getting disturbed over the failures are mere waste of time. Hence, one has to orient one’s interests and sow in such places that would bring about a return of a hundred fold.

The Parable of the Sower

The Parable of the Sower (Mt: 13:1-8) is one of its rare kinds. Recline on a chair for a few minutes and contemplate, suppose you were a sower and the seeds are your interests. Where would you sow? If you would sow your interests on the bare surface of a road, won’t people think of you as an insane person, because sowing the seeds (interests) on a path (a mean work) an undertaking that is detrimental to God and to the society) is ascribed as immaturity. There isn’t any possibility for its growth for God’s spirit doesn’t rest on such works. At least the seeds on the path were useful to the birds of the air, but interests and energy invested on mean works are neither helpful to the sower nor to anyone on the earth.

God has given us the freedom to execute our interests productively, but what happens to most of us? Unessential aspects of the world seem to us more essential (priorities are driven away). Material things and unproductive pleasures sway a person for a few minutes, hours, days etc but they may have ill-effect on him/her for the rest of the years (sometimes, for the rest of life). But happiness will hover over us when we put our hands to pursue worthwhile things.

There are some people who are ambiguous about everything that happen around them, even anticipating calamities on the auspicious days. They are skeptics by thinking, inhaling pessimistic oxygen. They are the ones who consciously sow their interests on a rocky ground. They know that there is depth in the soil and no growth is possible, yet willingly they would dive in only, to be doomed. Perhaps, there is need to introspect and ask ourselves: Are we also one like them? Blaming God for the inconvenience and discomfort that we make in our lives?

Our choices shape our future

Our choices play a vital role in our lives. Our choices shape our future. As the adage goes; you are the architect of your life. If our foundation is strong, what comes over it would remain strong. If our interests like foundation are placed on the right place with the concomitant requirements no calamities could over-power it.

On the flip-side are people with thorny characters who always remain thorn in others flesh. Just as thorns which choke the plants from growing, so also persons of this character become a stumbling block in others lives. They neither grow, nor allow others to grow. For them the motto, ‘together to the top’ seems ridiculous and absurd. If one has to sow their interests in the midst of these people (ground), they would harvest a bumper crop yielding HUNDRED FOLD OF GRIEF AND SORROWS. Let us sow our interests in a fertile ground and God himself will escort us a hundred fold harvests.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, today we offer all our desires, goals, knowledge and our interests. We accept our limitations and believe that you can do wonders with our interests than what we can. Inspire us, talk to us and guide us into the right path, so that we may sow our interests on the fertile ground and reap the fruits. May our lives inspire others, shower your torrential blessings upon us that we may vibrate your life and love to others whom we meet in our day today life. This we ask through Christ our Lord, AMEN.

- – - written by H. Infant Vinoth SVD

Demons And Exorcisms

Generally the demon does all he can not to be discovered. He does not like to talk and tries everything to discourage both the exorcist and the possessed. Experience has taught me that this behavior follows four steps: prior to discovery, during exorcisms, at the beginning of liberation, and after liberation.

I must caution that there are never two identical instances. The behavior of the evil one is most unpredictable and takes many different forms. What I am about to describe refers to the most frequently encountered behavior.

1. Prior to discovery

Demonic possession causes physical and mental disturbances. Therefore the possessed is usually under a doctor’s care, and nobody suspects the true nature of the problems. Often doctors try to cure the symptoms for a lengthy period and try many drugs, always with very limited results. Commonly, the patient goes from doctor to doctor, accusing them of incompetence. Mental symptoms are the hardest to cure; many times the specialists find nothing wrong-although this also happens often with physical illness-and often the family accuses the possessed individual of imagining his problems.

This is one of the heaviest crosses to bear for these “patients”; they are neither understood nor believed. Almost always, after fruitlessly searching for help from “official medicine”, these individuals knock at the door of “healers” or, worse, sorcerers, seers, and witch doctors. In this manner, the problems increases.

Normally, anyone who comes to the exorcist (following a friend’s suggestion; very rarely a priest’s advice!) has already knocked at every doctor’s door and is thoroughly skeptical; many times he has tried sorcerers and warlocks. Often an inexcusable lack of ecclesiastical care in this field is added to the lack of faith or the lack of practice in the faith of these individuals; the result is an understandable delay in turning to the exorcist.

We must remember that even in the cases of complete possession-that is, in cases when the demon is the one talking and acting, using the victim’s body-the demon does not act consistently. He alternates periods of actively (usually called “moments of crisis “) with unpredictable periods of rest. In this manner, with few exceptions, the person is able to function and hold a job or go to school in a seemingly normal manner. The person alone knows the tremendous effort that the performance of these tasks requires.

2. During Exorcisms

At the beginning the demon tries his best to remain undetected or at least to hide the seriousness of his possession, even if he is not always successful. At times he is forced by the strength of the exorcism to reveal his presence at the first prayers; other times more sessions are required before he is discovered.

I remember a young man who, at the first blessing, gave only a mild negative reaction. I thought, “this is an easy one; I will be done after this blessing and a few more.” The second time, though, he became furious, and after that I could not begin an exorcism unless four strong men were present to subdue him.

Waiting for the hour of God

On other occasions, one must wait for the “hour of God”. I clearly remember one person who had consulted several exorcists, including myself, without any indication of an evil presence. Finally, one time the demon was forced to reveal himself, and after that the exorcisms proceeded fruitfully. Sometimes, from the first or second blessing the demon reveals all his strength, which changes from person to person. At times the revelation is progressive; some possessed appear to have a different sickness at each session, giving the impression that every ill in the body must be brought out one at a time in order to be healed.

How Demons react to Exorcisms

The demon reacts in various manners to prayers and injunctions. Many times he tries to appear indifferent; in reality he suffers and continues to suffer increasingly until liberation is achieved. Some possessed individuals are silent and immobile, and, if provoked, any reaction is limited to the eyes. Others fling themselves about, and unless they are held down, they harm themselves. Others wail, especially if a stole is pressed to the affected parts of their bodies, as the Ritual suggests, or if they are blessed with the Sign of the Cross or with holy water. Very few are violent, and these must be held tightly by those who are helping the exorcist or by their relatives.

Demons are very reluctant to speak. The Ritual, very rightly, admonishes the exorcist not to ask questions out of curiosity, but to ask only what is useful for liberation. The first thing that must be asked is the name. For the demon, who is so reluctant to reveal himself, revealing himself is a defeat; even when he has revealed his name, he is always reluctant to repeat it, even during following exorcisms. Then we command the evil one to tell how many demons are present in a particular body. There can be many or few, but there is always one chief, and he is always the first to be named.

When the demon has a biblical name or one given in tradition (for example, Satan, Beelzebul, Lucifer, Zebulun, Meridian, Asmodeus), we are dealing with “heavy weights”, tougher to defeat. The degree of difficulty is also relative to the intensity with which the demon possesses a person. When several demons are present, the chief is always the last to leave.

The strength of possession is manifested also from the reaction of the demon to holy names. Generally the evil one does not and cannot say those names; he substitutes expressions such as “he” (referring to God or Jesus) or “she” (referring to our Lady). Other times he says’ “your Boss” or “your Lady”, to indicate Jesus or Mary. If the possession is very strong and the demon is high-ranking (I repeat that demons keep the rank that they held when they were angels, such as thrones, principalities, or dominions), then it is possible for him to say the name of God and Mary, always followed by horrible blasphemies.

Some believe, I know not why, that demons are talkative and that, if they are present during an exorcism, the demon will publicly denounce all their sins. It is a false belief; demons are reluctant to speak, and when they talk they say silly things to distract the exorcist and escape his questions.

Father Candido’s experience

Father Candido was exorcising a handsome young man who was possessed by a great beast of a demon. Trying to discourage the exorcist, the demon said: “Can’t you see that you are wasting your time? This one never prays. He goes around with… and does…” and there followed a long list of ugly sins. At the end of the exorcism, Father Candido fruitlessly tried to convince that young man to make a general confession. It was necessary almost to drag him into the confessional, where he hastened to say that he had no sins to confess. Then Father Candido asked, “But did you not do this and such?” Dumbfounded, the poor man was forced to admit his transgressions.

The Ritual suggests asking other questions dealing with the length of time of possession, the motive, and similar topics. I will mention later how we must behave in case of spells and what questions to ask. Let us not forget that the demon is the prince of lies. He freely accuses one person or another to foster suspicion and enmity; his answers must be sifted carefully.

I will say generally questioning the demons is not of great importance. For instance, often when the demon sees he is losing strength, he gives one date as the day of his departure but then lingers on. An experienced exorcist such as Father Candido was often able to guess not only what kind of demon he was dealing with but also often even his name; therefore he did not ask too many questions.

In cases of strong possessions the demon might speak voluntarily to discourage the exorcist. Many times I was told, “You cannot do anything against me!” “I will throw you out of bed.” Then, confronted with my answers, he would fall silent. For instance, when I say, “I am enveloped within the mantle of our Lady. What can you do to me?” or “The Archangel Gabriel is my protector; try and fight him!” or “My guardian angel watches over me so that I won’t be touched; you cannot harm me”, the demon remains silent.

- – - Taken from ‘An Exorcist tells his story’ written by Fr. Gabriele Amorth 

Is God Calling Me?

Destinies are sometimes so; they would be incidental and surprising; some are heavy responsibilities, others the anointing to cry out the unpleasing. Some others would be the persuasion to carry His cross and help Him. Dear child, God’s call is so!

I do not know which of these the destiny is entrusted to you. But I know one thing; that, from now on your daily troubles would not be such as the old ones. You would never be watching the old ways, streets and familiar faces that you used to.

If God is calling You

If you are sure that He has called you… then, just keep your ears a bit closer to His heart and listen. Yet again if you could discern that voice, you are never to stay back. What awaits you is not a land of Canaan flowing milk and honey; not a paradise of wealth and pleasure. You may not have the castles of authority.

What you are to see; hearts bleeding, turbulent tides of lamentations unrest, skulls everywhere, crowds that condemn you; there may not be a sleepless mother waiting for you or a woman to embrace you on your journey back home.

When you are soaked under the rain and reach home, there may not be mother with a kerchief; no one to wait for you and share with you hot food. You are alone… Paying ears to the very many troubles and pains of the multitude, you would just be a cloud that is clotted in the air and unable to shrill rain. As you lift the bread in front of the thousands, you will be called to break yourself like it. Yes, my dear child, that is called vocation!

God’s call is so

Abraham – He first called an old man, a man who had to earn nothing at the end of life. He was one who couldn’t even give birth to a child at his fruitful years. He is called and asked to move to a land unseen and unheard of. He couldn’t resist His call nor deny it. Because his name was ‘Abram’; the one destined to be called.

Moses - Another man was called from the burning bush prepared literally like a ‘trap’. It was burning but not consumed. Moses was about to watch that great miracle from a little close circle and then he was called. (Exodus 3). God called him. From that day onwards his life was different; a journey for forty years leading an ungrateful people. He was tempted to stay back many a time. But he was unable to come to blows with the one who called him.

David – We see such call yet again in the first book of Samuel. A poor cattle boy, he was not even counted as worth in his family, the eighth son of Jesse. The greatest prophet of Israel is in search of him with a jar of anointing oil. That day David’s boyhood was over. The oil that poured out from the jar of Samuel, took away the little peace that he enjoyed in his life. My dear child, the ways that he ran through… tears filled nights… worries that he had to suffer. Yes, anointing has a price to be paid; a non payable price. Those are the psalms flowing from the heart which spreads through the 150 chapters.

Samuel – Look at the life of boy Samuel. There was a man called Elkanah in the hilly areas of Ephraim. His wife Hannah. She was barren. But she pleaded with the Lord and earned Samuel; a woman who made a covenant with the Lord. Hannah had promised God to offer her offspring to the Lord, if she is blessed with a child. She kept her promise. As he finished breastfeeding, she offered him to the Lord. A boy in the Temple… let us call him ‘offering.’

His Lord and owner was God Himself. Eli the priest was his guardian. In a cold night in the temple, God called him by name. Not one time, but three times. For the first two times he thought that it was Eli calling. Samuel approached him and asked for the purpose. ‘Did you call me?’ But Eli corrected him. He knew it was God calling Samuel. The call was clear for the third time. ‘Samuel, Samuel…” He responded, “Speak Lord, your servant listens.” Yes, it is called vocation.

Mary – Much more accidental was the call of Mary the young girl. Her father Joachim and mother Annah. Both of them died at her very young age. God is her owner. It is to this young girl that the messenger of the Lord, Gabriel, arrives. Mary was engaged; she never knew the man. That call might have stunned her. What gossips all around? What are the perils on the way…? Her life too was different from that day onwards. It was the call of a young girl called to be the Mother of God.

Mathew was a tax collector. He was called from his field. Peter’s call was not different. He left his boat and net aside and followed him. Another young man was hesitant and requested some time… and he was rebuked. Those who want to follow me must come in time by leaving everything. What an adamant invitation!

Saul – You might have heard of the call of Saul the young man. A man in the opposite team… He too was changed. Saul became Paul. He trusted in the one who called him… that too till death.

A question still awaits… Lord, tell me, what is my call?

“This is just useless as an old piece of paper. It could be thrown out as a worn out shoe. But you are calling me… I do not know for what… that is up to you. Here I am. A broken drum… tattered flowers… a tumbrel with raucous voice. Here I am Lord… you might use me as you wish…”

Download the document guide: Is God Calling Me

- – - written by Santimon Jacob