Word: Joyous and Passionate Care

How many caring hands we need to be grateful to...
those with gifts and with their presence.
Intimate and personal care,
most of them unseen
unrecognised and unidentified.

Grateful to the unknown yet caring mysteries of the Word
Care about every particular being
Care about its connection with others
Care about the whole body of beings
itself is the Word.

Care foresees emptying and death
yet it alone brings forth life
How many emptying must we be grateful for?

Care is a passion
a joyous passion, not a sorrowful passion
Care is the mystery of the Word
a sincere emptying..
there nothing dies, other than to live again
withers and falls to offer a world to something else.

God's hand..
Creating, moulding, healing and nourishing
emptying care in nature
Wisdom of care,
revealed only to the children of the earth.

The Word meets Flesh

At every weakness and pain of ours,
there is a nearness of Christ.
Only if we can believe that sincere closeness to our own deep emptiness,
we can understand the depth of the self-emptying of the Word...
to be a baby, refugee, labourer, victim, and failure.

Word among us the flesh
among the dry dust to lush green and conscious human
Word is in everything,
everything lives by the Word

Mary loved the Word so sincerely
that she could bring forth the Word in human form
The bearer, full of grace
the borne, fullness of grace and the source of grace.

He spreads the grace fountains
to every emptiness..
Flesh in its beauty and ugliness,
searches the grace streams...

There, in the sincerity of heart,
willingness to be receptive and open,
mercy and faithfulness meet
justice and peace embrace.
Truth shall spring from the flesh
joy and peace be born in us...

Grace streams flow into our hearts,
filled by the Holy Spirit,
our feels, thoughts, visions, words, touches will have grace contents.
We are born...

The Word becomes flesh, the moment of true Christmas.

Ref Ps 85: 10

God is My Strength My Song

Greater the preparation when great person is awaited....
A worthy preparation means that we also know really who is coming...

Preparations for the messiah...
Is the preparation of sufficient quality
Do we really know him? Will we recognise him if he is among us?

What  must we do? the people  asked John the Baptist
He was voice crying out in the wilderness,
"Prepare the way for the Lord"

He warned about the axe and winnowing fan
to look deeply into  the reality of our treasures...
with a sincere heart in absolute trust,

having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. 

Following all the commandments from childhood, 

one young man asked Jesus: 

"What must I do to inherit the joy of God?"

He was sincere in his question,

and so was his emptiness after having followed the Law.
Why was there no joy of God born in his heart?

It is a distance by option.

We can stop at what gives us a clean face,

where we would have already received the reward.

Scribes knew the Scripture,
they knew how to take advantage of it too,
yet they lost the messiah.

Preparations for the messiah...
Is the preparation of sufficient quality?
After knowing every verse of the scripture so well...
Do we really know him? Will we recognise him?

In Micah's words, "what does the Lord ask of you, but to act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly before the Lord?"

It challenges our nominal performances, and put us into a bond where  the Word has to become a living and accompanying presence than a text; a voice crying out in the human conscience. There we have the sense "your Word is a lamp to my steps, and light to my path."

It opens the eyes of the blind, and the deaf begin to hear in sincere heart and absolute trust, having our hearts cleaned from an evil conscience.

This guiding presence is an inner strength, source of joy; 

for a person,  for a community, and for a family

God is in our midst, 

I (we) stand amidst my (our) struggles; 

God rejoices over me (us) with gladness, 

he renews me (us) in his love; 

he dances with joy as on a day of festival,

and he exults over me (us) with loud singing.

Zeph 3: 18, Is 42: 7, Ps 119: 105, Heb 10: 22, Mic 6:8, Lk 3: 10

Open the Grace-doors towards a Generation of New Innocence

Can we offer a new innocence to the next generation?

How will they remain innocent,

if our generation is not filled with grace.

How could we imagine of that innocence,

Sin-less or grace-filled?

This vision will determine the way we approach the reality of our life - 

the first will focus on sin removal and control of evils,

but the second will focus on the work of grace and trust in God.

Open the grace doors.
Closed within ourselves, are the self that we struggle with
struggle to be to the fullness of our own nature
 the need to be embraced by grace
emptiness, the void, the wound, the craving
the closed grace doors..

Open the grace-doors.

Just as the grace is allowed to enter
we enter into gratitude and praise...
there we may find consolation, peace and joy


"I will thank you for you have answered
and you are my saviour.
the stone which the builders rejected
has become the corner stone.
  this is the work of the Lord,
a marvel in our eyes." Ps 118: 21 - 23

They Continued Distributing Bread

Once again there was a multiplication of bread
It was a great excitement
bread, people, laughter....
Master went to pray
They continued distributing bread,
when it was less they bought and distributed...

Master said: "Father, why have you abandoned me?
I have none but you
into your hands i commend my spirit"

Advent: Rejoicing, yet still Preparing

The joy and grace of advent is of meeting and waiting.

The two carry us gracefully

we have met, yet we wait

rejoicing and preparing. 

During the season of advent we visit many houses, through the readings given to us. We witness the events that took place at Nazareth, Bethlehem, house of Elizabeth. From annunciation to the nativity scene we have a common home ie nature. 

The advent wreath reminds us of creation which primarily speaks of plenitude, life, creativity, beauty and joy. The creation manifests the wisdom of God. Creation is truly the first revelation of God.

Looking within and looking at each other, 

they long for the whole manifestation of what they were revealing about God in themselves.

The heavens proclaims the glory of God

and the firmament shows for the work of his hands.

day unto day takes up the story

and night unto night makes known the message

No speech, no word, no voice is heard

yet their span extends through all the earth,

their words to the utmost bounds of the world. Ps 19: 1 - 4 

There were prophets, kings, wise and holy men and women

Looking within and looking at each other, 

they long for the whole manifestation of what they were revealing.

They all know that they are not the Word, but a voice, a witness to the Truth.

Not just that Christ completes what was revealed in them, 

but he was what was being revealed.

Looking within the Christ revealed (in me), 

and looking at each other - in creation, other religions, culture (for the Christ yet to be known by me).

Both the creation and the human history open their silent cry, 

maran atha (Our Lord has come, Our Lord has been made known), 

and marana tha (Come Lord, yet to be known).

The two carry us gracefully,

we have met, yet we wait,

there is rejoicing, yet still preparing,

there is celebration, but it still asks introspection.

Facing a needed change without grace threatens,
and we assume a crisis, the end of days...
but, that end has to happen.

Watch yourself

you must realise the presence,

you must watch and prepare yourself too.

It is to stir the conscience.

The preparation is forming and transforming,
discernment and judgement.

We shall rejoice together...

Blessed be the Lord,

He has visited his people...

through the tender mercy of our God,

when the day shall dawn upon us from on high 

to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, 

to guide our feet into the way of peace. Lk 1: 68, 78,79
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See also ഒരുക്കം: രൂപീകരണം രൂപാന്തരണവും 

Where Have the Angel Announced the Message? [to you]

If we speak of an experience of God, it is about how we realised an accompanying presence in our life and the impact of that presence in different walks of our life. A God experience or message and guidance from God does not happen in abstract, it is always in relation to our life context. What we think about God and our relation to God are intimately related to our common living, work, and habits. A spiritual feeling is very much filled with the demands of life, struggles and joys of life. They make the meaning, taste and fragrance to our religious imagination (here 'religious' does not mean anything to do with a religious custom or practice). Spiritual inspirations are an outcome of realisation of grace within the deep experiences, at times of strength and at times of strain. These encounters form deep and meaningful spiritualities. If we lose the taste of life, it is because we have separated the occupational and living context from their deeper involvement. Has farming land, fishing boat, lawyer court, administrative office, hospital, school or college, a building site, computer cab, space shuttle... got something to do with God experience? Or rather, do both our work and our life become too professional?

Awareness of a context, or an intense need alone cannot bring about a lasting and convincing experience. It asks for genuine reflection though it might be within a constant restlessness. The restlessness is not because life is a crisis or a misery, but because life does take its course between comfort and distress, joys and sorrows, anxieties and hopes, excitement and disappointment, moaning and celebrations. So the reflection also involves recognising the presence of Christ along the life path. It opens our eyes and ears that we could add values to and within our lives and what we do. What happens is a gradual transformation of ourselves.

Reflection, thus, will replace our life into our living environment with a new interpretation. It will provide us with significance and meaning of our life and everything of it. It is a guiding and encouraging presence, and so it offers direction to our lives. That is the personal revelatory voice from God. Revelation is a new awareness of why we are placed in a specific situation. It is through this in-depth awareness that we are made a prophet or even a messiah.

Just as there is a first moment of realisation, an encounter, of the accompanying presence of God, there is also an ongoing presence of that accompaniment. there is a bond that is born from the reflective and interpretive remembrance of this presence. It leads a way to celebration of that presence.

They are wonderful, but when do we do all these since we are struggling to find time even to live our life. We need to realise that a liveable spirituality begins from an awareness. That is why our own struggles and failures, greatness and celebrations do have something to contribute to our spirituality.

So let us consider the following:

Who are the people who are in immediate relation to me that deserve genuine attention and care?

What are the feelings involved? Closeness, care, warmth.... distress, anger, disappointment ... because not being able to fulfil them.

In the working field --

What are some implications and significance of my work and responsibilities? What is the contribution I make to the humanity through them?

What are the feelings involved in my work, in its achievements, struggles, conflicts, interactions with boss, subordinates, in-charge ...?

In the above what are the virtues involved or the virtues to be cultivated?

Which could be some symbols we could keep as meeting point between your feelings and God's assistance in our day and night? (just as we have water, oil, lamp, flower ...)

Can I feel the presence of Christ there? (in my intimacy, romance and rivalry, in my responsibilities, work, feelings, symbols I can find) Christ cannot be absent from there because it is logos that guide them all. It doesn't give a single general suggestion to follow. In one's own working field each one will have to identify the grace and meaningfulness in a significant way.

We must take these reflections, interpretations, remembrance and celebration. Write a gospel for your house, family, office ... because God is with us. 

At every walk of our life there is a salutation for us, 

"Blessed are you..."

"... and blessed is your fruit."

_____________________________

The religious texts show a pattern of religious behaviour of a community which had a common culture; eg., a community engaged in architecture, carpentry had a god who is a craftsman. Geography of the land also frames our imagination about the abode of gods. Ways of thinking about salvation/liberation are also within the social customs and practices. Today life has changed. A family or a village may not have a common occupation and culture. In belief systems we are in a multireligious and multicultural context.

Den of Robbers... Robbers do waste too [in the Father's house]

Den of Robbers...

Christ's accusation on the situation of a place of worship!
Is it just the transactions making it a den of robbers?
His body being the real temple, and the community being his body, every manipulative interaction within community makes it a den of robbers.

Community can turn a collection of usable objects, then outside of uses, waste...
there they use, steal, waste each other..
Robbers do waste too [in the Father's house]

God and worship were not the matters that nailed Christ on the cross.
God he knew did not value the business transactions, and exploitation of people in the name of spirituality, offering, ...
That did matter!

Child's Sacraments, Ours too

Child runs joyfully to play in water,
there is curiosity, and enthusiasm,
there is also a communion with the joy the Nature offers.

Every sacrament is a symbol and experience of communion,

Christ died and has risen,
the emptiness and glory,
the death and rising,
the Logos shows everywhere in nature.

Child receives the joy
playing in water,
holding a flower,
the joy of the mystery of Logos.

Let them not be denied of those sacraments,
and be deprived of the communion with nature..
They will find their close friends,
interactive and sensitive who speaks to them about God..

Control the Fire: Let Your Fire not Harm You

Fire prepares its path,
yet, uncontrolled fire is dangerous.
Fire in us must give us a vision,
a vision guided and guarded by prudence.

Zeal is a fire,
yet, it must be given sight by reflection.
Zeal is fruitful,
only when it embodies wisdom.

Zealous, but no prudence,
pious but no conviction,
ambitious but no vision,...
See, the fire playing foul..

However devotional flavour they may have,
only prudent steps can be potentially fruitful and creative.

Devotion and piety alone do not necessitate growth,
they may be simply emotional expressions in spiritual disguise.

Pray from 'your' Heart

Prayer for a moment or for a year,
Prayer alone or with many,
Prayer for oneself or for others,
Must be from the heart,
from our trust in God.
Raise our hearts to God,
what we are, how we move ahead, how we struggle
God knows what we need.
May this genuineness of prayer be kept alive.

Fear and hope,
just as they function in faith,
also work in politics.
A call for prayer, hence, might also serve political purposes.
(politics involves gaining or losing power, gathering people after a common feeling, a strong sense of identity in the group ...)
A true prayer cannot be made from a consciousness created after disastrous syndrome,
because it cannot see the reality correctly.

Someone calls for prayer, does your heart feel that prayer?
Does that concern 'our' community, system, believes...only
How does this intention serve the humanity at large?
Does the attempt term some others as enemy?
Defence, protection, being with, joining so and so ....
can be terms with wrong motivation, and self oriented intention.

Real issues, but wrongly interpreted...
when prayer, sacrifices, and penances are suggested as solutions,
sympathy, solidarity, pity ... about our side; fear, insecurity... concerning others
along with prayer, it also conditions our ways of understanding the issue,
and become blind to what is real.

Is everything spiritual that we could give spiritual answers for everything?
If everything is spiritual why the worldly-spiritual distinction?

Let there be peace everywhere,
Let there be goodness everywhere,
May we possess a good will,
what else shall we pray?

Religious Pessimism - Religious Culture - Religious Extremism - Secularism

Are we led to a religious pessimism (human life is in a difficult condition, everywhere there are traps of evil, faith is in crisis, a nearing apocalypse, ..) The solution often suggested is a religious culture, some form of devotions and practices, upholding traditions and rituals ... which are projected to be the sign of believing in God. It is such kind of empty religious culture that drained the sacred out of people's lives. Outcome is atheist secularism or religious extremism depending on the stimulants.

Scientific Progress, Spirituality, and the Devil

Energy, field, magnetism, consciousness etc., are not words that we hear just in the area of science, but they are very much used in spiritual discourses today. Spiritual narratives often blame science that it has not yet arrived at the true meaning of these terms.

It is at the same time scientific progress and technological advancement boast of knowledge and rationality, we also see the extreme form of religiosity and most absurd forms of superstitions. The phenomenon is not new. 

We know that any social or cultural change bring a struggle till the system gradually adapts to it. It is not an apparent harm that threatens, but it is the whole question of placing ourselves somewhere in the 'new' world (eg., industrial world or computer age today). The feeling of insecurity and existential perplexity form a sense of displacement from the living reality. The question of uncertainty and inability to adjust to a new situation make a feeling of a suspicious presence in the world which alters the normal or traditional patterns. It is also the time a fascination to narrations involving devils and multiple forms of witchcraft begin to rise. Because, the calculations and patterns in magic seem to parallel the scientific rationale. The devil and the vampires give a personified figure to our own fears and shattered self.

Time  to time we have historical contexts when the human capacities find helpless, and cannot even name what really happens (it could be some phenomena, or cultural conflicts of values, morals and systems). This unnamable and undesired reality may appear in various forms according to different contexts. We seem to have 'identified' the source when we blame it on the 'devil.' But what happens here is that we escape from our responsibility to 'identify' the human, socio-cultural dimensions that create the situation.

God, society, and grace together need to approach these patterns of the 'devil.' Only a mature faithful community can stand against the apparent crisis it faces. Instead, manipulative leaders tend to form a pseudo religiosity and false images of spirituality. They might interpret the crisis in a very meaningful manner, but cannot solve because they often do not attempt to understand it other than describing them in their own fictitious forms of  palatable beliefs. We might attempt to condemn and expel the devil, but at the same time within the frames of pseudo-religiosity we chain ourselves to 'good' magic which are easy tools to escape the crisis.

Only in ways we can find an encounter between ourselves and God in the new phase of cultural and social changes, we gracefully face the newness (apparently a crisis). Until then we wander chasing and cursing the devil.

What is suggested here is to analyse our times and changes with the tools of history and cultural hermeneutics. Then, we can spiritualise them in our approach of the issue in a life of grace.

It may be interesting to do a brief study on the witchcraft in early modern Europe, witch hunting, and we will be surprised to know that it was more related to immature ways of religion to deal with the then 'scientific' language and method and religious adaptation.
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Please see also Romanticising the Demons

Why did I Pay When It Was Free? Are we in a (religious) super market?

Shopping gradually becomes a data driven decision making. Companies analyse our interests, expectations, preferences etc. 

Does religion become such marketisation? 

How do the Malls attract people so do the Hero prophetism..

Window-shopping, cafeteria, flash-mobs, make a try ...

Are there parallels?

Mind it, there is no exchange offer nor replacement in religious market. While the time one realises the product is not worth, the vendors will have disappeared. 

Though the longing could take different faces, the worth thing that one looks for in a human journey is a life with God. Before someone could analyse our data, let us try to understand it fully, or get help of someone who could genuinely help us to do it. Remember at the sales counter they told us that we must buy 'it' and we bought what they said to be the best. Instead we are left with bags of sparkling wrappers. Did that make our journey well? 

If we have not made our choices well, and chose to believe what fascinated us, we are carrying broken pots. Shocking it is that we take pride in these pots we carry. Sometime we decorate it, some time we dance around it, and sometime we worship it. 

Instead of doing a data analysis and making 'itself' applicable, if religions could understand the human situation in cultural and social changes, we could see the signs where god was part of the journey.

But, how could we believe when they said we must 'spend' for it? The thing that we really needed would be 'given' to us if we knew who we were! 

Imagine the payment methods we tried ........

Owner was very happy, big crowd in the shop and lot of money

the manager has applied some crowd pulling strategies...

Owner was shocked another day, the shop is empty

people found that they were given cheap products, they just neglected the shop.

__________________

Perhaps we have believed hero prophets without any reflection. 

Did they connect us with God, or ordered do's and don'ts that favours the god imageries they presented?

Did we search for what was worth, or stopped our search when we were given 'wonderful' offers?

If we realise we made wrong choice, why don't we dare to make the real choice, breaking our bonds with powerful pillars of the Malls, because it is not about finance, it is the worth of our life.

If these things were not appealing, let us just think that the above things are about others, not the prophets whom we might like. But let us also reflect, what is the usual emphasis our preferred prophet make?

A Malayalam version വിശ്വാസിയോ ആത്മീയ ഉപഭോക്താവോ?

Paid for Work, not for Life and Sacrifice

When we are in a in a business company or a corporate hospital, it is wise to recognise the impersonal and inhuman expectations . Prudence suggests that we do just what we are to do when it is a business system. We might develop a false humility where actually it may be a slavish submission from a situation where one feels 'no escape,' or helplessness. Business pays for our work, not for our life and sacrifice. We may be doing all good works for other people, even doing the works of others. Actually what we deny there is our own due for rest and leisure. Unless wisely we make sure of these, no system will ensure them for us. We need to do justice to ourselves too. Avoidance of it is not a sacrifice, but negligence.

As we deal with persons, a patient, colleague, or an assistant, as persons surely a human response is due.

Regathering the Church to a Newer Innocence?

Just as a person, a society and a community also face changes, and undergo changes. There is a struggle to survive, but the real struggle is how well one adapts to the change, often a rapid change. Though it is natural for us to try to maintain a system as it is, the preservation is really possible only if we are ready to adapt ourselves to a new situation. It is also essential to attend to the wear and tear with sufficient care. The fittest is not the mightiest, but the fittest is the one adapts in the best manner.

As we place ourselves into the new situation, the first thing to do at the face of a challenging change is to develop an openness with prudent evaluation, instead of a blind resistance. It is normal to struggle even in the process of adaptation, but here the resistance is productive, open to change, and learning the content of the change faced i.e. what a change actually involves.

A community that feels of itself as the mightiest might proceed to have a self-defence, resist or totally neglect the change, and get neglected in the course of time. The resistance is because we may be overconfident that we might withstand the change, or we want to tie ourselves in our comfort-zones. Sometime the comfort-zone may be formed by our views or given definitions. We might give selective attention only to such information that confirm our preferred views. We might also engage in unfruitful arguments to defend our views, because we may be identifying ourselves or the system to that preferred view, and think that the whole structure stands on this particular view. When we lack a wider vision and its value we might feel that the change is threatening the very identity of the system, society or the community. The sense of threat will find every reason to see only undesirable consequences.  As part of a blind defence we go on self-justifying as though everything is good and everyone is happy. It is self-destructive. The sense of threat may also alarm us about a loss of power, autonomy and control. 

As a body, the Church also faces changes, sociopolitical, economic and ideological changes. The cultural changes that have come in recent centuries have influenced basic structures of society, family, and communities. It does the same to the church and asks for response. A reflection needs to begin with how well we were able to understand the changes, more than moral judgements how the changes are going out of the conventional ways. It is not wise to be blind to the social and political phenomena around. They raise challenges, but not necessarily always threat, it could be a call too. Our difficulty is to allow a change from what is familiar, and so convenient.

If we want to place the church in a new situation we also need to develop an openness with prudent evaluation and prayerfulness. It is not wise to apply an eternality to the patterns of approach and structures of the church. They must undergo change, and these changes do not essentially deform the church. But, we have our definitions of our belief systems, customs, power structure etc. which are playing a role of comfort-zone. Many find comfort in being in the same, and train others to find comfort in them by identifying themselves and the church itself to those definitions and customs. If we are in this condition we might prefer to give attention only to those things which go in line with the elements we have identified to be the essence of faith as there are resistance and conflicts in the society when a change happens. Without even understanding what the change calls for, we might begin to defend our traditions, customs, and practices unfortunately at times without acknowledging that these themselves had developed as a part of change.

Wisdom must guide us to discern whether the desired change, and the modalities we use to bring this change about will result a creative reformation or demolition. Wisdom also calls for prudent ways of restructuring the church; not only because the changes in time demand it but they call the church to be true to itself. Change has to happen in our approaches and structures, but without forgetting that the building blocks are we, the persons. We can risk the system not the persons, the system is for the well-being of persons within the community. The elements above we have feared to lose are in fact means to support the system, not the ends, whether they were belief systems, customs, structures, power, authority etc. Perhaps they were wrongly identified as the end, or the system became too much dependent on the means losing the sight of real ends. Certain pattern of customs or beliefs in a particular time of history may have also been wrongly recognised as the very essence of the system. It can also happen that we might appreciate novelty and creativity without purpose. Most of these means tie us in good sensations but not letting us reach the end.

Many may be ready to invest human and monetary resources too, but only wisdom, discernment, and prayerfulness will help us to identifying faithful builders and fruitful plans, failure of which may result in the destruction of the very nature of the church. Many plans and offers may be available, modern, authentic, spiritual, traditional, relevant, appealing, …yet they cannot do the re-forming because they are within their narrow frames. But the humanity of goodness and compassion, the people of good will, regather our scattered conscience, thus a new innocence.

Does society find the church to be the symbol of punishable conscience of the society itself?

Has the church been blind and unaffected by the changes, remained in self-justification, condemning all ‘sinners’? Have those righteous claims shown itself hypocritical? Being humbled, the church may regather itself to a newer form of innocence by the help of God.

Similarly, does the society act a self-righteous role, condemning the church to be the worst sinner? The condemnation of evil is justifiable, but it hopefully touches the conscience of the society too, in dealing with evils and corruptions. Otherwise the righteous claim of the society that condemned the church will prove itself hypocritical.

Christ Walks with the New Gen: What do they search, can Jesus walk with them?

No excitement to go home? Perhaps, motels were shown to be home!

The New Gen wants to be free, celebrating, enjoying food and drinks, and dancing. At times they are left alone, without knowing what to do. Sometime they overwork, and sometime they oversleep. Their trends also involve complexities, struggles and questions. There are also many value providers, and so they live within many forms of value-conflicts. They have questions, because different contexts do make believing difficult. Therefore, they question. There are also entertainments in different forms, sports, adventure, puzzles etc. as to meet their stress patterns. They want to know how their faith can meaningfully be brought to their multi-directional life pattern. When one struggles to live amidst one’s questions and anxieties, how does faith make a difference?

Pope Francis said that one who does not ask questions cannot progress either in knowledge or in faith. Situation of being in questions and doubts is a call to deepen one’s faith through sincere enquiry.

Presence of a Walking Companion

Often what we hear are some moral demands when faced with conflicts.  Even in the midst of complexities one is not looking towards faith only for solutions, but a living presence, that accompanies. The process of acquiring faith is not aimed at a clarity of a piece of knowledge, but it is a journey to realise the presence of the constant living companion, Christ. It is a presence to be within our moments of pain or happiness, moments of active response or dead silence. We know that we are placed in a context of rapid changes and flash mob culture. God does not distance himself from this new situation. His voice, the Word is not pinned somewhere in the past, He is a walking companion, to whom we can belong to, and find at home.  It is hard to identify the voice of God amidst and within loud noise and metal music.  Yet, He does reveal within them.  Faith that we cultivate today needs to emerge in such a way that it might be able to recognise God’s response to our inward cry.

Being Loved

Where we find ourselves rejected and racing strangers, how could we recognise this voice as of love worthy of trust. Sometimes their fragmented relations develop within them an inability to trust. If we are able to realize the presence of the accompanying presence, we also will begin to trust that presence. There one may find the growing experience of being loved, and develop a courage to trust; a courage to be loved against all trust-wounds of unnamed emptiness. There we have an experience of being loved, being accepted, being forgiven, a real home where we can be confidently ourselves. Though within the complexities of life there resounds a voice of ineffable love, “here is my beloved... in whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17)

Knowing Our Home

In this process as we gradually develop a heart that has a courage to live, because it has experienced that it has been loved by an everlasting love. This experience opens before us not only the picture of our own life but the meaning of our being in the world. This response differs from a political reaction to a social issue because we are guided by the peace given to us in the affirmation of love not arrogance, and we are guided by hope not anxiety. Perhaps our efforts may be a reaction to some of our own hurts and pain in a provoking conducive occasion. It may further bring hurt rather than healing, though apparently, we worked for justice, peace, and harmony. It is that love which opens itself for justice, harmony and peace. Our stand for justice, harmony and peace would be guided by the sense of belonging the accompanying presence which makes a home to dwell in.

Faith is not a clear definition, it is the trust in a love that absorbs us, and a response to that trust in courage to meet the living situations and its cries with the same love that one has experienced. For the sake of this home experience, a responsible relationship, all other things are formed, the church systems, rites, liturgy, devotions, morals, beliefs and customs… Within themselves they are only facilitating agents.  If these becomes end in themselves, we lose what was really essential, and the above agents will become mere empty vessels, irrelevant and insignificant. That is why the New Gen continue to wander on the way. The New Gen longs to belong, wants to find a love worthy of trust, wants also to find themselves worthy of trust, wants to build a courage to love, looks for opportunities to do deeds of goodness and compassion.

Mary Treasured all (these) things…Seeing Every Moment with a Presence Worthy of Worship

Mary treasured all these things and pondered in her heart 

If Mary is to be seen full of grace from the moment of her conception according to our faith, in her there is also a new creation. In her there was fulness of grace; there was nothing that resisted to the grace of God. 

Every moment of her life also can be seen as moments of encounter with grace, moments worthy to be treasured. Mary treasured all these things and pondered in her heart. This pondering was not seeking meaning for what was happening in trying to understand them. Her pondering was nor a pious emotional submission in nothingness and unworthiness. In pondering, she found something treasurable; she found something worth and valuable. 

She found every event as something worthy of divine presence, an encounter of grace. In every moment there is a worshipful presence. If she was granted the special privilege to be full of grace that was the fist experience she found worth pondering. 

Grace works in us dynamically and progressively, we need to respond to it with openness and patience. Every moment opens the doors of grace. Can we open ourselves to make that a moment of encounter with grace to make it a treasurable presence of God? Let us make this path worthy of worship. Some important treasurable experience we need to encounter come to light here. We may not find in us the fullness of grace and total openness to the Holy Spirit. It is a grace experience to be conscious of the fact that “I am found by God.” It takes us into further affirmations as, “I am found something worth, I am accepted, I am loved, …” These are worthy of being valued, because I am treasured and found valuable without any condition. This is what gradually heals our person, and builds a character that would be mature enough to say ‘yes’ to God when asked for a specific commitment. 

A mere meditative attempt may not form this character, because it is interactive encounters that form our character. Shall we not begin with our own treasures, the very human experiences?  Experiencing such moments open the doors of divine graces too. They are moments of trust, love, acceptance, welcome, sacrifice and pain. The need to offer such human experiences also cannot be neglected. They are the grace channels we are immediately in touch with. Treasure is here! They are the moments we find a worshipful presence of God. They are indeed there.

It is then, that we are able to give an open eye to the wonderful presence of God in every moment, to cherish and treasure those moments with a presence worthy of worship, and to place our trust in God in varied situations and responsibilities. Is that not what we mean by 'giving first place for God', or 'loving God above all things'?

Religion has a market value, not the Gospel

Market churns the world.

There, "to bring good news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set the downtrodden free" are not of any market value.

So to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour for the poorly spirited would face the resistance of the global market.

Love has not dried, justice has not died, freedom and truth are not evaporated from human longing.
But they are choked within the forces of money and power.

Anything 'spiritual' is not spiritual, the words have economic and political intent within. Who knows we already belong to a parallel church in our adherence to certain views and spiritual trends? Many seem sharing such views due to their camouflaged form of orthodoxy to faith, and fidelity to catholic traditions. What underlie are capitalist business interests.
Such interests may promote a religious culture, because they need political power for better market. Unknowingly we often mistake this religious culture to be our fidelity to faith.

What we need is faith,
to hear the voice of the call within, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me to bring good news to the poorly spirited.

Devotions: Well springs or/and Broken Jars

By the term ‘devotions’ we commonly understand those external practices of piety by which our faith finds life and expression. We have pilgrimages, novenas, processions and celebrations in honour of Mary and other saints, the Rosary, the Angelus, the Stations of the Cross, the veneration of relics, and the use of sacramentals. In many ways devotions give an opportunity to give praise and worship to God. They are occasions where we find joy (so we praise), and peace (so we worship) in the experience of the presence of God. We have used a variety of practices as means of flavouring everyday life with prayer to God.  

Blending of Our Life and the Life of Jesus
By the practice of devotions, we aim at a deeper nearness of God in our everyday lives, and all the more conform us closely to Christ so that we can contemplate the mysteries of human and divine natures of Christ in our own life situations. Through the pious activities we involve our human realities after the living presence of Jesus, mostly through the models and examples of the saints and imitating their virtues etc. These involve also an invitation to follow the example of pious persons who are venerated in a particular occasion.

To enjoy the fruitfulness of any devotional practice, primarily they are to make us aware of the relationship that the Gospels suggest, a belongingness to God as Children. In this sense, we are yet to discover the heart of various devotions in the light of Scripture, in harmony with the Liturgy, and in the context of our daily lives. According to nature and modality of devotions, they can provide a deep experience of the attributes of God: fatherhood, providence, loving and constant presence. In response to them we experience childhood, gratitude, belongingness, commitment and reverence. They generate within us interior attitudes such as patience, meaning of the Cross in daily life, detachment, openness to others, . . .. So, when it is well oriented, devotions help us to touch the reality of the living presence of God in Christ. Having said these, we need to look into the fact whether they are mere practices that are expected to produce effects, or they help us to grow a relationship with God who can provide what we need, may be through the instrumentality of the very things we do or use. In all these, devotions ask for a wholehearted trust in God without which they become an empty ritual, and so even have the potential to become idols. 

Distortion of Devotions

We can notice that there is a strong appeal which they make to emotional instincts. Devotions are in simple form of practice so that they are within the reach of all. They also bring people together both in devout practices and in common good works. These make devotions meaningful and sensible means of living presence of Christ. Unfortunately, the purpose of devotions can be easily distorted according to petty likes and fancies, and is often subject to superstitions. It is a subtle difference between devotion and superstition. The whole matter is whether we receive a sense of trust growing in us, find confidence in God, feel a growing courage to live our life. In contrast if we see the orientation of pious practices is for favours, and focus is on the 'miraculous objects, prayers, and practices' it potentially become superstitions. Because there is a fear element hiding, and we trust on these rather than God though we are calling out God in all these. Often the emphasis on the necessity of specific devotions and practices are at the manipulation of human emotions of fear, insecurity, uncertainty and so on. It may be serving benefits, but at the close examination it might be emotional fulfilment. It can even lead to creation of sects, and endanger the true ecclesial community.

Many sets of prayers seem to create a sense of insecurity and fear rather than confidence and trust in God. Though prayer is made for protection and deliverance in the name of Christ, people are often filled with more of suspicion and doubt that they are facing devils all around.  Sometime the honoring of the saints, use of the verses of the Scripture etc turn out to be in an expectation of magical effect. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that "Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition" (CCC 2111).Without the faith dimension no devotion receives a Christian nature. The favors received is not because of the power of the statues or a medal, but because in what they signify, they connect us with relationship with God. We should be able to make a distinction between the cult of the saints and the devotion of saints in relation to faith in Christ. The cults find their ends in themselves.

In general, acts and beliefs that people practice as to manipulate the divine power for specific gainful purposes are always condemned as contrary to Catholic devotional practices. Various unapproved acts such as the promotion of chain letters that contain prayers have been discouraged as non-pious, superstitious and against Catholic values. There is nothing wrong if we share a beautiful prayer, or a reminder of a feast day, or a request for prayers for a specific need. But a message or a picture that that asks us to say it for a number of times, send to a number of people, is not from God. Or, there may be 'prayer initiatives,' "we have started a prayer campaign to reach to ... number of people." When we yield to such 'spiritual' message with a supernatural overtone, we have actually reduced the truth of that prayer, or saint, or ever the Blessed Mother, and falsely represented what and how of true faith. There is actually no basis for such practice other than preference or personal liking of some.  Even devotions worthy of high value, like rosary and adoration, loses its value and take a binding nature when they are given a chain form (chain rosaries, chain adorations …). What is really important is that we pray sincerely, not the number, specific time, or the unbrokenness etc. If it is on the Lord's saying, ‘pray unceasingly’ it says about perseverance in prayer, not about unbrokenness in relation to time. Perseverance also involves our surrender, petition, patient waiting, and gratitude. What counts is our attitude of sincerity and humility, intensity and earnestness.

Idols that We Form

Dependent on the distorted devotions we also have distorted image of God. God is treated as a Chocolate baby when we think that God is happy when we do lot of things for him, prayer-doings, sacrifice-doings, … just as a child is happy when it is given chocolate and when someone entertains it. God may be approached as a Bank. As we invest more God will reward with blessings. We must increase the number of prayers, kinds of works…, otherwise God will not bless. It gives an image of a God whom we can condition, or one who pays for the work one has done. Similarly, God may be seen as paying our salaries for the works we have done. We also see God as a problem solver. We approach God when there is a problem. The novena, other practices are done for the sake of solving problems. God is loving compassionate, and affectionate like a mother. But at times, when we feel God becomes very lenient if we take up extra pain and suffering, we develop an attitude as a child who takes advantage of a sympathetic mother who runs close to the child when it is hurt. All the worse if we feel that God is happy when we take up pain in his name. We need to rethink about the attitude behind our sacrifices. Sacrifices demanded and interpreted to be for the glory of God are at times for someone's whims and fancies; for number and achievements. It becomes a matter of injustice when spiritual leaders exploit people’s faith making them dependent in the name of sacrifice and commitment for the Lord, but actually getting their own works done.

Destroy the Petty Idols

We do have strong emotional appeal in devotions: invocation for God’s help in the time of need, even a moment of crisis, we might place our complaints, we feel protection and security and hope that our prayers may be granted. They are genuine, and part of a true prayer. But in doing all these, they must be based on a form of trust because we recollect the promise of God, “I am with you.” Use of devotions devoid of this trust and awareness of this promise can turn out to be an opium, a self-consolation onto which we gradually become dependent (it may be true in cases when some become dependent on retreats and some retreat centres). The very forms of devotions, when used for mere satisfaction of needs, perhaps are made mere idols. However pious and deep sensational they are, no devotion, no spirituality promotes a proper attitude if they do not keep up the freedom of the children of God.

.............................................................

For a Malayalam version of it please see ഭക്തിയും, വഴിയറിയാത്ത വിളക്കും

N.B. if you could check how 'pyramid schemes' and 'chain letters' function, you could see the parallel models in some suggested spiritual practices.

Holiness: An Outcome of a Lived Trust in God

If we eat good food, enjoying at-homeness, there is a special taste, and we grow healthy. Holiness is something like that. It is the wellbeing, the shining sign that testifies the life quality. Holiness is not a ‘condition’ in order to receive graces from God. It is an outcome of a lived trust in God. 

Parents feed their children, and children happily eat what is given. ‘What is given’ is not doubted on, there is freedom because there is a sense of belonging. There is a calmness if we can feel at home, until then we are restless. Peace is the seed ground for holiness. Peace itself is an outcome of an attitude of trust and gratitude. Striving for holiness necessitates our ability to trust.

Developing trust needs an effort because it is not easy to trust. Many ways this trust deficit is present in us, and so we often miss the experience of at-homeness with ourselves, and God. Signs of our lack of at-homeness may be the unresolved feelings of hurt, sorrow, insecurity, lack of affirmation etc. They remain as obstacles to the development of trust, and so also to the growth in holiness. To mention them as ‘unresolved’ is important when we find them really obstacles. If we have grown in confidence and trust, that itself is a reason that we open our ways to resolve the injuries, fears, sorrows, loneliness etc. We need to meet them and communicate to them gracefully.

Being able to trust is what we are reflecting on, even without knowing in whom or what to trust. We might need a genuine introspection. Without this learning, the taste of trust, we cannot trust God too. Our believing, ‘trusting’ in God and so on could be at times merely an emotional dependency because of which our praying and doing good remain only ‘doings’. A religious person who prays a lot or a dynamic person who does a lot does not necessarily experience holiness. 

How much have we entered peacefulness in our prayers and actions beyond of a satisfaction of being quiet for sometime or of having done a duty? Beyond morals and devotional practices we need a deeper emphasis on a learning to trust, and to develop responsible relationship. Primarily it involves our very person not a spirituality. Fascinating illusory presentations of spirituality has rather damaged our paths to holiness. They may have offered a festal celebration, mesmerising dramatic skills, but have rarely given any formative guidance to live a human life after the example of Christ. 

Instead, trust affirms a presence, a presence consoling, healing and strengthening. Then it gradually grows. As the roots go deeper, our sense of belonging also get deeper and find worth of our life, faith and of being with God. It is healthy and fruitful, and the joy shines out. Holiness is that life quality, not a condition.

Going for Retreat? Home is the Best Place

The Crucified continues to speak:

"Here is your mother, here is your father."

We have known them for years, but it is good to watch them lovingly (may be their character is folly and body has ailments), and say at our heart tenderly, "this is my father, this is my mother." We might regain the whole purpose of life and meaning of existence from this experience. It is a sense that we are worthy of an existence.

There, not only that we accept them,but we are also made aware that we are children. At times we tend to be rulers and victors. Awareness of being children will put us in right place. It will also help us to be better members of a community or church. Realising oneself as one among the children we will have better priesthood also. We must go, not to retreat centres for renewal, but it is to our own homes. There we might learn to be children once again. Stop glorifying and romanticising priesthood as kingship. Priesthood is only one of the seven sacraments, and it is only one of the ministries in the church. 

Formation to be a leader is important but the sense of being member of a family or community is essential.

Walk to the crucified, there is a family 

Walk to Bethlehem, there is a family.

Attention and reflection is what is required. Making an effort to identify the accompanying presence of God within the places of our daily living will be a liveable experience along with the grace of God. it is there we struggle, we celebrate, we are tempted, and we long for a presence. Home makes us revisit our life with memories of events.
Retreat is not recharging or refuelling, it is really to put ourselves face to face with our self, where we could see the face of Christ.It is a reciprocal revelation. As we see more and more clearly about our own life, we also will see the presence of Christ accompanying us. Similarly as we face Christ, we also will realise the mysteries of our own lives.

How Personal is Personal Prayer?

We must pray, for ourselves and for others. We must pray together, if possible being physically together. If it is not possible? The early church prayed in one heart and mind. It is obvious they were together also, but the first part is more important and that is the most important factor of prayer - raising our heart and mind to God. We need to be enabled to find a prayer-filled life. This is possible only if we can realise that we can pray anywhere. When you are working with your computer or being engaged in any other profession, feel the presence of God there being with you, and there you raise a sincere concern before God, something that concerns you, your boss, world, church ... Or if a day is dedicated for prayer, then keep the whole day keeping the specific intention, specially remembering whenever you get a break. More than time and place, but what really matters is our attitude of sincerity and humility, intensity and earnestness.

Many suggest an ideal prayer life, but paradoxically they themselves live their own helplessness which is also some form of hypocrisy. Instead, can we not initiate new paradigm for ourselves and others whom we guide, a possible way by which we can meaningfully and prayerfully fill our life, job and other struggles. Rather, when we look for ideals and when not possible, we fill ourselves with guilt and disappointment. We might say that many achieve the ideal! Well, if they are able to do it joyfully and freely that is really a blessing. But we know that many ‘ordinary’ people do struggle. We must know that what is possible in a retreat centre or in a monastery is not possible when we think of working people or the life of youth. If you can work on this you can also improve on a quality personal prayer-life.

Very often personal prayer is limited to a set of ‘doings,’ – “I read the Bible, said the rosary, and ‘did’ praise and worship…just as he/she taught me.” Personal prayer is really ‘personal’, whereas the liturgy is the prayer being within a community. A period of time spent without involving our person cannot be a personal prayer. The areas of our personal involvement must be the content of our personal prayer, our struggles, celebrations, relations, commitments, profession, pain, … We are carrying all these while we drive, while we work, and while we worship in community, but can we find the presence of Christ joining us in all these? If yes, that makes the personal prayer. Are they ‘personal,’ and can that be prayer? Surely yes, if we can raise our heart and mind to God. As filled with gratitude and joy, we praise; and as we are filled with peace, we worship.What we need in our heart is trust, awareness of a caring presence of God. If we could experience this trust, we can really feel the genuineness of prayer. When we are fully exhausted, burning with anger, or totally depressed, the most sincere prayer we can make is to tell God that we are exhausted, we are angry and frustrated, and we are depressed. If we don't feel to pray, the trust will enable us to tell God that we are not feeling to pray. We have chased the sacred from our living fields and our real feelings, can we find for ourselves and show others a path for bringing the sacred back to the places where we live and labour. It needs a docile spirit. Worship in the temple is easy but bringing God to our fields is rather difficult.

Here in the field,
God continued to work
The wind blew, the flower danced, and the birds came
The Sun smiled….
“Where is the man of the field?” They asked.
God said: “He has gone to the temple to worship.”

Is the End near? Understanding 'End of the World' Sayings within its Background and Purpose

Is the End near?

The answer would be conditional, because it will depend on the preparedness to recognise/ realise the Word in us and in the whole of creation.

If the world was created through the Word, and moves in the Word, it also will come to its actualisation in the Word, and through the Word. We cannot be sure that the catastrophes we see are signs of this completion. They are calamities in relation to human experience. Similar and more powerful ‘catastrophic’ events happen every moment as natural processes in the universe. These cosmic events are the shaping moments in the wisdom of the design of the Word through which even the life forms have emerged. These processes make the diversity of things each fulfilling the Word in their own way. Perhaps all creation together may recognise the presence of the Word within.

Does this realisation necessitate the cessation of creation? I do not feel so.

(Logos_Word_Christ)

Today, many are concerned about the end days. 

If it is in the next hour, let it be. 

But we must know that it is not just these days people have spoken about the end days. Whenever there is a time of crisis people tend to identify it to be sign of the end times, and use apocalyptic language to give some meaning to the phenomena which are difficult to explain. Apocalyptic prophesies have a history, and they have influenced history politically more than spiritually. Better to have a cultural and social analysis of these than a spiritual one.

These following works may be of help to understand some of them: 

Paula Clifford, A Brief History of End Time: Prophecy and Apocalypse, Then and Now

Arthur H. Williamson, Apocalypse Then: Prophecy and the Making of the Modern World
Martha Himmelfarb The Apocalypse: A Brief History 

It would be interesting to consider this too: Michel de Nostredame was an astrologer and writer of Renaissance Europe. But Nostradamus as we know today is a creature of the modern West and today's interpreters of his writings. He was a healer of souls of his time, and he used the language of a prophet, as some reviewers of his writings like to put it.

__________

If we take the Hindu thought on Pralaya, it is not just a tragic flood, it is the well dissolving process where everything comes to rest after the rta is broken. It could also be a well dissolving into the true purpose of the Word.

A Malayalam version of this note is available at അന്ത്യങ്ങൾക്ക് ഒരു അന്തമുണ്ടാവുമോ?

Christian (identity, heroism, or living)?

It is of no doubt that we face in our generation a deep identity crisis. There is a search for an identity mark to which we can attach ourselves. Perhaps it is because we are not able to find a self within ourselves; it is shattered, fragmented, socially imprinted or branded.

Attaching ourselves with an ideology, culture or religion we might look for an identity. Making sure that these structures are well protected becomes very important, because it provides us something of what we are. Is that totally wrong? May not be completely! It can help if we are able to find the essence above the structures and modalities. If the latter is the focus, all our aim will be for preserving them which must be mere means, not the end. Replacing of means with the end actually forms extreme views in us because it demands a protective mode.

We can observe the extreme tendencies in different faith traditions as polarised activism, all believing that they offer worship to God. They can be seen as distorted responses to postmodern crisis, which offers a sense of identity, belonging and purpose.

Another form of extremism is withdrawal. We have the beautiful word ‘asceticism’ in whose pretext we can escape from the challenges of the world. This modern trend should not be mistaken by making parallel with monastic asceticism of medieval time. What we need to look into is whether these attitudes really become a sign, a living inspiration to the wounded world, even if they are able to make impressions and promote pious sensation among the likeminded. Being present to the world amidst struggles, with all humility and courage, we must be ready to tell the world that we don’t have all answers to the problems of the world, but placing our hope we join Christ in searching for them.

We can move away and counter everything in the world which we term evil trends. In every trend there sobs a quest. The Bible shows many conscientious heroes who kept their purity, detaching themselves from gentile company and food. We may be identified as person of fire/ spirit but the actions done serve only our desire for work fulfilment. Overenthusiasm and emotionalism need to be faced with prudence and selfcontrol, otherwise they might bring damage than growth.

Jesus did not become a hero in any of the above mode. He was gentle and humble of heart. He asked us to live our life in the freedom of the children of God. He gave us the spirit. Being patient with ourselves and our dreams, gradually spirit works within, and we find ourselves healed and strengthened.

As social beings we do belong to forms and structures of society, and so also of religion. But they are to point towards human fulfilment. These glorious structures and modalities of religion, institutions and movements may be wrongly attached as identity marks which creates in us a conscientious hero. We must humbly allow new forms to emerge, rejoice at the sight of the Lord in the new blooms.

Do we make attempts to personalise the attitudes of Jesus, and patiently go through a process of Christification? Or do we simply attach ourselves to a religious structure? We may be more concerned about how purely we are Catholic, how authentically we are eastern or western, how strict we are in our pious observations, or how meticulously we seek to find a proud relation to the Bible in making use of Hebrew names and titles. What is our focus? Our emphasis shows where we are rooted. Immediately we must warn ourselves if we find that we offer worship to our identity marks, not to God. Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking [it is not extreme forms of piety and emotionalism, it is not well conducted number of events, it is not becoming isolated special ‘pure’ Christian, it is not idolatrous reverence to the Bible], but it is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

When Cult Begins to Stagnate, and Prophets become Rebels

A witnessing Christian life is an integral sum of pious, prophetic, and mystical dimensions of Christ encounter.  This was the very thing that differentiated Christianity from the cultic dominance of jewish practices. Some recent spiritual practices have constrained people to the cultic dimension alone. All the more it is disastrous when new tendencies limit priesthood to this cultic function. The Christian tradition follows the priesthood of Christ, not that of Aaron. Cults can have the forms of ritualism or of exercise of authority, both of which have manipulative power. Christ asks us to be a community of witnesses, whether priests or laity according to our call, making up his body. A romanticised view of priesthood and church as something external to common faithful is actually damaging our vision of the church.

We cannot be totally mystical, we need touch with the sacred in the real world in human expressions, and need to respond to the call of the time. Cult might dangerously resist this response to time, and pathetically begin to stagnate. We cannot have the holy, holy, holy experience in incense, altars, vestments… without a mystic orientation towards the Holy, and without being mindful of the human cry expressed in different social trends. Without the other two, prophetism may end up as rebelliousness or intolerance.
It may be appropriate to reflect on our reactions to various issues on the following lines: we are challenged and troubled by many things, nut are we ready and open to experience the consolation of the Holy Spirit? Are we ready to be placed on the Cross of Christ? In our responses do we think with the Church? It is important because we are standing for a life-giving community of humanity whereas the struggle for the success of mere ideologies find their ends in themselves.