From Silent Suffering to Self-Compassion

Often the pain of neglect or rejection breaks our hearts. The care we receive may not be meeting our need and desire for an intimate bond. It may be familial, professional or social. Should we just suffer the pain of avoidance, and rejection or face it? To treat this pain, perhaps we cant expect others to change and care for us, or to ensure affection and warmth. We must first affirm our own inherent value and move from silent suffering into self-care and self-compassion. Let us begin with naming what we really go through instead of bearing an unnamed burden. Maybe we need to converse with them whether our feelings are reasonable and worthy of acknowledgment.

To root our worth deeply, let us give the care we long for. Welcome, accept, and find the worth. Let us be compassionate to ourselves, and take courage to speak out without placing blame on those who hurt. Tell “I feel hurt when ... rather than pointing to other person's failure like “You never care ...” Don’t expect that they will begin to care for us. We have found a new strength. Ultimately, let us immerse our efforts of self-nurturing in Divine Care, where we are perfectly and unconditionally cared for. In our body, in our burdens, failings the divine life finds a dwelling place. Divine care is uniquely offered through our own self-nurturing before it comes through any human relationship. Grace grants us the capacity to believe we are the Beloved, even when human relations often disappoint. We transform the wound of neglect and rejection into the holy meeting place of self-compassion and limitless divine love, receiving a permanent source of consolation and comfort.

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🎬 दुःखों में, हर क्षण, सहारा तेरा।

Rest: The Tender Touch of Life

‘Rest in peace’ is not a farewell, but an invitation. Being within the harshness of daily burdens or facing the cold responses from friendships or relationships, tenderness, gentleness, compassion, and personal care may be often absent. How deeply are we exhausted, burdened or stressed? Rest that Jesus offers is a tender touch that acknowledges and values our weariness and fears. Grace is the divine capacity to lift what we cannot carry. The burden remains a part of the human experience, but grace lightens the crushing aspect of the stress. It can settle our restlessness and grant peace. It does not mean that we can simply watch things happening, the touch of grace makes our efforts sustainable, not the excuse for committed labour. So, rest truly comes in peace, after fruitful labour, a fruitful life. At the end of the day, listen ‘rest in peace,’ and at the end of life, listen ‘rest in peace.’

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Living Church

Is the Church just an institution? No. Its true nature is Motherhood, defined by tenderness and healing. As the Body of Christ, the Church holds both the divine life of the Holy Spirit and our human burdens – our sweat, our pain, our tears. We don't receive grace just for ourselves. We rely on radical interdependence, nourishing one another to build the community. The Church must be a home and a womb where everyone can be reborn in Christ. Not just by her title, but by her nature and inherent attitude, the Church must be welcoming, caring, and healing. Only through this tenderness can the Church truly be called a Mother.

Just like Christ, the Church, as the Body of Christ, possesses both human and divine dimensions. The Holy Spirit fills the Church with divine life, meaning we live by grace. Yet, we live bearing our burdens, pains, and emptiness; we sweat and weep. We, together, make up the Church, and the holiness of this Body shines brightly in our honest living and radical interdependence. Crucially, the graces we receive are not meant for ourselves alone; they run throughout the Body, nourishing and completing one another, thereby building up the community. Whether as a teacher, a scientist, a watchman, a preacher or a priest, we participate equally in the holiness of God, sustained by mutual grace.

Taking Mother Mary as the type of the Church, the entire Body, including all its members, cooperates with the will of God through this active interdependence. In doing so, we continue the life of Christ, being his own Body. That Body is the temple where God dwells; there we worship and adore God. It is Christ who is the sole truth of the Church. Consequently, the Church’s vital life and unity are threatened by any single person, devotion, or ideology that claims to be the only way. Such exclusive tendencies, by fragmenting the Body, deprive the Church of its fundamental capacity to be a Mother. The Church exists as a home and a womb where everyone can find a place and everyone can be reborn in Christ. If the Church is to embody this maternal nature, each member must strive to personalize and live out these welcoming and self-giving attitudes in their own lives.

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Grief: A holy sorrow opening to grace

Grief is not a failure or a sign of weakness; it is the most natural and necessary response to loss. When we experience the death of a loved one or endure the breaking of an intimate relationship, our pain is truly an echo of our love. Far from being mere gloom or sadness, this sorrow becomes a holy sorrow when strengthened by Christian hope. This hope is far more than simple optimism or wishful thinking; it is an openness to grace – a divine power to move us from the emptiness of loss toward the fullness of the life we are still called to live.

If unchecked, however, grief can become destructive, leading to an attachment to the pain that chains us to the past. Even if the loss stems from a painful opportunity missed, a personal mistake, or a wrong choice, the ultimate focus must remain the life expected, not what was lost. Let us take courage to acknowledge the loss and, with what is gone, undergo a graceful death in the spirit, so that we may be truly free to enter into a greater measure of life.

Readiness to die: Receive a newer life

Life goes through beautiful moments of surrender, moments of offering. In fact, they are moments that we find that our life had flowered and borne fruits. There had to be a sacrificial death we had to undergo for this. Willingness to die brings the newer form of life which we may not have even imagined. Death is not just the last moment of our life, it is the ultimate moment of surrender, placing our life, past, present, and future, entirely into God’s mercy. Jesus died. One who has died once cannot die again. Readiness to die is a power we gain. In serving, helping, forgiving, in letting go of things, in accepting a painful moment, there is a graceful death, a beautiful surrender, a self-offering that gives us a newer life.

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Enter heaven now

Hell is “the ultimate consequence of sin itself … rather than a place, hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy,” stated Pope John Paul II in his General Audience on July 28, 1999. Is it a state that we enter into only after death? At every life choice we have a choice for or against grace, for or against Christ. If we have begun our life of grace there is already heaven that we have entered into - the life, the presence of God. Perhaps there is state of hell too in us (that separated state) since we have not been completely filled by grace. Since two possibilities are there to keep away from grace, deliberately and due to inability, it necessitates a community dimension of the reception of grace. Others facilitate one to be open for grace. One who denies grace cuts oneself off from the total reality, and that is only emptiness. Because, together we have the fullness of life. We speak of eternal death and eternal darkness, similarly we can imagine of the possibility of nothingness and emptiness. By denial of grace we chose for this emptiness. If hell as a place is not there, is it leading to a lawlessness? Not at all! It further adds extra responsibility to build a filial relationship with God irrespective of the fear of punishment. That will check how important and valuable God/Christ is in our lives.

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Return to the earth: Not a curse, a call

Return to the earth is not about perishability, but as transformation and a new possibility—simply a re-entry into the cycle of life’s renewal. This natural process shows also a soul-forming process in us here; it fundamentally rejects the view that the world is full of evil. The Earthly life, with its struggles, choices, and relationships, is the necessary environment for our growth into the image of Christ. Our moral choices, love, pain, and mercy are the crucible and the clay that actively shape our eternal character. Every bit of the world, its history, structures, and choices have shaped our souls. Some are created, some are brutally destroyed. Those whom we intend to desroy are essential for the completion of our own souls. The earth has yielded its fruit; in us, we are born of the earth and we return to it. Therefore, we must see in us the flowering of the earth which God has beautifully arranged. It is not a place Satan fills with lures and temptations. The earth and our own body are the sacrament of God’s love. To reject or devalue the Earthly life as a halt in a strange world is to devalue the very environment God chose for our formation. The overemphasis on the perishability of earthly life is something that tragically undervalues God’s creation and the profound work accomplished here. Therefore, let us approach our temporal lives not with hatred, but with reverence, recognizing in every struggle and joy the ongoing, sacred work of the creator.

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In exile? Live the freedom

In many ways, our faith has carried a sense of sadness; the feeling that this world is a spiritual prison, a "valley of tears," and that we are merely "exiles" counting the days until we finally escape to our true home. Christ has given a new vision to see the world, not as a broken place we must flee, but as the very place where we find the Father's home. The peace, the provision, the welcome, and the safety of Heaven are not purely future promises; they are the present spiritual reality available to us here and now. This means practicing the awareness that God is not up there in a distant, unreachable heaven, but here, in the quiet of our kitchen, the chaos of our workday, and the silence of our prayer. If we spend our entire lives feeling exiled and miserable, longing for death to simply rescue us from a painful existence, then we misunderstand the gift of Christ. Death cannot be seen as a liberation from earthly life, because our life is already meant to be lived in the freedom of the Father's home. Death does not free us into a perfect world. We must learn to live the freedom of the father’s home which may grow and sprout even after death.

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🎬यह जग कारागार नहीं!

Contemplation in Service

Martin de Porres, a Dominican lay brother, spent his days in the infirmary, caring for the sick, and feeding the poor. He was known for his charity, mercy, and service, extending his love even to animals and nature. Cats and rats ate together in his presence. Martin contemplated the Truth not as a concept, not as an ideal, but as an encounter.

When Martin knelt to clean a wound, he was not just performing a medical act; he was meeting Christ in the suffering face of the poor. Through compassion he saw in his heart the divine Truth being revealed. When he forgave those who insulted him or served those society had condemned, Martin showed that Truth is not about strict judgment, but about boundless acceptance. His humble and tireless work was his deepest form of study and contemplation.

We often associate Truth with high ideals and complex systems of thought. We may be happy with books and websites. If you want to see the true face of Christ, the Veritas, look into the face of your struggling neighbor, extend your hands in service, show mercy, and bring peace. You will find the face of Christ being revealed in and through you.

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Mater Populi Fidelis

The title ‘Mater Populi Fidelis’ (Mother of the faithful People of God) is essential for clearly defining Mary’s role within the Church. It is also essential for addressing concerns that other Marian titles might distort the reality of Christ as the unique Redeemer and Mediator. The word ‘faithful’ (Fidelis) signifies loyalty and belief, immediately placing Mary in the order of grace as the first and most perfect exemplar of this virtue. Mary’s entire mission – from the Annunciation to the foot of the Cross – is defined by her free, continuous ‘Yes’ to God’s will; she models the perfect, responsive human participation in the divine plan. Consequently, the Church views her as the one who not only birthed Christ but also remained a worthy vessel of grace for all humanity, making her the mother of all believers who live by this foundational grace. This places Mary firmly within the Mystical Body of Christ and ensures that her unique motherhood extends to all members who share in the grace of Christ.

Mary’s relationship with the faithful is by grace, not through her independent power. None of the effects of devotion to her has a mechanical function. Mary helps us with maternal assistance and intercession flowing entirely from the grace of God and the unique role she received as the Mother of Christ. The title ‘Co-redemptrix,’ despite its historical use, tragically obscures the unique origin of Redemption because it is exaggerated as though Mary’s work is necessary to complete Christ’s perfect sacrifice. Since Christ’s redemptive work was perfect and needs no addition, embracing such language shifts Mary from a receptive position to one potentially parallel to Christ, undermining the truth that ‘everything comes from Him.’ Mary’s unique and indispensable cooperation in the work of salvation is entirely dependent upon and derived from Christ. She does not possess an independent power to offer grace.

Her essential contribution lies in her freely given assent (the Fiat at the Annunciation) and her profound spiritual solidarity. In these moments, she united her human will and suffering to the singular, salvific act of Christ. This is best understood as cooperation in the reception and application of the fruits of redemption, not as an independent cause. Christ and Mary do not equally merit or accomplish salvation for humanity; Christ alone is the Redeemer. Mary's participation is subordinate and derivative; her role does not in any way necessitate, complete, or perfect Christ’s own sacrifice, which was fully sufficient in itself.

Similarly, the term ‘Mediatrix’ is found problematic because, strictly speaking, no mediation in grace exists apart from Christ. Mary’s function is best explained by terms like ‘cooperation,’ ‘maternal assistance,’ and ‘manifold intercession.’ While the term ‘Mediatrix’ may be used in a clearly subordinate and participatory manner – meaning her help is secondary to Christ’s, and she is simply sharing in His single work, acting as a channel or helper – if not carefully defined, it can suggest that Mary replaces or diminishes Christ’s unique mediation. After her model, irrespective of nationality, language or faith, anyone who cooperates with grace, lives in goodwill and peace, lives the faithfulness of the people of God.

Therefore, devotion to her is a spiritual act that operates through faith and prayer, not through a magical or automatic dispensing of favours independent of Christ, the sole source of all grace. The significance and necessity of the document stem directly from the global reality that the tendency to push Mary’s powers or position toward deification is a pervasive theological and spiritual distortion. This happens when piety moves from seeking Mary as a refuge and source of tenderness to treating her as a power source independent of or equal to Christ. For example, in some Marian shrines and popular movements, we see the anthropological distortion where salvation is presented as a transaction secured primarily through specific Marian rituals, sidelining the essential role of personal commitment to Christ’s teachings. There is also the Christological distortion, where miracle claims associated with Marian statues or certain prayers become the central focus of faith, effectively draining true Christian belief and turning it into a cult that obscures the centrality of the Incarnate Son. Furthermore, the ecclesiological distortion occurs when devotion to Mary becomes the primary marker of Catholic identity, overriding the unity and sacramental life of the wider Church. All these cases, there may be Eucharistic celebration and adoration, preaching on Jesus and claim that they have not distorted. When certain titles, practices are misinterpreted or pushed to a dogmatic or devotional extreme, they do create severe imbalances. Therefore, the goal of ‘Mater Populi Fidelis’ is not to limit Marian devotion, but to sustain and accompany the love of Mary by grounding it firmly in Scripture, Tradition, and the central mystery of Christ. This approach ensures that Mary’s honour remains true to her unique but receptive role of an outstanding faithful.

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Unconditional belonging, grace and freedom

We are truly the children of God. That is what Jesus taught us. Being one in Christ the Son, we are all children of God. Moved by the Spirit we are all the children of God. The same spirit of being the children of God makes us cry out ‘Abba father.’ It is in the home of the Father the children grow, find their being, welcomed, strengthened when they are weak, healed when they are injured, and found when they are lost. This is the core of Christian life, it had to be the essence of our life. Yet, for some reasons, through history, we were fascinated by sin and guilt, and the entire faith was often framed within a legalistic focus on transgression. This focus tragically obscured the profound, unconditional welcome found in the Father’s home. Perhaps there is a background of the retributive theology of the Old Testament which supports a ransom theology.  If the sin is necessary to explain salvation, perhaps we have understood salvation wrongly. Children-freedom-grace model would have given a much better face to Christianity than the sin-salvation model. Freedom of the children of God is something we need to meditate deeply and grow. It is not something that we need to merely experience but also to ensure where it is not found.

Prayer vs Court Process

The parable of the unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8) is one of Jesus’ most insightful teachings on how we understand our relationship with God and how easily that image can be distorted. The widow, with her unwavering insistence, is often our model, and the unjust judge, by analogy, becomes a reluctant God who needs to be persuaded. So, often, we hear this parable interpreted simply as a call to persistent prayer: “Keep asking, keep knocking, eventually God will give in!”

While perseverance in prayer is, without doubt, a virtue, Jesus’ intention in this parable goes deeper. He isn't saying, "God is like this unjust judge, so we must keep on asking Him." He is saying, "If even an unjust judge, who cares nothing for God or humanity, will eventually respond to persistent pleading, how much more will your loving Heavenly Father, who yearns for your well-being, listen and act on your behalf!" The warning here is vital: God should never be pictured like this judge.

The Pharisaic system, for all its devotion, often maintained an image of God as a distant, legalistic judge, meticulously weighing merits and demerits, demanding endless rituals and perfect adherence to an complex system of law. Prayer, in such a system, could become less about heartfelt communion and more about proving one's worthiness, a transaction to earn favour. This placed a huge spiritual burden on people, leading to anxiety, guilt, and a constant fear of not being "good enough."

Jesus showed us a home and introduced us to have conversations in that home. God has made a home with us. Prayer is a conversation in that home. Other than in a homely atmosphere, where can we find true justice? The parable clearly shows the need for perseverance in prayer. Jesus assures us that God, unlike the unjust judge, will “grant justice to his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night.” More than what we say or what we practice, true prayer is an attitude and a growth. In one way or another, prayer is an openness to the righteousness of God. When we seek God’s action, asking for personal favours or spiritual growth, it is all about calling for the establishment of God’s righteous order in a world often marked by emptiness. The prayer Jesus taught us is all about the just and righteous rule of God. “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” is not only a request, it is also an openness for God’s will in our life. This is the ultimate request for a just, equitable, and truthful reality. Similarly, “Give us this day our daily bread,” desires economic and social justice and also shows willingness to work for that justice. “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,” looks for restoring peace and reconciliation, also the readiness to forgive and be reconciled.

Seeking God’s will in prayer leads us through a growth in truth, justice, and trust as an essential environment for genuine communion. Prayer is not just our pleas or performances of rituals, it is also our genuine actions of kindness and of standing for justice where there is injustice.  Prayer acknowledges one’s situation, needs, failings, and genuine intentions without any pretence. It is also a freedom from seeking any hiding places in the name of piety, religiosity, or social activism. Prayer challenges us to come face-to-face with ourselves. As the truth of our life is before us, what gives us confidence in prayer is our trust that God is just and will respond to our sincere appeals according to His perfect will. So, the prayer is not just a personal request, but aligning our will with God’s righteousness. Prayer is never a religious activity, but a life style.

How often in different ways we hear, that the best way to approach God is to beg harder, plead and suffer helplessness? The widow's insistence models the unshakeable faith that God will indeed "grant justice to his chosen ones." It teaches us to trust deeper. When we embrace Him as the loving Father who has already made a home with us, the entire nature of prayer transforms. Prayer becomes a sincere conversation in the secure atmosphere of that home. It is a radical act of vulnerability, laying bare our genuine self—our needs, our failings, and our deepest intentions—without the pretense of piety or activism.

To pray, then, is to step out of the lonely courtroom of self-righteousness where we have to defend our case, where we fear the judgment of a legalistic God, and to fully embrace the truth of Christ's desire: "Your kingdom come, your will be done." This is an openness to God's righteousness that bring our anxious, self-seeking will to His gentle, just, and life-giving reality. 

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Be compassionate

Be compassionate, grant pardon, do not judge, and do not condemn… they ask from us something so great from our deep resources. To approach the truth of a person or an event, we do need wise judgment and a process of discernment. It isn't about ignoring wrongdoing but about reorienting the purpose of judgment itself. In this sense, it is less about a detached, forensic analysis of actions and more about a heartfelt attempt to see the whole person – we may be able to see them where they are freed from our biases and prejudices. It’s the discernment of a compassionate heart to reread and retell the story of their pain, their struggles, and their value. Then, wisdom guides us to judge in truth, which has a compassionate face.

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Capax dei

We know a missing element in our hearts, may be formed in different ways although our lives. This emptiness is a yearning for grace, one way or the other shapes the very uniqueness of a person. This Capax Dei is a spiritual longing in our being.

In Mary, the capacity for God blossomed into the most beautiful flower. She received in her the Son of God. She is also the living testament, that the capacity for God prepares generations to form grace structures to fill us with grace. About her conception, our faith defines, Mary, from the moment of conception, by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty God, and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved free from all stain of original sin. If we see it as a divine magic of one moment we have less reason to rejoice. Of course, what happened in Mary is a divine grace, but it also signifies a completion of that inherent receptivity, perhaps as a culmination of grace-structures formed through many generations, culminating in Mary utterly open to the Divine.  These generations, persons showed their truthfulness and openness to receive grace to fill their yearning, being healed of wounds that sins would originate in them and breed.

Mary has a face, a blueprint for humanity’s ongoing transformation. Her "fullness of grace" is not a static, unreachable ideal, but an active invitation. Mary’s Capax Dei radiates a boundless compassion that shows the Divine love she so perfectly contained. Each generation, holds the potential to build upon this sacred lineage, to cultivate anew this capacity for God. It is in acts of empathy, in selfless giving, in the fearless embrace of the marginalised, that the ‘Capax Dei’ of a generation truly expands. Her birth, then, is a constant spring of hope, reminding us that the human spirit, imbued with its sacred capacity, can continuously transform itself, mirroring her grace, extending her charity, and thereby becoming, in every living moment, a fresh epiphany of God’s presence on Earth.

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Blessedness

Being poor and hungry, suffering and mourning were not signs of divine blessing, but signs of a curse according to many beliefs. Even now many prefer to believe so. But to these, Jesus attaches the blessedness of God’s kingdom. There is a freedom to trust because he taught about God to be our Father. The Gospel sets people to feed, console, stand for justice, and ensure resources for the feeble. The hungry being satisfied, those who weep being consoled and so on, are the signs of liberation the Gospel brings. These are the marks of Christ humanity can bear on their lives; the beauty or the glory revealed in us with Christ’s Glory. The blessedness is a gift and a responsibility which reflects the opening words of Gospel announcement “… he has sent me to proclaim good news to the poor, liberty to captives, to open the eyes of the blind…”  These acts of grace make a renewal in us in the image of the creator. See around, see within - he is everything and he is in everything. There are no differences, domination and divisions, no one is higher or lower, outsider or one’s own, nothing is strange or hostile … only Christ. The things of above, for Jesus, were not super-transcendental high ideals, instead they were breaking one’s separating boundaries and extending oneself to others in love in the freedom of the gospel.  Live the beatitudes in the freedom of the gospel, see the beauty of Christ being revealed in us, and in the church.

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Beyond Vengeance: Embracing Life for All

When prophets called for repentance, a self-critique for renewal, they condemned those on the other side who were apparently strangers or enemies. Jonah is a symbol of all those attitudes, and the time they held this approach. If they pleased Yahweh, they could expect Yahweh to do what they liked.  Jonah, though he spoke of the nature of Yahweh as full of love, compassion and slow to anger, he does not expect Yahweh to act according to his nature. Jonah represented the general approach of the people. Gradually, in some sectors, the understanding took a renewed outlook, taking a universal vision; God's goodness and compassion extend to all people. Jesus revealed God as Father of all, and we are all God's children. The righteousness of God is inclusive of all, seeing the good of all. It is natural that we may desire to win. Divine righteousness means the winning of everyone, and the life of all. Seeking vengeance and destruction is not about divine justice, but about self-righteousness. Every other person, other nation, or other race may be destroyed in establishing justice; that may be our expectation of justice. Ultimately, that which would remain is a 'me' who is justified. That is actually a hell. In our evaluations, viewpoints, and even in prayers, revenge-seeking attitudes may be present. Unless our perspectives, choices and observances are moulded by the nature of divine righteousness, which desires good and life for all, we have not known the heart of Christ. 

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Weapon for a Battlefield? Rosary as a Channel of Grace and Peace

The Holy Rosary is a prayer centred on the life of Jesus, life of Mary and the life of each of us. We meditate them through the Joyful, Sorrowful, Luminous and Glorious Mysteries. The repetition of the Hail Mary is a contemplative means to involve the grace announced to humanity in the person of Mary deeply into our personal lives, and to live the Gospel events. We invite Mary, the perfect disciple who pondered all these events in her heart, to help us see her Son's life with greater clarity and love. Mary's divine agency is to be understood within the aspect of fullness of grace. The healing, help, care, and victory that we ask of her are all within this grace. The imaginations on her victory should never be pictured or imagined as though in a war model, as though she was a war goddess. If pictured like that, we take away the nature of grace and divine action. Her power or agency is not a separate, inherent force, but the perfect channel for Christ's grace. Her "victory" is therefore the triumph of humility and obedient faith, not military might.

 God's favours are not for one nation, or people or religion, God's grace is given from his abundant goodness for the good of all. He grants victory, but not by destroying anyone, but by brining good for all. the figures like god fighting for his own people misrepresent the god images in the gospel, and instead we fill our beliefs with politicised images of god with vengeance, anger and siding with our interests. The same is true with the prayer of Rosary. Rosary is not a weaponised instrument, nor the prayer of rosary is a magical prayer. Rosary is a life story we are trying to retell and relive. There we hope for the graces that was once present in the life of those who were participants in the gospel story. We win by grace, not over anyone, but by a growth in grace for the good of all. The war models we have in our religious imaginations must give way for models of peace and dialogue.

In many new trends, under politicised emotionalism we are celebrating religion and its symbols. Are we glorifying god? Many are happy that there seems to be a revival and great witness. In such trends, we are risking grace for identity games. They are war-cry and celebrations without life and grace in it. If the crowd has no life, what will gather them after this momentum?

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sorrows of Mary

In devotions to the sorrows of mary, she has seven sorrows. If humanity's wounds are truly the wounds of Christ, Mary's sorrows also will be unresolved. From the view of redemption, Rachel weeping for her children at Ramah, the cry of mothers of babes in Bethlehem… were they not sorrows for Mary though jesus escaped the cruelty of Herod?  To understand and honour the sorrows of Mary, perhaps what we need is to accept and welcome her as our mother and listen to her what she would say. That is what Jesus said, "Here is your mother." Though we justify that what we do is to venerate, we have made her a superpowerful deity who is almighty, fighting war and bringing victory. From the view of devotion, we see the seven sorrows of Mary; often these sorrows are seen from the view of what we can get from her, even from her sorrows. She had the sorrow of uncertainty, separation, fear of loss, horrible sight of pain and death. Let us listen to what she has to say, what she suffered then in the time of Jesus, and her sorrows today in the time of ours. Give up the tendencies to put these into devotional coverage and moral condemnation without seeing a world in sorrows. We see miracles in her tears, fragrance, oil, apparitions even in her messages on sorrows. But do they call us for consoling those sorrows. Our devotional ways around her statues do not console her nor her children.  her sorrow isn't a historical event to be commemorated, but a living reality. Being the type of the church is not simply an imaginative ideal, the sorrow is alive. If the church truly embody the christ, every human sorrow alive in the wounds of christ is also a sorrow of Mary.  When we look at the world, we see mothers who fear for their children's safety, we see children in impoverishment, or children thrown into the world of unknowns. We see families torn apart by conflict, war, migration, and evacuations. Do we feel the pain? Can we as the church, feel the pain? The best way to console a mother is to care for her children. When we work for peace and justice, comfort the afflicted, feeding the hungry, and sheltering the homeless, we console the sorrows of Mary. Every act of mercy and love is a balm to her sorrowful heart. Instead of focusing on apparitions and signs, we are invited to see her tears in the real-world tears of suffering people and to act on that sight. We can see faith alive, God alive.

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Peace is about life,

 if there is a price for peace,

is it peace?

submission is never a price for peace,

its a failed peace.

peace is about life,

life of all,

do you desire that peace?

you ask us to submit,

thus, you have unchallenged rest, trade,

you call it peace.

we submit to your unchallenged power

permit your will,

and you grant us peace.

is that peace.

peace is about life,

life of all,

do you desire that peace?

of course that peace has a price,

of respect, commitment, and effort,

seeing the good of all.

you mediators, do you see that,

that we deserve to live?

our future,

see it is all emptiness,

see around

devastated smoky place,

ashes not soil,

covered in toxins,

will there be life and smiles?

peace is about life,

life of all,

do you desire that peace?

we bear the mark of war,

wounds, hands and legs cut off

burned skin,

future will ask of these marks,

do you have life beyond of these marks for them.

if you celebrate conflicts,

they will mark them with our scars.

there will be no life.

peace is about life,

life of all,

do you desire that peace?

peace is about life,

life of all,

life in abundance,

life in its entirety,

do you desire that peace?

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A Walk with God

Faith is a matter of how we live our lives with God and how we experience god's life in our daily realities. It involves a deeper understanding of God's ways and being ready to walk in that path, because we trust in the goodness of God. 

Faith is deepened when we can really experience that God is in our life. Often, our faith remains as an abstract thought. It is important that we can freely raise our hearts to God. It may be our joys, sadness, beauty, or ugliness or whatever, but that personal touch is important in the path of faith, because our roots must know the touch of grace. Our deeper longing can find the touch of grace if we are ready to take what we ask from God, even into our bodies and emotions, and truly experience it.

Life of grace is not an individual affair. We know our faith and grow in faith being within the body of Christ. This body can be our family, community, friendship, classroom, a company, a governing body or the entire human family or even the entire creation. We grow, help, and complete each other in faith. 

Faith is not sensationalism, where we are led into a magic world of blessings and divine experiences. Faith is a life lived in the strength gathered in grace. Jesus does not ask us to live in a heavenly realm. True faith places us properly on the ground where we are called to walk with Christ. Walking with Christ gives us the maturity in faith. We find the accompaniment, strength and comfort of Christ. He interprets and guides our lives. 

Faith is not a definition or ideology. Often these days, we are misled by ideologies. They use the sentimentality of faith and Christian belonging, and promote inhuman, unchristian, and divisive attitudes. We cannot have the experience of faith there; we cannot grow in Christ. It is actually a test of faith, whether we choose Christ or politicised beliefs. So, along with the request to increase our faith, we also need to ask for the grace to understand true faith in Christ and for the grace to stand by that faith.

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Be present to the scars

Have we come home? Or are we still in the rush of the day - in the road, in the office, still waiting for an interview, or just lost after a few tough words with our loved ones? We are in a churning disk to be thrown out any time to unknown directions. Even amidst the offers of success and prosperity, we are pushed into yet another competition, at times exhausted. 

Let this evening take us to a newer capacity to form a consolation in our struggles. A life that is messed up, lost, or unachieved; a life that turned against our dreams - all these bear the touch of our tears and sighs. We are what they have shaped us. Let us come home, this evening. Being tender to ourselves, our feelings, sinking moments - let us be simply present to them. In our minds, let's allow all those who have shaped our present, for both good and bad, to be present with us. Perhaps in the dim light we can see the scar of tears that they too bore on their lives. They have come through great tribulations. Rarely anyone can claim an absolute success, but an evening grace offers an image of Christ being formed in us. We do bear the scars of our falls, but can we be a healer? Can we be a quiet, anointing light - a steady radiance that shines from within our brokenness.

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we were all wanderers

 we were all wanderers 

settled in a land 

in gratitude we told 'god gave this land.'

we forgot the journey, 

forgot the fear we knew; 

our privilege became the holy right.

we were all wanderers 

there are only early settlers

once we got power 

we chased others away 

"it is our land," we said.

it is evil, it is crime, it is sin 

to kill, to chase,

 we are killing the smile of the world.

we are killing the smile of the world. 

and in our hearts' own ground, 

the gratitude is dead,

the gratitude is dead. .

We called ourselves holy 

and sanctified the crime.

justified inhumanity.

our conscience is dead,

because we served not God,

but selfishness, power, and arrogance

we served nationalism, not god.

 we are killing the smile of the world.

we are killing the smile of the world. 

we are killing the smile of the world. 

and in our hearts' own ground, 

the gratitude is dead,

the gratitude is dead. . 

we were all wanderers.

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stop wars, we want peace

we the children of the earth
cry for healing
cry for peace
build a civilisation of love

stop wars
we want peace,
we want life.

you celebrate war
you cry victory, victory
you say it's divine will,
written in the book.
is there such a god?
we don't let that god enter our hearts.
that god is a god of death
but we know that you push it in our broken hearts.
you have cut our roots,
filled our world with boundaries,
and you draw god on those walls.

do you see the death of life
death of humanity
death of future?
death of children
innocent children
children filled with fear,
shattered, they trembled,
with rivers of tears.
stop wars
you want to still kill them?
what have they done to you
you want to still kill them?
you want to still kill them?
you want to still kill them?
what do you gain?
you celebrate aggression
you celebrate heartlessness.

you kings and rulers,
you men of crime
men of evil heart
you see profit in war
profit in bloodshed
your power and wealth.
what have you gained?
you want to still kill them?

o you see the death of life
death of humanity
death of future?
children filled with fear,
shattered, they trembled,
with rivers of tears.
you want to still kill them?
what do you gain?

you kill, and you say it's for peace.
arrogant rule, your profit, unlimited power
so you want to kill
that's peace for you.
You kill, and you say it's for peace.
arrogant rule, your profit, unlimited power
so you want to kill
that's peace for you.
you celebrate aggression
you celebrate heartlessness.

we the children of the earth
cry for healing
cry for peace
stop wars
build a civilisation of love.


O stop wars
O stop wars
O stop wars

we the children of the earth
cry for healing
cry for peace
we want to celebrate peace
we want to celebrate life.
peace, peace,
life,.......
life,

we rise up for peace
please stop killing
we want peace
peace
we want to live
we have our wounded hearts
wounded bodies,
torn hands and legs
lost eyes...
please let us live
we cry for peace
let our tears flow for peace
stop war
please stop killing
peace ......

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sanctuary of our own lives

As the sun goes down let us raise an altar. The Bible has examples of building new altars or rebuilding the fallen altar. We find the graciousness of our life as life longs for its fruition in offering itself. Gather the life events, build an altar. “What can I offer? What can I bring to God, hoping for continued guidance and grace?” Let us offer whatever we are. It is acceptable. A sincere and wholehearted giving is what is important. This willingness to engage honestly with our inner selves, to confront our struggles and embrace our capacity for love and compassion, this is the true sacrifice laid upon the altar of our lives. They are precious, and approach them as so sacred that they reveal to us the heart of God. Here the altar turns to be a sincere conversation with the divine. Then there is a sanctuary of our own lives. As the night deepens, let this closeness with ourselves and with God be our evening offering.

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sacramentality in human living

 As evening is near and we feel the weight of the day, of our life, we may have asked why God does not just fix our struggles and sufferings.  At times thoughts about God bring more questions than answers. We expect goodness and sweetness everywhere, but we do not always find them. The night can feel bitter as we struggle with our own pain or witness the deep sufferings of others. It can seem like God stands far away when he is most needed, as silent observer of our loneliness and injustice.

Every injured living creature looks miserably and helplessly for mercy and empathy. We don’t find God coming to fix these griefs. God is present not only in beauty and glory, but also in our ugliness and failures, not as victorious but as a sufferer. God the giver of life and full of goodness seem to be a useless God. God suffers in our pains; God also brings consolation into them by our compassion. There is a sacramentality in human living. When we live mercy, kindness, or forgiveness, we are not just being good people; we are revealing a divine presence. Our empathy and shared experiences are not just natural traits; they are the very way God’s love becomes truly visible in the world. Being near to a sick person, we offer a sacramental presence of God to the sick, giving an experiential reality of mercy of God when we show mercy. Sincere living of beatitudes becomes real brightness in the dark when the grace begins to extend to where the frailty of God appears. God’s revelation happens in reality as the grace in us turns to be a blessedness even when God seems to be absent and useless.

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ailing body into a river of grace

Evenings have a way of taking us inward, our thoughts, and feelings. As the day is over, we often become more aware of our pains and the quiet struggles within us; hidden shames and silent battles. Time seems moving slow.  We long for a gentle hand to hold ours, for a comforting presence, for healing, and for renewed strength. Sometimes, the approaching night can increase our anxieties, our disappointments, loneliness, and pain. Perhaps, the stillness of the evening can help us to leave them into further depths.

Let us ask God to help us immerse our ailing body into a river of grace. Healing is not just about medicine and rest; it is also about a deep, inner peace, grace through pass over the moments of pain and suffering. In moments of pain, let us trust in a love that holds us close. Let us find the courage to forgive ourselves and the world, and to hold onto hope even when we are still in the dark, daring to walk ahead. At times we may be attached to our sickness or emotional pain. It is important that we permit ourselves to be healed. It is okay to let go of our hurt and allow ourselves to be healed. Even in our deepest loneliness and pain, there is a grace that doesn't demand a perfect surrender and devotion, but a warm love that simply settles over us. This love might gradually give us the freedom to permit to let go of our hurt and allow ourselves to be healed. It is the grace that helps us to endure our hurts and death, but to find them as holy grounds in our pilgrim journey. Let us gather strength and courage to descend to the depths of self-emptying moments. This is not a distant light of a dream, but a comforting presence that walks with us into the night, making a home in our hearts.

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Rereading life through grace

 As a day is spent, in the moments of evening, all that is left are smoke and ashes. We are afraid to dream because certain loss of precious things has shattered our light. Perhaps there has been betrayal, or deep rejection. There was no shining cloud to lead, and no fire appeared in the dark. All our securities, certainties, and comforts are challenged, because our sense of self, of belonging, was so deeply attached to what is now missing. This experience of loss truly compels us to reshape our personal world. We begin to regather our memories, retelling our story with grace.

 Jesus reinterpreted the pain of the disciples on the way to Emmaus. When we are alone with our thoughts in the quietness of the evening, we can tell him to stay with us. Experience the consolation of the Holy Spirit and cultivate self-compassion, moving beyond the self-blame that so often accompanies loss. Being in grace, trusting in God, we can confront our painful emotions. This prevents suppression and helps us integrate the loss into our life story. Our fears, brokenness, temptations, and even the matters of our sins can be transformed into the most sincere prayers of the heart. We develop a deeper capacity for empathy, self-awareness, and kindness. It is about more than just surviving loss; it is about emerging with a strengthened sense of purpose.

Picture of life

We all have a picture of our lives, an image that tells the story we have lived. Darkness is woven into this picture, and we see this images in different colours and depths. We might add deep colours and shades of black lines, picturing them in dark shades. I have become lonely, very rude, life is lost, unable to enter into society, I am not comfortable with others, … many are the lines we have drawn to the picture.

Even in this darkness, does God see this picture? Does he know the fabric of these colours? Evening came and then morning came, and God found it was good. That was God’s pattern of history. All our stories, our pictures are joined to God’s history. See the grace descending deep into the fabric of the painting, to the roots of our life. Feel the consoling and comforting grace touching our bitter pains and tears. There will be a mercy sprouting and flowing from our own hearts into our pains. Darkness offers an embracing mystery over our black shades, and grace dissolves them into peace, turning our life into an anointing grace.

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Powers of Service

The Church exists in communion and service, a living, breathing communion. We have the heavenly powers to help us to live this communion and service, in our growth and common journey.   They are not distant, unreachable figures, but rather part of this same communion, offering us heavenly help as we strive to live out the Gospel.

It is true that it is in our blood a craving for being a hero, a victorious fighter. We see it reflected in so many stories. Many of our recent stories show arrogant, angry, and vengeful heroes. Even angels are sometimes depicted, like superheroes ready for battle. If we are not careful, this imagery can shift our focus away from the true spirit of the Gospel. Perhaps we still want to keep the military conquest styles for divine actions and the mediation of saints.

The Gospel isn't a story of military conquest; it's a life of radical love, sacrificial service, and living communion. The archangels represent three essential services of the Gospel: preaching, healing, and resisting evil. Being the children of God, Freedom in the kingdom of God, and the time of God’s favour are very essential to all these three services. In fact, there is no place for

heroism or conquering figures in any of these. If presented with a heroic image, we risk missing their true, humble, and deeply spiritual nature. The angels, especially the archangels, are powerful.  Their power is exercised according to divine will, which is always about love and service, rather than domination or destruction.

True divine assistance is not a force that overtakes, but a grace that uplifts and sustains us. Instead of power-language about God’s protection and saints’ mediation, we need a language that touches life to live a life of grace. God's actions, mediated by His heavenly hosts, are always directed towards drawing us into deeper communion, fostering mutual service, and helping us to fully live out the grace of the Gospel. They are there to assist us on our common journey, to inspire us to be more like Christ – humble, loving, and ever-serving. It's a beautiful vision of a Church living in true communion, both earthly and heavenly, all walking together in peace and service.

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Comfort Lazarus

The abundance of the earth is a gift from God, born of divine benevolence for the good of all living beings. While society often values generosity and kindness, encouraging charity for the vulnerable, a profound tension arises when wealth accumulates excessively in the hands of a few.

The Gospels, in many ways, present a radical critique of unchecked wealth, illustrating how it can blind individuals and corrupt systems.

The Rich Young Man (Matthew 19:16-22), who “had many possessions,” was closed within his own wealth. He was not able to free himself to follow Jesus. The parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-21) condemns greed and self-sufficiency. He could think of his abundant harvest, only to "eat, drink, and be merry" for many years. But the story tells us that security can be found only in the benevolence of God. The rich man in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31 is blind to Lazarus's hunger and wounds. His dress of purple and fine linen is also seen with the pious Pharisees who prayed in the marketplaces. Under this system of hypocrisy, the poor become negligible and invisible. It is a permitted ethical failure. 

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I am Lazarus, and I lie still,

Outside the gate, upon your hill.

You wear the purple, the finest thread,

While dogs come softly to lick my head.

You feast within your golden hall,

But my shadow casts no shade at all.

 

You pass me by, with hurried step,

My suffering is a secret kept.

Your holy robes, your pious plea,

Are sewn on a world that doesn't see.

The poor are now negligible, I'm told,

A permitted failure, growing cold.

 

I am Lazarus, and I lie still,

Outside the gate, upon your hill.

You pass me by, with hurried step,

My suffering is a secret kept.

 

When wealth is power, and coins decide,

You look away from the turning tide.

In lands of conflict, chaos, and dust,

Your favour leans where you can trust

To gain advantage, a quick return,

While homes and bodies crumble and burn.

 

Your short-term interest, a selfish game,

Writes impunity upon my name.

You justify the awful cost,

The human measure that is lost.

You see no hunger, no gaping wound,

Just silent dirt on hollow ground.

 

I am Lazarus, and I lie still,

Outside the gate, upon your hill.

You pass me by, with hurried step,

My suffering is a secret kept.

You see no hunger, no gaping wound,

Just silent dirt on hollow ground.

 

The child's burned face, the flowing tear,

The homeless fright, the constant fear—

These are the things you choose to hide,

As if the heavens have never cried.

But hear this truth, whispered and stark:

My wounds don't vanish in the dark.

 

You pass me by, with hurried step,

My suffering is a secret kept.

You see no hunger, no gaping wound,

Just silent dirt on hollow ground.

 

But hear this truth, whispered and stark:

My wounds don't vanish in the dark.

For two or three generations on,

The horror lives, from dusk to dawn.

The pain you permit, the grief you justify,

Will echo in every child's sad eye.

Will this cycle break? Will this suffering cease?

Will the world finally choose lasting peace?

 

The answer waits upon your choice,

Will you finally hear the Lazarus voice?

The poor are here. The wound is fresh.

Will you be responsible for the broken flesh?

Will you come near the burned faces of the innocent?

You pass me by, with hurried step,

My suffering is a secret kept.

I am Lazarus, and I lie still,

Outside the gate, upon your hill.

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Friends of God

Making home with God in our daily realities is the whole grace of the gospel. Jesus is on a journey proclaiming the Gospel, and ensuring life and forgiveness to all. Very often it came in his preaching that it is not merely hearing the Word, or calling Lord, Lord that makes the will of God being realised in our life, but it is in putting the Word into practice.

A virtuous person was to walk in the path of God in the guidance of wisdom. To act virtuously and with justice is more pleasing to the Lord than sacrifice. God is pleased to guide the hearts of the virtuous, because they are like flowing water that God can turn it where he pleases (Proverbs 21:1-6,10-13)

Walking with Jesus the master, the disciples learned not only to imitate, but to find the Way, Truth and the Life. Gradually they would find the Word as truth and life in themselves. Listening to the Father, the voice that Jesus constantly listened to was that he was the beloved Son. The meaning of this voice never remained as a status or honour, it placed him on the path of fulfilling the will of the Father. He saw that all who seek the will of God in a sincere heart are all related to him and completing his mission. They would be his mother, brothers and sisters.

What was the mission of Jesus, and how are we to identify our part by listening to the voice speaking in our hearts? First of all, we must commit our ways to the Lord and trust in him, and he will act (Psalm 37:4-5). Committing our ways to the Lord is not merely passivity, it is an active and compassionate response to the daily realities relying on God's grace. Leaving our ways, and placing our trust in God, seeing and listening to the wounded, the crushed, being with the abandoned the last and the labelled  is a costly affair, but then we are opening ways for God to act. God will open surprising ways of how we ourselves are engaged in fulfilling his will.

Jesus could see many great righteous people around him, but they did not have the heart of God. Those who really listened to him were given the power to become children of God. They become the mother, brother and sister to him. Anyone who receives the Word, conceives it and gives flesh, is born anew in Christ as his brothers and sisters."

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