Saturday 31 May 2014

This’s no bamboozlement… it’s the sacrifice by Jesus


Sheena George
  Rev Fr John Koovakunnel is an unassuming Catholic priest, young and unpretentious to the core. Born and brought up in Pune, which is around 150 kms south-east of Mumbai, Rev Fr John is a Catholic theologian in the making and fully engrossed in prayers, church services and related activities. His parting sermon at Little Flower Church, Nerul, near Mumbai, gave me new insights into the Holy Mass. Even as I was writing this piece he would have already moved to his new parish of Panvel, near Mumbai.

Thursday 29 May 2014

The Science of the Saints: Dr Scott Hahn’s treatise again


 Dr Scott Hahn, evangelical Protestant who converted to the Catholic Church and chronicled his journey to Catholicism in the famous book ‘Rome Sweet Home’, is undoubtedly an inspiring writer and speaker.

Tuesday 27 May 2014

Pope Francis says papal retirements could become normal, favours celibacy for priests but "door open to change"

Pope Francis says papal retirements could become normal in Church

REUTERS, ROME, MAY 27: Pope Francis said on Monday he would be open to retiring eventually like his predecessor, Benedict XVI, instead of ruling for life, adding that the concept of a "pope emeritus" could someday become normal in the Church.

Sunday 25 May 2014

‘They live as if they will never die, and they die as if they had never lived…’

 On Saturday, May 24, I had a chance to attend the funeral service of an old neighbour in Mumbai. “When we live we never realize that we’re going to die. We realize about the reality of death only at the end stage,” the priest said, quoting the words of my late neighbour who was suffering from cancer.

Tuesday 20 May 2014

For a big miracle, we need to perform our small role


By Thomas Mathew 
  I have heard many people complaining about miracles not happening in their lives. They say that they keep on praying and seek God’s blessings. They ask for healing of their near and dear ones. But they don’t get answers. There’s no healing. 

Saturday 17 May 2014

Nuns & roses for Jesus and you


By Sheena George
    When I recently flew from Mumbai to Kochi, I met a Hindu girl from Nashik, which is nearly 200 kms north of Mumbai. Seated next to me on the flight, the 19-year old girl struck a conversation with me. “Are you a Christian?” she asked. She might have seen me doing the sign of the cross.  

Tuesday 13 May 2014

Trickle-down theory and resisting the economy of exclusion

  The influence of Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and other Leftist economists on Vatican is conspicuous if one goes by the Papal documents and speeches from Vatican these days.

Tuesday 6 May 2014

Dying persons release countless photons which form the ghostly body of light -- By Dr Jose Paul

Research studies establish Biblical truth about spiritual bodies

 “What will happen to me after my death? Can you tell me about the death experience?” my father used to ask me during his last days.
He died at the age of 97 due to old age illness several years ago. My father thought that his son being a senior doctor who has seen thousands of deaths during his long years of medical practice knew something more about it. There was nothing wrong with his thoughts. But the truth was that I could not answer his questions then, because the near-death experience is something which no one has reported with certainty.
Dr Jose Paul MD
  What happens to us after death or when we face near-death experience? Latest research studies agree with the existence of spiritual bodies mentioned in the Bible. Damaged or dying atoms of our physical body release countless photons which is light energy. These photons can have consciousness. Photons, which are indestructible, are the foundation of the new pure and perfect body. Bystanders sometimes see foggy light leaving the physical body of dying person. I would like to connect science with Bible. The entire universe is created by light. Life gets transformed from one form to another. Read on.

NEAR-DEATH STAGE

  I have seen the end stage of many dying people. But the appearance of each one varied from person to person. In most of the young children, death appears to be a very calm event and the breathing stops very gradually. In the case of old people I have seen them making jerky movements affecting the face and lips. Some people appear to bend their body forward and stop breathing suddenly. Some people have convulsive movements affecting their eyes and forehead. A few people make shrieking sounds. Some people appear as if they were going to talk something but die suddenly without making any sound.
  Jerky movements of the lips are very common. Movements of the limbs like myoclonic cramps appear in some people. I have seen one 28-year old man dying of cardiac arrest while playing volley ball. Following each cardiac massage, he used to shout ‘njekku…njekku’ (massage… massage). After some time, his heart stopped and he died. What I mean to say is that some people are fully conscious till the last moment. But in most of the cases, the consciousness is lost just before the end, and people stop responding to pain, touch and call. In my opinion, death appears to be a painless process as the patient is unconscious at the end. I feel that death is not a nightmare as we fear. I have seen people appear to smile and die as if death is an enjoyable process.
  One of my hospital sisters, who is also a nun, had an accidental electric shock and was almost dead. She was not breathing, heart beating was not heard and pulse not felt. But after some time, she took a long breath and appeared as if she was coming back to life. She was almost in coma for a long time and recovered.
After recovery, she explained her near death experience (NDE). She felt as if she was watching a film where various events from her childhood were shown. She felt somebody pointing out her sinful acts during her lifetime. She was telling ‘I am sorry Lord’ every time. Some of you might have read the experience of dying people, like travelling through a tunnel aiming at a bright light at the end of the tunnel.
  This may be called a near death experience (NDE) but nobody could mention the after-death events, although some people have said that after the end of the tunnel they have reached another universe which was full of joy and peace. A few people have said during this period they could meet their near and dear ones. But we are not sure how true this is. I was wondering what exactly was happening at the time of death and after that.

WHAT BIBLE SAYS

  As we read from the Holy Bible, in St.Paul’s first letter to Corinthians 15:40, “There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 44. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. 49. And as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”
  Luke 20 says: “Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels." 1 Thessalonians 4:13–17 says, "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.  For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord."

PHOTON BODY EXISTS, THEY HAVE CONSCIOUSNESS


  Lately I was surprised to read some research results affirming these biblical truths about death. Research conclusions by Dutch scientist Maureen Venselaar explain the scientific reasons for some features of Near Death Experience (NDE) in one consistent Coherent theory based on astrophysical phenomena. She gives the explanations for the five phases of NDE.
When people are severely traumatized they lose conscience. They hear strange noise and feel vibrations and many small explosions in their body. Near death people receive another consciousness and a different ‘ghostly body’ almost instantly made of light energy. They see their own body in the death bed. They don’t feel any change in their personality with no feeling of pain but in peace. They can hear and see but cannot communicate with earthly people.
  According to Maureen, who belongs to the Institute of Noetic Sciences, damaged or dying atoms of our physical body release countless photons which is light energy. They could hear explosions within the body. These photons can have consciousness, with our daily consciousness transformed into another broader transcendent consciousness. These photons are indestructible. So next life can be eternal life. These photons can carry information about who we were and are. As near death trauma gets more severe near death people see themselves moving away from their physical body. They see earth, moon and stars, They realize they are getting as small as a sand of grain with their body of light. Then a tunnel opens and they travel through the tunnel faster than speed of light to a heavenly light at the end of the tunnel. This light is like a magnet. They experience sounds and colours.
  Maureen’s research says the more we reach the end of this life, more photons are released from our physical body. More photons means more compact our new body gets. As beings of light our ‘ghostly’ body of light is reduced to a tiny dot. The effect of gravity that cause contraction of a substance can lead to a black hole. It is a real hole in the fabric of space. It s not black but surrounded by light.

 LIFE REVIEW AT THE END OF TUNNEL

 Our travel through this tunnel gets faster until we reach the end of the tunnel to a great light. Only dead people cross this border and enter the other world. At the end of the tunnel, the NDE people have a life review, meeting other beings of light. Communication is instant like telepathy. Then there is a moment of Judgment, but that moment is full of grace and love. The reason seems to be light=love=knowledge/information. They know all the answers to all the questions of mankind. They also see two whirl tornadoes like two large sand glass, the upper tornado spinning clockwise and outward, the lower tornado spinning anticlockwise and inward.
 As scientist Stephen Hawkins says, theoretical model of our universe and the other universe is like a sandglass. It has an upper tornado and a lower tornado spinning in opposite directions. As NDE people they can travel through this tunnel to the edge of our universe. That is, this tunnel is the door to another astral universe.
Experience in the last phase is as follows. Near death people can sometimes choose between blue/green beam of light or a red/pink beam. It is like they know blue beam means continuing their life on earth and red means end of life on earth, but receiving an eternal life in another universe.
  Near-death people entering back into their physical body experience a reversal of all these processes they have gone through. They have forgotten all the wisdom they knew, when they were nearby the heavenly light. The red and blue colours they have seen may be due to Doppler effect. Matter looks blue/green means life on Earth and red/pink is created by matter which travels away from us.
 As near-death people, we return to earth with our compact out-of-body essence (during our journey through the tunnel/the private intra-universe wormhole). After this journey we will unfold nearby/in our physical body due to the reduction of the force of gravity. All the light-energy flows back into (the atoms of) the physical body and connect with it. Electromagnetic values probably change again. And after a while if our trauma doesn’t get worse we’ll gain our daily consciousness.
  It is said that love never ends. This is true as per Biblical description and the research experience. Jesus has said “I’m the light of the world”. God is love. So one can say that the spiritual body and photon body aims at the one point, that is love. Life is eternal as I have mentioned earlier. So we can see that love also is eternal.
  You might have seen Laser shows, where you see the shadow of living things. The photon bodies of NDE people could be explained as it is similar to the laser show. In aura photography one could see the aura light around a person. This explains presence of photon bodies. Many a time patients after amputation complains, pain over the leg which is already amputated. This explains the presence of photon body in the place of physical body.

 LIFE CONTINUES AS PHOTON BODY AFTER DEATH

  What I am interested is the similarity between the biblical description and the research findings. I shall be happy If I could give a small prick to to those who believe the Holy Bible with brain, more than the heart, as I was once. In the Bible as well as in the research experience we find a tiny interval between the near death experience and the actual death, when there is a change occurring in the physical body.
  The physical body is converted into a shadow of the physical body by the condensation of the photon particles in the light, according to the research experience. The spiritual body and photon body can pass through objects unnoticed by others. The spiritual body of Jesus is mentioned in the Bible as seen in Mathew 28:9. Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him, says Mark 16:12.
  Jesus later appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. As Luke 24:36 says, Jesus appears to the disciples -- while they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
According to the research experience, the photon body can recognize their loved ones while travelling through the black hole and the tunnel. The aim of the body is towards a light. The spiritual body of Jesus was taken up to Heaven and was seated at the right hand of the Father.
  Jesus had said “I am the light of the world” and “I and my Father are one”. Therefore the spiritual body of Jesus had gone to the Father who is the light. In Ephesus 2:6, we read that together with Christ Jesus, He (God) also raised us up and seated us in the heavens. As we read in the Bible, the life is being continued even after death. The research experience also agrees with this, saying that the life continues as photon bodies after death. In both the cases the life never ends and we live forever.
 One is not sure about the next universe where we are going to live, as nobody has reported the after death experience. The apparitions described by religious people may be the spiritual bodies or the photon bodies of the dead.

References:
  1. Maureen Venselaar, PhD
  1. Holy Bible

(The author is Director and Senior Consultant in internal medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital) 

Friday 2 May 2014

29.8 million in slavery around the world; India leads with 13.3 mn



  Believe it or not, there are an estimated 29.8 million people enslaved around the world.
  The countries with the highest numbers of enslaved people are India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Russia, Thailand, Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar and Bangladesh. Taken together, these countries account for 76% of the total estimate of 29.8 million in modern slavery, according to Global Slavery Index released by Walk Free Foundation.