Stand up, raise your hands and pray... we don't have faith

 When Rev Fr Lijo Brahmakulam started his bike on a Monday morning to rush for an urgent meeting, a man came running to him. “Father, please bless this rosary for me,” he told the father. “Can you come later? I’m urgently going somewhere… please come some other time,” Fr Lijo told that man.

 However, as the guy, a Hindu, was persistent, Fr Lijo got curious and sought an explanation. The story is something like this: his daughter couldn’t sleep in the night and she used to stay awake and cry. Almost a year ago, a priest gave him a blessed rosary for his daughter. Lo and behold, his daughter started sleeping well after wearing the rosary. However, two days ago, she lost this rosary and she was back to square one. She couldn’t sleep at night for two days. So an anxious father came running to the priest to get a rosary blessed for her.

 The bottom line is that a non-Christian believed in the power of a blessed rosary. A Hindu by religion, he had faith in the power of Jesus Christ. His faith worked a miracle for him. The power of Lord’s protection surrounded his daughter. When she lost the rosary, his daughter was bereft of this power.

 We Christians don’t have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. I have heard priests and pastors saying that non-Christians getting blessings and grace abundantly from Jesus. Christians attend numerous prayer meetings, worships, adoration, Holy Mass and wear rosary, but we hardly have any faith. There's no change in us. The result is that we don’t get blessings and grace from our Lord. There will be at least ten rosaries in a Catholic family. However, there’s no blessing and grace of Lord in that family. Why?

 Please read Luke 17:6:  Jesus replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.” We have little faith in Jesus. We don't take His presence seriously. That's the reason for sons and daughters going wayward and going out of the protective cover of Jesus Christ. They get into the trap laid by devil.

 Rev Fr Dominic Valanmanal, Director of Marian Retreat Centre, Anakkara, India, says, “it's time that we stand up and raise our hands, pray and seek His blessings. We don't do that. When we pray, we don't pray with faith." Both Fr Dominic and Fr Lijo ask faithful to raise their hands, day and night, and pray. You may be in a depressed state or facing a nervous breakdown. You may be unhappy over lot of things. Your children are going out of control. You are on the verge of losing your job... Whatever it's.  "You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book, says Psalms 56:8.

 God is listening. Not a drop of your tear will go waste. When the appropriate moment or situation comes, your prayers will be answered. You must have that faith and conviction. "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours," says  Mark 11:24.  Again, lets go James 1:6, "but when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind."

 However, our problem is that we pray without any faith. Sometimes, our prayers are mechanical. For example, the family prayer in many Christian homes has become mechanical or as some kind of routine like brushing the teeth or taking bath. It's of no use. When you pray, pray seriously, stand up and raise your hands to heaven. No doubt, heaven will open up and you will get abundant blessings.  The answer to your prayer will be instant if you follow what Jesus tells us in Bible. God won't listen to your prayer if have enmity, revenge or jealousy to anybody. Leave all that aside, and make peace with your enemy.

 In Bible, we read about a religious leader named Jairus. His daughter was lying on her deathbed and so Jairus goes to Jesus and tells him about his situation. As soon as Jairus spoke his faith, Jesus was attracted by that faith and went with him. That's faith.
If you pray intensely and with faith, God will answer your prayers. In Mathew chapter 17, Bible tells us disciples were unable perform a miracle. "When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” says Mathew 17:14-19. Jesus then made the mustard seed comment.

 The fact is that if you have faith as much as the mustard seed, even you will be able to perform miracles that Jesus did. But we pray with several "ifs and buts". We do it mechanically as some kind of ritual. Pray with passion and devotion. Pray during day and night. Pray when everyone is asleep. It's also a way of walking with Jesus. It will help us in keeping devil at bay.
    
 

What about you? Are you ready for the mission?

 Every Christian man and woman has received a mission to help build up the Church. 
 What about you? It’s nobody else but Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church, who asked this question.
  

Pope, who is on a US visit, said fulfilling that responsibility will require "creativity in adapting to changed situations" and called for "a much more active engagement on the part of the laity."  The Pope’s words came during his homily at Mass celebrated with Bishops, Clergy and Religious in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia.
 The city is the final leg of his 6-day pastoral visit to the US and the venue for the Church’s World Meeting of Families.
  “This morning I learned something about the history of this beautiful Cathedral: the story behind its high walls and windows.  I would like to think, though, that the history of the Church in this city and state is really a story not about building walls, but about breaking them down,” Pope Francis said.  It is a story about generation after generation of committed Catholics going out to the peripheries, and building communities of worship, education, charity and service to the larger society.
   That story is seen in the many shrines which dot this city, and the many parish churches whose towers and steeples speak of God’s presence in the midst of our communities.  It is seen in the efforts of all those dedicated priests, religious and laity who for over two centuries have ministered to the spiritual needs of the poor, the immigrant, the sick and those in prison. “And it is seen in the hundreds of schools where religious brothers and sisters trained children to read and write, to love God and neighbor, and to contribute as good citizens to the life of American society.  All of this is a great legacy which you have received, and which you have been called to enrich and pass on,” Pope Francis said.
  He spoke about the story of Saint Katharine Drexel, one of the great saints raised up by the local Church. 
  When she spoke to Pope Leo XIII of the needs of the missions, the Pope – he was a very wise Pope! – asked her pointedly: “What about you?  What are you going to do?”  Those words changed Katharine’s life, because they reminded her that, in the end, every Christian man and woman, by virtue of baptism, has received a mission.  Each one of us has to respond, as best we can, to the Lord’s call to build up his Body, the Church, he said. 
 What about you? “I would like to dwell on two aspects of these words in the context of our particular mission to transmit the joy of the Gospel and to build up the Church, whether as priests, deacons, or members of institutes of consecrated life,” Pope said. 
  First, those words (What about you?) were addressed to a young person, a young woman with high ideals, and they changed her life. They made her think of the immense work that had to be done, and to realize that she was being called to do her part.  How many young people in our parishes and schools have the same high ideals, generosity of spirit, and love for Christ and the Church!  Do we challenge them?  Do we make space for them and help them to do their part? ... to find ways of sharing their enthusiasm and gifts with communities, above all in works of mercy and concern for others?  Do we share our own joy and enthusiasm in serving the Lord?” Pope Francis said.
   One of the great challenges facing the Church in this generation is to foster in all the faithful a sense of personal responsibility for the Church’s mission, and to enable them to fulfill that responsibility as missionary disciples, as a leaven of the Gospel in our world, he said. This will require creativity in adapting to changed situations, carrying forward the legacy of the past not primarily by maintaining our structures and institutions, which have served us well, but above all by being open to the possibilities which the Spirit opens up to us and communicating the joy of the Gospel, daily and in every season of our life, Pope said.
  “What about you?” It is significant that those words of the elderly Pope were also addressed to a lay woman. “We know that the future of the Church in a rapidly changing society will call, and even now calls, for a much more active engagement on the part of the laity.  The Church in the United States has always devoted immense effort to the work of catechesis and education. Our challenge today is to build on those solid foundations and to foster a sense of collaboration and shared responsibility in planning for the future of our parishes and institutions,” he said.
  This does not mean relinquishing the spiritual authority with which we have been entrusted; rather, it means discerning and employing wisely the manifold gifts which the Spirit pours out upon the Church.  In a particular way, it means valuing the immense contribution which women, lay and religious, have made and continue to make, to the life of our communities. 
 Pope thanked everyone for the way in which they answered Jesus’ question which inspired their own vocation: “What about you?” “I encourage you to be renewed in the joy of that first encounter with Jesus and to draw from that joy renewed fidelity and strength. I look forward to being with you in these days and I ask you to bring my affectionate greetings to those who could not be with us, especially the many elderly priests and religious who join us in spirit,” he said.
  “During these days of the World Meeting of Families, I would ask you in a particular way to reflect on our ministry to families, to couples preparing for marriage, and to our young people.  I know how much is being done in your local Churches to respond to the needs of families and to support them in their journey of faith. I ask you to pray fervently for them, and for the deliberations of the forthcoming Synod on the Family,” Pope said.

Pope Francis in the United States

Pope Francis greets Sister Marie Mathilde, 102 years old, at the Jeanne Jugan Residence in Washington, D.C., Sept. 23, 2015. Photo courtesy of the Little Sisters of the Poor

Pope Francis on Thursday (24th September) made history by becoming the first Pope ever to address a joint session of the United States Congress

Pope gives impromptu greeting to crowds in Washington Mall

U.S. President Barack Obama and Pope Francis walk through the colonnade prior to an Oval Office meeting on September 23, 2015

Get out of that pigsty, repent and return to the house

 "Its better if my son dies," said a parent. He thinks that his wayward son is a burden to the family and society. 

 Even brothers and sisters also talk among themselves: "it's better if he/she dies.  Why should he/she live in this manner?" Why do they say this? He or she is living in the same way as the prodigal son (Bible parable) lived in the pigsty. They don't want to see him or her living in such miserable and sinful environment. 

 Yes, we human beings talk in this manner, but our God doesn't say anything like this about a person. God doesn't want a person to be destroyed or trapped by Devil. God waits. He has lot of patience. He's waiting for the lost son to come back. He led a sinful life, but God waits patiently to see the return of the prodigal son. True, he left my house, but God is waiting for his return.

 People who keep away from God are the ones who lost their wisdom. God is eager that people should get the wisdom back. These thoughts are from Rev Fr Mathew Peruvelil.  
   
 God loves everyone. When we come to the parable of the prodigal son, we know that the prodigal son did a stupid thing. He took his share of wealth from the father and left for a distant place. He secured his entire share from the father and there was nothing left out. When we read the Bible we know that what he did was a folly. The prodigal son thought he can live a good life without any control. There was no one to caution or warn him against doing anything wrong or sinful. He destroyed his wealth slowly and steadily. When he was losing wealth, he didn't care to think how he would survive when he becomes totally bankrupt.

 This prodigal son left a prosperous house -- a house which did not face shortage. He slowly slipped into a troubled state of living once he stepped out of his father's prosperous house. He didn't know what was happening to him. Actually this prodigal son was throwing away all the good things that God had given him. He faced only failures, unhappiness and losses when he left his father's house. Finally he lost everything that his father had given as his share. Then there was a big famine in the region and he found it tough to survive the famine. He approached another man for a job and he was given the task of looking after pigs. The prodigal son wasn't told or given any assurance about the food. Hungry without any food, he desired to have the food which was given to pigs. His impecunious state then reached its peak.

 Then he told himself: I will go back to may father's house. His father's servants were living a good life with good food. The waste in his father's house is thrown into the pigsty. There's no shortage in his father's house.

 The wisdom about going back to his father's dawned on him quite late. When he fell into bad times, the Holy Spirit gave him the idea of going back to his father's house. When we sin and turn away from God, we leave all the blessings and grace showered by God in our lives like the way the prodigal son left his father's prosperous house and eventually lost everything. "When we wallow in sin, we plunge to new depths of sorrows, unhappiness and a miserable life. This is the state of a man who sins. When he sins, he loses all blessings, grace and all the fruits of Holy Spirit and become like the prodigal son. When he sins again and again, his sinful life leads him to new lows of misery and spiritual poverty," Rev Fr Peruvelil said in a television talk.

 When we sin again and again, the Spirit of God may give us a thought: like the prodigal son got the late wisdom, in our father's house everyone is prosperous and happy. There's no shortage there. God is calling out to come back to His house and regain the blessings that we lost by sinning repeatedly. "The house that I left, in my father's house, there's blessing and grace. That's a life of happiness and without any complaints. A life of prosperity. I had left that prosperous house once. I got stuck like a lamb in the thorns. The thorn of sins gives me wounds. Many of these wounds become bigger and bigger and it becomes more painful," he said.

  "We must go back to our father's house. This return to the father's house is very important. After leading a sinful life, we must think about our father's good house... that I was born in a good house... I want to return to my father's house. It was a bad decision to leave my father's house. I lost all the blessings and grace," he said. When we return, we might think that we are not eligible to live in that house and we should ask our father to allow us as one of the servants. I have no right to go back and live in the house as I had left that home once with my share. I managed to lose everything once and I have no right to ask for more. My father never abuses or mistreats any servant in his house. I request my father to admit me as one of the servants.  

 Read Sirach 6:2-4:  "Do not let your passions carry you away; this can tear your soul to pieces like a bull. You will be left like a dead tree without any leaves or fruit. Evil desire will destroy you and make you a joke to your enemies." Yes, passions can leave you like a dead tree without any fruit or leaves. This is what happened to the prodigal son. This will happen to us when we get into a sinful life. Passions can tear your soul to pieces like a bull. When we violate the commandments of our Lord and sin against Him, our soul is being torn to pieces like a bull. So we should remain in the father's house. Once you go out of the father's house, the bull will tear your soul to pieces.

 Look at Sirach 17:24-26: "Yet to those who repent he grants a return, and he encourages those whose endurance is failing. Turn to the Lord and forsake your sins; pray in his presence and lessen your offenses. Return to the Most High and turn away from iniquity, and hate abominations intensely." We must return to our father's house. We can lead a prosperous and happy life in our father's house. When we confess our sins and reconcile with the father, he will welcome us with open arms. In fact, God is calling us back. He loves us. "He's waiting for us to return. As we read in the parable of prodigal son, the father will run to us and embrace us. He will ask his servants to give us food, ring, clothes and a good bath. He will bring us to the original position -- the position before we left him, abandoned him. Actually we go back to the father seeking a servant's job, but the father gives more. He will reinstate us to the original position. He will raise us back to the position of his son," Rev Fr Peruvelil said. 

 This happened because the father is a loving person. It's not because the prodigal son deserved or wanted it.
 Isaiah 1:18 says: "Come now, let us settle the matter," says the Lord. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool."
Our life was very bad. We led a sinful life. Come back to Lord. Then Lord will make you as white as snow though your sins are like scarlet. Are you in a mess created by sins? Don't worry. We will settle the matter, says the Lord. 

 Get rid of your old lifestyle, a life covered by sins. Get out of pigsty. When Israelites went wayward, God still loved them. God doesn't want to lose a single person. He doesn't forsake any sinner. God never wants anyone to go away from Him. There will be big happiness in heaven when a sinner repents. 
 

Why are you mistreating your father and mother?

 How do we treat our mothers, especially in their old ages? Are we treating our parents with love, care and affection when they grow old and frail? Well, if you visit some of the old-age homes, it’s crystal clear that many of us mistreat our parents and show a lack of respect and consideration for the elderly and their dignity. 
 This is abominable and a mortal sin. It's also a crime in many countries. 
 Even then, when it comes to mistreatment of parents, developed and developing countries are all in the same boat. In developing countries like India, sons and daughters dump their parents in some old age home. This mostly happens after the sons and daughters get a good job, house and a decent bank balance. They consider old and sick parents as liabilities. In developed nations like the US and Europe, elders are abandoned by their kids, forcing them to fend for themselves. Children don’t show love, care and affection to their parents. Beware, hell is waiting for such sons who mistreat their parents.
 When we think about our father and mother, Mother Mary’s image flashes through one’s mind. On September 8, Christians (especially Syrian, Coptic an Ethiopian Orthodox churches) celebrate the Nativity of Mary, or Birth of the Virgin Mary. Just hours before His death on the cross in Calvary, Jesus called John and entrusted Mother Mary to his care, saying “this is your mother.”  
  Our Lord didn't abandon His mother. Jesus then told Mother Mary: "this is your son." There's a message here. 
 The Church says it's a mortal sin to abandon the parents. “It’s is a mortal sin to discard our elderly. If we do not learn to look after and to respect our elderly, we will be treated in the same way. A society where the elderly are discarded carries within it the virus of death,” Pope Francis recently said. The biblical commandment that requires us to honour our parents, understood broadly, reminds us of the honour we must show to all elderly people. God associates a double promise with this commandment: “that you may have a long life” (Ex 20:12) and, the other, “that you might prosper” (Dt 5:16). In short, if you respect your parents and take care of them, you will live for a longer time. That’s a promise from God.
 Pope Francis says the Bible reserves a severe warning for those who neglect or mistreat their parents (cf. Ex 21:17; Lv 20:9). The same judgement applies today when parents, having become older and less useful, are marginalized to the point of abandonment. And there are so many examples. “Even educated people from wealthy families abandon their elderly parents. This happens even in Christian families,” says Rev Fr Biju Kollamkunnel, a Mumbai-based priest.
 If you pay a visit to the old age homes in your country, you will see many elderly people from well-to-do families. It’s not that they don’t have children and houses. They have been dumped in old-age homes by their own children. The Church says this is a mortal sin. A person who commits a mortal sin is one who knows that their sin is wrong, but still deliberately commits the sin anyway. This means that mortal sins are "premeditated" by the sinner and thus are truly a rejection of God’s law and love. He’s then willfully cutting off God’s grace.
  This is like playing into the hands of devil. One day you will also grow old. Then the same fate may start haunting you. Your own children will then abandon you. History will repeat. So act wisely. Take care of your parents and elderly people. And assure a place in heaven... not hell.

The photo that shocked the world

 'I was only hoping to provide a better life for my children,’ father of drowned migrant boy says

Mark MacKinnon

LONDON — The Globe and Mail

Last updated Friday, Sep. 04, 2015 1:09AM EDT

 Had the rubber dinghy carrying Alan Kurdi and his family made it to their destination – the Greek island of Kos – they would have just been four more faces in the tide of humanity that has crossed the frontiers of Europe and the West this year.

 Perhaps they would have been interviewed as they staggered ashore, or melted into the streams of migrants arriving by land and sea, fleeing the wars of the Middle East and central Asia. Even if their arrivals had been noted, the names of the Kurdi family would have been forgotten by now.

 But the rubber dinghy carrying the Kurdis never made it to Kos, instead capsizing in the rough seas just off the coast of Turkey. And now everyone knows the name of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old boy in the red T-shirt whose dead body washed up at a beach resort, captured in a photograph that somehow, finally, made the world wonder and worry about the rest of those desperately trying to reach the West.

 In the picture, little Alan looks somehow unscathed, as if he were just taking a nap in the pristine beaches of Bodrum. But his journey was anything but peaceful.

 His father, Abdullah Kurdi, told Syria’s opposition Radio Rozana that his wife and two sons died one by one in his arms on Wednesday as they clung to an overturned dinghy in waves just off the Turkish coast. He said he had paid €4,000 ($5,860) for four spaces on the five-metre-long rubber craft, which was crammed with 12 passengers for the journey to Kos, just four kilometres away. It was supposed to be a 30-minute trip.

“When we were away from the Turkish coast, oh my God the waves, we died. The Turk [smuggler] jumped into the sea, then a wave came and flipped us over. I grabbed my sons and wife and we held onto the boat,” Mr. Kurdi said, speaking slowly in Arabic and struggling at times for words.

“We stayed like that for an hour, then the first [son] died and I left him so I could help the other, then the second died, so I left him as well to help his mom and I found her dead. … what do I do. … I spent three hours waiting for the coast guard to come. The life jackets we were wearing were all fake.”

Soon afterward, Kurdi collapsed into sobs, bringing the interview to an end. “My wife is my world and I have nothing, by God. I don’t even think of getting married again or having more kids. … I am choking, I cannot breathe. They died in my arms.”

 Tiny Alan and his five-year-old brother Ghalib – who also died in the water on Wednesday – would have only known war and flight during their short lives. The family lived in Damascus, where Mr. Kurdi worked as a barber, before the 2011 outbreak of Syria’s civil war.

 As the violence closed in, they moved first to Aleppo, a city in northern Syria that quickly became one of the war’s most contested battlegrounds. So they moved again to Kobani, a Kurdish enclave near the Turkish border. Then the family fled into Turkey after Kobani was captured by Islamic State (IS) – also known by its Arabic acronym Daesh – late last year.

 Kobani is now under the control of Kurdish militias, who recaptured it with help of a U.S.-led bombing campaign. However, much of the city was reduced to rubble in the fighting, and Kobani remains the scene of regular clashes between Kurdish forces and IS.

“Daesh has taken everything from us. We came to the Turkish government and they were useless,” Mr. Kurdi said in the radio interview. “I couldn’t provide anything to my children, and my parents were helping us with the essentials even though I had a small salary.”

  Kurdi’s brother Mohammad and his four children reportedly applied for refugee status in Canada, where the family has relatives who sponsored the application, but were rejected in June. Relatives claimed that rejection helped spur Abdullah Kurdi to make the “bad” decision to attempt to reach Kos.

Two dinghies capsized in the water off the Turkish coast on Wednesday, leaving a total of 12 people dead. Their deaths were just the latest in a year that has seen more than 2,500 people – many of them from war-torn places such as Syria, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Afghanistan – die trying to reach Europe.

In the apparent start of a crackdown on the people-smuggling rings that have profited from those risky journeys, Turkish media reported that police had arrested four men on Thursday, all Syrian nationals. They were charged with “causing the death of more than one person,” as well as “trafficking migrants.”

 The bodies of Kurdi’s wife and children were at a morgue in southern Turkey on Thursday, waiting to be transferred back to Kobani for burial.

  Kurdi told a Turkish reporter that after burying his family he intended to take up arms to fight against Islamic State.

 He also claimed that the Canadian government had contacted him to offer citizenship in the wake of the much-publicized tragedy, but that he had declined. Citizenship and Immigration Canada denied Thursday that any such offer had been made.

 “I will return to Kobani to fight against Daesh,” he said. “I have nothing to live for. I will not go to Canada despite the invitation, nor to Europe. I’m not crazy about living in those places. I was only hoping to provide a better life for my children. I have nothing now, no family, no life. But I am now speaking for other refugees so that perhaps they will be saved.”

 But what awaits him in Kobani is likely more misery. Redur Xelil, a spokesman for the YPG Kurdish militia poised near the front lines of Kobani, said a “state of vigilance” had taken hold for now in the town, which has been a battleground for Kurdish fighters and the Islamic State since September, 2014.

 For the moment, fighting is “sporadic,” and includes sniper fire and bombardment, Xelil said in a telephone interview. “We are not fully engaged [in the battlefield], but we expect Daesh to make an attack,” he said.

 He said the fighters knew little of the day-to-day lives of civilians in the town, who were able to return to their homes after U.S.-led air strikes allowed Kurdish fighters to regain control of the town in 2015. The story of little Alan Kurdi and his family had touched the fighters too.

 “Surely this represents a silent tragedy suffered by Kurds in particular, and Syrians in general,” Xelil said.