My Valentine

"there isn't any valentine's day without a valentine

but this is i am my own valentinebecause u can't love anyone more than urse'f"
This is a copy paste of a chat with my friend. This is what she said (The grammar maybe a bit unconventional, as all chat usually is :) )
I thought of this, she said so because she didn't have a valentine, what would you and me have said, if we didn't have one? She is a non believer, its understandable when she says this.
I guess My Lord would be very sad, because HE is the only one who who has written a true love letter to us, John 15. This whole chapter is His expression of love to us. His ultimate expression being the Cross. Lets remember Him this Feb 14th with an even deeper love. Not the one that we express with cards or gifts but with our Life.

Is there anything too hard for me?"

Hi all!

Its been long since I posted on to "Discover". Well, I have been going through a little tough period for sometime now, without a job. Two days back I called up a dear Nun friend, "Sr. Mary" who used to be someone with whom I used to share a lot when I was confused or "down" during my college days. She was the animator of the JY in my place during that period. I called her to tell her to step up her prayers for me :)

She was talking to me when she suddenly said "Son, please read Jer 32:27" and claim it when praying. She told me this in Malayalam, I'm someone who is slightly weak in my vocabulary in Malayalam and I tried to translate the verse in English as soon as she kept the phone and found that I was not satisfied with my version of the translation. I was outside at the time, so didn't have the Bible with me to check out the English translation and then lo! I see a message pop in my mobile. Guess what? one of my JY frinds Denny has just sent me a message and it is Jer 32:27 and yeah in English :)

"I AM the Lord, the god of all mankind, is there anything too hard for me?" - Well! I don't doubt you my Lord, My God.

Friends, I don't think you should doubt either. There is nothing too hard for Him.

Jesus's prayer for us

Personal reflection based on John 17 (Jesus prays for himself and his disciples):

Whenever I have read this passage I have got a little bored, feeling that Jesus just was saying the same things over and over again as He prays for His disciples. I knew it was definitely much more than that, and so this day I prayed that the Holy Spirit may shed His light to enable me understand the passage and the depth of what Jesus wanted to convey. These are the train of thoughts that came to my mind:

When we speak to someone about something that we feel so strongly about, don’t we do this too – say the same things over and over again? As we pour our hearts out to someone, don’t we find ourselves desperately trying to phrase and rephrase the exact same statements, just wanting to make sure they really understood us? The depth of Jesus’s prayer slowly started to dawn on me. Here is the gist of what He says – ‘I was here with them till now, but now I am going. But they are here (in the world). Father, protect them and keep them from the evil one.’ Jesus knows what it is like to be in this world; He knows what His people will have to go through. So He tells His heavenly Father to keep them, to protect them - over and over again.

I thought about how worried we parents are, as we send our children to school for the very first time. We are concerned about how well they will eat; whether they will know when it’s time to go to the bathroom; whether they will miss us; whether they will cry; whether the teachers will know how to handle them, so on and so forth. The children, on the other hand, may not worry as much, because it’s their first time and they really don’t know what to expect. This thought helped me relate to Jesus’s concern about us as He prays this prayer. He knows what it’s like, and so He prays with all sincerity…He has been through every single emotion/situation that we have or will have to go through in this world. To start with, He didn’t even have a proper place to be born! He has experienced temptations, was scoffed, neglected and falsely accused; He has experienced great stress and tension – so great that his sweat became drops of blood!; He has carried the heavy cross and endured great physical pain and suffering all the way up to the cross on Calvary. He knows what awaits us, and He prays to the Father for our protection.

In His prayer, Jesus says ‘When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them...’ (v 12) Yes, Jesus walked with His disciples and protected them while He was here…By His daily life, He taught the disciples and let them learn from Him….... A few examples from His life came to my mind – examples through which he conveyed valuables lessons on forgiveness, and on listening to the Spirit’s promptings in the various situations we face:

- The story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19), the tax collector. He climbed up the sycamore tree to see Jesus. He had not repented, not turned away from his wrong ways – not yet. He was up in the tree just as he was. He just wanted to see Jesus. Jesus did not wait for him to come ask for forgiveness; Jesus did not wait for him to repair his wrongs. Jesus sensed his repenting heart, and went out to him rightaway – accepted him just as he was. Jesus, our master, set an example for the kind of forgiveness that He asks of us – as soon as we sense a repenting heart, we are called to go forth and forgive, accept and embrace. Isn’t that much higher than the forgiveness that the world teaches us?

A few instances where Jesus speaks out against wrong practices and outlooks:
- When the scribes and Pharisees accuse the disciples of not washing hands, Jesus explains to them that ‘It is not what enters one's mouth that defiles that person; but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles one.’ (Mathew 15:11)
- When the scribes and Pharisees accuse Jesus of healing a man’s withered hand on Sabbath, he explains to them that ‘it is lawful to do good on Sabbath’ (Luke 6)
- On yet another occasion that he’s accused of healing on Sabbath, He says ‘Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it out for watering? This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day from this bondage?" (Luke 13:16)
In these situations, we see Jesus offering explanations to the scribes and Pharisees, helping them understand the truth. When we come across situations that we can use to offer counsel and advice and thus bear witness to Jesus, we are called to stand up and do it, trusting the Holy spirit to guide and enlighten us.

And then, the picture of Jesus in the Sanhedrin came to my mind. As Jesus is questioned by Pilate, we see him keeping quiet (Mat 27:13, 14) – not speaking out against the injustice, not even defending himself! Here, Jesus teaches us that there are times when we need to speak out, and times when we need to keep quiet...(...how desperately we need the grace to discern this!) When we stay close to Jesus, we will learn to recognize and listen to His voice in all that we say and do. We will be able to discern His will, and think, speak and do according to the prompting that the Holy Spirit puts in our hearts.

- ‘I gave them your word,…’ (v14) : This verse got me thinking again about our children at school…: we feel comforted when we think about the instructions/advice that we have given them. We know we have told them to go ahead and use the bathroom when they need to, and not wait too long; We know we have told them that we will be there to pick them up right after school – ie; we find comfort/solace in the fact that we have ‘given them our words’. And we hope they will remember those words. Just the same way, Jesus says to the Father ‘I gave them your Word’. He hopes that we will remember them, and use them. He hopes that we will read and keep the Word of God close to our hearts, and will be able to use it as we live this life in the world. He knows that this Word that is sharper than a two-edged sword is all we need to fight the evil one. ‘Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth.’ (v 17) Jesus prays to the Father to keep us holy , keep us sacred (consecrate) in the truth, which is the word of God.

Think about how happy we feel when someone says that they will pray for us. If so, how great should our joy be, knowing that Jesus our Lord and Savior prays for us to God the Father!

Praise God for his unending love for us!
Lucy

Courage to answer a call

Christmas seems to be an apt time to think about our call and what it takes to say Yes to God. I wonder what Mother Mary would have gone through when she said yes. Did she realize what she was saying yes to?

All of us at some point in our life stand at that juncture where we have to make a choice, say no to our own plans and say yes to a greater call. Its good to reflect using our dear Mother as an example. I think she had absolutely no clue about the magnanimity of the task at hand when she said that Yes. (Luke 1:38) She probably only knew what angel Gabriel told her - that God had chosen her to bear a son who would save the world. She was also told by Simeon that a sword would pierce her heart (Luke 2:35)... That's it. Then there was a life long silence from God's side. I am quite sure she never had the blueprint of her life with her when she began her journey. Step by step she realized God's plan and the purpose of her call.. treasuring all these things in her heart(Luke 2:51).

I believe that's what happens to us as well, as we prepare ourselves to say Yes to God. We may never know how huge the task is and we might often question God - Why me? But like Mother Mary, let's learn to silently let God work. And step by step, little by little the blueprint becomes clearer and life begins to make more sense.

This Christmas let's pray for the grace to accept God's plan and purpose and the willingness to say Yes to a greater call.

Thank you God

Many times I wonder, how my life would've been if I hadn't known Christ, if I wasn't a Catholic! And those are moments when I can't help thanking God for Him in my life. My days are spent in prayer and a constant struggle to do what my Lord wills. I'm sure thats the case with most of us as well. Just to think, if it wasn't so...! If it weren't for the struggles we face, just because we love the Lord, or at least try to. If it wasn't for the pain of detachment and the joy of knowing that Christ alone suffices... our lives would have been so incomplete. So rightly did Christ himself say, "... but apart from me, you can do nothing" Jn 15:5. I can't thank God enough for making my life ever so meaningful through all the struggles... :-)

A simple lesson in faith…

Here’s a small incident which helped open my eyes a little bit more to understanding what Jesus meant by wanting us to be like children…...

Last Friday I had to take an auto from home to take our 3½ year old son Daniel to his playschool. I had to walk a small stretch of road with him to get to the main road, and then we stood there for a while waiting for an auto to pass by. The road to the school was pretty bad and bumpy and it was also dug up to lay some pipes. So no autos were passing that way, and those that did refused to go where we wanted to - and it was getting late for school.

After a while I spotted one auto coming our way and I told Daniel 'Let's ask Jesus to help us' and added a small prayer aloud for him to hear ,'Jesus, please let that auto stop'. When the auto came nearer, I realized that it already had a passenger. So I put my foot back and told Daniel, 'This won't stop, it already has someone in it'. But Daniel pulled me forward again holding my hand, and said,'But....but….Jesus…...'. He didn't complete the sentence because he didn't know how exactly to phrase it, but I knew that what he meant to say was, 'But didn't we tell Jesus?'. Feeling sorry that he was disappointed, I explained to him 'I know, we prayed to Jesus, but this auto can't stop because someone else is already in it....'

To my surprise, the auto stopped on the side and the driver told us to get in. The passenger, who was an elderly person, scooted to one side to make room. It was a 15-20 minutes ride to school, and that kind man had lost 10 minutes of his time in the process of taking the deviation to drop us. I was so grateful to both him and the auto driver, and when I thanked him, the man said 'not a problem. I only did what I would have done for my daughter'. Knowing auto drivers in Bangalore, it is truly a miracle that the auto driver and the man showed the kindness to stop for us.

Even though it's been awhile, the way Daniel said 'But….but… Jesus….' and the expression that went with it still stays fresh in my mind. With the amount of faith I had, I believed that Jesus could make the auto stop, provided it was unoccupied - whereas the child believed firmly that Jesus could stop the auto no matter what. Isn't that a HUGE difference?

Though a small incident, I believe it came with the big lesson for me that this is the kind of 'blind faith/trust' that Jesus asks of us. Praise God!

Lucy (Feb 2008)

Two men of faith whom I have been blessed to know contd ..

I continue my writing about Shaju brother from the earlier posting. (Link to earlier post)

As I told you Shaju brother's small family serves Jesus through their service of the destitute they pick up from the streets. At Akashaparavakal you can call them at any time of the day about a destitute that you find on the roadside needing help. Shaju brother and his companions will come with an ambulance which one of their well wishers have donated and take him in. They never say no when a brother of theirs is in need of their service. So their house is always over flowing with people they care for. Shaju brother’s family consists of him, his wife Shiji and their 4 year old son Michael. Their lives are dedicated in service of these "Makkal" that they have adopted into their lives. I have seen Michael freely playing around with these people from his infant years, loving them and treating them as members of their own family. Shaju brother, his family and his companions take care of the people God has put in their care with lots of love and care. They believe that their house belong to the "Makkal" and they are the servants, God has put in that house in service of the destitute.

When I went first to Akashaparavakal, they were in a small house of which one room was set apart as a chapel and the whole house overflowing with people. It would have been big enough for a small family to live comfortably and it had Shaju brother’s small family, two other brothers from Akashaparavakal whose lives have been dedicated to the service of the destitute and then 10 - 13 of Gods people they were taking care of. That small house was never enough. After some time, they were offered a piece of land and a small building on the outskirts of the city with another small house and soon they had two houses which were full. Seeing their plight, a person who was into construction business offered his services free to build a better house on the first plot of land, with the condition that Akashaparavakal would find the money for the building materials. The building contractor himself drew up the plan and God inspired them to build a house which could house 20 people. The estimate came up to 7 lakhs (700000) with Shaju brother having a few thousand rupees with him. Shaju brother started off the construction in faith and still he never went out soliciting money for the construction. God provided, all through different people and the house got constructed with never more than a few 1000 rupees in hand at any time. Jesus provided the right amount of money at the right times through different people, often people whom Shaju brother had never even met before. That house is now full with Gods beloved.

Then again God inspired the contractor who built this house to offer to build a bigger house on the other plot of land also on the same conditions that Akashaparavakal would provide the materials and he would provide the labor at a much reduced cost. This time God inspired them to have a house which could house 100 people with enough facilities for taking care of them. The estimate came out to be 50 lakhs (5,000,000). During this time, the Collector of the area in the suburb of Bangalore where Shaju brother was doing his service came to know about the work he was doing among the destitute and offered to do every thing in his capacity to get him all clearances for foreign funding and help him to get the funds also. Shaju brother and his companions prayed together and decided that the people whom they take care belong to this land and God would provide from his abundance through the people of this land itself. So they rejected the idea of going for foreign funds. They came to the conclusion that they would not be able to experience the faith in Gods providence that meets their every day needs and nothing more if they had the plentiful access to foreign funds. So now the construction of the new building is going on. The final cost has gone up from 50 lakhs. The construction is in crisis lots of times because of paucity of funds. But as Shaju brother says, Jesus has never allowed the construction to come to a stand still and it continues. Shaju brother still continues to depend on the abundant graces of his loving God while he on most days just has enough to feed the people through the next few days. But Gods abundance never runs out and Shaju brother’s faith also never runs out.

Recently I was there at Akashaparavakal to spend a day there. I joined with them for the prayer service that they have before lunch. It was nothing great like the beautiful praise and worship services that I go to. It didn't have any beautiful prayers. It mostly consisted of a lot of Hallelujahs’ said by the makkal thanking god while one of the brothers

thanked God for the simple things God provided for in their lives, like the food on their plates, the clothes on their back, the roof over their heads, the strength in their limbs etc. And the inmates would say hallelujah. There were a few familiar songs sung with the people joining in very off key. But I could feel the presence of Christ walking among his beloved people. I could feel the love of Christ flowing through which brought tears to my eyes. What a treasure they had, the infinite love and graces of a God who had their names engraved in his palms and provided every thing that they needed from his abundance. Jesus asked nothing back from them other than their child like love for Him. I enjoyed true praise and worship. I enjoyed the love of God flowing through. And I still learn the basics of faith from Shaju brother and the other brothers at Akashaparavakal.