17. March 19, 2014 -17th Day of Lent

Being a little Child and walking to Jesus with our eternal Mother.

Little children are the living examples that God has set for us. Every now and then when we see them, there will be a reflection of ourselves. Even Jesus has said to us,

“The truth is, you must change your thinking and become like little children. If you don’t do this, you will never enter God’s kingdom. The greatest person in God’s kingdom is the one who makes himself humble like this child.

-Mathew 18:3-4

Being humble like a little child, being innocent in loving like a little child is the pinnacle of perfection. When a little child buds in our mind, a mother, who walk with us each and every second, taking care of us and guiding us in the proper way and who intercede for us will hold our hand and cuddle us in her lap. The loving Mother which our Almighty Father and Jesus gave us- Mother Mary.

When we reflect back, we can bring back memories when our mother held our hands and took us to church. A mother who showed us Jesus, a sincere love who scolded us sometimes when we went wrong. She is an untiring pleader for us to God. With her tears, she gave us the deposit for a bright future. With her sacrifice she built us to the 'We' we are now. Whose prayers which always protected us and is still shielding us.

When we watch during the mass, we can find this mother even now. She holds the hands of her child and make them stand properly in church, when they fall down, she stretches her hand to embrace them. When a child is making noise, the mother quiets them, she pacify them not to cry, she helps them to understand and feel the mass and the Christ in it. Slowly the child learn how to be in Mass, how to fold their hands in prayer, how to pray, how to proceed without a fail and helping in their each step to grow both physically and spiritually towards God. It is through Our Mother that we saw this World first and felt our Lord first.

The same relation we must have with Mother Mary. This is how Jesus gave us Mother Mary. We are little immature children in this world. It is our deep dependency to Mother Mary and through her intercessions that we can win over this world and reach to our Father in the right way as shown by Jesus. 

Any mother who loves her child can sense the pain that Mother Mary suffered when Her only son was rejected by the world, beaten and thrashed with blood, and finally nailed on to the Cross in front of Her. Mary stood in calmness, treasuring Her feelings inside and pondered them in her heart. So serene a Mother ,so calm. In Her calmness and deep prayers of love and devotion to Jesus and Father, She was taken into heaven with angels. Her intercessions are always heard by the heavens. Let us make this Mother our own. Let us, through Her reach God perfectly through Her love.

Let us remember our mother and the eternal one Mother Mary and devote ourselves innocently pleading for Her intercessions and help to win the race of this world, to walk unshakable in Gods love.

Prayer,

Lord help us to humble ourselves as little children and believe in You innocently, cry to You for our faults. Thank You for giving us our mother and Mother Mary. Let us seek guidance from Her and be in Her hands to walk to You through this world and reach You in perfection.

Hail Mary, full of grace.
Our Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb,
Jesus.
Holy Mary,Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

16. March 18, 2014 -16th Day of Lent

He must become greater; I must become less."

                                                                                       -John 3:30

When we begin a day, we get up from bed filled with works to do that day. This and that to be completed or updated. Somethings to follow up with, or to mend or finish off with a deal. No matter which age are we in, adult or children or youth or older generation we have our own things to complete in a day.



Not only is the case of things to be completed, we worry about things that we have done in the past or the previous day or things to be done in future. A whole load of things just in one day.



Many cases can hold up us in tension. It can be something that we said to someone,whether they felt bad or depressed; something we have done to someone ,family matters and our list goes on and on. These things make our mind too busy and noisy. We cant even sit for a second in calmness.



Have we ever thought about the load we are taking a day. We may be no one in the society ,sometimes we may not even be employed,even then we are filled up in mind.Why such tensions,why these many loads?



The state of these tensions in our mind is because it is "WE who do the things,WE who decide the things,WE who plan the things'. The fact is that



“A person can receive only what God gives "- John 3:27



Because we never created us,we cannot even add a single hour in our life a day. In this case if we decide upon a days things or if we load up our minds with things to do and expect a perfect way of achieving it..it may not turn out fruitful.



Because it is not that we who decides. If we were our creators and if we had a full power to modify each and every aspect in us and in our life, then we would have had the power to decide and do with our authority. The 'I' in us can do nothing alone. Our "I" should be made lesser,let us fill ourselves with God.



The perfect truth is that we are helpless. We cannot decide and do by our own selfish plans. It may all go wrong or may turn out bad for us. Instead of 'we' being our deciders let our Creator take care of it. Because He is the one who knows what is right for us, better than us. Our creator, amidst all these chaos of our life says to us

God says, "Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." -Psalms 46:10

What we must do in a situation of tension and trouble, busy or rush times is that to humble ourselves first. Make a mind that accepts the fact we cant do anything by our own, we can get only what God gives us and He is the one who knows what is right. Make our faith in God strong.Our God Gives.

The one who worries has a small faith, hence he try his maximum but his efforts go waste making him down, because humans are weak but with God in them , they are strong.

"Don’t worry and say, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ That’s what those people who don’t know God are always thinking about. Don’t worry, because your Father in heaven knows that you need all these things.What you should want most is God’s kingdom and doing what he wants you to do. Then he will give you all these other things you need.So don’t worry about tomorrow. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Tomorrow will have its own worries. "- Mathew 6:31-34

Hence when we are in such situations,never try to put a selfish trade mark of our own on that, instead..strongly believe that Our loving Lord is with us and for us.With perfect submission,do our part and then leave it to Almighty for the fruit He gives,that is right to us.

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. “Philippians 4:6-7

In prayer, make Him our requests and seek His help,do our part, then keep calm and wait patiently. Empty the selfish 'I can' from our heart and mind. Fill us with God. Let Him grow in us and let us be reduced for Him.Our God is a wonderful God who always care us ,love us and guide us to good.

Lord loving Father,help us to stay calm,to humble ourselves before You and cleanse the 'I" in us.It is You who must live in us. Let us seek You in the first place of our life and rest leave to You.Because You know us better that we know us.Amen



Reading

Mathew 6:25-34

15. March 17, 2014 -15th Day of Lent

Shine With God

Can we imagine a world without light? The world we see now will not be the same when there is no light. The beautiful greenery, the snowy mountains, the blue sky, the colorful birds and butterflies, the days we enjoy outside, the dress we put..all will be nothing but perfect darkness. For a beautiful world that we see now, there must be the sun shining with its elegant light,giving life and power to this world.

Our condition is the same. For us to be beautiful, our Lord, the brightest sun should shine on us and through us. If we are without Him, we will be in perfect darkness. Our beauty shines through The Almighty.

We may be in darkness. The darkness due to our unrighteous character, impure works, our sins or our indifference to our Lord. If we are in this darkness of this worldly powers,if we are finding it hard to release ourselves from the mighty bonds,if we feel ourselves guilty and depressed due our situations in life, if we are unsatisfied with what we are experiencing from this world, please don't worry,never leave ourselves to get rotten in our human  minds because all this give us a hint that the light in us is not shining. We have no power of our own.

 For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.- 2 Corinthians 4:6

So let us submit ourselves and come under the light of the Lord Almighty. When He shine in you, the dark inner cores of our hearts will no longer show up. The light has the power to outshine all these darkness in us. When our Lord come inside us and shine through us we are no longer weak but will shine unending giving light even to others. His light will give the light of knowledge,the wisdom of God will shine in us as whole. We are never weak in this world with God.

"Lord, you are my Light and my Savior,

    so why should I be afraid of anyone?-Psalms 27:1 

This light will come into us when we turn our face towards Him sincerely with the true thirst of it and then we shall never fear anything of this world.

“Jerusalem, get up and shine![a]

    Your Light is coming!
    The Glory of the Lord will shine on you.
2 Darkness now covers the earth,
    and the people are in darkness.
But the Lord will shine on you,
    and his Glory will appear over you.
3 Then the nations will come to your light.
    Kings will come to your bright sunrise.-Isaiah 60:1-3

When the glory of God shine on us we are no longer weak. Let us give ourselves for Him so that He can transfigure us as His children like Jesus who transfigured in Mount tabor with the power of Father Almighty. In the same way let our submission lead God to say“This is my Son, the one I love. I am very pleased with him"-Mathew 17:5

"You are all people who belong to the light. You belong to the day. We don’t belong to the night or to darkness." Thessalonians 5:5

Those who love darkness love only their works which can never unravel to the light and which shall perish.Let us be for the light and do everything in this light.Let us come out from the shells of darkness without fear.For the light of the lord erases all our darkness of heart.

Those people lived in darkness, but they will see a great light. They lived in a place as dark as death, but a great light will shine on them.-Isaiah 9:2

The people who live in spiritual darkness
    have seen a great light.
The light has shined for those
    who live in the land that is as dark as a grave.”-Mathew 4:16

Let us come to His light first by realizing our darknesses', by repenting and submitting ourselves sincerely through confession, by taking into ourselves The Body and Blood of Christ who suffered for us, by being His Children forever strongly believing in His power and not worrying about our weakness.

Lord help us see the light of Yours, save us from our darkness, help us to come near You so that in Your warmth we live and we shine always .We are weak as humans but as Gods children we are strong.Your wisdom will make us shine. Amen

Reading

1John 1

John 8:12

14. March 16, 2014 -14th Day of Lent

The Word

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."-John 1:1
"the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."-John 1:14

This word is our living power always. The word became flesh and lived among us. He loved us and guided us, He cured us and forgave us, He sacrificed Himself and saved us. Jesus is this Living word. He once lived among us in person and showed us the way to our eternal house.He showed us how to live and conquer this world without being enslaved by the world and how to get purified from sins.

The majority dint give ear to Him and they crucified Him.But the power of the word resurrected defeating the mighty worldly powers.The world disintegrates in this Word. The world has no existence. But the word's power multiplies each moment and extends to the deep inside of a human. The word that got resurrected now live in us. It is always with us now. Since the word in flesh (Jesus) was not able to present everywhere at the same time, He won over the perishable body and resurrected as spirit to enter into each of our hearts and to be present with His children all the time.

In each second that we are living, this word speaks in us.The Word-The Holy spirit is our eternal companion.

"when the Spirit of truth comes, he will lead you into all truth. He will not speak his own words. He will speak only what he hears and will tell you what will happen in the future.  The Spirit of truth will bring glory to me by telling you what he receives from me.  All that the Father has is mine. That is why I said that the Spirit will tell you what he receives from me." John 16:13-15

The Holy Spirit is the living power in us, The Living Word Jesus-The voice of our Eternal Father.

When we feel the sincere love to our Savior ,A thirst for His voice develops in us. The thirst for His words. The power of the Word is marvelous. It can unravel the mysteries of our life, it can make our paths straight, it will fill in our weaknesses to make us strong,it can melt the hard hearts, it will show us the true God,it gives us our daily bread and long long it goes...the power of the word.

The apostolic letter Ephesians 6 shows how to live in this world,

"taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" Ephesians 6:16-17

These are our weapons to fight our sins and temptations. Word of God is the sword of the spirit.

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Hebrews 4:12

When we reflect our inner spirit,we find ourselves hard hearted, hardened with the scales of this world. We stand indifferent to the tender emotions,to the love of God, to His plans for us , to His sacrifices for us and to His patience and mercy. These can be seen around us each day, sometimes in our friends, our fellow being, our children, our family or anywhere.But our hard heart never permits us to hear what word of God says to us. 

So in this lenten time,Let us learn to love and live in the Word-the living God.Let us sit for sometime and read the living light with us-The Bible. It is sure to melt our heart. in Jeremiah 23:29,God says that His word is like a fire, a hammer that breaketh the rock into pieces.Let this Hammer of God break and melt our hard heart to transform into a heart of flesh that has the Blood of Jesus and the breath of Father Almighty.

Lord help us to understand Your love through Your words of power. Help us to know the power that it can give us to rejuvenate the spirit in us.Lead us to thirst for Your word and love You sincerely by knowing You through Your voice of the Word.Amen

Let us be the living word for Him.

Reading:
1 Peter 1:22-23

13. March 15, -13th Day of Lent

The Wonderful Mercy

" For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

             -John 3:16

There is no other way to understand our Gods mercy to all of His children. Mercy was with all His children, mercy came down to earth ,it was tortured and nailed, died to show the extend of love to us and resurrected; to be in us always at all time. Mercy encompass us no matter however we go astray from this loving Kindness.

We sometimes behave cruelly to Gods love for gaining our wishes.We may sometime compromise His plans with our plans even though we are aware of its consequences. Even by knowing the great love of our lord, we forget Him,we never thank Him. But God never forgets us,He never stops loving us, He is always merciful,always reaching His hands to us. 

Why God is always merciful us? Is he not fed up on us? 

"God has been kind to you. He has been very patient, waiting for you to change. But you think nothing of his kindness. Maybe you don’t understand that God is kind to you so that you will decide to change your lives."

-Romans 2:4

God is kind to us so that we will decide to repent and change our lives.No matter how we are,how mean we are, how untrue we are in our love to Him, God waits for us patiently. His mercy towards us is without measure.

"But God is rich in mercy, and he loved us very much. 5 We were spiritually dead because of all we had done against him. But he gave us new life together with Christ. (You have been saved by God’s grace.)"

-Ephesians 2:4-5

Let us receive this new life together. Let us do a simple thing for Him,"Trust in Him and Jesus".

"Your goodness and mercy will be with me all my life,

    and I will live in the Lord’s house a long, long time."Psalms 23:6

Let us reflect on our lives. Let us realize how wonderfully Gods mercy has protected us. Let us repent on our unrighteousness. Let us return to the eternal satisfaction, to our Lord- the Inexhaustible source of mercy.

"This is the Lord’s message:

    “Now come back to me with all your heart.
Cry and mourn, and don’t eat anything!
    Show that you are sad for doing wrong.
13 Tear your hearts,
    not your clothes.[a]”
Come back to the Lord your God.
    He is kind and merciful.
He does not become angry quickly.
    He has great love."-Joel 2:12-13

Oh lord ,Untiring giver of mercy,help us to realize our iniquities, help us to realize your marvelous touch of mercy in our life. Guide us back to You,so that we can always stand for You in this world and help others to get to You.Amen

Reading:

Luke 15:11-32

Psalms 32

12. March 14, 2014- 12th Day of Lent

Seek for the True Wisdom

We are not of this world. We are Gods children who came to stay in the world for a while. But the powers of the world try to deceive us and make us worldly. It tempts us and drag us down to sin so as to block our way, back to our Fathers Eternal house. We need immunity to fight the world. We need wisdom to differentiate what is right for us. For this wisdom we must see the world through the Lords eyes. We must feel the world through His hands. We must conquer this world like Jesus. Always remember "the world is made for us by our Father in Heaven ; we are not made for the world".The world should never slave us.

For this wisdom to fill in us, we should seek Lord first. We must accept in our souls that we are living by His breath in us. 

As James 1:5-8 says:

"Do any of you need wisdom? Ask God for it. He is generous and enjoys giving to everyone. So he will give you wisdom. But when you ask God, you must believe. Don’t doubt him. Whoever doubts is like a wave in the sea that is blown up and down by the wind.  People like that are thinking two different things at the same time. They can never decide what to do. So they should not think they will receive anything from the Lord."

When we were little children, we used to believe blindly what our parents say.They held our hands and guided us until we were able to fly by our own. In the same way ,as a child depends on their parents, we must be to God. We are immature in spirit,hence we must grow in His wisdom that has been planted in us as the Holy Spirit.We must hear His voice.

James 1:21

"Be humble and accept God’s teaching that is planted in your hearts. This teaching can save you."

The Holy spirit that God gave us teaches us everything that we need for living in this world.  Let us invite Him to our thoughts and give our ear to the Spirit, be humble and hear what He says...for we are not enough to live this world but the one who is in us is greater than the world.

1 Corinthians 2:10-12

"The Spirit knows all things. The Spirit even knows the deep secrets of God.  It is like this: No one knows the thoughts that another person has. Only the person’s spirit that lives inside knows those thoughts. It is the same with God. No one knows God’s thoughts except God’s Spirit. We received the Spirit that is from God, not the spirit of the world. We received God’s Spirit so that we can know all that God has given us."

Let us be aware of what God has given us and how He has planned it for us.Let us live life through Him.

Lord Heavenly king open our minds ,ears, eyes and all senses to receive your wisdom to live in this world as you chose us, conquering it and reaching to you finally. Let this world never make us far away from you. Amen

Reading

James 3:13-18

11. March 13 ,2014- 11th day of Lent

Our Weaknesses are for The Lord

We are all good at finding weaknesses, specially the weaknesses of our fellows. If it is our weaknesses, we get worried over it often. We try our best to overcome it but our efforts may go waste. This is because we excavate the weaknesses for our selfish desires.May be to become supreme among a group or to hide up a flaw.

But we hardly think about the fact that 'we are not our creators nor of our fellow beings' Our Creator Father, who made us gave everything to us with a definite plan. It is said that,

'God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. He chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. And God chose what the world thinks is not important—what the world hates and thinks is nothing. He chose these to destroy what the world thinks is important. God did this so that no one can stand before him and boast about anything.' 

--1Corinthians 1:27-29]

The weaknesses in each of us are not to shame others or to feel ashamed of  self but it is given to us to make us humble and to search God in our lacking. If God made us strong in all things, we will never feel a need of help, we will be strong so that the human power of this world will rule us. But if we are weak in something we search for help.

The search of help in our weakness can guide us to the influence of two powers; the Spiritual power from our God or the worldly powers. It is in this stage that we need the right wisdom to chose the eternal power. The worldly power may seem easy to gain over our weakness but it is futile and short lived. But the power that we seek from the spirit of God is eternal.

'It is not the wisdom of the rulers of this world, who are losing their power.  But we speak God’s secret wisdom that has been hidden from everyone until now. God planned this wisdom for our glory. He planned it before the world began.  None of the rulers of this world understood this wisdom.'      -1Corinthians 2:6-8  

In our weakness God gives us His spirit to us and from then on it is God who works in our weakness . Just think, who will be strong... will it be a perfect worldly man or a man through him God works? So it is great to have weakness, we only have to submit them to our Lord, He will work for us.

Christ is the one who gives me the strength I need to do whatever I must do.- Philippians 4:13

If we have any weakness, either it is a weakness in habit , alcoholism, drugs, selfishness, depression , sexual thoughts or anything like that, let us invite God to our weaknesses...Let us pray "Lord i am weak in this world, i am not able to overcome my lust or passions, please give me your strength that is everlasting, so that through you i can beat my weakness which traps me in this world. Amen.

2 Corinthians 12:9
"But the Lord said, “My grace is all you need. Only when you are weak can everything be done completely by my power.” So I will gladly boast about my weaknesses. Then Christ’s power can stay in me."

Reading ;
Psalm 25

10. March 12 ,2014- Tenth day of Lent

The Church- Unity of Souls 

When God created man He made him single at first but He found that it is not right for man to be lonely and created Eve. All animals that we see around are not made single but with pairs or they are living in social groups . we find a mutual understanding, sharing, respect and sacrificing nature among these groups. When we look at the plants and trees, the trees are with a mass group of branches and leaves, flowers and fruits, together they grow with mutual sharing.

God planned His creation in such a way "unity is strength".the unity in work, the unity in dedication, the unity in efforts, the unity for sharing and suffering for others. Amongst the diversified characters the souls must remain united in God.

When we journey through life there may have been number of situations while we failed fighting alone. We needed the help of our partner,children,relatives or friends or co-workers to tide over the crisis. In the same way we must join our souls with others to offer a helping mind and hand to those in need. There are many things in life that we cannot face alone. The load of it cannot be managed by our own souls. This is when Church comes to our life. 

A marvelous place were at them same time hundreds or thousands of mind and souls unify together in God. When we think of the "Mass", even though the timings are different between many places, at one part of the hemisphere we can find the unity of souls, millions of them, at the same time..the incense of prayers arising at the same time to the Lord. Let us expand "MASS"- Multitude Aggregated in Souls Submission at the same time.In Church , in the Mass, we all join together to God, to His sacrifice for us and to His compassionate love for us. 

1 Corinthians 12 gives us a marvelous answer for this: 

"God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.  If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body." 

-1 Corinthians 12:18-20

"God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it,  that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.  If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored,all rejoice together.

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.  And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing,helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues." 1 Corinthians 12:24-28

In this Lent, let us join our souls together to be whole in God. Let us see the hearts of others and their needs.Let us join with all and pray with sincere love towards others, for there is living God in all of us. For it is said;

"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."Mathew 18:20

The Church is our foundation from were we learn to join our souls to the soul of God in unity for making His kingdom Whole. In this lent, let us be able to make ourselves pure and to join together our souls with others to feel Gods love midst us. Amen

Reading:

1 Corinthians 12

9. March 11 ,2014- Ninth day of Lent

Confession 

Our weakness towards the world is trapping us in sins. The sins make us far from Lord in our heart.It blocks our spiritual way to our Lord.  If our spirit remains aloof from God ..it dries out beyond limits that we will find it hard or we have to sacrifice much to get back to God.

Let not our sins accumulate and block the way to Our Father. Let it not prevent the blessings/plans that God has for us. For that we have to confess and make our heart lighter so as to rise to our Lord for Him to reside in.

We cannot confess straight to God. We are vulnerable groups always weak when tempted and always exposed to the earthly trials. We hardly can submit all our sins directly to Him as we get shattered by the world. But a Priest is the chosen person by God for us. A priest sacrifices all the worldly lusts, he has far more better control than us upon this world and thrives on temptations through prayer. Priests are always in communication with Lord..his prayer is his weapon. Priest never shatters. Hence he has the privilege to take our sins to Lord Almighty and through the Body and Blood of Jesus we get cleansed of our sins.

In this lent, let us list out all our sins and all that we have done that did hurt the Lord.Let us humble ourselves by sharing our sins to the Gods chosen one and let us remove the block. For this, at first we must wish for our confession and pray for it to Lord. Lord will prepare a beautiful way for the confession.

"Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity 
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
 my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.Selah

I acknowledged my sin to you,
    and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
    and you forgave the iniquity of my sin."- Psalms 32:1-5

Prayer;

Lord help us to humble ourselves and renew ourselves to your chosen one without fail so that you are having a space in our soul to live. Amen

Reading:

Psalms 32