Prayer on the Tomb of St. Francis of Assisi and Holy Mass

At Angelus Pope Francis renews call for peace in Syria (+playlist)

Pope Francis: Church grows through witness of humility (+playlist)

Jackie Fernades is no more.

Jackie Fernandez with grandsons.

On Thursday, October 10, 2013 10:40 PM, CP <cedricprakash@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Friends,

Just a line to give you the very sad news that our dear friend Mr. Jackie Fernandes  from Ahmedabad,is no more!

He passed away a few hours ago after a massive heart attack in Princeton USA.

He and his wife Leela were visiting their children Alka and Austin (and their families) here. They had already spent a few months with them and were planning to return in November

I spent a couple of days with them a few days ago. Jackie was looking well and had no physical complaint!

His death is a terrible shock to his beloved wife Leela , his daughter Alka(husband Edwin and sons Kevin and Darin) and son Austin(wife Ingrid and sons Ian and Ethan). We pray that they have the strength to bear this loss.

His funeral will take place on Saturday 12th October at Princeton. I plan to be there

May Jackie rest in peace!

Our  heartfelt sympathies to Leela, Jackie, Austin and all the family

Fr. Cedric

 Jackie is from St Xavier's Parish

Their emails

leela.fernandes@gmail.com

adcruz8@hotmail.com

ausie_12@yahoo.com

iaferns@gmail.com

Pagola's letter to Pope Francis - worth reading

Get the evangelical renewal going!

José Antonio Pagola

Priest and theologian

Dear brother Francis:

Ever since you were elected to be the humble “Rock” on which Jesus wishes to keep on building his Church, I have carefully followed your speeches.

I have just returned from Rome where I was able to see you embrace children, bless the sick and helpless and greet the crowds. They say you love people, are simple, humble and friendly… and so much else.

I think I see in you something more, much more. I had a chance to see St. Peter’s square and the Via della Conciliazione full of enthusiastic people.

Within a few months you have become “good news” for the Church and even much beyond the Church. Why? Almost without realizing it, you are bringing to the world the Good News of Jesus.   

You are creating a new climate in the Church – more evangelical and more human. You are bringing us the Spirit of Christ. People who have abandoned the Christian faith tell me you help them to trust more in life and in the goodness of the human being. Some who know no paths to God admit to me that a small light has lit up within them which invites them to think again about their attitude to the ultimate Mystery of existence.

I know that in the Church we need very  deep reforms to correct the deviations fostered for many centuries, but during these last years a conviction has been growing in me. For these reforms to be able to be brought about, we first need a conversion at a more deep and radical level.

Quite simply, we need to return to Jesus, to have our Christianity rooted more truly and more faithfully in his person, his message and his project of the Kingdom of God.

That is why I wish to tell you what it is that appeals to me most in your ministry as Bishop of Rome at the beginning of your career.

I thank you for embracing children and holding them close to your heart. You  are helping us to recover that prophetic gesture of Jesus so forgotten in the Church, but so important to understand what he wanted from his followers. According to the Gospel story, Jesus called the Twelve, placed a little child in the midst of them, embraced him and said to them: Whoever receives a little child like this one  in my name receives me.”

We had forgotten that in the middle of the Church, drawing the attention of all have to be  the little ones, the weakest and the most fragile and vulnerable. It is important that you are among us as a “Rock” on which Jesus builds his Church, but it is as important or more so that you are in the midst of us embracing the little ones and blessing the sick and helpless, to remind us how we are to receive Jesus. This prophetic gesture seems to me decisive at this time in which the world runs the risk of being dehumanized by evading the responsibility for those of no account.

I thank you for calling us time and again to get outside the Church to enter into the life of people who suffer and enjoy  life, who struggle and work hard; the world  where God wants to build a more human, just and supportive society.

I believe that the most serious and subtle heresy that has penetrated Christianity is to have made the Church the centre of everything displacing the project of the Kingdom of God from the horizon.

John Paul II reminded us  that the Church is not an end in itself, but only the seed, sign, and instrument of the Kingdom of God; but his words were lost among many other discourses.

It makes me very happy when you call us to get out of ourselves to reach out to the existential periphery, where we will meet the poor, the victims, the sick, the unfortunate ones.

I enjoy underlining your words: We must build bridges, not walls to defend the faith; we need a Church with open doors, not of people who control the faith; “ the Church does not grow through proselytism, but through attraction, witness and preaching. “ I seem to hear the voice of Jesus who from the Vatican urges us: “Go and announce that the Kingdom of God is near.” “Go and heal the sick” , “what you have freely received, freely give.”

I thank you, too, for your constant calls to be converted to the Gospel. How well you know the Church. Your freedom to name our sins amazes me.  You do not do so in the language of a moralist, but in the power of the Gospel: the incidents of envy, social climbing, the desire for wealth, disinformation, defamation and calumny , arrogance and clerical hypocrisy, “spiritual worldliness” and selfishly materialistic, salon Christians,  believers who are museum pieces, Christians who wear funereal aspects.

Salt that has lost its taste worries you a lot, a salt that doesn’t have any taste. And you call us to be disciples who learn to live life modeled on Jesus.  

You do not call us only to an individual conversion. You urge us on to a structural  renewal of the Church. We are not used to hearing such language.  Deaf to the call for renewal of Vatican II, we  have forgotten that Jesus invited his followers “to put new wine in new wineskins.”

That is why, your homily for the feast of Pentecost fills me with hope.  “Novelty always fills us with a little fear, because we feel more safe if we have everything under control, it is we who build, program and plan our lives according to our mindsets, feelings of security and tastes… We are afraid God will lead us through new ways, draw us out of our frequently limited, closed , egoistic horizons to open us out to his own.

This is why you beg us to ask ourselves sincerely: “Are we open to the surprises God has for us, or do we shut ourselves in out of fear to the newness of the Holy Spirit? Are we ready to follow the new ways the novelty God presents us, or do we entrench ourselves in outdated structures that have lost the ability to respond? Your message and your spirit are announcing a new future for the Church.

I want to   end these lines by humbly expressing a desire. Perhaps you may not be able to make great reforms, but you can move forward the evangelical renewal in the whole Church. Surely, you can take suitable measures so that the future bishops of the dioceses of the whole world have the personal qualities and pastoral approach capable of promoting that conversion to Jesus which you try to encourage from Rome.

Francisco, you are a gift of God. Thanks!

The Little Flower

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

Feast Day October 1

From obscurity as a young, idealistic Carmelite, Thérèse of Lisieux has emerged as one of the best-loved saints. Her simplicity attracts us because she puts holiness within our reach.
Thérèse was the daughter of Louis and Zélie Martin. When she was four years old, her pleasant childhood was interrupted by Zélie’s untimely death. Then Thérèse’s older sister, Pauline, took responsibility for raising her in the faith. In 1882, Pauline entered the Carmelite convent at Lisieux, igniting a desire in Thérèse to do the same. Thérèse’s fourteenth year was pivotal. Her sister, Mary, joined Pauline at the convent. And at Christmas, the young saint had an experience she described as her “conversion.” Later, in A Story of a Soul, her autobiography, Thérèse described it as a release from depression and oversensitivity: “Jesus flooded the darkness of my soul with torrents of light. I got back for good the strength of soul lost when I was four and a half. Love filled my heart, I forgot myself, and henceforth I was happy.” In spite of Thérèse’s youth, the next year the bishop allowed her to become a Carmelite at Lisieux.
From childhood Thérèse aspired to become a missionary and a martyr. It soon became clear to her, however, that neither option was open to a cloistered nun. So she sought the Holy Spirit and searched the Scripture for another way to excel:

We live in an age of inventions. We need no longer climb laboriously up flights of stairs. And I am determined to find an elevator to carry me to Jesus, for I was too small to climb the steep stairs of perfection. So I sought in Holy Scripture some idea of what this lift I wanted would be, and I read, “Whoever is a little one, let him come to me” (see Luke 8:16). I also wanted to know how God would deal with a “little one,” so I searched and found: “You shall be carried in her arms and fondled in her lap; as a mother comforts her son. . . .” (Isaiah 66:12–13 NAB) It is your arms, Jesus, which are the elevator to carry me to heaven. So there is no need for me to grow up. In fact: just the opposite: I must become less and less.

In 1897, Thérèse thought her dream of becoming a missionary was about to come true. The Carmelites at Hanoi in Indochina, now Vietnam, had invited her to join them. But on the early morning of Good Friday she began to hemorrhage from the mouth. She had contracted tuberculosis, which tortured her for several months before it took her life on September 30, 1897.

Sunday 27th C - Loyola Press

First Reading
Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4
The patience of the just man shall be rewarded when he sees the vision fulfilled.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 95:1-2,6-7,8-9
Sing joyfully to God, our salvation.
Second Reading
2 Timothy 1:6-8,13-14
Paul urges Timothy to remain strong in the Spirit of faith Timothy received.
Gospel Reading
Luke 17:5-10
Jesus teaches the apostles the importance of faith and service to God.
Background on the Gospel Reading
In today's Gospel we hear Jesus teach about faith and service to God. The context is a continuing dialogue between Jesus and his followers about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Jesus has just finished an instruction on sin and forgiveness. There are two related teachings that Jesus offers to his disciples when they cry out for an increase in faith. The first is the familiar reminder that faith, even just a little, will enable the followers of Jesus to do wondrous things. But this uplifting and inspiring teaching is quickly followed by the second teaching, a caution about knowing one's place in God's plans. The disciples of Jesus are to understand themselves as servants to God and his plans. Even when God works wonders through us, with our mustard seed-sized faith, we must not seek praise. Our participation in God's plans is God's grace to us—nothing more, nothing less. When we are graced enough to cooperate with God, the work we do is nothing more than our obligation to God as faithful stewards. And yet, our faith enables us to believe that what we have offered in service to God, as his servants, can be made to produce a hundredfold.

KNXT-TV Reflections - 27th Sunday, Year C: (10/06/13)

27th Sun C Jude B

Dear Friend,

We know from experience that when we have faith in someone we are ready to trust that person. To be believers is to trust in God! But often we put terms and conditions to our faith. Our faith is weak and conditional. In this Year of faith we are asked to exercise our faith and trust in God more and more. Even the little faith we have can work miracles if we let God take over! Have a faith-filled trusting weekend!  Fr. Jude

Sunday Ref. 27th Sun. of the Year: "We do not need more faith. But have faith like a mustard seed and act on it!" 6-Oct-2013

Readings: Habakkuk 1: 2-3; 2: 2-4;                                  2 Timothy 1: 6-8, 13-14;                            Luke 17: 5-10;

The Prophet Habakkuk, a contemporary of Jeremiah wants to know why God the all-pure, the all-holy allows Israel to suffer at the hands of the unholy pagans. Why is it that sinners prosper while the just are made to suffer? - A question that is relevant today as well! God's answer: that no power can overcome the faithful person, is valid today as well. Habakkuk had the great event of the Exodus to remind him and the Israelites that God is the 'Rock', he saves his people. All we have to do is trust and be faithful to Him even when he appears to be silent.

Mountain moving faith

An old woman regularly read the Bible before retiring at night. One day she came across the passage that said: "If you have faith as little as a mustard seed and ask the mountain to go away, it will go." She decided to test the efficacy of the passage. There was a hillock behind her house. She commanded the hillock to go away from there and went to bed. In the morning she got up as usual and remembered her command to the hillock. She wore her spectacles and peered through the window. The hillock was there. Then she muttered to herself, "Ah! That's what I thought."  - What she thought was that the mountain would not move. While her outer mind gave the command, her inner mind was convinced that she was giving a futile order. She did not have even an atom of faith!

G. Francis Xavier in 'The World's best inspiring stories'

In today's gospel Jesus has two lessons to give us about living our lives in troubled times. Firstly he tells his disciples and us to grow and increase our faith in Him. The second message that Jesus gives us is that we should live our lives in humble service believing and trusting that God is at work and needs us to do our part in fulfilling His plan in the world today. To drive the message of faith he says: "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea and it would obey you!" What is the point Jesus is making? We know that a mulberry tree is known for its deep roots. And it is very difficult to uproot it. Besides how can you plant a tree in the sea? Evidently Jesus is telling us that what is impossible for us is not impossible for God. If we hold on in faith and let God take over our lives, the impossible will become possible for us. Just as the power of the seed does not depend on its size but on the hidden life within it, so the power of faith depends not on its quantity but on its quality. With faith we may not be able to literally move mountains, but we will have power to overcome obstacles, to do great things for the Lord in this world. The gospel concludes with a reminder that when all is said and done, God does not depend on our works but on our faith in Him. So when we are frustrated that things do not change in spite of our efforts, we must hold on and hand it over to God. God is at work, No matter how bleak the picture, God's power can and will, make it right.

I believe…

At the end of World War II, it is reported, the Allied soldiers were searching farm houses for snipers. In one abandoned house, which was almost a heap of rubble, they had to use their flashlights to get to the basement. On the crumbling wall, they spotted a Star of David.  It had obviously been scratched by a victim of the Jewish Holocaust. And beneath it was the following message in clear but rough lettering: "I believe in the sun -even when it does not shine.  I believe in love - even when it is not shown. I believe in God - even when he does not speak." -Like the Holocaust victim who had inscribed those uplifting words on the basement wall, Mother Teresa 'believed in the sun-even when it did not shine. She believed in love -even when it was not shown. And she believed in God -even when God did not speak. In her secret and personal letters Mother Teresa revealed that for almost 50 years, she went through what is best described as 'the dark night of the soul', driving her to doubt the existence of heaven and even God. Said a Jesuit priest, Fr. James Martin, "I have never read a saint's life where the saint has had such an intense spiritual darkness. No one knew she was that tormented." Like all of us, Mother Teresa was but human. And it is only natural that we, like her, will experience times of doubt, loneliness, dryness and even denial. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe!

James Valladares in 'Your Words O Lord, are Spirit, and They are Life'

Be careful in whom you place your trust!

Before modern radio and television became so sophisticated, a telephone operator used to get a call every afternoon asking for the correct time. She was always able to give this information with great confidence. The reason for this was that she always checked her watch, and adjusted it when needed, when the whistle blew for the closing time in the local factory. One day her watch stopped. The telephone rang inquiring for the correct time. She explained her predicament. Her watch had stopped, and she had no way of ascertaining the correct time until the factory whistle sounded some time later.  The caller then explained his predicament. He was calling today, as he had done every other day, from the same local factory, and he had always adjusted his clock, when necessary, to agree with whatever time it was in the telephone exchange. -Be careful in whom you place your trust!

Jack McArdle in 'And that's the Gospel truth'

Mustard-seed Faith

You have heard of Dorothy Day, a woman many considered a living saint. Many admirers came to visit her, to have a look at her, to cherish her, to speak to her, to touch her, if possible. Sometimes they would tell her, "You are a saint," or she would overhear others saying of her, "She is a saint." She would get upset, turn to the speaker, and say, "Don't say that. Don't make it too easy for yourself. Don't escape this way. I know why you are saying, 'she is a saint.' You say that to convince yourself that you are different from me, that I am different from you. I am not a saint. I am like you. You could do what I do. You don't need any more than you have; get kicking, please."  -A mustard seed is very tiny; there is a chance of losing it if it is not handled carefully. Likewise, faith; if it is not handled carefully there is a chance of losing it. We have to feed faith. Do not despise small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin. (Zachariah 4:10) Let us look at the Bible. Against a towering giant, a brook pebble seems futile. But God used it to topple Goliath. Compared to the tithes of the wealthy, a widow's coins seem puny. But Jesus used them to inspire us. Moses had a staff. David had a sling. Samson had a jawbone. Rahab had a string. Mary had some ointment. Dorcas had a needle. All were used by God.

John Pichappilly in 'The Table of the Word'

Pavarotti: My Own Story

Not since the legendary Caruso has another opera personality had such charisma as tenor Luciano Pavarotti. In his autobiography, Pavarotti: My Own Story, he describes how he was trained by a great master, Arrigo Pola. "Everything Pola asked me to do, I did, -day after day, blindly. For six months we did nothing but vocalize and work on vowels." Pavarotti worked hard under Pola for two and a half years and then worked just as hard under Maestro Ettore Campogalliani for another five years. Finally after putting so much faith and trust in his mentors, Pavarotti made a breakthrough at a concert in Salsomaggiore where he thrilled the audience and was catapulted into fame. This story about faith and trust leads us into today's readings which focus on the same themes. As Luciano Pavarotti put his trust in his master teacher, we too must put our trust in our mentor Jesus Christ.

Albert Cylwicki in 'His Word Resounds'

27th Sun C by Pagola / Vally D'souza sj

TWENTY SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY  TIME ©

6 October 2013

Luke 17, 5-10

  

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” He 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.

José Antonio Pagola 

Are we believers?

 Jesus repeated these words to them on various occasions: “How little faith you have!” The disciples do not deny it. They know he’s right. They’ve been with him quite some time. They see him totally devoted to the Project of God; he lives only to do good; all he lives for is to make the lives of all more dignified and more humane. Will they be able to follow him to the end?

   According to Luke, the disciples once said to Jesus: “Increase our faith” They feel their faith is little and weak. They need to trust more in God and believe more in Jesus. They don’t quite grasp what he’s driving at, but they don’t dispute what he says. They do what’s most important: they ask him to  help them make their faith grow. 

   The religious crisis of our times affects even practicing Christians. We talk of believers and unbelievers as if they were two well defined  groups: one has faith, the other doesn’t. In fact it isn’t so. Almost always in the human heart there is at the same time a believer and an unbeliever. Hence, even those of us who call ourselves “Christians” must ask ourselves: Are we truly believers? Who is God for us? Do we love him? Does he in fact direct our lives?

   Faith can grow weak in us without our ever having had any doubts. If we do not nurture it, it can slowly  keep growing weak in our hearts till it is quite simply reduced to a habit we do not dare to give up just in case…Distracted by a thousand things, we no longer get to communicating with God. We practically live without him.

   What can we do? In fact, we don’t need to do much. It’s useless to make extraordinary resolutions, for surely we aren’t going to keep them. The first thing to do is to pray like that unknown person who one day came to Jesus and said: “I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.” It is good to repeat them in the simplicity of our hearts. God understands us. He will awaken faith in us. 

   We must not speak to God as if he were outside us. He is within. It’s best to close our eyes and  keep silence to feel and welcome his Presence. Neither should we spend time in  thinking of him, as though he were only present in our heads. He is present in the depths of our being. We must seek him in our hearts.

   What’s important is to keep at it until we have a first experience, even if it’s poor, even if lasts just a few moments. If one day we see that we are not alone in life, if we grasp that we are loved by God without having merited it, everything will change. It doesn’t matter if we have lived having altogether forgotten him. To believe in God, is, above all, to trust in his love for us.