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Yoked to Jesus

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“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” †  Mathew 11: 28-30  What is the labour and burden that Jesus is asking me to deal with? Perhaps I have to let go of the compulsive burden (or is it a sort of entitlement?) that my spouse and children should choose a spiritual path that I know to be right. Jesus accompanied Judas Iscariot to the very end but never deprived him of his freedom to choose his own destiny. Jesus on the other hand, uninterrupted by Judas's choice to reject him, continues to accomplish his mission. He does become a victim of Judas's betrayal but he seldom takes on the victim's identity. In divine wisdom, Jesus chooses to die in our place (and that of Judas) in a redeeming act of love. Rather than being compelled to fix those whom God has entrusted to my headship by m

My beloved so beautiful

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Beloved, my journey towards the fullness of God’s glory is not a lone journey but one that I make along with you. This is how God has intended it for us. It is because we are made for each other. I long to be with you rest of my life. We can help each other especially in times of our weakness, selfishness and pride, so that we remain in God our father who has terrific plan for our future. Beloved, I will love you, respect you, defend you and serve you, donating my whole self as a gift to you, just as our God loves us, giving himself up totally for us.  We are equal before God but we are not the same. It is precisely through our differences do we complement each other. You make up for what I lack and I make up for what you lack. Beloved, it is you who complete me. And I’m happy that it is you who complete me just as God completes us. Through all this, I realize how special we are. Our Father has fashioned us in his own nature to love and to be love. I will initiate love and forgiveness

The mystery of suffering

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Suffering is the consequence of sin. World cannot escape it. And it has never been able to come to terms with it, on its own. The temptation has always been is to run away, resist and brood over it. But our attempts were in vain. As sin increased, suffering, injustice and violence increased in the world. Humanity was crushed in the mess of its own making. But God did not abandon the us. The merciful Father sent his only Son to save us. He became a ransom for our sin and gave human suffering a new meaning and a new dimension. Thus we have a model before us. It is the model Jesus unboxed. Now in Jesus, suffering takes on a new meaning and a new dimension. Our suffering is no longer in vain. It now has the power to discipline us, sanctify us and save our souls. What was the Jesus model of coping with suffering? Did Jesus chase suffering away or vanquished it? No. Instead He plunged right into the midst of the very sin, injustice, and violence that humanity suffered. Though he was without

The epidemic of pornography

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Pornography is silently destroying the lives of boys and girls, adults and the middle aged alike. It has successfully dismantled marriages and pulled apart families. It is corrupting priests and seminarians. It is making entry ways into convents and communities. It is invading every strata of human presence. Let us call spade a spade - Pornography is a disastrous epidemic of epic proportions. What do we do about it? How do we protect ourselves and our young? How do we heal and restore those who are harmed by it. How to educate people about this intrinsically evil epidemic. How to empower them to willfully reject it? In the divine design, man and women would enter into the sacred sexual union in the sacramental framework of marriage, fully prepared to become a gift to each other and become parents of the children their union begets, assuming responsibility, accepting hardships and challenges. This valiant marital commitment gave them meaning and purpose to their lives. 

The Second Honeymoon

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You have entered into your married life with lots of colourful dreams, hoping for a lifetime of unending bliss. But things aren't the way you imagined. Hope is faded, dreams turned pale and the basket is lost somewhere in the attic. You are pulling on, hoping someday at least your kids will grow up and fulfil some of your left over dreams. Or you are secretly married your work, hobbies or business craving some fulfilment. You feel your partner is partly if not fully responsible for this situation. You feel you married the wrong person. There is a big vacuum within and you are tired of pretending.  Life has been unfair to you and you want to quit. You feel you deserve more. Yes you do. Is it possible to restore your marriage? Answer is a resounding yes! Because the success of marriage does not depend on the goodness of the individuals involved.  "What is impossible for man is possible for God"  Luke 18:27 Marriage is not a human arrangement but God's own idea. G

The glorious Trio

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The mystery of the holy Trinity is fundamental to christian faith. The pattern of the life of a Christian is derived from the pattern of the life of the trinity because we are Gods children and are created in his image. The understanding of the Trinity will deeply enlighten our minds especially in understanding the many facets of our faith. When a Christian refers to God he is referring to a communion of three distinct persons, In other words an indivisible union of three persons - the Father, Son and the Holy Spirt. The Father is eternal without a beginning, existed eternally and is without end. Father's knowledge, expression, words are also thus eternal and it is person whom we call the Son. Son is thus uncreated, begotten by the father. As light source and the light itself cannot be separated, father and son exists together in a self donating, all giving, relationship and this relationship or the love between them is the third distinct person whom we call the Holy Spirit.

I never knew you

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Prophesying, casting out demons and working miracles are signs of a true Christian. Jesus said these signs will follow those who believe (Mark 16:17-18). Yet in Mathew 7:22-23, we confront an angry, unruly Jesus who declares to the many believers who performed these signs in His name “I never knew you; depart from me evil doers”. They were denied entry into his kingdom despite the signs that followed their ministry. Two questions arise here; first, why did Jesus say that He did not know these men when the truth is that God is all knowing? Second, why did Jesus not permit them into His kingdom even though their ministry was accompanied by these signs? Did not Jesus know anything about these men? Off-course he did. In fact Jesus knew everything about them and that is precisely why He declares “I never knew you". To enter heaven we should be known by Jesus. Here the word ‘knowing’ does not mean just an awareness or knowledge rather a higher level of relationship. It po

Plunging into the unknown

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What if the Aston Martin Vantage GT12 is convinced that it is just a pull cart and lives like one, never knowing its power or potential. As a larva that does not know the fascinating butterfly it will soon become, man also does not know his own greatness or what he is destined to become. He lives in ignorance of what he is actually capable of. All that he is able to think up with his so called advanced intellect is so limited. It seldom measure up to the reality of who he really is or what he is capable of. Man can only find himself fully in God - his creator. Man does not become great by addition but by subtraction. Man tries to become great by adding to him degrees, possessions, wealth, health, superficial beauty, name, fame etc. He thinks he is the sum total of the value of all that he processes. He becomes great by letting go... His greatness lies within himself. Because he isn't humble enough to look upto God, he fails look into himself and find the treasure. Godles