BRINGING THE HOPE OF CHRIST TO CREATION

We begin our journey through the season of Lent on 6 March 2019 with Ash Wednesday, and it will conclude on Holy Saturday, 20 April 2019 - a day before Easter. It is going to be an uphill climb for six and a half weeks. It is a preparation for Easter, inviting us to engage the three pillars of Lent – Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving. Each year the season of Lent gives us an opportunity to prepare ourselves to celebrate the Paschal Mystery – Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ with renewed mind, body, soul and spirit.

My love for the season of Lent started 35 years ago. Since then, I have made it a point to make this season a time for soul-searching, prayer, reflection and penance. Every Lent helps me to have a better understanding of my faith, to persevere in self-discipline and self-improvement and procure a deeper appreciation for the season. Today, as a priest, I try my best to assist my parishioners to better observe Lent and make the journey towards Easter a reverent and meaningful one. During this time of preparation, I hope that they may able to focus on their faith life, their shortcomings and sinfulness, which will ultimately lead them to a new beginning of life in Christ at Easter.

However, Lent can sometimes become a routine over the years. We may go through the motions of Lent doing the same old things and living in our former way of life, causing us to neglect the essential aspects of the Lenten season. It is important then to remember that while we undertake a journey of preparation, our Lenten practice should work on a personal as well as communal conversion. When we fail to live as children of God and when we behave in a hurtful way towards others, then we may not be able to celebrate Easter meaningfully.

                                                            

The Holy Father has chosen the theme “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God” (Rom 8:19)for Lent this year.“All creation is called, with us, to go forth from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God,”Pope Francis said.He said that this year “Lent is a sacramental sign of this conversion.”The Pope wants us not to water down this season of grace, but to live faithfully as children of God.

The Pope highlights that the season of Lent should be a time to “welcome Christ’s victory over sin and death into our lives”, and attract “its transforming power to all of creation.”The division between God, man and creation caused by sinis to berepairedthrough our traditional Lenten practices – fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. Holy Father says that in fasting we learn “to change our attitude towards others and all of creation, turning away from the temptation to ‘devour’ everything to satisfy our voracity and being ready to suffer for love, which can fill the emptiness of our hearts.”Our prayers lead us to“abandon idolatry and self-sufficiency of our ego.”Through almsgiving, “we escape from the insanity of hoarding everything for ourselves in the illusory belief that we can secure a future that does not belong to us.”

“May our Lent this year be a journey along that same path, bringing the hope of Christ also to creation,”the Holy Father said. In this path to Easter, he demands that “we renew our faces and hearts as Christians through repentance, conversion and forgiveness”. We take every effort for personal and communal conversion by leaving behind all our selfishness and self-absorption and turn to Jesus’ Paschal Mystery. Let us stand firmly beside our neighbours who are in need and share our spiritual and material goods with them. May the season of Lent renew, refresh and empower us to go about the work of Christ. 

                                                       HAVE A BLESSED LENT! 

WHAT FRUIT DO YOU PRODUCE?

“A good tree can't produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can't produce good fruit,” (Luke 6:43).The Church liturgy gives us today’s Gospel on the last Sunday to examine our heartjust before Lent begins.

The Lord Jesus says “good things” will come out of the “good stored up in our heart” and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.

What we really need to focus on, is not to do many good deeds, but to cultivate a good heart. How we talk and how we walk are reflections of what we have stored in our hearts.Our words and actions reveal what is in our hearts.We need to focus on being good. God is looking for good heart. This is what we need to pay attention to, and cultivate.

How many times in a day we criticise our fellow men and women without knowing all or of the true facts?Often, we feel guilty of rash judgement, criticism, cynicism, fault-finding constantly flow from us.

Let us stop all these negative elements and with God’s grace we shall find ourselves becoming more Christian and more charitable towards our neighbor and less critical of the faults of others.

“It is good to give thanks to You, O Lord.” (Ps 91).

TO LOVE AND TO HONOUR

Last weekend (17 February 2019) we celebrated World Marriage Day in our parish, during both the Tamil (7am) and English (9am) Masses, respectively. We gathered married couples at the parish courtyard, and made a procession to the entrance of the Church for the Eucharistic celebration. Towards the end of the Mass and just before the final blessing and dismissal, we invited all married couples to come forward and renew their marriage promises. The couples stood up and held their spouses’ hands and declared their consent as below: 

“I (name) take you (name) to be my wife/husband. I promise to be faithful to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love you and to honour you all the days of my life.”

After blessing the couples with Holy Water as a sign of renewed commitment, there was a slideshow presentation of their wedding photographs. Once the Mass was over, some of the couples gathered at the Church Hall for fellowship and entertainment till noon. A big thank youto the Family Life Ministry for organising the event.

What do young adults think about marriage today?It is sad to see many of our young couples end their marriage at a very early stage. Today, the divorce rates are doubled, almost reaching 40 - 50 percent. Young married couples promise to stay together for the rest of their lives, yet many end up going their separate ways after a short time. They discard their dreams, plans and promises made before God, and declare their marriage over!

Why do they find marriage life so exhausting? Very often they say that the marriage is over, even after much discussion, debate and counselling. They still find no hope in repairing their marriage. The feelings of hurt, betrayal and fear made spouses reluctant to move forward in life. Family life becomes stagnant and couples find it hard to start all over again, or to continue where they left off.

Many priests have interviewed couples who are preparing for marriage - when they intend to build a future together. These couples seem to be full of hope and dreams for their life together. However, for many of them, their journey towards a happy marriage falls short. They go through hard times and sometimes forget that marriage is a decision that they made together. Regardless of the situation, it is important to remember not to use these troubled times as an opportunity to shame or be unkind to our spouse. Instead, even in moments of conflict and tension, turn towards each other lovingly.

Couples tend to celebrate their wedding anniversaries after ten, fifteen years etc. but all married couples should make it a point to renew their promises and commitment, annually. By renewing your vows, you take a moment to pause and reflect on your partnership and companionship. As you recommit and renew your promises, remember also to look at the positive experiences that grant affirmation and strength to continue on in your marriage life.

Having said that, every couple needs a little build-up in their marriage once in a while. One of the easiest and sweetest ways to be reminded of your love and commitment to each other is by looking at your wedding album. Most couples, if not all, spend a lot of money on photography and videography on their wedding day. However, many of these albums are just kept away, out of sight. It makes more sense to put the albums on display, and glance at them once in a while as a family to bring back sweet memories. As you turn each page, experience every emotion and memory of that day, when both you and your spouse made a decision and a promise to each other, before God. Happy marriages make happy families!

LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

Jesus says: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who treat you badly.” (Luke 6: 27-28).

Being a Christian is the hardest thing in our life. We tend to become what we hate. Jesus loved us and died for us when we were his enemies.

Perhaps the hardest thing we will ever do, is to love that person. We need to refrain from returning evil thoughts for evil deed. Returning evil for evil has no place in the life of a Christian. When we carry unforgiveness, hateful thoughts, wishes for revenge in our hearts, then we are carrying a burden that will end up harming us seriously in the long run.

Saint Paul says, “Never pay back evil with evil… as much as possible be at peace with everyone… Never try to get revenge: leave that to God,” (Rom 12:17-19).

God looks on us with the utmost tenderness and love. Forgiveness and healing are the gifts that God continually offers us, with no questions asked.

Psalm: “The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy,” (Ps 102).

ADORATION IS A TIME FOR OUR SOUL

Making time for adoration at the Blessed Sacrament is growing in popularity amongst Catholics. Despite hectic daily schedules, we find that for some of us, there is a desperate need for a place to be in silence, especially with Eucharist. Every now and then, I see number of our parishioners - as well people from other Faiths -regularly coming and going into our Church, praying silently while looking at the Blessed Sacrament. Even in the scorching heat, people make themselves available to be with the Lord.

For the past four years, I have been thinking seriously about setting up a Eucharistic Adoration room. It has now come into realisation and we have named it the St Joseph’s Adoration Room. We shall give the honour to Monsignor James Gnanapiragasam to bless the room after the 645am Mass on Tuesday, 19 February 2019.

Many of our parishioners may still remember the very old tiles - with the three distinctly unique designs - which were laid on aisle of our Church in 1928, during the time of the late Rev Fr Victor Antoine Herman, who initiated the extension and rebuilding of the Church of St Joseph, Sentul. These 91-year-old tiles were removed from the aisle when our Church underwent major renovations in 2013. All these sentimental tiles were demoted to an unseen corner of our church compound, until we reused them at St Joseph’s Shrine, located next to the parish office, in June 2015. We’ve kept the balance of these tiles in storage, hoping to utilise them in the future.

So, when we wanted to set up an adoration room, we selected 417 tiles and they are now placed on the adoration room floor. We have laid them in the same manner as they were laid in the Church’s aisle, back in 1928. We are indeed blessed to have a small but meaningful token of our Church’s past, still being used in a relevant and significant way. It is important to repurpose these tiles, so that a part of our Church’s history remains. There are still a few more old tiles available which are not in perfect condition, however we will still lay them at grotto in couple of weeks.

At the base of the altar, where the tabernacle is positioned, I have buried a few medals and prayer cards of St George, St John Marie Vianney, St Anne, St Padre Pio, a miraculous medal of Mother Mary and Sleeping St Joseph. I have sprinkled them with Holy Water from Lourdes, France and blessed them with Chrism Oil. These blessed religious objects are sacred signs of sanctity, purification and protection.

The main purpose of the St Joseph Adoration Room is for us to spend time in prayer, in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. It will be open from 7am to 1030pm every day. The Church too is still open as usual, for those who would like to sit there and pray instead.

What we can do in the St Joseph Adoration Room?

·     Read the Word of God and Meditate using Scripture.

·      Pray the Psalms or the Liturgy of the Hours

·      Pray the Rosary

·      Cry out to the Lord with all your heart and adore Him

·      Pray for forgiveness

·      Intercede for others

·    Sit quietly and just “be” in the presence of God. 

Adoration is a time for our soul. So, slowly increase your time and you will be amazed at how the Lord increases your faith and strength to be with Him! Let us make ourselves available to meet the Lord in adoration, and let our adoration never cease. (cf. Catechism Catholic Church, #1380).