God’s Spirit leads us like a Father leads his child .

Wednesday of the 30th Week in Ordinary Time
October 30, 2019

Today’s Readings:Romans 8:26-30
Ps 13:4-6
Luke 13:22-30
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/103019.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/2019/19_10_30.mp3

 

“The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness;
for we do not know how to pray as we ought,
but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.
And the one who searches hearts
knows what is the intention of the Spirit,
because he intercedes for the holy ones
according to God’s will.”

The spiritual journey of our life can be seen in the route map of the life in the Spirit  and on the reflection of the Word of God written in the same spirit. If we understand the Words of the spirit in human mind and Worldly context we will be completely mislead by it’s purpose.  We need the Holy spirit in each and every mode of our life like navigation to a driver or an atlas to sea men. The spiritual journey can not be lead through human wisdom or knowledge but only through God’s Wisdom the spirit of God. God has called every human being before the foundation of the World , he has predestined all the purposes of his life in love. God’s purpose is always good because God  wants to give his image of love to every human who is confused on the way of life.

God’s ways are not on Worldly ascending order but on descending order. God loves the poor in Spirit or who accepts himself poor in spirit. A humble person is one who seek God’s mercy in each and every situation of his life. Jesus in the Gospel says to walk in Narrow door , in narrow we always need help and can not carry anything excess of our life. The only help is the Spirit of God who will help us to walk in this door of dependency  and live as a servant of God’s Spirit. How wise or successful we may be in Worldly matters but to understand God’s ways , we need the help of the spirit of God. If we rely upon the spirit of God , he leads us like a Father leads his child by holding the hands  safe and secure .

God has created the human to know him and love him alone and nothing else. So our only duty to love him in all things and believe that  all things will be good for us , though they may look troublesome or evil in human wisdom. Human mind is deceptive but Spirit of God is always faithful in his promise of love of giving us good things in our life. If we have spirit of God in our heart and pray to God through his inspiration and groaning we will be revealed all the mysteries of  God in our life, in our calling or our assignment in that area of life.

To accomplish God’s will is the purpose of our life. What is God’s Will ? God’s love or the image of God to be sealed or imprinted in every human being is the purpose of  God for man. If the man plans anything other than the love of God , it is worldly and not according to the will of God. Sometimes we do many things in our life to please God and one another but these very many things of our life are not relied by the  Spirit of  God’s love then it is a waste of time and waste of life. After our death we may expect a reward to enter the presence of God  but our selfish egoistic ways will block us to enter his presence . If we try to enter or live our life by our own wisdom or broad door we will end our life outside the presence of God but if we live our life through wisdom of the spirit the narrow door , we will enter the presence of God. God’s Spirit knows the route to heaven and the will of all the Holy ones of Heaven because he is God himself so he can not go wrong in the journey of life.

 

 

Our tiny acts of Faith,hope and love can change the corrupt world in to a just World.

Tuesday of the 30th Week in Ordinary Time
October 29, 2019

Today’s Readings:Romans 8:18-25
Ps 126:1b-6
Luke 13:18-21
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/102919.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/2019/19_10_29.mp3

Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth;
you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom.

The great visionaries , great entrepreneurs, revolutionists, Evangelists, missionaries, poets did not see the fruits of their works at the beginning of their work. They believed in their little thoughts  and hoped for the fulfillment of their belief. Sometimes they failed miserably and people gave them names but they hoped in their belief  and endured their work without giving up their hope.

The Whole World has been created in it’s goodness and human as it’s steward and caretaker. The corruption of Sin has disfigured the Creation and human and shrunk the original nature of  the creation and the human. When a human being looks at a particular work of creation in  it’s original  nature in faith , hopes to take shape of it’s original nature in hope and works towards it in sincerity and humbleness , a miracle takes place or a mystery has been revealed in that work of the Creation. The tiny Work of our hands turns in to a massive mountain which is beyond our imagination and expectation.

We must get involved in activities where there is no hope and put our little works of charity with faith and hope, and the hopeless situation turns out in to a massive useful activity. The Whole World and all human beings are Creation of God and were made in his image and goodness. The Evil has suppressed the creation and human beings through false believes and confusion. When we believe in the true nature of it’s function and work towards it in hope, we come out of the suppression in to the original nature . This can be done by believing in ourselves with the authority of stewardship received from the Creator or believe in the Creator to recreate the things in hope and love.

But if we believe in the selfish nature or in the Evil nature to gather and scatter, and work towards it ,then this formula results in the opposite reaction because  we do not exercise our faith in the creator or exercise our own Authority  to the goodness of  the creation. This brings destruction , many dictators , false ideologists, selfish theories, false ways of life are the examples for this destruction. Many follow these ideologies , dictators, theories and false ways of life and come in to greater bondage in their life. These bondage’s are continued from generation to generation , we must sow the good news of hope in to their heart and the seed of hope will grow in to a tree of Salvation in their heart and true image of themselves is exposed in to it’s original nature where God’s Spirit at the center of their heart

 

 

Apostles & Disciples of Christ

 Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles
October 28, 2019

Today’s Readings:Ephesians 2:19-22
Ps 19:2-5
Luke 6:12-16
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/102819.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/2019/19_10_28.mp3

 

he called his disciples to himself,
and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles

All followers of Jesus are disciples of Jesus but all followers of Jesus are not Apostles. Discipleship is imitation of Christ or to become like Christ on this Earth. Apostles are chosen or elect   people among his followers or without followers.  St. Paul was not a followers of Christ but still  chosen as Apostle. The meaning of Apostle is “one who is sent”  or a missionary of Christ.  The Apostles were Commissioned with Authority of Christ like they deposited Gospel truth , they proclaimed the Gospel message with the same authority of Jesus , they worked signs and wonders in the name of Jesus.

If we take Apostles and discipleship in today’s  context , the Apostles are committed and dedicated Shepherds who sacrifice their life to study the Gospel truth   and build the church on the foundation put by our  Lord Jesus Christ by selecting  12 Apostles and  proclaim the Gospel through their witness and proclamation. The disciples are the flock who follow Jesus in their own limitation and trying to be faithful and witness in their own way of life to the Gospel. We call the Apostles as Clergy or Pastors and for disciples as laity or people of God. We need not to be Apostles, Prophets or Visionaries to receive Jesus in our life but we can follow Jesus in our own walk of life.  Apostles are the inner circle people who enter the Holy of Holy’s daily and meet the Lord face to face in their praise and Worship and receive the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. They are suppose to pass on those revelation to the people who are poor in Spirit. Apostleship is a stage of growth in the realm of Holiness where all the senses of the Spirit are exercised with the spirit of God.

Mother Mary was not an Apostle of Christ but remained a disciple of  Christ as an obedient servant of Christ . Mother Mary though had the title of Mother of God but still preferred to be the handmaid of the Lord. If we see in context  of Catholic Church , it is very clear between Laity and the clergy.  If we see in other modern Churches , we see Pastors and believers.  A laity or believer can become a clergy or Pastor and serve the Lord in the inner circle of Christ. In the same way a Clergy or Pastor can lose their anointing if they do not live their life in the inner circle of Christ and get caught up with the materialistic World just like Judas Iscariot lost his Apostleship. We see many ministries and parishes falling due to the Shepherds, not living  in the inner circle of Christ. To lead the People or to be the evangelists or missionaries of Christ  we need to be in praise and worship , Eucharist  and be a Eucharist to others.

Today we see the clergy and Pastors are declining day by day not because God is not selecting them but the selected people do not live or exercise their commissioning or misuse their free gifts given by God for their selfishness and Pride. Moreover we see the laity and believing community becoming stronger in their spiritual growth and commitments and superseding the clergy and Pastors. Pope Francis  in the Amazon synod discussed about commissioning committed Married Couples as priests and women as deacons. The Holy spirit inspires the Church, the body of Christ , his movements and the Church leaders must be attentive to these inspirations and act upon them. The modern churches have become fully apostolic in nature but are they standing on the solid foundation of Gospel truths of Christ or formed on their own ideologies as per their own conveniences.  The Catholic Church is a pilgrim apostolic church , can we find any catholic evangelizing or the family is routed in the Word of God.

Catholic Charismatic Renewal is an apostolic movement of the Catholic Church but how many priests and Bishops are whole heatedly supporting and encouraging this movement.  Modern Churches are becoming a bad witness in their street evangelistic approach with no witness. The Evil is watching at all our approaches and taking advantage of our weaknesses.  We are an Apostolic  Church  called to proclaim the Gospel in Words and deeds in  truth and love and this  is our mission as Christians.

 

 

Mercy of God makes us Righteous before God.

October 27, 2019

Today’s Readings:Sirach 35:12-14,16-18
Ps 34:2-3, 17-19, 23 (with 7a)
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
Luke 18:9-14
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/102719.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/2019/19_10_27.mp3The LORD is a God of justice,
who knows no favorites.We humans very often take God or Divinity in worldly context and deal with him in Worldly way.  Children very often impress or influence their human Fathers to gain somethings in their life. This kind of dealings can be seen in each and every area of the material World. We live our whole life pleasing others and live in a false sympathetic life. In fact the material World has derailed from the track of truth and dragging in a selfish and manipulated truth. The voice of our Conscience has corrupted with the selfishness and materialism and  the word  of God not  valued or taken for granted .

As we reflect upon  today’s liturgy , the Word of God reveals the light of truth on our false believes or  false way of life. There two area we need to understand in today’s readings.

1. Self Righteousness
2. Mercy of God.

1.Self Righteousness:  The  real meaning of self righteousness is idolatry or making ourselves as God’s. We break the first commandment of the Ten Commandments. Satan rebelled against God with this attitude  of self righteousness. The definition of self righteousness is – “an act done in self love”. If the motive of the action is anything other than self love or evil,  it is an act of righteousness. We can not do right without the inspiration of the Holy spirit. Holy spirit shows the right and wrongs in our actions.If God’s Spirit does not dwell in our heart , our choices may  go wrong with many voices of our self and of the things around us, thus we take decisions as per the voices of  our self and of the World and live a false life.

Righteous life is God guided , putting God in our drivers seat and  follow him in humility and love. The self righteous life is we sit on the drivers seat and try to drive our life to the best of our knowledge of the truth in self love and ego. We do many  acts which we think by doing them we will become righteous or good or holy but the fact is these very acts of ours, take us away from real truth and put  us  in  a dilemma or Pride and materialism.

The righteousness can not even be sensed without mercy. The humility and forgiveness in prayer is the first step to be justified as righteous . Righteousness is not a product or award which can be attained in sacrifice , dedication  and discipline. Righteousness is a free gift of God who approach him in mercy , forgiveness and humility. It is not important in which state or way  of life we are living but it is important , how  and whom we approach  for  mercy.  Because God’s mercy and righteousness is free without any condition for all those who trust in him.

2. Mercy of God : The mercy of God is Salvation itself, when we repent for our sins and approach for mercy of God , God gives us his righteousness . The God’s righteousness are the Be attitudes , Jesus gave us in the sermon on the mount.  At this stage we experience the true love of the Father, the Holy spirit.  We recognize and feel him in faith, praise, worship and in our day today routines. We have one more companion who is with us in every situation to tell us what to do and how and what to pray. When we listen to him , our actions become righteous and right before God because they have been directed by God’s Spirit. Those who live in the mercy of God , live a life in the Spirit of God. The self righteous people can not be led by the spirit because the Spirit of God does not dwell in them.

Prayer is a medium to approach God in humility and forgiveness. Daily personal prayer and Eucharist is the best way to renew our Baptismal commitments to love him alone. A self righteous person can not pray , if at all they pray, their prayer is self seeking and of selfish motives and not God centered  and spirit led , these prayers are the product of pride and selfishness. God does not listen to these people unless they change their attitude  and look for his mercy in sincerity of heart.

Transformation Experience in the Spirit of love is the need of the hour

But I tell you, if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!

Saturday October 26, 2019

Romans 8:1-11
Psalm 24:1-6
Luke 13:1-9
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/102619.cfm
Podcast:
ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/2019/19_10_26.

At the beginning of the reflection I remember a childhood story , when the buffaloes walk along , one buffalo started laughing   at the other Buffalo saying it is naked , not realizing that it is naked as well.  In Today’s world we have many critics ,some are intellectual critics and others are neighborhood critics but criticism or blame game is ideal , if  we are perfect in all areas of  our life. As per the Word of God , no man is perfect and can not be perfect as long as he or she has the mortal body in this World.

Jesus came up with a  Salvation  plan which was beyond our mortal bodies ,   one single plan to believe in Jesus and believe that he has taken our sins on his body and died for our sins and resurrected on the third day by the power of the Holy spirit.  This is the central message which has to repeat in our life 24/7 365 days.

Jesus says in today’s Gospel unless or until if you do not repent for your sins and offer it to Jesus for forgiveness, you will perish or lose your Salvation or go to hell. This is a very harsh or scaring message . People have taken salvation or truth or Gospel or Christianity for fancy or for granted in their life. St. Paul says if the spirit of Christ does not dwell in our heart, we do not belong him. Again one more very harsh and scaring statement from St.Paul.

The Baptism or transformation or Born Again experience is the first step of Salvation Experience. This experience must be carried forward through the direction of the Holy spirit who dwells in our heart. This life is called life in the Spirit. The Spirit of God takes control of our Body, mind and Spirit and starts leading at every step of our life.  Prophet Isiah says he will prompt in our ears whether to take right or left. If we have the fellowship with the Spirit of God and live a life according to his inspiration , we experience heaven on this Earth.

Many Christians by birth , do not have this Baptism experience in their life because of their infant Baptism. The Church offers many life in the Spirit Seminars and Renewal Retreats which open up our Baptismal grace and activate our fellowship with the Holy Spirit.  I heard one Catholic Priest’s Testimony , he says I was in the Seminary for 12 years and a priest for 25 years , celebrating Eucharist every day but still did not have a fellowship or personal experience of the Spirit in his heart, until he attended a renewal Retreat for Priests. Today he is so much zealous for the Lord , he does not waste a single moment of his life but to spread the Love of God to the people who need repentance. Our Priests need renewal retreats or personal Experience of the Holy spirit so that they can serve the Lord more effectively and open to the Works of the Holy spirit.

We need to check every morning and evening that whether we have the spirit of God living in our lives. When we sit before the Lord in personal prayer and examination of conscience , we can understand how far we are from the love of God. The more near we try to come to the Lord,  the more  far we feel from him but experience his  love and presence greater  than before. We need repentance and transformation every day of our life, if we do not live the Salvation with reverence and fear , we may lose the Spirit of God in our life or we tell him to get out of our life by hurting him through our actions and not listening to his promptings or the message of the Gospel.

The spirit of God is gentle and humble full of love, always tries to convince us to change our life and  pleads us to let him in so that we may have life in abundance. If we are adamant till our last breath , the free package of Salvation expires with our death. We will be facing  the same Spirit of God on the Judgement  seat and judging our every action and the grievances recorded in the book of life. On that day the accuser  Satan will claim every disobedient soul and how sad it is for God’s creation to perish in eternal damnation which has been made for Satan and his angels. It is not sad how many people die in tragedies and accidents but it is sad many people die without repentance or being transformed in the spirit of love of God.   So repentance and living a righteous life in him is the need of the hour .

 

 

 

God Controls our Body, mind & Spirit through 15 senses of Human.

Friday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time
October 25, 2019

Today’s Readings:Romans 7:18-25a
Ps 119:66, 68, 76, 77, 93, 94
Luke 12:54-59
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/102519.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/2019/19_10_25.mp3Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it,
but sin that dwells in me.
So, then, I discover the principle
that when I want to do right, evil is at hand.
For I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self,
but I see in my members another principle
at war with the law of my mind,
taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

Every Human have a Body , mind and Spirit and these three parts of Human beings have five senses each. We are aware of the five senses of the body, which are sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. Human mind also have five senses which are foresight, intuition, Empathy, Trust and peace. The Human Spirit also has five senses Faith, Hope,Praise,Worship and Honor.

There is a constant conflict between the senses of Body & mind . The senses of our mind are  Intuition- intellect, Emotions Foresight – Knowledge, Memory , Empathy – understanding , Trust – Will  and Peace – Emotions , these senses of  our mind direct our body to do certain activities but the senses of the body do something else , they do not obey the soul but controlled by their own instinct . There is one more Soul or intellect or emotions or knowledge working with these senses of the body which are contrary to our self soul. The Evil Spirit has senses of the Soul because it is a spirit and when we succumb to the instinct of our senses of our body , we go against the Law of our Soul and open the door of these senses to one more soul which is the soul of the Evil Spirit which we call SIN.

SIN starts living in our body and start controlling it from with in, despite of our own Soul. Our own Soul can not control our body but the Soul of the Evil Spirit controls our body. When we get angry , we change our bodily appearance by being violent and shout loudly , change the tone or physically abusive , some people’s faces change like a devil,when they get angry, alcoholics automatically walk to a Wine shop without their own will  . These are the signs that the Evil controls our body .

If we succumb to the instinct of the senses of our Soul , we open our doors to evil in our Soul . Modern World sins are of intellect, knowledge, emotions which are of senses of Soul. These Sins are dangerous because the evil controls our mind and sends wrong things to do to our body. The wrong ideologies, self motivated ideas, Evil games, horror films, filthy imaginations can influence our mind with the Evil Spirit. The education and discipline and exercise or meditations can benefit our soul and nourish it but can eradicate it from evil influence.

Human Spirit has also has five senses of faith, hope, Praise,Worship and reverence. If a person does not have any moral values in their life, they are controlled by the human intellect and knowledge .  Most of the scientists and modern intellects fall in this category. When we do not exercise our faith, hope , Praise. Worship and honor , we start worshiping ourselves  and we open the door of our spirit to the Evil.  When we worship false values or Evil spirits , we invite those spirits in our Spirit. These are live spirits who control our moral values.  The Soul is superior to the Body and the Spirit is superior to the Soul. A spirit can control both mind and body. So a false Worship of  Spirits not only bind the Human spirit but Soul and body as well. This is the reason first three commandments are directly related to Human spirit which are very important to observe in our life.

The Salvation plan of Jesus puts all the 15 senses of the body, mind and spirit in order in a faction of second. When we declare with our mouth ” Jesus is Lord” and believe(mind) in our heart(Spirit) that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved. Rom 10:9. All the the corruption of the Evil and SIN is vanished and eradicated by the precious blood of Jesus and we are anointed with the Holy spirit. The holy spirit starts dwelling in our spirit and starts controlling our mind and body. But we need to exercise all 15 senses to the glory of the Holy spirit. When we praise , Worship, Honor , faith , hope in the Lord every moment our life , We feel his presence and relate with him in Person , just like how we relate with one of our best friend.

The study of Scriptures, meditations, reflections, devotions keeps our mind with good knowledge of the Lord, physical Works give us peace of mind and body but they can not save us from the SIN or Evil . We are saved only by exercising the sense of  Faith of our Spirit and confessing with our mouth as a testimony of our faith. All the senses of our Body and mind are useful , if our Spirit possess the Spirit of Jesus , then all our meditations, reflections, works of mercy make sense , because they are directed by God himself, therefore all the inspirations are holy and divine. God himself dwells in those activities and people.

When God is with us in our Spirit , we praise , Worship, Honor, Proclaim in our mouth, do works of love, listen to others, pray over people, have compassionate look, understand others, gain knowledge of good things, inspired by the spirit at every moment of our life, get revelations of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, speak Prophesies, in short we exercise all our senses of body , mind and spirit for the glory of God.

If we do not use these senses daily for the glory of God , we may loose the anointing and presence of the Holy spirit in our heart , mind and body and once again  land up in the Evil influence. So Salvation is a  free choice and free gift of  Divine Human relationship. We can loose salvation , if we do not live it . Also we need to unify all our senses together.

If we praise and Worship and honor the Lord daily through our lips and then gossip when we go out of our Worship place, then we become adulterers or unfaithful or hypocrites. God loves sinners who are in the bondage of Evil but God hates Hypocrites who are unfaithful and adulterers  who split their hearts between God and Satan. If we worship God in pure heart and love him with all our mind, body and spirit , we can not be double standard in the external life but we see Jesus in each every person like Mother Theresa.

 

 

 

Our whole life is a Spiritual Warfare between good and Evil

Thursday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time
October 24, 2019

Today’s Readings:Romans 6:19-23
Ps 1:1-4, 6 (with 40:5)
Luke 12:49-53
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/102419.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/2019/19_10_24.mp3

 

“I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!

Fire is the symbol of life and love. Fire represents the Holy spirit. Fire purifies the products in to fine and pure in nature.  Fire burns all rubbish and preserves the good content of the product. If we study the history of the early years of mankind and the stone age , man discovered fire and all the tools , technology, Engineering , Electricity  and the modern inventions are products purified in fire and heat. We can not live without fire , if we try we reach to the stone age with in a day.

The characteristics of Spiritual fire is similar to the material fire , Jesus himself was that fire came in to this World to separate the mankind from the Earthen dust or materiastic World ,which they used to Worship in the material age . Jesus  died on the Cross and set the World on fire of the Holy spirit, Holy spirit gives life to the World . We can not live without the help of the Holy spirit. The Holy spirit is working in today’s world in each and every areas of the World. The governments, constitutions, administrations, enforcement agencies, Courts , Church , Families, Education institutions, Corporate Companies , different religions, societies and more over in every person’s Conscience. The main work of these institutions are to divide the good from evil and retain the truth. There is no organisation in this world who want to uplift Evil and it’s goal is to achieve Evil.

When Holy spirit is working to do good, Evil Spirit is working to bring obstructions and misleads people and draws them to the materialistic world. So we see corruptions, hatred, racialism, selfishness so on in the  institutions including our families. But Holy spirit  inspires individuals in zeal and fire and eradicates the Evil from this World. This spiritual Warfare will continue till the Evil completely burnt by the fire of the Holy spirit.

This spiritual warfare goes on with in ourselves between our choices and will , with in our families between choice of love and selfishness. When these warfare’s fought , we can not expect peace in our families or societies. These include great sacrifice, suffering , persecutions and even death, but all these revolutions are part of the Spiritual warfare. If we fight our fight for truth and righteousness , then we are the Soldiers of the spirit of truth but if we fight to gain and gather the rubbish things of this World then we are the soldiers of the Corruption of Evil.

Jesus fought this warfare and empowered us with fire of the Holy spirit.  Jesus destroyed the power of Evil on the Cross and gave us the gift of Salvation. Jesus made our Spiritual warfare easy through the grace of the Holy spirit. Those who put their trust in Lord Jesus , they are delivered from Evil and filled with the mighty power of Holy spirit. When we are with  the Lord , the battle  is his and we  need only to believe in his mercy and love and be faithful to the true values , come what may , not  to compromise with the Evil values but to trust him alone.

 

Christian by Faith v/s Christian by Obligations of the Law.

Wednesday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time
October 23, 2019

Today’s Readings:Romans 6:12-18
Ps 124:1b-8
Luke 12:39-48
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/102319.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/2019/19_10_23.mp3For sin is not to have any power over you,
since you are not under the law but under grace.

The obligation of the Law makes a person perfectionist or disciplined in nature. The discipline or perfectionism is good, provided we have a goal to achieve in life. A disciplined life lived without a goal is useless because we are not marching ahead in life but just live a life in circles for survival .  For Example When we do 9-5 job , if our aim is to finish those hours by doing our assigned work in perfection without having any mission or goal in our job , then the job which we do becomes a formality or obligation. These category of people remain as good workers and retire as good workers with pensions to carry on their survival and die a decent death with decent burial. But  some of the employees are different , though they do 9-5 Job , their vision is beyond what their working hours , they want to achieve something beyond in their life and they chase the Horizon of their life and become great people for their thoughts and achievements and die as heroes to be remembered for generations.

A christian life is not a life of obligation and formalities or a decent lived life of 70 or 80 years. An atheist can live this kind of life much better than a Christian who lives a life in obligations and Law. If we keep the ten commandments and all church teachings and obligation but if we do not have the love of God , then there is no much difference in the life of an atheist and a christian by Law. A christian is a christian by faith in Jesus Christ, his trust is in his name and his only goal to live for him and die with him. Jesus pours out the Holy spirit, the God’s love upon every person who believes in his name and equips him with gifts and fruits of his love to build the Kingdom of love.

God expects more from the people who have experienced his love. The people who have not experienced God’s love , can not give God’s love to others or part take to build the kingdom of love, so God does not expect much from these people. The grace of the Holy spirit keeps us away from Sin and temptation. This is purely a gift of the Holy spirit. We see many Christians living a holy life through the grace of the Holy spirit. We can not live a Christian life without the grace of the Holy spirit . If we act by following the Law and church obligations , giving alms, acts of charity  so on , all these acts become self satisfaction or obligatory activities and there is no God’s love in those actions.

God’s Salvation is a gift of the Holy spirit and must be lived through grace , gifts and reliance on the Holy spirit and not through self motivated or self sacrificed actions. Many people do many things in their life in the name of Christ but the grace and love of God is completely absent in their life. They live a life of Hypocrisy , Sin can not be controlled by self discipline or self motivation but only through the grace of God. When we confess our sins, repentance is required than the guilt of our sins.So the Sacrament of Confession gives us the grace to repent of our Sins and stay away from that Sin and temptation in the future. The guilt of our sins brings remorse and sadness and becomes one more obligation of our life without grace , these kind of confessions are no effect because there is no repentance and grace ,and the same repetition of sins again again is the clear sign of absence of the grace.

All sacraments must be lived in the grace  and gifts of the holy spirit and  not through our self disciplined or self motivated or self sacrificed life. If we live our life without grace , then there is no difference between Christians and other way of life. There are much better self- disciplined, self -motivated, self -sacrificed ways of life than Christian way of life in this World , the only difference between Christians and them is we are people live in grace and through gifts  and fruits of the Holy spirit. We must completely rely on God’s mercy , Grace and love alone. The grace filled life is above the life of discipline and sacrifice , a life of love and care which Mother Theresa discovered in her life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

God visits us every moment of our life , do we Welcome him in our life?

Matthew 25:31-46

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. ³⁴ Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶ I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ ³⁷ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? ³⁸ And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? ³⁹ And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ ⁴⁰ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,^[a] you did it to me.’

⁴¹ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ ⁴⁴ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ ⁴⁵ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ ⁴⁶ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

God is under our nose and we search him all over the World except in our own life. The spirit  of God dwells in us and prompts us to choose truth in every reasoning of our will. When we refuse to listen to his promptings in that area of our life, we shut the door to him and refuse him to come in and help us to do God’s Will. These internal promptings are in built in every human being , irrespective of Caste, religion , color , ethnicity , poor or  uneducated or any state of our being. When respond to the prompting of the Spirit in our life , the spirit of God comes in that area of our life and reveals lord’s purpose of that situation.  If we live our life without responding to the prompting or voice of the Conscience , we live a life according to the flesh. Animals do not have the promptings of the Spirit and live a life of their instinct . Sometimes we lose our human status and accept animal instinct . We not only act in animal instinct but listen to the prompting of the Evil spirit and do things of the evil hence permit Evil to dominate our lives in those areas of our life. 

We must watch & pray to the Spirit of God before we do anything in our life. There is a constant battle goes on between choosing good and evil in our mind at every moment of our life. When we are watchful in prayer, submitting our will to the will of the Father and wait on the Lord for the light of truth, we understand very clearly what is from God and Evil. When we are not sure what we need to do, the best thing is to stay calm and not to panic of the consequences or losses but  wait on the Lord in Faith and hope. This is an art of discernment in our life. The Evil brings haste, impulsiveness , confusion and fear externally but we need  to tell the storm  to be calm and wait on the Lord for his grace . God’s grace and light always shows us the direction but the pollution created by us in our past life keeps the grace at distant and not able to see the things as they are. But when we wait on the Lord, the pollution settles and the light shines brightly in that area. Prayer and watchfulness does not influence the spirit but settles us down in calmness so that we may see the things in it’s original shape.

The Salvation of our God is knocking at our door at every moment of our life , we need to accept him and live with him. The Salvation, Charity , love , evangelisation  is  one package deal given to us at every moment of our life but we are not able to recognize this deal of the Lord in our life and seek it externally in churches and Scriptures. The scriptures and the church help us to  understand ,discern  ,grow and nourish our Salvation but to do the will of the Father  , we need to rely upon the Spirit of God in acceptance. The spirit of God , the Scriptures , the Church are three components which help us to build our salvation. All the three are one and the same and God himself who  correspondence in human way. 

To listen to the promptings of the voice of our conscience is the fundamental duty of our life. We will be judged on these responses and actions. Many a times we are involved in external spirituality and forget to listen to our own spirit and act upon his promptings. If we activate all our senses of the Spirit and put our mind and spirit in line with the spirit , we can call ourselves spiritual but if we live in our flesh and intellectual and pride of our mind  , then we live in external spiritual realm. This kind of spirituality keeps us away from God. We do many prayers, scripture studies, charities ,  church activities, evangelisation,live a disciplined life but if we fail to do the things assigned to us by the will of our Father and engage in many  other things which are not assigned to us then we are going against the Will of the Father. To understand our Vocation or God’s Will of our life  is to listen to the voice of our Spirit and act upon his promptings.

 

 

 

 

We must pray for all our desires according to the desire of the Holy Spirit

Submit Yourselves to God  –  James – 4 :1-12

4 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? ² You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. ³ When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

⁴ You adulterous people,^[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us^[b]? ⁶ But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud
    but shows favor to the humble.”^[c]

⁷ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

¹¹ Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister^[d] or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. ¹² There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

In our modern culture praying for our needs has lost it’s sensitivity or taken as foolishness or weakness in our ability or some call it as sign of laziness. Gospel values are not worldly values so there is a conflict between Worldly values and Gospel values. The modern world relies upon the self ability , skill and the vicious culture of the World for a better life or happiness. Can the modern life  or modern culture or higher education or migration to the developed countries give us happiness . Thomas Kempis in the book of  Imitation of Christ  says  “if we run from one cross to the other , we reach to the  much heavier one . If we accept the cross unwillingly , it becomes heavier than it is but if we willing embrace it , it becomes light and gives us peace and happiness.  

Many of the Crosses are self made and others have put on our shoulders. Many of the Crosses have been product of the Evil of the World. When we live in the culture of our flesh , World and Evil, we struggle in our life with the burden of these crosses and try to run away from the burdens of these burdens. In the midst of our struggles Jesus gives us solution to our Burdens . He says come to me all you heavily burdened and take my yoke because my yoke is light .  This teaching is something new , we need not run from our crosses or burdens but instead give our burdens to Jesus and take his yoke of Gospel truth and follow him.

In the letter of James , St. James says :” you do not get because we do not ask” . The Word of God says ask and you will receive, we under estimate God and do not ask and rely in our own ability and land up what the World , Flesh and Devil has to offer us. We may feel temporary relief on these solutions but  fall in to greater trap of losing our own soul.  Sometimes we pray but we do not get . St. James says we do not pray according to the will of God or according to the desire of the Holy Spirit. The desire of the Holy spirit is to give us good things which build us in love and charity.  If we ask anything which harms  our soul or takes us away from the spirit of truth and loose Salvation, then the Lord does not fulfill our desires. So before making a prayer we must do a study , if my prayer is against the will of God or harm my or my neighbors soul , then we must do the correction in our request and enter in to the desires of the Holy spirit . when our desires match with the desire of the holy Spirit , a miracle takes place in our life, our desires and Holy spirit’s desires are granted to us. 

Prayer  is not merely a lips service or whatever comes in to our mind or whatever we feel we want we ask God in Prayer but a well thought and prepared petition after consulting the advocate the Holy spirit whether it is  according to the Will of God. When we make prayer not according to the Will of God , we become adulterers because we pray to God for the  desires of our flesh, World and  Devil. We split our heart between God and Evil.

A prayer is not a judgement but a petition specially when we pray for others. We can not sit on the Judge’s seat and pass judgement on others. This applies specially when we quote Scriptures when we pray. The scriptures are the pointers or the signs which point us , how to pray .  The petition is not a demand or a claim but a request so we must submit ourselves completely in to the Lordship of our Lord and accept of our unworthiness before  his Majesty.  By Law we are slaves of  Evil and we are pleading for his mercy to the mercy Seat and the judgement belongs him alone. when we humble in this attitude , the Lord will lift us up in Holiness and Truth. When we cultivate this attitude he appoints us as Intercessors to him at the right hand of the Father.