Dear friends,
Hope you are all well. I hope and pray that the forthcoming week be a good one.
I will be gone to India from 27th August to 8th September. I am going to do my niece’s wedding which is going to be on 4th September. May I ask you to pray for her and the groom. Your prayers would help them have a happy married life. May I also ask you to pray for my safe travel to India and back.
When I am not here Fr. Amalraj Antony will be here to celebrate masses, and cater to any spiritual need. Hope you would cherish his presence.
Several years ago, a Vicar from a distant town accepted a call to another church. Some weeks after his arrival, he had an appointment that made him board a bus to another part of the town. When he sat down, he discovered that the driver had mistakenly given him his balance in excess of 50pence. As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, 'You’d better give this excess money back. It would be wrong to keep it'. Then another thought came, "Oh, forget it, it's only 50pence; who would worry about this little amount, after all the bus company makes so much money on fares; they will never miss it. Accept it as 'a gift from God' and keep quiet.
When he was getting down from the bus, he paused momentarily at the door, and then handed the 50pence to the driver and said, 'Take this; the balance you gave me was in excess'. The driver, with a smile, replied, 'Aren't you the new Vicar in town?' 'Yes, I am', he replied. 'Well, I have been thinking a lot lately about where to go to worship. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you a balance in excess. I will worship with you at your church this Sunday onwards. When the Vicar stepped off the bus, he grabbed a nearby electric pole, looked up and said, 'Oh God, I almost sold your Son for 50 pence!'.
I came across this small story a few days ago. This is very true in our present time. We are the people who claim to follow Christ. When we claim so, there are people on the keen watch to check on us, not to help us when we fall but to mock us when we fall or falter. We need to live a cautious life in this world, not to es-cape from mockery but the Lord has asked us so. The modern culture has Chris-tians and Christian values their target of mockery and teasing, with an ill view to reduce Christianity to nothing or a mere ritual oriented worship. But that is not so and we need to prove that by our worthy way of life.
Our lifestyles are the only Bible some people will ever read. The life that we live is the only knowledge of Christ that some people will ever acquire. We need to instill the knowledge of God by our exemplary life.
May God be with all of you to guide and lead you in the path of His will.
God bless.
Yours sincerely,
Fr. A. Antony
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