Blog Archives

July 29th, 2018

7/29/2018

Dear friends,

Hope you are well.

Once I had gone for a small vacation maybe for four or five days. I came back after the vacation and was really tired of the travel back. I wanted to make some coffee to get refreshed (though I don’t really get very much refreshed after coffee as many would think and feel). I opened my coffee maker to make some coffee. I found something missing in the coffee maker. I was squeezing my brain (thank God, I have one), to find out what was missing in the coffee maker. After much prayer and reflection, I found the filter basket of the coffee maker was missing. “O goodness, how am I going to make my coffee now?” I was frustrated. I started my searching operation.

I tried to look for that filter basket in all the places possible. I even checked my bedroom (only goodness knows why it would go there!). I made some phone calls to people who might know about the whereabouts of the filter basket. I even prayed to St. Anthony, the wonderworker. Oh My! Nothing of these ended up in a good result. I stole one filter basket from somewhere else where I know there would be a filter basket for sure. I brought it to my kitchen with a great joy that I could make the coffee now, opened the coffee maker, tried to place the filter basket in the coffee maker. Guess what! The filter basket wouldn’t go in and fit. Frustration goes to the top. I tried hard with all my technical knowledge to see what had happened. Nothing happened except that the filter for which I was looking for was already there in the basket holder. Alas!

We might have sometimes come across some similar experiences like this. I had laughed at my mom sometimes looking for the ladle, keeping the ladle right in her hand. There may be many scientific and psychological reasons for this into which I am not going. Lots of times this is something we encounter in our lives. We miss to see something which is right in front of our eyes. Yes. We miss to see a lot of things, sometimes knowingly and sometimes unknowingly. Knowingly we miss to see because of the fear that it may cost us something and unknowingly we miss sometimes because of our closed heartedness to the realities of this world.

We miss to see the injustice that is happening around us, we miss to see the poor and the needy around us, we miss to see the good things in others, we miss to see the bad things in us, we miss to see the purpose of our life sometimes, we miss to see the need of our presence in this world, we miss to see the good things that we have and so on and on. There a lot of things that we miss to see. Is this becoming of a true Christian? No. Not at all. We as Christians are a people for others. That is what we call Love. But it is really disheartening sometimes that we even miss to see that we are Christians.

Let us keep our inner eyes open and vigilant that we may never miss anything that we shouldn’t miss.

God bless.

Yours sincerely in Christ,
Fr. A. Antony

Called To Be Miracles

7/22/2018

Hi friends,
Hope you are all doing well after the humidity in the weather had gone down a bit. Hope to have the same kind of pleasant weather in coming days.
I would like to express my gratitude to all of you from the depth of my heart for making the Mass of the Sesquicentennial Jubilee of the Diocese at St. Michael’s last Saturday (07.14.2018). That was a blissful event where all our three parishes came together and worked it out so perfectly well. Congratulations and thank you very much.
Sometimes in the social media we see some posts which used to make me think about them. One such post is about miracles. I have seen posts like a bunch of clouds that may look like a human being, if you try to figure it out too closely. If it is like a woman-like image, people claim it to be Mary. If it is a man-like image, the post would claim it to be Jesus. Sometimes they take pictures of the lightnings and claim it to the image of some holy objects. These they claim to be miracles and they want people to base their faith on these so-called miracles which in fact are not so. These are expressions of a very feeble faith. There are many more miracles than these. I don’t mean to underestimate the real miracles that may happen through which God would definitely reveal Himself. He would have real miracles to convey or give to people if He wants. They would be incredibly miraculous. But do we need them at all?
As I said, the primary miracle that most of us mostly forget is the miracle of our life, that we are able to live. It is a miracle when too many number of people do not get up in the morning, we get up safe and sound. It is a miracle when there are people who have a kind heart amidst those who give in to the consumeristic culture. It is a miracle when there are people who do not care about God and spiritual matters, there are people who care about all these. It is a miracle when there are people not wise enough to choose a better option/side of life, there are those that do choose it. It is a miracle when there are people who care about their kids and grow them well amidst people who have a don’t care attitude towards their children. It is a miracle when there are sincere and honest people amidst those that are insincere and dishonest. It is a miracle when there are those who choose to live a moral and disciplined life amidst those that are swayed by ways of sheer pleasure. It is a miracle when there are people who go by principles among those that are living by pleasure and comforts. It is a miracle when people try to love others amidst the world of hatred. It is a miracle when people selflessly care for others in a world filled with selfishness. It is a miracle when people are able to forgive the enemy and treacherer in a world of revenge. It is a miracle when people are happy and proud of others’ good things in a world of jealousy. It is a miracle when the children take care of their parents in a world of indifference towards the elderly. Yes. There are too many miracles.
We are a people called to be miracles, not a people called to look for miracles outside of us. If we can perform any of the miracles mentioned above, we will be the living miracles, not just imagined or illusional miracles. Christians are people beyond the miracles, because we ourselves are miracles par excellence. So, do not look for miracles. Be a MIRACLE.
God bless.
Yours sincerely in Christ Jesus,
Fr. A. Antony.

Losing to Gain

7/15/2018

Hi friends,
Hope you are well. By the time you read this message, hopefully the Mass for the Sesquicentennial Jubilee of the Diocese held at St. Michael’s, Hewitt would have been over successfully. I would like to thank everyone for all your participation in the event.

A good number of years ago, one of my classmates got married to a girl. I happened to attend the wedding and wished him a very happy married life. We could not meet each other for a good period of time due the mode of life we had chosen. It was a very rare moment when we met after a while and he had changed a lot by nature and even by ap-pearance. I was curious to know how his life went on. He said to me, "I don’t know what to say. My wife is a good woman, but she is adamant. I had to yield to any of her argu-ments and requests and any difference of opinions. If I just do that, she will be happy and you know what, I cannot be happier. I always lose the battle, but never worried." That sounded a bit odd to me, a man yielding to a woman at all times. It took some time for me to understand and realize what he said was right.
We live in a society in which we are all driven by success or anxiety for success. None of us want to lose any competition, argument or any undertaking. The siege on and the search for success is so deep in our hearts that even relationships are measured by success. I would count on losing to gain. There are circumstances wherein we need to lose if we want to gain or win. Only when we understand this our life will be easy and smooth. Yes, it is a tactic to achieve success.

Lose yourself to your kids and you will gain happiness,
Lose yourself to your spouses, you will gain true love,
Lose yourself to your parents, you will gain support,
Lose yourself to your teachers, you will gain knowledge,
Lose yourself to your competitor, you will gain a friend,
Lose yourself to your siblings, you yourself will gain affection,
Lose yourself to the master (Guru), you will gain enlightenment.
Lose yourself to God, you will gain everything.
Not that you will not get any of these if you are not willing to lose. You may get all these. But when you lose yourself to others as mentioned above, all these you will get in abundance, and then both the giver and the receiver will be happy. When I say lose yourself, it is the ego and the pride that you need to lose. This technique of losing the self to gain is a good tactic which will never ever fail. Because, it is in trying to win over all the above-mentioned people, we lose them all and the benefits that could be derived from them. This is true of all relationships, especially in the relationship between a wife and the hus-band. This is what my friend I mentioned above told me.

Yes, it is in losing that we gain and win. This is true in most situations. Let us try this tech-nique and gain more and more contentment.
Yours sincerely in Christ Jesus,
Fr. Antony.