Dear friends,
Hope your week went well and pray that the coming week be a good one.
Relaxation and a time for our own selves is something important. I am not advocating for my annual vacation. But look at the present situation and present generation.
It seems once a man was watching television when he got a phone call. He grabbed the phone and answered the phone. But he could not hear anything from the other end. Assuming that the mobile did not get sufficient signal, he went upstairs little by little, trying to obtain proper signal for the mobile. But it was of no use. While he was wondering why the mobile did not get enough signal unusually, his son from down in the living room yelled, “Dad bring the remote here. Your mobile is here”.
A man who was living in the 50th floor in a mansion got a phone call, “Bill, your son died in an accident. Please come to the Hospital”. The man in an anxiety and sorrow jumped down from the 50th floor. As he was falling down, he realized when he was reaching the 40th floor and thought, Oh! I don’t have a son”. As he approached the 30th floor he realized and said to himself, ‘I am not yet even married”. As he reached the 20th floor, “Oh Goodness, my name is not Bill at all”. Before he could realize this all and come to his senses, he fell on the ground and died.
These two incidents may seem funny. But they have a lot to tell us. These stories tell us in what kind of state we live. We live in a world of tension most of which we create ourselves and suffer from them. We think we are living in a world of race. And we want to win the race. Life is not a race. It is an experience which we need to enjoy. Because we engage ourselves in that imaginary race, we don’t take time to enjoy the life as it should be enjoyed. When I say enjoy the life I do not necessarily mean the mere worldly enjoyment of pleasure but also, the spiritual aspect and psychological aspect of it.
All we try to do is to earn money and spend them all for a short-lived pleasure and save some money for the so called ‘future’. I am not against all these, but are we enjoying the happiness that would long for more span of time. For example, the help we render to someone will be a happier thing than having a sumptuous meal at a star level restaurant. Or, a prayer that we make for other person’s need would give us more satisfaction than the prayer that we say for ourselves. Or, the withdrawal from an argument for the sake of not hurting others would bring more self-esteem than to proceed with the argument and prove someone wrong and at the end lose or break the relationship with that person.
If we consider this world a race track, we will not have time to enjoy these little, little moments of joy of life. Though these are little as we peripherally look at them, they are the joy of the soul, not the matter. The joy of soul is the joy that remains longer than the joy of matter (physique). We are not a constitution of matter alone but our personality has a deeper and stronger constituent which is called Soul. This soul has to be nurtured with all the virtues, not with mundane matters. To enrich our soul, we need time, a time of solitude, a time of internal silence, a time of serenity, a time of relaxation, a time of prayer, a time of self-introspection, a time of reflection, a time with the family, a time for our own self. Only if we spare such a time we can realize the worth and the meaning of life and we can enjoy it to the full.
Do we see why Jesus went most of the nights in loneliness? (Lk:5:16, Mk:1:35, Mt:14:23,) May be this is the reason.
God bless.
Fr. A. Antony
 

Dear friends,
Hope you are all doing well. We had a nice week after a not so pleasant week. Hope this continues. I hope and pray that you all be blessed with the abundance of grace from the Almighty.
 
I happened to see a video clip on the social media. It was about a man who came to a restaurant to eat. There were a group of friends who were eating when the man entered the restaurant. That group of friends seemed to have had a lot of fun talking and having the food. They were very much involved in talking so eagerly and enthusiastically that they engaged so little in eating. After they thought they were finished, they paid the bill and went away.
 
The man of the story, who entered at that time sees that there was a lot of food left over on few of the plates. He goes and takes that food and eats. Some people in the restaurant looked at him disgustedly, because he was eating the leftovers. Even the manager of the restaurant looked at him rather in a demeaning manner. Everybody in the restaurant thought that he was a very poor man and some even looked at him as if he was a beggar.
 
The man did not mind anything of what they thought or said. He ate and got up went to the counter. There was a plastic can with a CHARITY label stuck on it. He threw some dollars in that can and went away. All those in the restaurant looked at him amazingly at the way he taught them a lesson not to waste food. They all got up and respected him by their dumbfounded silence.
 
Yes. It has become a become a culture of wasting, wasting food, wasting money, wasting time, wasting energy, wasting talents, wasting knowledge. This wasting takes place in the abundance of those things. But we forget to understand that whatever we may waste would benefit many people who are in need of them, especially when they are in scarcity of those things. We waste things because we do not really know or realize the value of those things that we waste.
 
Here  I would like to make a note on the Spiritual waste. Maybe because we do have an abundance of spiritual wealth we do not realize the value and worth of it. Because of that we waste a lot of spiritual wealth by not taking an active part in all spiritual activities like Holy Eucharist, confession, Sacraments and so on. We have people- religious and laity- to cater to our spiritual needs. Because we have more of them we do not consider it as something important or necessary for our Christian life. In this world there are many Mission countries where people do not have all these Spiritual abundances. This is true in some parts of our own country too. They long for some means for the satisfaction of their spiritual hunger and thirst. But they do not have them at all due to many reasons.
 
All that we need to do is to make use of all the facilities offered to us for spiritual health and development. This is the justice that we may exercise in the spiritual world. I pray that we all understand the gift of the spiritual abundance and appreciate it by actively availing them.
 
God bless.
 
Yours sincerely in Christ Jesus,
Fr. A. Antony
 

 
Hope you are all doing well. I wish and pray for all of you that God be with you and guide you graciously. I was happy to see more than twenty people on the first Saturday mass this past week. I hope and pray that you continue to come for the first Saturday masses and develop a special devotion to Our Lady who is our ardent intercessor.
 
Once a lady was taken for heart surgery. The surgery was so complicated that she almost died. When she was in that condition she went into the presence of God. She asked him if her time on the earth was over. God told her, “No. your time is not yet over. You have thirty more years to live on the earth. Only after that you will die for certain and you will come to me”. The lady was happy. In the meantime, the surgery was done successfully and the lady came back to life.
 
Immediately after the lady came to life and got well, she prepared herself to live her remaining life in a better way. So, she went to the beauty parlor and made herself look more beautiful than ever. With all possible cosmetic treatment possible, she made herself a tremendously good-looking young lady. All men and youngsters were astounded by her beauty and wanted to marry her. She was proud of her amazing beauty and relentlessly kept showing off her beauty. Once when she was so immersed in showing off, she was hit by a big truck and died.
 
There she went in front of God very furiously. She asked God in a terrifying tone, “God you cheated on me. You told me that I would live for thirty more years on the earth and I am killed now. You did not keep your word. You are a cheat”. She burst out her anger so  much that God was taken aback. Then God made her come closer and looked at her closely. Then he said to her with a smile on his face, “My child, what I told you was true. But, because of the extensive change in you because of the make-up and cosmetic treatment, it was hard for me to recognize you. Sorry about that and now that you have come here for the second time, you may stay here”. (My apologies to all ladies young and old, it is only for fun).
 
This story may be funny. But that is what we are doing, like the lady in the story. God created us all in His own likeness and image. That means, we have to radiate the features of God in our behavior and life. We have to be like God in being people of love, peace, forgiveness, faith, brotherhood, equality, acceptance and all the Christian values. But what do we see in reality? We have lost our image both as human beings and Christians. Because, most times, we do not behave either like good hearted human beings or faith filled Christians. Where is our image of God? How do we bear witness to our God? How do we preach Jesus to others? Would God recognize us as His children who bear His image or would He tell us as He told that lady that He could not recognize us? I (Jesus) will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’ (Mt:7:23).
 
Let us keep our image as that of God and His likeness.
God bless.
 
Yours sincerely in Christ Jesus,
Fr. A. Antony
 

Dear friends,
 
A good day to you all. Hope you are doing well and I pray that the Almighty God bless you all and keep you well in His care.
 
The month of October is the month dedicated to our Lady of the Rosary. I would entreat all of you to cultivate a special devotion to our Lady of the Rosary by praying the Rosary every day. The Rosary is a powerful weapon as suggested by our Lady against the powers of Satan and hell. The Rosary will keep us safe always. Hence kindly cultivate this devotion.
 
I would like to take this opportunity to appreciate all those who participated in the Rosary Rally held in Marshfield yesterday. I hope that the Rally would have given you an impetus to commit yourselves to that devotion to the Holy Rosary. I am personally happy that I had my contribution to that Rally by a speech.
 
This month is also meant for missions. I would recommend all of you to pray for the mission countries and try to help the missions in way suitable and convenient for you. We are all called to be missionaries in our own simple ways. Any little assistance you would offer for the missions would do great wonders.
 
This month is also the month for ‘Respect for Life’. We the Christians are called to be the agents of life. Because our Lord Jesus, by his death, has called us out of death to life and he has conquered death by his death. Hence the life that we possess is the generous gift of God. By life I mean both the life of grace and this worldly life. We need to respect the life that we possess and the life that others have the right to possess. That life may be of infants, adults, or even our own life. We need to respect that.
 
And in a special way as we are in this modern world where selfishness seems to be the most effective norm of life, we are expected to radiate a sense of respect for others and their rights, especially their right to a dignified life. If we cannot do that we don’t deserve anything that we enjoy or possess. It is by recognizing the rights of others, that we can claim our own right. Basically, that is what is the Christian sentiment which is based on love which is self-giving. It is by that self-giving life only we were all saved and given gratuitously the gift of life of grace.
 
Once again, I would extend my prayers and wishes included with blessings for a wonderful week ahead.  God bless.
 
Yours sincerely in Christ Jesus,
Fr. A. Antony
 

Dear friends,
 
Hope things are going well with you all and I pray that you all have a good time. All the same, the things that are going on around the world is a bit worrying. All we need to do is to pray that people become more and more good hearted and live life peacefully.
 
It is a pleasure to let you know that 25 of our parish children got confirmed last Sunday and the celebration went well. Bishop Callahan was saying that confirmation does not guarantee that one becomes an adult in the church, but it is growing into adulthood. The sacrament of confirmation gives one all the gifts of the Holy Spirit which will enable him/her to grow into adulthood. With that in mind I would say that everyone who received the sacrament of confirmation is growing into adulthood, with all the gifts of the Spirit.
 
When one receives the sacrament of confirmation, it is not in any way that the Christian life comes to a completion. I would say only when you receive that sacrament you start virtually the act of living a mature Christian life. Because, with all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we really understand and realize the true meaning of what a Christian life is. It is not only coming to church once a week, attend the mass and be done with it. The real Christian life starts after the mass is over. The mass gives you a boost to live the Christian life in a meaningful way. It is after the mass that we nourish and cherish the gifts of the Holy Spirit that we received in the sacrament of confirmation.
 
We are not called to be ritualistic Christians but realistic Christians. While rituals are important in the Catholic life, those rituals are and should be the expression of our real life as Christians. If those rituals do not express our real life, they become meaningless and worthless. We are not people who live a meaningless, worthless and empty life. We are people who are called to live a solid life of Christ and Christian values. If we could live such a life, Christianity would not be an object of mockery for people of other religions and atheists. We should not give room for that, because we believe in a God who was and is in the History, which is true and real.
 
Let us check our lives and make it more Christian and meaningful.
God bless,
Yours sincerely in Christ Jesus,
Fr. A. Antony