“Jesus, what made You so small? LOVE!”- St. Bernard of Clairvaux
As we remember the birth of Jesus coming into this world, let us every day welcome Him into our heart, and there remain attentive in quiet adoration of God made man.
Merry Christmas!       Love, Father A. Antony
 

Dear friends,
Hope you are doing well. I had been insisting that all need to make a good confession for a better celebration of Christmas. I am happy some are coming to make confession. But most do not seem to commit any sin as they don’t see the need to make confession. I would earnestly ask you to make your confession before the Christmas and make the celebration a little more meaningful and fruitful.
I was watching a reality show on the television. The show was about some celebrity, who would go out to do some work or any other project through which they would raise some funds that would be given to some needy deserving family which was already selected by the television channel crew. Anything that the celebrity does would be cashed in. Some people would ask the celebrity some questions, and the celebrity would get some money to answer the questions and the audience would give the money for that answer because they knew the purpose of the event.
In one such occasion, one person asked a celebrity, “What is your greatest achievement in your life?” The celebrity immediately said with a wink, “What else, except that I was born?” The person who asked the question was puzzled. The celebrity continued, “Yes, to be born in this world is the biggest achievement, and much more to live as a good human person”. I would add one more sentence to the celebrity’s answer. That is: and much more to live a good Christian life.
This actually is something that we need to reflect upon. Among the millions of life-cells from our parents only few cells gathered together to form us into a human person and that is who we are. And among many people that are born, only few are baptized and become Christians. Among too many of those baptized only few cling on to the faith that was handed over. And among those who cling on to the faith, only some realize the value of being a Christian and only some really know what it takes to be a Christian, and much more to be a Catholic.
This season of advent, we are expecting a birth which made history. Even this birth was a tough one. The person whose birth we are waiting for found it very hard to live His own life as the person he was meant to be, the Christ our Savior. We know what happened to Him for living as He was supposed to. This gives us the reason as to why it is hard to live like a good Christian and Catholic. The way that Christ lived was in contrast with the material and worldly values which were based on short lived pleasure. He lived a life of everlasting uncompromised values. That is the kind of life that we are called to live and that is what we have opted for, through the sacrament of Baptism.
As we are awaiting the birth of Baby Jesus, let us ask him for the courage to live like he did, the courage to witness to him despite anything that may hinder us in this life of a Christian.
God bless,
Blessed Advent,
Yours sincerely in Christ Jesus,
Fr. A. Antony.
 

Dear friends, Hope all of you are doing good.
This past week we had two funerals one for Marvin Schill (in Auburndale) and the other was for Jeffrey Belongia (in Blenker). I would invite you to keep both of them in your prayers, also the families of these two, too. May God bless them and be with them in this time of loss and pain.
I would like to thank you all for your wishes and prayers on my Birthday. The party held in Hewitt was great, and thank you all the PCCW ladies of St. Michael’s, and also my thanks to the PCCW in St. Mary’s and St. Kilian’s. That was a good day I had, thanks to your prayers and wishes.
We are already in the second week of the season of Advent. As I told you last week, kindly try to make your confession during the times scheduled or making an appointment. We will be in the Christmas Eve before we could know it. So, make this Christmas a better one than the other years.
Once a man was searching for something under the street light. He looked desperate and frustrated. Another man who was observing him for a long time thought that the man was frustrated because he might have lost something very important. So, with a will to help him, he approached him and said, “Hello friend, I have been looking at you for a while. You are searching for something that you lost, and I figure that you lost something important to you. Could you tell me what you lost and where exactly did you lose it, so that I can search with you to help you find what you lost?” The searcher said, “Oh! That is so very kind of you. Yes, I lost my wedding ring when I was doing some work inside my house. Would you help me find it out?” The helper was bewildered and asked him, “Okay if you lost it in your house, you should search for it inside your hose. But how come you are searching for it here?” The searcher solemnly replied, “Yes, you are right. But it is dark inside and it is bright with the street light here. Could you search anything in the dark and find it? You should search where there is light, so it will be easy for you to find in the light. That is why I am searching here”. The helper was astounded by his logic and quietly left away.
Most of the time this is what we do. We lose something somewhere and look for it elsewhere. Take for example, God, religion, morality, faith, discipline and many more. We have lost God from within ourselves and from our lives. We need to look for Him within. But what we do is we look for Him everywhere except where we lost Him, never to find Him. We have lost Him in our liturgy and sacraments and we look for Him elsewhere. We have lost Him in our families and we look for Him elsewhere. We have lost Him in our schools and we look for Him elsewhere. We have lost Him in our society and we look for Him elsewhere. Do you think we will ever find Him, if we look for Him in places other than where we lost Him? Never ever it will happen. We need to look for Him where we lost Him.
We need to look for Him in ourselves, in our liturgies and sacraments, in our families, in our schools, and in our society, and any other places we have lost Him. If we try to find Him in any man-made materials, our search will never end up with a desired result. As we are in the season of Advent, let us try hard to look for Him after figuring out where we have lost Him.
Have a blessed advent. Yours sincerely in Christ Jesus, Fr. A. Antony
 

Dear friends,
Now that we have begun a new liturgical year at the start of the Advent, I welcome you all and wish you a spiritually nourishing year.
As the new liturgical year begins, I would like to get you focused on the first big feast of Christmas. Christmas is one great event in history and we as Christians are proud to celebrate it. Because it is for us that this event happened first of all. So, we have the right and responsibility to celebrate this in a grand manner. The celebration of Christmas should be not just ritual, but it should be fruitful so that we really get what we need to get from this celebration. As I said in the Mass, the best way to celebrate Christmas or any other feast, is to make a good confession and take part in the Mass, and receive communion.
So, I would urge all of you to make a good confession and take part in the Mass. Though I have spoken to you about how to make your confession, I would like to give you few tips as to how to go about it. The primary part of making a good confession is to make a good examination of conscience for which you have many resources to do that. (One for sample: http://usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/sacraments-and-sacramentals/penance/examinations-of-conscience.cfm) Only when you do a proper examination of conscience,  will you be able to make a good confession and you will be able to avoid some guessing statements like, I think…, I might have…, I am not sure… and many more like these. Otherwise, you may end up confessing what you might not have really committed.
When you confess your sins, try to be direct in what you are saying. Say “I did (this)”. It is as simple as that. Do not try to beat around the bush and let the priest guess something for you. For example, say “I used profane words”. Do not say I might have said some profane words, or I think… words like these would tend to confuse the priest and he may end up guessing something grave about what you confessed and give you more penance and you end up feeling guiltier of even what you did not really do.
Another thing is that you have to confess the sins that you committed since the last confession. You need not recall the sins of the ages past. Because when you come to confession, all your sins are forgiven. Then you become like a clean slate. God does not want His sons and daughters to feel sorry or guilty for the sins that were already forgiven. He does not keep record of our sins. Once He forgives, He also forgets. “If you, LORD, keep account of sins, Lord, who can stand?” (Ps: 130:3). But we should remember the sins and their gravity, to remind ourselves that we should not commit the same sins again and again, but not to make ourselves to feel guilty or sorry about them.
To conclude, I once again urge you all affectionately to make a good confession and celebrate the Christmas more meaningfully and fruitfully.
God Bless and have a Blessed Advent.
Yours sincerely in Christ,
Fr. A. Antony