4/05/2014

32nd Day of Lent: April 5, 2014: “Only this lot who knows nothing about the law” (John 7:49)

32nd Day of Lent: 
April 5, 2014:
“Only this lot who knows nothing about the law”
 (John 7:49)


Pope Francis continues to mesmerize, surprise, and even shock the world by his words, deeds, testimonies, life and life-style. To me he is revealing a completely different image of the papacy, of God and the Church than what we are used to. 

He has been able to establish a rapport and clear connection with the simple and ordinary folks in the church as well as to the ‘unchurched’ so much as so that no one should feel left-out. 

In the Gospel today we see Jesus being recognized by the simple ordinary and so called ‘ignorant of the law’ that He is a ‘prophet’. 

They can’t get enough of him. Jesus is revealing a God-self that they can understand, a God self that looks lovingly at the sinners, the lepers, the tax-collectors, the prostitutes, the marginalized, the poor, the excluded, the ignorant, the shepherds. The Pharisees, the learned, the experts of the law, refuse to acknowledge and accept Jesus because he does not fit in to their category.


You cannot limit God-self then God is a purely human construct. Jesus continues to surprise us in the way he reveals God-self to us. 

We simply, humbly and honestly have to open ourselves to God to receive the grace and mercy and salvation He offers to us. That means leaving aside our own pre-conceived ideas or images of God and embracing the God of surprises.

Lent is that time when once again we let God be God and take pride in the fact that we are not God. Thank God.

God Bless you always!
Sincerely Yours,
Rev. Fr. Cyriac Chandy Mattathilanickal, MS

Wishing you and yours A Holy Lent!
Rev. Fr. Tom Puthusseril, M.S.
Shrine Director



    Meditation Song:
  
                     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CZ0XJqWRr4



                                                            
Jesus hold me close to You...Never let me go again... 
bring me back to you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdJBYyNsQd0






                                                            Dear Friends.... 

Please share 
with us your comments of our 

Daily Lenten Reflection.


How has it touched you?
How has it helped you in your Lenten journey?
You may post your comment here
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4/04/2014

31st Day of Lent: April 4, 2014: “Let us lie in wait for the righteous man” (Wisdom 2:1)



31st Day of Lent:
  April 4, 2014:
   “Let us lie in wait 
          for the righteous man”
                               (Wisdom 2:1)

The presence of a righteous person, a person of moral integrity, simplicity, humility and Truth, is disturbing, inconvenient, disconcerting, to the ‘ungodly’. This is true for those who are overcome with passion, hatred, prejudice, ambition, jealousy, and not guided by reason.
We see that in the rejection of Jesus conveniently by the Jewish authorities even though he was all that the prophets predicted, the Messiah, but the Messiah did not come from the ‘higher ranks’ nor from the ‘royal palaces’.  So they seek to arrest him. Arrest Who? The Messiah?

The Messiah’s way was one of absorbing all the aggression, passion, suffering, and even death and finally resurrect from the dead so that the Messiah has the final victory and not the ‘ungodly’.

How often we put to death the “messiahs” of our time because it is not convenient to follow their lead. 
In the sanctuary of the human heart, there lies the true conscience, the wisdom, the truth, the righteousness and all that is godly. When we move away from the center of our being – the image of God in us we – fall prey to the passions of life that will bring us ruin and misery.



Stay at the Center. That is where Jesus is and was and will always be.

Reflect...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIWEHD1wEFc


 If we are overcome by the genuineness of Jesus’ authenticity, his miracles, his sincerity, then you are willing to follow him without knowing how it will all come out with the danger of being hounded by the same authorities who were plotting to kill the Messiah. How willing am I to swallow at times all the burdens, misunderstandings, sufferings that come my way because of my witness to Jesus? Are there Gospel challenges that I continue to ignore because it is not convenient for my life style?

Lent is a time to ‘go to the deep’.
Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me; let him drink who believes in me” (John 7:37).

God Bless you always!
Sincerely Yours,
Rev. Fr. Cyriac Chandy Mattathilanickal, MS

Wishing you and yours A Holy Lent!
Rev. Fr. Tom Puthusseril, M.S.
Shrine Director








Dear Friends.... 
Please share 
with us your comments of our 
Daily Lenten Reflection.


How has it touched you?
How has it helped you in your Lenten journey?
You may post your comment here
or confidently share with me 
@
E-Mail it to us at
lasaletteshrinedirector@gmail.com 



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4/03/2014

30th Day of Lent: April 3, 2014: “stiff-necked people” (Acts 7:51)

30th Day 
         of Lent: 
              April 3, 2014:
         “stiff-necked people”
                                 (Acts 7:51)




A lot of times people have short memories and fall back into the same old habits that are destructive and troublesome.

 The Israelites forget so conveniently that they have been fed with manna in the desert, water from the rocks, miraculously saved at Red Sea, the God of generosity and promises. 







From a living God who accompanied them all through their life, they reduce themselves to worshiping a molten calf. Even then their defense attorney Moses fights for them with God saying other nations will laugh at us if you now punish your people for their iniquities. So God relents. 

So we hear that God can be influenced with a powerful intercessor. When our going becomes tough and rough, when people criticize, mock and reduce you to nothingness, it is so easy to give up on our faith in the Lord. 

But we must know times like these our God is closer to us than ever before. God knows we have a difficult time. So God is eager to reach out to us and help us to carry the burdens of our life.




“Faith can never be simply an intellectual assent to truths revealed by God, although it certainly includes that, it always demands a profound personal gift of ourselves to Jesus, a passionate commitment of our minds and hearts to him.” That’s real discipleship.

In tough times remember the glories of the Lord, the blessings, and graces God has showered upon you and that memory will keep us from staying afloat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElVC6rfX3Z8&list=RDElVC6rfX3Z8

God Bless you always!

Sincerely Yours,
Rev. Fr. Cyriac Chandy Mattathilanickal, MS

Wishing you and yours A Holy Lent!
Rev. Fr. Tom Puthusseril, M.S.
Shrine Director

Please share with us your comments of our 
Daily Lenten Reflection.
How has it touched you?
How has it helped you in your Lenten journey?
You may post your comment here
or confidently share with me 
@
E-Mail it to us at
lasaletteshrinedirector@gmail.com 


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4/02/2014

29th Day of Lent: April 2, 2014: “ I will never forget you” (Isaiah 49:15)

29th Day of Lent: 
                    April 2, 2014:
                          “I will never forget you”
                                                                                                          (Isaiah 49:15)

God’s love for us is everlasting and unconditional. God is slow to anger and rich in compassion according to the psalmist. Jesus says he has ‘come to do the will of the Father’ and he does only what His Father wants. The purpose of Jesus’ coming is to bring us to everlasting life. The Jews wanted to kill Jesus for sharing this good news. People at times really get bend out of shape for small and simple things.
Then you begin to wonder am I in the right track or heading in the wrong direction. Our response to God’s love is reflected in the way we conduct our lives with oneself, others and creation. It is also reflected in the way we seek to learn, understand and fulfill the will of God. In one of his Treatise on Love St. Alphonsus Liguori says, “All holiness consists in the love of God; but the love of God consists in conformity to the will of God; therefore all holiness consists in conformity to the will of God.”

Reflecting on this theme another Redemptorist priest Fr. Daniel Lowrey says, “The will of God is manifested to us in the duties and responsibilities of our state in life”. This is very challenging especially when people stand in our way preventing us from carrying out what is asked of you. Jews were ruthlessly objecting Jesus’ way of ministering to the people, sharing his love and compassion for them, promising everlasting life if they choose to follow Him. How often do I find myself at the receiving end of so much of grief, objections, criticisms, reactions in carrying out the will of God.

As the Treatise on Love says, “The chief point lies in our embracing the will of God in all things that befall us, not only when they are favorable, but when they are contrary to our desires. When things go well, even sinners find no difficulty in being in a state of uniformity to the divine will; but the saints are in uniformity also under circumstances, which run counter to self-love. It is in this that the perfection of our love of God is shown”. No wonder then it so hard to follow the lead of our Lord at times. Therefore, we come to God with all our vulnerability, inability, and difficulty so that He who is Love will help us to love deeper and the live the will of God. 

God Bless you always!

Sincerely Yours,
Rev. Fr. Cyriac Chandy Mattathilanickal, MS

Wishing you and yours A Holy Lent!
Rev. Fr. Tom Puthusseril, M.S.
Shrine Director








 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvbYO9upB1U

Dear Friends.... 
Please share with us your comments of our 
Daily Lenten Reflection.
How has it touched you?
How has it helped you in your Lenten journey?
You may post your comment here
or confidently share with me 
@
E-Mail it to us at
lasaletteshrinedirector@gmail.com 

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4/01/2014

28th Day of Lent: April 1, 2014: “Do you want to be healed”? (John 5:7)


28th Day of Lent:

       April 1, 2014: 

   “Do you want 
             to  be  healed”?

                              (John 5:7)

Some people play victim for a long time in their life and sadly it is a tragedy. They lack courage and confidence in themselves. They are like the man in the Gospel who say, “I have no one to plunge me into the pool. By the time I get there someone else has always beaten me to it”.  He is spiritually and physically paralyzed. He sat by the healing waters of Bethesda which means “house of mercy” for 38 years. So when Jesus encounters him and looks at him knowing that he had been playing the game of victim asks him “do you want to be healed”, he repeats the same excuse. 


We have to have courage and confidence to be disciples of Jesus. 
We should not allow other people or events or situations to control or guide our future and then we remain a victim for ever. 

The healing waters of new life is always available to us in the sacraments of the Church like confession, Holy Eucharist, anointing of the sick all of them aimed at healing and wholeness to a human person. It is a sin of omission if we refuse to approach the “house of mercy”, the healing waters, the Bethesda right before us. 
The whole question is do you want to be set free from your illness, sin, hurt, burden, pain, and if you are the embodiment of mercy, Jesus the mercy incarnate is always around and all that is asked of us is to plunge into the waters of divine mercy. Then you will be victim no more. 

 As Richard Rohr says, ‘sometimes our deepest sin might be that we refuse to keep growing’. Where is the nearest ‘door of mercy’, the pool of mercy, the Confessional available to you? 
Go and be cleansed. 
                               Stop being a victim. 
                                                  Be a victor in the Lord.


God Bless you always!
Sincerely Yours,
Rev. Fr. Cyriac Chandy Mattathilanickal, MS

Wishing you and yours A Holy Lent!
Rev. Fr. Tom Puthusseril, M.S.
Shrine Director



        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slHKsuXkFBU







Dear Friends.... 
Please share with us your comments of our 
Daily Lenten Reflection.
How has it touched you?
How has it helped you in your Lenten journey?
You may post your comment here
or confidently share with me 
@
E-Mail it to us at
lasaletteshrinedirector@gmail.com 

May Our Lady of La Salette richly bless you!

Rev. Fr. Tom Puthusseril, M.S.
Shrine Director


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