Thursday walk

Some one rightly said, “Where there is a hill there is a valley, where there is winter there is spring.” Life is just full of unexpected joys as it is of unexpected sorrows. Today when I went for my Thursday walk, I encountered rich people as well as street vendors and beggars. I could see joy upon some of them and sorrow upon the others. Many of them believe in living one day at a time. Many of them have no choice but to take up such job for their survival. I could do nothing but to pray for them. I went further and to my surprise I saw a woman from a middle class family. She removed her Tiffin and gave some of her food to poor ladies who were sitting at the edge of the road. This incident made me reflect about God’s love. God shows His love to the poor and invites us to do the same.  

Suffering in the world

What is human life? Is human life all about sufferings, pain, and evil? Where is God, when all this things are happening in the world? In a way we are responsible for sufferings, pain and evil in the world. We can not blame God for everything. Creating heaven or hell in this life as well as in the next is in our hands. To create heaven, we need the grace of God. To answer the above questions, God might tell us, “ I made you to bare witness to my love.” Another question may arise, what can we do? How can we change the world? The son of God came into the world and sacrificed himself for us. Being the son of God, he did not change the world but left it to us because he respected our freedom. How can we change the world without going against others freedom? We need to change the hearts of the people we live with. We can change the hearts of others with the help of God. 

Pornography

When I think about the term pornography, a question arises in my mind. What is pornography? Pornography is not sex. Sex in itself is good. Sex includes sensing, touching, caressing and it involves the whole person. In pornography these elements are missing and so the pornography is not good. Pornography is taking advantage of someone else’s pain, suffering, dignity and vulnerability. It is dehumanizing because it objectify person, there is no respect and so on. It is not healthy sexual communication but it is all about male domination of women.

     There are many negative impact of pornography. Here some of the negative impact; erectile dysfunction, numb pleasure response, erosion of will power, loss of our ability to imagine. It conquers our mind and invades our brains. Once it conquers our mind, our perspectives about people changes. We see people as an objects.

Parallel virtues connected to Salesian life.

We as Salesians value virtue ethics though many a time we failed to practice. In virtue ethics we consider human person rather then one’s actions. Being human we are weak and we fall into temptation of judging people merely on their actions rather then looking at a person as a whole with his/her limitations. Virtues are habits that shape our characters, and vices are the habits that in some way cause an obstacle to reach happiness. We Christians cultivate good habits at home, in our families. As Salesians we continue those good habits and cultivate some more in order to be an example for the youngsters in our oratories and apostolate. To be a good religious especially in today’s world you need to be virtuous man/women. In other words we can say that virtue plays a key role in the life of a consecrated person. Telos is the centre of virtue ethics. As a Christian or a religious my Telos is God. As a chosen one my Telos is radical following of Jesus. The question arises here is; what about people who are not religious? Not all are called to follow Jesus in the same way as a religious do, but all are called to make this world a prominent place. Some of the practices we follow as Salesians help us reach our Telos. For example the Salesians are known for their hardwork, dedication, joy and optimism. In this way we Salesians not only direct ourselves towards the Telos but also lead other people towards it.

Our Common Home

Human Beings are created in the image and likeness of God. We are the pinnacle of His creation; therefore we have tremendous responsibility of taking care of all things created by God. Today we speak about loss of biodiversity. Each year thousands of plant and animal species disappears, which we will never know and which the coming generation will never see, because they are lost forever.

     We must consider the sun as our brother, moon as our sister and the earth as our mother. We must keep our ears open to the cry of our mother earth. We must be ready to stand for our mother earth. We must protect and create awareness for our common home. It is our common home because every one has the right to make use of it. In order care for our common home we need to get rid of use and throw culture.     

My vision on human life

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.”-Bil Keane. We humans prefer to live in history and mystery but fail to live in the present, which is the gift of God. In this way I too fall into temptation by living in history and mystery, I too neglect the gift of God. God plays a key role in human life, without His grace and support human life is futile. The question arises, what about the atheists? At present the number of people who don’t believe in God is increasing. People lose faith in God due to the difficulties and trails they face in life. They give up on God but God never gives up on them. The motto of human life must be ‘love’. Love can take away all our sorrows and pain. It is very easy to say that we must love even our enemies but it is very difficult to practice in life. If we live our lives loving others, it is really beautiful. Why do I say that we must love, because I believe life is a journey, once you pass by it, you can never come back to it. Leave your legacy in such a way that people may remember you for the good that you have done and not for bad.

     In my life, I ask God ‘why me lord, why this burden in my life.’ I fail to realize that life is a beautiful journey with the colorful sides, some times bright, sometimes dark or both dark as well as bright. I fail to realize that life is a beautiful gift given to us by our heavenly father. It is a free gift, we never choose it, but it has been given to us. Therefore what we do with this free gift is more important than asking the lord ‘why this burden.’ We are needed where we are, as in the heavens; each and every star fills the appointed space. So we fill that place, where God has need. Many a times I wander why am I not like the other? I always compare myself with someone better then me and fail to use the potency to become good which God has blest me with. This article helped me to reflect upon my own life and be thankful to God for very many blessings in my life.

Learning something new

Learning something new

We had many priest in our campus this week. They were making their annual retreat here. Every night, different priest would give the good night talk. Once father Joel spoke very well about looking at things with different perspectives. He shared a story. A man named Tom used to work in a company. Everyday he would carry some hey in a wheelbarrow. The security would come and check hey and let him take hey. This would happen everyday. Once Tom’s friend asked him why he would carry hey in the wheelbarrow everyday home and get it back with same stuff. Then Tom said that actually he would rob the wheelbarrow everyday but the security guard used to think that he would carry something else under the hey. So he would check everyday.

      Let us change our perspectives of looking at things and learn something new everyday. Not just get stuck to one idea. 

The nature … God’s creation

 When I see the world around me, many questions trigger my mind. The first question that comes to my mind is; what God must be thinking about His creation? I think God too will have many questions for us. Some of the questions that He would ask is; “Do you know who am I? I am somebody you live with everyday though many a times without realizing it. Somebody who wants what is the best for you and what is essential in your life. Without me you can do nothing and you won’t manage to live, though many a times you are not aware of that. But for my misfortune, you don’t respect what I give you. I have given you this clean and wonderful nature, full of colors and beauty. Why do you give me back dirt, wrappers and polluted things? Why did I give you living creatures… to kill? to experiment? to satisfy your selfish motives? Don’t you like them? Don’t you respect them? I gave you life… do you give me back death? Is that the legacy that you want to leave to your children? Do something for me, for you and for everybody. If you don’t do it, who will? If its not done now, then when it will be done?” This is the cry of God so let us heed His cry and do something about it.    

The mother earth

 ‘The Seven Wonders of the World.’ Can you tell me which are the present ‘seven wanders of the world’. (1. Egypt’s great Pyramids, 2. Taj mahal, 3. Grand canyon, 4. Panama canal, 5. Empire state building, 6. St. Peter’s Basilica, 7. China’s great wall). Do you agree with this answer? But I don’t agree with this answer. I am totally confused, because I find myself with a big list of wonders. Finally I have to select the best ones among them and so the seven wonders of the world for me are; “1. To see, 2. To hear, 3. To touch, 4. To taste, 5. To feel, 6. To laugh and 7. To love.”
  So my dear friends, wonders of the world are within us, we need to realize them. Let us be the cause of happiness for other people and let them know that they are loved. Let us thank God for blessing us with these wonders, and be sensitive to the needs of others and be sensitive towards our mother earth.