ST AUGUSTINE'S PRAYER TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy.

Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy.

Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, that I love but what is holy.

Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy.

Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, that I always may be holy. Amen.

DARE TO BE DIFFERENT

Dare to be different in all walks of your life.

Dare to stand-alone.

Dare to stand up for your convictions even if the crowd around you may move in another way. Dare to be a fool for the sake of Christ.

With the Word of God & power of the spirit, dare to be a Crusader for Christ.

Dare to follow the footsteps of our heavenly Father.

Dare to take up the cross and follow him wherever He leads you.

Dare to be a real Christian with a strong backbone.

Dare to say "no" to momentary pleasures that the world has to offer.

Dare to tell others about your Heavenly Dad.

Dare to stand for holiness, purity and sanctity as a dove, no matter what it takes.

(Judy Sara Mathew)

Slow, Slow, Slow Down!

Message of the ‘International Day of Slowness’.

By Joe Eruppakkatt (Originally published in The Teenager Youth Magazine

“Two of the most powerful warriors are patience and time.”
-- Leo Tolstoy

‘World day of Peace’, ‘World Day of the Sick’, ‘World day of Environment, ‘World Day of Rice’... the list of such World Days is endless and sometimes fascinating. However, have you heard of something called the ‘International Day of Slowness’?

Yes, here is another date to circle your calendar. A Milan-based group called L’Arte Del Vivere Con Lentezza’ (The Art of Living Slow) has assigned February 19 as the ‘International Day of Slowness’. It was observed for the first time in 2007. The group hopes that it would be a day of enjoyment, reflection, and pro-slow events, helping people everywhere to find ways to put on the brakes at work, at home, or wherever.

However, there already existed an ‘International Day of Slowness’, known as ‘Journee de la Lenteur’ declared by a group in Montreal, Canada and later taken up in other countries. This group had assigned June 21, the longest day of the year, as the International Day of Slowness.

We live in an age of fast foods, fast prayer, fast tracks, fast walking, fast growth, fast what not! We work fast, we eat fast and we pray fast. Recently I heard of a technique called fast reading. We read without going through each word and line, but read only in so far as you understand the meaning of the text as a whole. This is symbolic of the life we live in this post-modern time. We overlook many words and lines; many sounds and signs; many faces and expressions; many needs and cries in our rat race for success, achievement and result.

Hence, the movement towards slowing down the pace of life. The philosophy behind this movement intents to promote slow breathing, slow dance, slow music, slow eating, slow walking, slow praying, slow reading, slow thinking, slow singing and slow everything. The proverb ‘if you chew slowly, you can eat even a palm tree” is based on this philosophy.

According to this movement, a fast-paced life leaves no room for entertainment, relaxation, reflection, meaningful relationship and above all time for and with the creator God. Time saved through such accelerated life is often time wasted. Says William Rogers: “Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.” Long ago I had heard a wise man, Fr Thomas Cheruvil, the former Editor of The Teenager, cautioning youngsters: “Hurry leads to worry”. How true his advice is, if only we analyze many of our own speedy races and the troubles they land us in!

Slowness is not to be confused with laziness. It does not mean a compulsive procrastination of things needed to be done. It is not opposed to fast economic, educational and social development of a society or a country. It does not justify the indifference and apathy of officials to clear the files and help execute projects and clear citizen’s concerns. Nor does slowness justify backlog in disposing justice to the common man.

Positive slowness is productive and active and growth-oriented. It is a time to reconnect with our ‘inner tortoise’ in this stressful world. A recent report in the New York Times said that Pricewater Coopers, a well known accounting firm, has decided to close down its entire US operations twice a year to ensure that its employees slow down. Everything stops for 10 days over Christmas and five days around the 4th of July. During the year the company also sends electronic reminders to the staff who fail to take enough vacation time. Says one high ranking member of the firm: “We wanted to create an environment where people could walk away and not worry about missing a meeting, a conference call or 300 E-mails”. Not surprisingly, the company’s productivity is much higher since the innovative idea began to be put into practice.

A new quarterly magazine has been launched in the Netherlands called ‘Slow Management’. As the title suggests, it is all about applying the ‘Slow philosophy’ to the world of management: freeing companies and staff from the destructive obsession with speed, targets and short-term profits. The aim is to show why managers should manage with a light touch. It also gives lots of real-life examples of how to do so.

Slowness can be irritating for some. They always like to be one yard ahead of others in everything. They complain that their colleague or partner is too slow to the point of frustration. In our ‘speedaholic’ culture, we often hear the expressions, ‘there is no time’ and ‘how I wish the day had more than 24 hours’.

Nature has its on slow and steady pace. Nothing can force or induce nature to speed up the natural process of birth, growth and death. A seed sown in the field takes its time to sprout, produce its first leaf, grow and become a plant and produce flower and then fruit. The farmer waits day and night for its growth until he can harvest the fruit. A good lesson on how to ‘slow down’!

Slowing down can leave us enough time to connect with God, the source of all power and giver of all gifts. God is known, experienced, loved, and prayed to in stillness, gentleness and leisureliness. In our busy life it is possible that we forget God and his gifts. However, God patiently waits morning after morning, evening after evening, day after day for a moment of quiet and personal conversation with us. Experiencing the living God daily for a few moments can brighten up and energize our dull and sometimes chaotic lives. And God’s gentle touch and merciful love can be experienced only in stillness.

A business executive from Austria tells the story of how he found that prayer is the ultimate form of slowness: One day he arrived in Vatican to finalize a big business deal. He arrived from Vienna with a full day’s schedule of meetings, but instead of hurrying to the first of them, a priest escorted him to a chapel to pray for 45 minutes! And they stopped for further prayers after every meeting throughout the busy day. At first he was anxious and restless, but eventually he surrendered to the ritual and actually found the breaks quite soothing. He also found that the meetings were more relaxed and more efficient because he had time to reflect, recharge and even plan better.

The following excerpt from a poem, written by a terminally ill young girl who had just six months to live explains why we should slow down:

“You’d better slow down.
Don’t dance so fast, time is short.
The music won’t last.
When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift thrown away.
Life is not a race, do take it slower
Hear the music before the song is over.

Carl Honore wrote the best-selling book, In Praise of Slow. He says: “Speed has helped us to remake our world in ways that are wonderful and liberating. But our obsession with speed has turned into an addiction….When you accelerate things that should not be accelerated, when you forget how to slow down, there is a price to pay”.

joessp@gmail.com

GOD WANTS ME TO TELL YOU....

Everything that is going wrong in your life today shall be well with you this year. You have been destined to make it and you shall surely achieve all your goals this year. For the remaining months of this year (2008), all your agonies will be diverted and victory and prosperity will be incoming in abundance. Today God has confirmed the end of your sufferings, sorrows, and pains because HE that sits on the throne has remembered you. He has taken away the hardships and given you JOY. He will never let you down. I knocked at heaven's door this morning, God asked me... My child! What can I do for you? And I said, 'Father, please protect and bless the person reading this message'... God smiled and answered... Request granted. If you believe this message, send it to others . By doing this you have succeeded in praying for many people today.

God Bless You!!!

THE JOY OF GIVING

Once, a student was walking back home in the evening, after the school hours. One of the teachers of his school joined him. This teacher was known for his exemplary dealings with everyone. He was gentle and kind. He was a friend of all the students.

As they walked along a field, they spotted a pair of shoes lying by the side of the path. It belonged to a poor farmer, working in the field nearby. The farmer had nearly finished his day's work and was almost getting ready to return home.

The student turned to the teacher and said:
"Let us play a cool prank with the poor man. Let us hide his shoes and then hide ourselves to see his panic and perplexity. I bet the poor man has only one pair of shoes and we will have some real fun watching him losing those shoes."

To this the teacher replied:
"My friend, we should never amuse ourselves at the expense of a poor person. You are from a rich family. Put a coin each in his shoes and let us hide ourselves. We will then watch how he reacts."

So the boy placed one coin each in the shoes and they hid themselves in the bush and waited for the farmer to return after work.

The farmer finished his work and came up to put on his shoes and coat.
As he put his first foot into the shoes, he felt something hard, bent down and looked for it and found a coin in it.

There was such a wonder and astonishment on his face. He did not know from where it came. He looked around and found no one.

Then he proceeded to put on the other shoe and found a coin in that too.

His surprise was doubled.
He was overcome with deep feelings of joy, wonder and excitement.

He fell on his knees, raised his eyes and hands to heaven and said a prayer of thanksgiving to God.

In that prayer he mentioned about his sick and helpless wife who stays home.
He mentioned about his children who have no bread to eat.
He thanked God for this timely help from some unknown hands which saved the whole family from starving and perishing.

The boy was deeply touched by this incident. His eyes were filled with tears. The teacher asked him how he felt now.

The boy said this has taught him a lesson which he would never forget:

IT IS MORE BLESSED TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE.

Ash Wednesday and Beyond

I was celebrating Mass on an Ash Wednesday morning in a certain church in New York City. One person, who came late, missed the ceremony of the imposition of ashes. But when the time for Holy Communion came, he too lined up with others. I extended to him the precious body of Christ. Looking at me scornfully for a while and pointing his finger at me he said: “not that stuff, gi’mme the powder!”

He was one of those who visit the church once a year for obtaining the ‘powder stuff’. Although the man was desperate to get the ashes on Ash Wednesday, he missed the spirit and message of the celebration.

In most part of the world, Ash Wednesday attracts even the most unchurched Catholics to the church to collect some ashes for themselves. I have seen in some cities how elaborate arrangements are made to meet the demands for ashes. Those who can’t attend church service are given ashes at any convenient time and place, as a pinch of ashes contains some magic power.
The simple, yet powerful message of Ash Wednesday is contained in the twin formulae used for the imposition of ashes: “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return” and “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel”.

Ash Wednesday and the entire season of Lent is a reminder that we are made of dust and destined to return to the same at our death. It is a reminder of our frailty, corruptibility and mortality. We have no permanent home in this world. All of us have to face death sooner or later which is of course a passage to eternal life.

Ashes also remind us of our moral corruption caused by sin and the need for repentance. At the preaching of Prophet Jonah the king of Nineveh put on sack clothes and sat covered in ashes, calling for a national repentance (Jon 3:6).

Through Prophet Joel the Lord called the people to change their ways: “Come back to me with all your heart, fasting, weeping, mourning. Let your hearts be broken, not your garments torn, turn to Yahweh your God again…” (Joel 2:12-13).

But there is this complementary truth we need to keep in mind: We may be dust, but we are dust that is destined for glory, dust that is to be changed, transfigured into God’s own likeness. True, sin has tarnished and disfigured this composition of dust that we are, but there is always a chance for cleansing, purification and re-creation. God can re-create us and breathe his spirit into us (Ezk 37). There awaits us an immortal, incorruptible and eternal destiny.

Ash Wednesday, therefore, is a day of honest and realistic assessment of our lives. It is the day when we humbly recognize the sinfulness of our nature, and ask God to create in us new and contrite hearts.

Ash Wednesday also calls us to be faithful to the Gospel. In the Gospel we have the good news of salvation. Ash Wednesday is a reminder that we need to enter into the spirit of this good news and make it the foundation of our life. Believing in the Gospel is, believing in Jesus Christ who brings us eternal life.

In the Gospel Jesus give us a set of values and standards different from that of the world. While the world considers the rich and the powerful as truly happy and blessed, the Lord calls the poor, the persecuted, the humble, the weeping, the mourning, the merciful truly happy (Mt 5:3-10). Ash Wednesday is a radical call to live by these values and standards of Jesus.

Ash Wednesday reminds us of the Gospel maxims of humble service, the need for walking the extra mile, for giving away the second tunic, for feeding the hungry, for caring for the sick and the needy, for forgiving the offender, for showing the other cheek, for living in faithfulness to our matrimonial covenant, for being a good Samaritan to our neighbour, for being compassionate and honest in our dealings with others.

A different Approach to Fasting

We have a tendency to make our fasting oriented towards things like giving up food or television. But there are many other creative ways we can welcome Jesus’ healing touch. Here are some ways you may want to consider:

-- Fast from Anger and hatred

Give your family and extra dose of love each day.

-- Fast from judging others

before making any judgments, recall how Jesus overlooks our faults.

-- Fast from discouragement

Hold on to Jesus promise that he has a perfect plan for your life.

-- Fast from complaining

When you find yourself about to complain, close your eyes and recall some of the little moments of joy Jesus has given you.

-- Fast from resentment and bitterness

Work on forgiving those who may have hurt you.

-- Fast from spending too much money

Try to reduce your spending by 10 per cent and give those savings to the poor.