CHRISTEN SECTION

A BLOSSOM IN THE LORD’S VINEYARD

The Holy Bible says, “…… “Speak; your servant is listening.” (1 Samuel 3:10)

Greeting to all my young readers!

Your enthusiastic self desire to blossom as an active bud in the Lord’s vineyard stirred immense joy within me!

Aditya’s zeal and great contentment made everyone cheerful. Thanks to you, child! May Lord inspire and bring many more like you to be blessed. Let’s sing praises in gratitude to our Abba Father who gifted you parents who have great reverence and fear of God.

I am sure there are many more who would love to share their suggestions but might be hesitant. Never mind! Do come forward without any apprehension. What truly matters is that we share the grace He merits us through our weakness.

In the course of Advent Activities, Lord Jesus gifted you with an urge to assist the needy; filled your tiny hearts with compassion that recited a prayer for them. It is indeed worth appreciating your good efforts.

It is always better to have a clear insight on why do we insist you to lend a helping hand to the genuinely sick and poor around you. When Lord Jesus was of your age, He would notice there were many who were rejected or pleading for help; and He made it a point to comfort them by offering small help and prayed to God for their well being.

When he grew up and engrossed in His Mission, as we read in the Holy Bible, He, moved with compassion, healed everyone who approached Him. He would show love and concern by restoring what they required. The Lord’s heart would be overjoyed with peace as He could wipe out their suffering.

Similarily, through the Advent activities, you too became God’s fellow workers. Inwardly and externally the joy continues to instigate you to do more and more for others through the Lord.

I would suggest you all to polish your behaviors and attitude as through your deeds you would be silently witnessing your Living God  who cares for everyone.  His name is Immanuel- God is with us!

Begin your day with a small prayer thanking Lord for the day and then offer everyone and every schedule to Him. Fulfill your daily responsibilities without your parents and  other’s compulsion. Be sure to have fun while playing. When the time to study ticks, invite the Lord to sit beside you and place all your worries in Him. His wisdom will assist your little fingers in your home-works and enlighten your brain to grasp all that is taught. Be helpful to those who are weak in their studies by doing so, your friends too will benefit the Lord’s blessings through you. Before you sleep, bow to the Lord in gratitude for a fulfilling day.

May your arising innocent prayers lead many to the truth.

Our team consists of many junior silent warriors and you too could be a part of it. Be sure to pray to the Infant Jesus, who would be registering your name too. We look forward to welcome many of you soon!

As a bird needs a pair of wings to fly, so is knowledge and wisdom to a prayer warrior.

May St. Maria Goretti and St. Dominic Savio- the representatives of our junior warriors intercede for you.  

PRAYER FOR STUDENTS

O child Jesus, my Lord and good teacher, I a student have come to your presence. I surrender to you my studies and all its burdens. Help me to study wholeheartedly. Bless those students who do not have the right ambience to do their studies. O! Good Jesus, who helps me, I offer millions of thanks to you. Praise you Jesus! I love you Jesus! Halleluia! Amen.

May the Lord bless you and take care of you. May He be kind and gracious to you. May the Lord look on you with favor and give you peace.

With love filled blessings,

Your Sister in Christ

CHILDREN OF GOD

See how much the Father had loved us!  His love is so great that we are called God’s children – and so, in fact, we are.  This is why the world doesn’t know us: it has not known God.  My dear friends, we are now God’s children, but it is not yet clear what we shall become.   But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He really is.   Everyone who has this hope in Christ keeps himself pure, just as Christ is pure. 

Whoever sins is guilty of breaking God’s law, because sin is a breaking of the law.  You know that Christ appeared in order to take away sins, and that there is no sin in Him.   So everyone who lives in union with Christ doesn’t continue to sin, but whoever continues to sin has never seen Him or known Him.  

Let no one deceive you, my children! Whoever does what is right is righteous, just as Christ is righteous. Whoever continues to sin belongs to the devil, because the devil has sinned from the very beginning.   The Son of God appeared for this very reason to destroy what the devil had done.

Whoever is the child of God does not continue to sin, for God’s very nature is in him, and because God is His Father He cannot continue to sin. This is the clear difference between God’s children and the devil’s children: anyone who does not do what is right or does not love his brother is not God’s child.  

                                                                                        (1 John 3 : 1 – 10)

This is the Word of the Lord!

Thanks be to God!

WORDS OF HOPE

Create a new pure heart in me oh! God, and put a new and loyal spirit in me. Psalms 51:10

To whom can the holy God be compared?

Is there anyone else like Him?

Look up at the sky!

Who created the stars you see?

The one who leads them out like an army.

His power is so great-

Not one of them is ever missing!

Israel, why then do you complain

that the Lord doesn’t know your troubles

or care if you suffer injustice?

Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God;

He created all the world.

He never grows tired or weary.

No one understands His thoughts

He strengthens those who are weak

and  tired.

Even those who are young grow weak;

young men can fall exhausted.

But those who trust in the Lord for help

will find their strength renewed.

They will rise on wings like eagles;

They will run and not get weary;

They will walk and not grow weak.

{Isaiah 40: 25-30]

As we advance to the second week of Advent, a week dedicated to the holy sacrament of reconciliation; it is time for us to do a thorough examination of our conscience. We may require healing and deliverance in various stages and areas of life.

In order to correct ourselves it is important to distinguish our actions that leads us to sin, to recognize its burden and consequences and the various sickness, diseases that afflicts and influences us.

So list out all the hook and crooked ways that arise lustful thoughts, activities that lead us to the path of destruction blocking the blessings of our life.

Beginning from our various addictions like drinks, drugs, gluttony, internet, bad films, bad friendships, smoking, job etc..to habituated lies, even white lies, gossip, boasting, spreading rumors, unable to see the goodness and prosperity of others.

The list may also include habits that we tend to seek comfort for e.g. comfort eating, watching television, oversleeping, destroying things, etc…

How about adding those that are lacking too, be it lack of sleep, intake of a proper meal at the dedicated time, lack of desire to groom oneself; lack of happiness; lack of spiritual nourishment etc.

The list is endless as well as varies from person to person. These are walls that are preventing God’s love from entering your life.

Let us take note of a woman suffering hemorrhage for twelve long years.

She was aware and of her sickness; with all her attempts to get healed futile she had given up all hope. That’s when she heard about Lord Jesus.

Not wanting to lose even the small chance of healing, she gathered courage from the desire thinking, “If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured”.  [Mat: 9-21]

In confidence, she touched the tassel of His cloak and behold!  She was healed. Her faith too was celebrated when Lord Jesus said to her, “Courage my daughter your faith has made you well.” At that hour the women was cured [Matthew:9-22]

Let us also wait patiently at the presence of our Lord, seeking Him to reveal what He wants to liberate us from, this week. Spare some time with patience to be still and await His silent reply.

John the Baptist appeared as a preacher in the desert of Judea, said, “Turn away from your sins because the Kingdom of Heaven is here.” God is standing at your side make your heart strong enough to believe that His Kingdom is true and just; and will reach out to you.

As the symbol of second week of Advent light two candles of Advent wreath awaiting His presence. Believe sincerely that the touch of Christ will cure your soul, mind and body.

I recommend you, that if you could spare some time out do visit a Church where the Blessed Sacrament, the Body of Christ dwells as the Most Precious Holy Land making your meditation more suitable and dedicated.

Trust that your effort will bear good fruit and like the unnamed woman, your lives too will be reformed.

PRAYER

God the Father of mercy through the death and resurrection of Your Son deliver me from all sin and habituated vices. Jesus my Master, thank you for having mercy on me. My Lord, I love you above all things with my whole heart and my soul. Lord Jesus like the woman who took the courage to touch You I desire to touch You so that you will console and liberate me.

Holy Spirit help me to grow in holiness. Triune God I adore you, Jesus the way, the truth and the life, I thank you and glorify you for delivering me.

Immaculate heart of the Blessed Mary, assist me always I pray to keep my body pure and my soul holy. Amen. 

A READING FROM THE BOOK OF BARUCH

Jerusalem take off the clothes you have worn in your mourning and put on the eternal splendor of God’s glory.  Put round you the cloak of God’s righteousness.  Place your head the crown of glory of the eternal God.  God will show your splendor to every nation on earth.  Forever He will say to you.  Your security comes from your righteousness and your splendor from your devotion to me. 

Get up, Jerusalem, stand on the mountain top, see where God the holy one is bringing your children together from the east and from the west.  They are rejoicing that God has remembered them.  Jerusalem, your children were led away by their enemies.  They left you on foot but God is bringing them back to you, carried in royal splendor.  God has commanded that the valleys shall be filled and the ground leveled, so that the people of Israel may come safely home in the glory of God.  At the command of God, forests of fragrant trees will spring up to provide shade for the people of Israel.  God will lead Israel home.  They will return with great joy, guided by His mercy and righteousness, surrounded by the light of His glorious presence. (CHAPTER 5 :1 – 9)

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

HOPE FOR THE FUTURE

Jesus spoke sternly to them, “Don’t tell this to anyone!” (Matthew 9:30)

Those who try to hide their plans from the Lord are doomed! They carry out their schemes in secret and think no one will see them or know what they are doing. They will turn everything upside down. Which is more important, the potter or the clay? Can something you have made say, “You didn’t make me?” or can it say, “You don’t know what you are doing?”

As the saying goes, before long the dense forest will become farmland, and the farmland will go back to forest.

When that day comes, the deaf will be able to hear a book being read aloud, and the blind, who have been living in darkness, will open their eyes and see. Poor and humble people will once again find the happiness which the Lord, the holy God of Israel, gives. It will be the end of those who oppress others and show contempt for God. Every sinner will be destroyed.

God will destroy those who slander others, those who prevent the punishment of criminals, and those who tell lies to keep honest people from getting justice.

So now the Lord, the God of Israel, who rescued Abraham from trouble, says, “My people, you will not be disgraced any longer, and your faces will no longer be pale with shame. When you see the children that I will give you, then you will acknowledge that I am the Holy God of Israel.  You will honor me and stand in awe of Me. Foolish people will learn to understand, and those who are always grumbling will be glad to be taught. (Isaiah 29:15-24)

As the prophet predicted, Jesus Christ performed incredible feats of healing on those who approached Him with their illness. After the Lord cured the blind man, He sternly instructed him not to tell anyone.

·       But who can keep quiet after being the recipient of the wonderful works of the Lord?

·       How can one suppress these joyous incidents?

·       What is the blessing granted to you by God that overfilled your heart with joy and changed the course of your life?

So let us spend five minute in absolute silence to meditate and think about the Mighty Blessings received from God!

For the second day of advent, we suggest you to communicate to a friend about your experience when God’s love touched your life; and spread your happiness.

With love filled blessings, 

Your Sister in Christ

WAITING IN ANTICIPATION

 Mary said “I am the handmaid of the Lord, may it happen to me as You have said” [Luke 1:38]

The liturgical year begins with the Advent season. May this season of Advent enable us to enrich our lives as we remember, celebrate and believe in the coming of the Savior.

This is also the time to prepare spiritually for ways that Jesus can be born to us, each and every moment of each day. It is also an occasion to revisit the Nativity scene that taught us how the word was made flesh so as to be among us, to save us and educate us to live in love with eyes fixed on God our Father.

Though the season is filled with love, joy and cheer; Advent implicates arrival; that also reminds us to await Jesus the King who will come again to take us to our Eternal Home.

Unlike the lent season which is devoted to repentance, penance and the Sorrowful Passion of our Lord, the advent breezes in with  joyous preparation, expectation and some sweet, small sacrifices of desires that brightens the arrival of the Baby Jesus.

Advent activities can be encouraged by elders for children spreading more zeal and diversion in their busy schedule.  Reminiscing about our own religious experience, our childhood Christmas’ makes them delighted and a new hope filled with anticipation looking forward to welcoming our Savior.

We recommend you not to burden the little hearts of the children by imposing strict rituals that have been blindly followed for years; rather enable them to enjoy while partaking in the family preparations. Our actions are a child’s best teacher. They keenly observe, learn and repeat what we tend to do and even when we fail to reach our limits.

So, as we step into the season of Advent today, let us entrust ourselves to be more spiritually committed and our minds always active, to make the days holy and more family oriented. Let us today take the first step to clear our own spirit, so we are able to present ourselves to others in a better conduct and to share and spread the grace that we have received.

This year of advent, let us like the Holy Mother Mary who obeyed God’s Word, bear in our heart God’s declaration which can pierce you and change you into a new being.

Let us begin this sweet journey of advent in ways and deeds that are pleasing to God, with a sprinkle of our sacrifice to enhance the season’s taste and lighting the first candle which reminds us that we are preparing for the arrival of Jesus, the light of the world.

On the first day let us begin it by visiting our sick neighbor, or by providing a meal for a person…in our own little ways we can offer these little deeds of ours thus bringing contentment and joy for ourselves and the others.

With love filled blessings, 

Your Sister in Christ