Life is precious

Life is precious

Life is precious. It is the most precious gift we have received from our creator. You have just one life, make the best of it, expressions of this kind are often used to make one understand the significance and preciousness of life. Therefore, each and every person tries to live his life to the full here on earth. He searches for means that could help him in his adventure. But in this bargain, he makes many compromises, mistakes and he gets caught up in the web of life. He becomes slave of his own makings. He finds himself in the clutches of bondage. Hence, he asks, what is to be free? What is freedom? 

Living and being in Fraternity toady

Living and being in Fraternity toady

       Fraternity has a special role in the Franciscan order, because it is the privilege place for developing a sense of church and the Franciscan vocation and for enlivening the apostolic life of its members. Fraternity is where all members meet, organize efforts, pray, and socialize with each other. Fraternity being one of the pillars of Franciscan Spirituality strengthens the journey of like minded individual who are all called to connect with each other as members of the Franciscan Family. 

            Fraternity brings to the church and the world a particular spirit that manifests itself in the life of the church and in all areas of human life. Although we are of the world, we do not live by its non-gospel values, attitude and policies. Of all the different fraternity levels, the local level is particularly significant in that it is at this level where the majority of Franciscan life takes place. The local fraternity is where the most basic experience of Franciscan spirit is found. All level of 

Fraternity is important, but the local fraternity is the foundation for all other levels. 

Being a Franciscan

  Being a Franciscan

             Being a Franciscan it is just more than wearing a brown robe, knotted cord and sandals. Although our exterior garb is incredibly significant, important and so eye-catching; the habit doesn’t make us a Friar. Unlike most Religious Orders, Communities and Societies, we don’t see St. Francis as merely a founder. Actually, I think St. Francis may even take offense at being called a founder. To us he is a Father. Being a Franciscan is being a son of St. Francis, born of his spiritual union with the Most Holy Trinity.

            Intimate to being a true son of St. Francis is accepting the truth of what the Church says about a religious charism. In both the Councilor and all the Post Councilor documents of Vatican II, the Church tells us that the same charism given to the founder to live the Gospel in a particular way is the same gift and charism given to each person called to that Community. To put it quite simply, we are sons of St. Francis sharing our Spiritual Father’s DNA. We have no less grace to live the Friars Minor Charism, to the full, than St. Francis had.

              In our initial formation life we discover the Charism and the principles that govern the life of Franciscan Capuchin. When we have a good grasp on the charism, we also have a good grasp on the principles and those principles help us to make decisions that keep us faithful to the charism. For us these principles are tobe very clear.

Ad Multos Annos Fr. Rector

Ad Multos Annos Fr. Rector

Come August 01 and our community had double reason to celebrate as it was Fr. Rakesh’s birthday and Community Day. To add to our joy Fr. Vishal and Fr. Godfrey Dinis from Nagar and Fr. Rakesh’s relatives from Mumbai joined the celebrations. The day started on a High with the Eucharistic celebration, where Fr. Vishal spoke highly of Fr. Rector’s qualities, his simplicity and juggling various responsibilities single handedly. Also he pointed the importance of community life and individual responsibilities towards making it a success.

The day saw steady stream of visitors from the neighboring communities who came to wish Father. In the evening, the brothers hosted a cultural programme in honor of Fr. Rector and thus signed-off the day on high. 

IF GOD CAME TO YOUR HOUSE TODAY

IF GOD CAME TO   YOUR   HOUSE   TODAY

If  God  came  to  your  home  to  spend  a  day  or  two -

If He came unexpectedly, I wonder what you would do.

Oh,  I  know  you’d  give  your  nicest  room  too such  an  honoured  Guest,

And  all   the  food  you’d  serve  Him  would  be  the  very  beat ,

And  you  would  keep  assuring  Him  you’re  glad  to  have  Him  there

That serving Him in your   home is joy beyond compare.

with  arms  out stretched  in  welcome  to  your  Heavenly  Visitor ?

Or  would  you  have  to  change  your  clothes  before  you  let  Him  in,

or  hide  some  magazines,  and  put  the  Holz  book  where  they’d  been ?

Would  you  turn  off  the  radio  and  hope  He  hadn’t  heard.

And  wish  you  hadn’t  uttered  that  last,  loud,  hasty  word ?

Would  you  hide  your  worldly  music  and  put  some  hymn  books  out ?

Could  you  let God  walk  right  in, or  would  you  rush  about ?

And  I wonder  -  if  the  Almighty  spent  a  day  or  two  with  you,

Would  you  go  right  on  doing  the  things  you  always  do ?

Would  you  go  right  on  saying  the  things  you  always  say ?

Would life for you continue as it does from day?

Would your family conversation keep its usual pace?

And  would  you  find  it  hard  each   meal  to  say  table  grace ?

Would  you  sing  the  songs  you  always  sing,  and  read  the  books  you  read,

And  let  Him  know  the  things  on  which  your  mind  and  spirit  feed ?

Would  you  take  God  with  you  everywhere  you’d  planned  to  go,

Or  would  you,  may  be,  change  your  plans  for  just  a  day  or  so ?

Would  you  be  glad  to  have  Him  meet  your  very  closest  friends,

Or  would  you  hope  they  stay  away  until  His visit  ends ?

Would  you  be  glad  to  have  Him  stay  forever  on  and  on,

Or  would  you  sigh  with  great  relief  when  He  at  last  was  gone ?

It  might  be  interesting  to  know  the  things  that  you  would  do.

If  God  came  in  person  to  spend  some  time  with  you.

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WANTED

A  Man:

                To be a priest which is basically to be a sign of contradiction to the world?

Task

                To disturb the comfortable and to comfort the disturbed.

Basic Requirements:

-               Radicality

-               To ability to heal wounds.

-               To give and to heal family yet belonging to none.

-               Your friends must be drug addicts, prostitutes, gangsters, vandals, thieves, scoundrels, and sinners.

-               You must be able to teach social awareness, advance social development and spiritual       development.

-               You must be able to console, solidify and stand up be counted.

Salary:

                The kingdom of Heaven.

Prospects:

                Starvation, nakedness, misunderstandings, misrepresents.  You will be lonely and unwanted.  If you function properly you will be an embarrassment to people.

N. B.       If half interested - forget it.

                                If fully interested - think again-

                                 

MAKE ME A CHANNEL OF YOUR PEACE

MAKE ME A CHANNEL OF YOUR PEACE

            The famous prayer of St. Francis of Assisi begins as, “Make me a channel of your peace….” As a Franciscan, singing this hymn daily as our evening prayer, never gave me the realization about the richness of this prayer. Today, instead I see it as the most vital aspect of our Christian spirituality. ‘Being a channel of peace’ manifests, the new commandment of Christ we are called to live in. We commit ourselves to it during the Eucharist, at each time when we declare, “peace be with you” to our neighbor. The question we can ask ourselves is “are we in peace?”, “am I in peace with my neighbor?” This cannot be answered from the view of momentary peacefulness which we all experience at some occasion but as a state of peacefulness which is consistent in every aspect of our life.

            To have peace within ourselves requires primarily healing our hearts. Hurts come through our experiences. No one is escaped from it except the one who gradually learns the art of forgiveness. True forgiveness gives peace that allows the love to flow from your heart directing to the other. True forgiveness liberates us from hurtful persons. Only when one heals himself from one’s hurt, he can heal others from their hurts. This is our participation in the mission of Christ, “love one another, as you love yourself”. In other words, to care, to nurture, to enhance, to develop and moreover to serve others is our mission. Christ our redeemer came to serve and not to be served. He could give the true peace to his betrayer inspite of betraying him because He was filled with peace. The world of today needs these channels of peace to make it a better place. Let us therefore, actively pray that the lord may make us his true channels of peace.

What is my purpose in life?

What is my purpose in life?

            What is my purpose in life? Is my life meaningful? Such questions surely arise in each of us especially in moments of crisis. I attempted to answer this question. Firstly, realizing that this question itself becomes meaningful for me because I certainly love myself and then declaring my “yes”, as my answer. Yes, I consider my life meaningful, more specifically that I am considered ‘meaningful’, at least for those people who right now, in some corner of this world, have a deep concern for me. I know certainly that there is a person who is living her/his life for me because either he/he loves me or as an inspiration for her/him. I know that there is a person who cares for me, prays for me, thinks of me and whose happiness is in someway, depends on my happiness. There is also every possibility of that, that particular person is even ready to give hers/his own life for me.

            This conviction gives me meaning for my life, a purpose for my life, when I start discerning about giving an end to my life. It’s only this commitment; to live for that person, to give justice to that person’s care for me and to never allow a tear of sorrow to appear in its eye, especially because of my foolishness, pumps a new boost in me, to carry on in my life. Remembering that ‘when the going gets tough, tough gets going’, I decide to live my life in a way which is in accordance to my human nature. I too live as a loving, caring, charitable and moreover discovering true happiness in each moment of my life, especially this moment, “THE NOW”.

Lesson plan

Lesson plan

Rahul Rodrigues

Subject: History

Topic: Mahajanapadas

Class: VI

Duration: 30 min

Teaching aids: Flash cards, chart, board, map of India

Objectives:

·        Knowledge:  Students get the knowledge about the historical states.

·        Understanding: to make students how the states were divided.

·        Application: Students apply the knowledge to day today life. 

·        Skills:  students identify where these states were located.

Introduction:  

Q: How many states do we have in India?         29

Q: can any of you tell why our country is divided in different states. So it’s for the better administration, so too in ancient time in 6 B.C our country was also divided into different states and thus they were called as Janapadas and Mahajanapadas. But today we don’t call them by same name or either recognize by the same.

Statement of Aim: So students today we are going to learn the lesson                                                      Mahajanapadas.

Body:

 Mahājanapada literally means “great realm", from maha, "great",

  Janapada means “foothold of a tribe", "country"

Ø Q: can you please tell me some of the king’s name? (Chandragupta Maurya, Akbar, Ashoka, Shivaji ,Kanishka, Prithviraj, Chauhan, Ranjit Singh, Samudragupta, Chandragupta , Maharana  Pratap

Ø So were they all ruling together?

No, rather they were ruling individually and this is called as Monarchies system. So in simple words Monarchies system is as “one king or one ruler.” Hence we are going to focus our attention on four important mahajanapadas states. They are kosala, Vatsa, Avanti, Magadha.          

Ø Q; if you have a meeting in your school who all take part in it or who participates in it?

Ans: it is principle, teachers, take every decision on his own, then can you please name me some groups in your school?

So too there was a comity or group in every state called as Gana parishad consisting of senior citizen. As we know that the principle has the supreme authority in our school. Accordingly Gana parishad had the supreme authority. They would do some minor work on the vote of majority.

Ø Q: If all want to elect your class capton or monitor, how do you elect?       On the basis of the vote of majority. So too in Gana parishad the decision were taken on the vote of majority.

1.     Kosala:

Ø Q: Now can anyone tell me the neighboring states of Maharashtra? MP, Gujarat, Goa etc.

In the same way Kosala is situates at the foothills of the Himalayas in the region of Nepal and utter Pradesh.

Ø Q: which the capital of Maharashtra?     Mumbai, so too its capital is Saket.  

Ø Q: Can u please tell me your favorite city names from India?     Accordingly Kosala also had its favorite cities known as Shravasti and Kushavati.  

Ø Q: In the previous chapter or lesson, I hope you have learned about Gautama so now can you please describe me who was Gautama?  

Ø  So too the king Prasenjit also lived during the time of Gautama thus for this reason the king Prasenjit was called as the contemporary of Gautama Buddha.

Ø Q; Can you tell me what it mean by contemporary--- lived at the same era or same time) Moreover though the king Prasenjit was so courageous and able general  during the war between Kosala and Magadha, Kosala got merged into Magadha.

Ø Q: Do you know the country that has been constantly fighting with our country? And for what are they fighting? (Pakistan for Kashmir ) Hence there was also a war between Kosala and Magadha. Later kosala got merged in to Magadha  

2.     Vatsa: so the second state is Vatsa

Ø Q Can someone tell me where is Allahabad situated in this map. So the Kushambi near the present day Allahabad was the capital of Vatsa.

Ø Q:  can you tell some qualities of a king?

 Hence the king Udayana was very brave king about whom we learn from Buddhist literature and from the plays of the Sanskrit playwright Bhasa.

Ø Q: we know that every place hassomething of its special so what is the special thing of Nashik that we hardly find it anywhere else? Grapes

Accordingly the cotton textile of Vatsa was very famous.

After the king Udayana the state of Vatsa could not retain its independence.

3.      Avanti: one of the important kings of Avanti was Pradyot. Ujjayani in the present day in M.P was the capital of Avanti. This city was well-known tread center. Later, merge into state of Magadha

Recap: I’ll ask students question regarding the lesson

Black-board

Sub:   History Topic:  Mahajanapadas
#contemporary   -  same time # Ancient time in 6 B.C # Janapadas and Mahajanapadas # Maha :great  #Janapada  means foothold of a tribe	# Gana parishad                                               supreme authority, executive council # Monarchies system ---- One king or one ruler

God loves the sinners but He hates sin

         God loves the sinners but He hates sin

          Temptations are a part of our life. When faced with temptations, it is much easier to give in to them. However, Jesus asks us to take the narrow road. He asks us to avoid them and overcome them through prayer and sacrifices. In this Holy Eucharist let us ask pardon from the Lord for all the times when we said “ yes” to sins and temptations which came in the form of addictions, friends, technology, gadgets, evil habits, and so on; and ask the Lord for the grace to be ready to give up everything which takes us away from him.

“OPTION FOR THE POOR”

      

“OPTION FOR THE POOR”

“Though he was in the form of God Jesus did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped he emptied himself and became obedient unto to Death.” Phil 2:6-11. But this death was due to his pro-poor stand, for their Rights, their Struggles, for their agony. He said I came to call the sick, the sinners, the marginalized the poor and not the healthy, not the saints. Therefore it is our duty as the Disciples of Christ to stand for the poor to be with the poor. To live for the poor as poor. It is also our duty to feed the hungry.

St. Francis of Assisi chose to live for the poor. Hallmark of St. Francis’ life is his life of poverty. He imitated his lord who was poor from his birth to his death. Therefore he lived a life of utter poverty and as his sons we as Franciscans live and profess this life of poverty and it is our choice to be for the poor. 

The sense of sins

The sense of sins

Sin is something that we play down considerably today; but that it was something that Jesus seemed to give much importance to. “This is the cup of my Blood, the Blood of new and everlasting covenant…… This Blood is to be shed for you and for all men so that SINS may be forgiven,” says the priest at solemn moment of the Eucharist, echoing Jesus’ own words. “Receive the Holy Spirit!” says the Jesus to His apostles after his resurrection, “If you forgive any man’s sins they stand forgiven; if you pronounce them unforgiving, unforgiven they remain” (Jn20:23). In the Lord’s Prayer he bids us ask for just three things: Our daily bread, moral strength to fight temptation and forgiveness of sin.    

Encounter with the loving God leads to conversion

Encounter with the loving God leads to conversion

It is our common human experience that after encountering a loving, gentle and understanding person, we come to realize what it means to be loving and compassionate persons ourselves and how much we fall short in this regard. Encountering a loving person reveals to us who we are and awakens our own inner goodness to be better persons. Such good experiences also stimulate us to be better and transformed person. It is just like realizing the value of light after going through agonizing experience of darkness; say in a dark tunnel or in a crowded train without lights.  In the process of conversion, first comes the encounter with the unconditionally loving God, and transformation of the sinful self is the result of this loving encounter. Unfortunately we do not seem to be promotion this procedure in our spiritualities. Our focus is: mend your ways, drop your sins and then experience the good God. Actually it should be: encounter the loving God, experience him as best you as can and as deeply as possible. Be sure and certain, you will be a transformed person. All sinners are in need of repentance and of being forgiven, this becomes possible because God loves us unconditionally. Repentance, basically is becoming aware of our self-destructive choices and actions, and realizing how they destroy others, the cosmos and our own selves. This grace filled, God filled awareness helps us to abandon our old destructive ways and put ourselves on the path of self transformation.

Call to conversion is universal

Call to conversion is universal

All are in need of conversion. Conversion is equally directed to Jews and Gentiles (Act 20:21; 2:38, 3:26) Because both the Jews and Greeks are under the power of sin”(Rom3:9) “ all have sinned, all fall short of the glory of God ” (Rom 3:23) On the other hand no one is rotten to the core. Every person is capable of responding to God’s unconditional love and forgiveness. There is no hopeless soul, for every soul is God’s implanted hope. That is why Jesus befriends tax collectors, sinners and the marginalized the sinners, the lost. God has become incarnate to seek all of us in our loss. God’s love is so great that his forgiveness is unbelievable. It defiles all human calculations. God wants to reclaim every prodigal son and rejoice with him at his return. Can we, like the prodigal son, make a return to the Father?

Vocations: Religious

Vocations: Religious

There are millions of people in the world and millions who have gone before us. And yet, it is strange and wonderful thing that, excepting for rare cases of identical twins, no one looks exactly like another, has exactly the same personality or has exactly the same likes and dislikes. Only a divine creator could have fashioned a world of such distinct individuals.

Each of these distinct individual has a specific in life for God calls everyone to a definite vocation, whether it be in religious, married or single state. And it is vitally important that every individual recognize and follow his God given vocation for therein lies happiness and holiness.

The highest vocation is that of a priest, brother or nun. Such a vocation is the greatest of gifts for Christ Himself gives this special calling: “You have not chosen me, I have chosen You.”(Jn. 15:16) A religious vocation is that of a life spent with God. When God invites someone for to this life, He says, “Come, follow me.” (Mk.1:17) God does not send His invitation in Person, with a tap on one’s shoulder. Rather, the call comes softly, quietly though insistently. It is made known, simply, in a sincere desire to live a life dedicated to the service of God.

No sincere catholic needs to be told about the tremendous worth of God’s priests, nuns, and brothers, or of the great debt we, and the world, owe to these apostles, and handmaids of God.

Thrice blessed are they who receive the gift of a vocation, for God sends His special blessings to them, to their family and to all those who may have helped them in realizing and following their vocation.