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.