A PBJ blessed and broken for you
While the kids are getting dressed for school, Mom is in the kitchen making their lunches. Katie likes her sandwiches cut in quarters; Bobby prefers strawberry jam. As she packs the sandwiches, she smiles, imagining the delighted look on their faces when they open the dessert treats she places in the bag. What she is doing is a sacrament – not the miracle of transubstantiation, but certainly parallel to it, moving in the same direction. If she could give her love to her children to consume again and again, like the loaves and fishes going endlessly into their mouths and stomachs, she would do it in an instant.
A few days before Christmas, the kids take over the kitchen to make Christmas cookies. Mom is there too, more to protect her kitchen than to supervise. Truth be told, the cookies that result are anything but spectacular – the reindeer-shaped cookies look more like fat cocker spaniels, the Santa cookies bear no ready resemblance to the jolly old elf, and the red and green sparkles are piled on rather than sprinkled. But the kids have a ball – and are making memories that they will remember long after they celebrate this same messy sacrament with their own children.
Her heart is breaking for her friend and all that she and her family have had to endure: the diagnosis, the difficult surgery, the chemotherapy, the unknown future. All she can do for her is pray – and make lasagna. And so she does. Two or three times a week she takes her turn making some hot dish for her friend and her family. The food that she and the other friends prepare is nothing less than sacrament – compassion and concern made real in cheese and meat sauce.
[Suggested from a story by Andre Dubus.]
Holy Trinity
Points to Ponder:
1) Missionary inAfrica brings a sundial. Chief insists on putting it in the centre of the village. Later they built a roof over it.
2) Imageries: St. Patrick – 3 leaves of the clover shamrock on one stem; St Ignatius 3 notes but one sound; water with three forms – ice, steam and liquid; 3 vows of the religious: poverty to the Father, chastity to the Son and Obedience (listen attentively) to the Spirit.
1) Missionary in
2) Imageries: St. Patrick – 3 leaves of the clover shamrock on one stem; St Ignatius 3 notes but one sound; water with three forms – ice, steam and liquid; 3 vows of the religious: poverty to the Father, chastity to the Son and Obedience (listen attentively) to the Spirit.
Pentecost 2016
Fr. Jude Botelho:
Film: 'Being John Malkovich'
In the very strange 1999 surrealist movie "Being John Malkovich", someone discovers a portal into Malkovich's mind, enabling visitors to see and experience things through his body and to influence his actions. He becomes aware of what's happening and finds the portal himself. At the climax of the movie, there is a bizarre but powerful scene when he enters the portal, being swept down a dark tunnel with a roaring sound to emerge as a participant/observer in his own world. He discovers that everyone has his face and his voice, and every word spoken is his name. Connections with the Pentecost story: - the paradox of the creator entering his own creation by an unexplainable power; - the potential of the portal to connect people in an unprecedented kind of indwelling. - seeing the face of Malkovich everywhere reminds me of the Spirit making Jesus present through us in a new and all-encompassing way. We are recognisably Christ-like, though still ourselves, and all we say and do is 'in his name'. It's a frightening moment in the movie, because Malkovich has no wish to become omnipresent as a Christ-figure, but the image is powerful.From film insights by Marnie Barrel in 'The Text this Week'
Film: 'Being John Malkovich'
In the very strange 1999 surrealist movie "Being John Malkovich", someone discovers a portal into Malkovich's mind, enabling visitors to see and experience things through his body and to influence his actions. He becomes aware of what's happening and finds the portal himself. At the climax of the movie, there is a bizarre but powerful scene when he enters the portal, being swept down a dark tunnel with a roaring sound to emerge as a participant/observer in his own world. He discovers that everyone has his face and his voice, and every word spoken is his name. Connections with the Pentecost story: - the paradox of the creator entering his own creation by an unexplainable power; - the potential of the portal to connect people in an unprecedented kind of indwelling. - seeing the face of Malkovich everywhere reminds me of the Spirit making Jesus present through us in a new and all-encompassing way. We are recognisably Christ-like, though still ourselves, and all we say and do is 'in his name'. It's a frightening moment in the movie, because Malkovich has no wish to become omnipresent as a Christ-figure, but the image is powerful.From film insights by Marnie Barrel in 'The Text this Week'
Wife denied water, Dalit digs up a well for her in 40 days
| TNN |
Ascension 2016
Fr. Jude Botelho:
As we move from one stage of life to another we are forced at some point to let go of?past ways and move on adopting newer patterns of behavior. As infants we had to be carried and fed, as children we had to hold our parents hands as we moved about. As teenagers we tended to be independent yet we needed guidance and help sometimes. As adults we believe we can manage on our own. But in our faith relationship we always need God and cannot manage
without Him. At the Ascension we are given a new presence of God within us! Have an exciting weekend discovering his new presence in us!
As we move from one stage of life to another we are forced at some point to let go of?past ways and move on adopting newer patterns of behavior. As infants we had to be carried and fed, as children we had to hold our parents hands as we moved about. As teenagers we tended to be independent yet we needed guidance and help sometimes. As adults we believe we can manage on our own. But in our faith relationship we always need God and cannot manage
without Him. At the Ascension we are given a new presence of God within us! Have an exciting weekend discovering his new presence in us!
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