A morning tea with a stranger in the Christmas month

An old man who sat by my side at church in the morning had a sad heart. I didn't feel like he had much to pray for when we were pouring our hearts out through the mass and Mary's Novena, later. 

I invited him for a tea after the service, he came gladly clutching a bottle of water he filled from the drinking water tap at the church. 

Over the tea,  I asked him about his life. Close to 75 he is an unmarried old man who is living with his sister who is just a few years younger to him in an old house nearby the church. A mason in his younger days, today he is at the mercy of others, for sustenance and medical expenses. 

A sad story. But thank God, he had a surprisingly clear mind. 

The incident made me realise that I have grown real old. 'cos the old man's life did not stir much emotion, through the years, we have come across many such life experiences that only thought that passed my mind was to find a way to set a side something for him once in a while. 

Later, on the way back to home, I came across a childhood friend whose wife has survived a near death situation medically and has to be taken to hospital twice every week for dialysis. He did not have the resources to handle such a huge medical expenses. His tearful eyes and broken heart did shake me, eventhough I urged him to keep going with his part whole heartedly as he seemed to be breaking under the enormous emotional turmoil to see his dear wife in pain almost every hour of the day. 

A morning that started with a tea with a strange old man and ended with a tearful and broken hearted old friend, I got home rather mystified and praying in my heart;

"...My God, my life is not any different, if You choose to take me to tests, help me with the strength to climb over it gracefully."

Sunday

Last Sunday I couldn't come to  Vallarpadam since I had to travel with work. I came to Kochi early this morning, slightly feeling crumbled by sitting in an overnight bus to Kochi.
I was happy that I could go to church even though it was noon and hot. Problem with hot days is that we couldn't keep our mind focussed especially at noon.
My thoughts were like this when I walked into the new church and saw this picture. Also, an elderly neighbour who took the big risk of coming to Vallarpadam alone by bus and was flushed by the noon heat.
She was so happy to see me as she was worried about going back and I was glad I could be of some help by dropping her back home.
Church was not crowded at all. Peaceful day..

Mahabalipuram

My work took me twice to Mahabalipuram in three weeks.
While walking around I came across the St. MARYS church there which is under renovation. Every evening they have rosary at 6.30,pm followed by Mass at 7pm.
The Sacristan Augustine ringing the bell hung on the Mango tree while his grandchild coming back after school running upto him.

Sr. Rani Maria

A board announcing the beatification of Sr. Rani Maria and the celebration at her home parish St. Thomas church at Pullavazhi. 

My late mother had talked about her a lot and had told me the incident that led to her death which was shared by a priest at the Potta Ashram. Since it happened so far away, the newspapers did not had much details about it then.  We were quite taken aback by the brutal killing and the disastrous impact it had on our thoughts about the fate of all those involved in the mission work in the Tribal areas. I had meditated over her life very deeply and was touched by the mission life of this humble and simple sister from a small village of Kerala with whom I could connect very well as we knew some sisters personally who had dedicated their lives for similar missions. 

The last few years, after her beatification process was started I haven't thought much about Sister Rani Maria. 

Last Friday afternoon,  on 3rd November, while I was taking a nap after a long forenoon work, I dreamed of Sr. Rani Maria, coming to me and sitting by my bedside and asking me about a very personal issue which was bothering me and she put a cross on my forehead while looking deeply into my eyes, my soul. 

I didn't knew which sister it was, but the next day when I went to my parish there was a picture put outside the church announcing the beatification of Sr. Rani Maria. You could imagine my surprise, when I realised it was the same sister who had visited me on the previous day. 

Dear Sister, thank you very much for visiting me, you certainly know how much we have thought and remembered you in our prayers immediately after your death , when your death was just a small letter news item in the National page of our local dailies. But for us your life mattered even then as it is now. We were truly elated when your sister visited the man who killed you and tied "Rakhee" on his hand.  There were many who thought about you then, I am sure, I pray they too might have had a similar beautiful experience. 

Incidentally, my mother's seventh death anniversary was today, a day after Sister's beatification. 

So long, darlings...till we see again!

Sent from my Windows Phone

November 5, Sunday

Mission Sunday ventures. 

Remains of the All Souls day. November continues to be a special month of Remembrance of the dear departed.. 

North East Monsoon eventually drench the November evenings. 

Today, the dark clouds hovering behind the church in the east. 

The Marian towers standing majestic in the grey back ground, I couldn't help stopping to take pictures of the awesome sight. 

Church Neighbourhood

Student pilgrims

The Basilica altar on a week day during last week

The Rector of the National Shrine and Pilgrimage centre addressing a group of students who were visiting churches in the locality during the month of Rosary. 

A group photo. Keep sake, memories forever. 

I was lucky to be around when these college students and their Professors came. The Rector gave a sweet little inspiring message telling them briefly about the history of the Basilica, the Lady of Ransom intervention in the life of Meenakshi Amma and the ritual offering of Adima. He encouraged the students to continue in their walk in The Way seeking Mary's help.

Tomorrow never dies

The month of Rosary. At vallarapdam, the chant of Rosary is the background score at any time of the day. 

A new car being blessed at the church. For such events they let the vehicles in through the East Gate. 

The pandhal is still on after the festivities of the last month. 

The north gate to the Rosary Park

But today certainly does.

I do not know how many tomorrows I have.
These pictures are from Sunday before the last. I couldn't post them all through last week as the work got me tight and didn't gave me much time for anything else.

I didn't want to let go of these pictures, its the todays of my life and it's what I saw at Vallarpadam.
So here its my friends.

Lady of Ransom, deliver me from all bondages that is holding me back from living the way and enjoying the true happiness.

Thank you Lord for the work in the week and the bread it brought.

May everyone have work and the mind and health to do it well.

Never alone!

A beautiful card found at the church today.
Wishing everyone a blessed Sunday.
Refreshing and spiritually rejuvenating!

Mission Congress & Basic Christian Community Convention

View of the church from the East on 8th October, 2017

Mission Congress and the Basic Christian Community Convention was conducted at Vallarpadam on 6th, 7th & 8th. Nearly 4000 members participated in the congress and convention representing the communities from all over Kerala. The event is without precedence in the history of the Latin Catholic Church of Kerala. There could not be a better venue than Our Lady of Ransom's Basilica at Vallarpadam for such a big gathering. 

After the lunch everybody who had come from the different diocese of Kerala, spent some time quietly, inside the old Basilica. Up in the front in the red waist band is the secretary of Congregation for Evangelisation of people from Vatican Arch Bishop Protase Rugambwa and sitting along side His Excellency is our Archbishop Kalathiparambil.

Their humility and grace was such a blessing to see and experience. 

RLCC's publication stall at the venue. They had some very good books to sell at a very discounted rate. 

Convention & Congress concluded with a high mass celebrated by the Archbishops and the Bishops of the church. 

Mary's statue which was taken out for display during the two weeks of celebration of the feast was back inside the church in its usual place. 

Starting from the Marian Pilgrimage its been a month of celebration at Vallarpadam, with the retreat then the feast and now the convention and congress. The Diocesan administrators, the Rector, church members and the staff and a team of volunteers worked very hard to make everything a success.

May God Bless you all. May the light at Our Lady of Ransom at Vallarpadam burn ever brightly and those who seek her blessing find Peace and Joy of our Jesus in life.

8th day of the Feast

I couldn't, due to my work, come to the church on the feast day. As usual, the church was crowded on the feast day and the week preceding and following it. Pilgrims & devotees from far and wide and all religious background continued to visit the church on these days. As we all know, Lady of Ransom has a special place in the hearts of those who work in the sea. Such communities make their annual pilgrimage to Vallarpadam on these days. This year too, many of them were there on the day I went to the church. 

The procession after the 11.30 am mass. It went around the Rosary Park and returned to the church. 

Though it looks like ants on the church during day time, the lights were beautiful at night. 

My blessing this year was to know more about the Saint Peter Nolasco. An year earlier I had a dream in which I saw Saint Peter Nolasco standing at the altar of the church. I didn't know the saint then, on enquiry the church staff had told me that we have a statue of the saint in the church. On this feast day, I found the statue beautifully decorated and his name written in bold letters at the bottom. More about the saint in a later post. 

The best drink to have at any time of the day. Sugar Cane Juice are nutritious and very organic, unless the vendor contaminates it. The latest machine and technology make the juice maker's job easy and the waiting less for the thirsty. 

The feast of Our Lady falls in the month of "Kanni" which is called the best month in our Malayalam Calendar. Neither rainy nor summer, just the mild weather of Kerala. 

The Unmistakeable icons of the feast, the status quo accompaniments of the Church and the feast.

One more year, My Lord, I have come to the feast with my grand mother, that is the first visit I could remember and to all the feasts after that when I was home and here in Kerala. 

My Lord and My God, I pray bless all those who seek you with the grace and knowledge to live by You and live in your peace and Joy. 

Amen. 

After the rain!

A beautiful morning here in Kochi. After four days of continuous rain, the sky cleared very well and I could go to church and offer mass today

Feast

Retreat Prior to Mary's feast at Vallarpadam

Beautiful Gateway to Our Lady of Ransom Church

Evening Sun lighting up the Vallarpadam Sky

The new building near the highway lit by the evening's golden sun

With the annual retreat and the Marian pilgrimage this year's feast is just about starting at Vallarpadam. I was lucky to be there on a Monday evening.

Good luck

Eventually, the opportunity I was sharing in my last post materialised. They called me for the training with a few others which was infact open test of public display of skills.
I survived.
That was in the week before Onam, which took me with a happy mind to the festival week. 

Judgement

Every day My Lord Jesus we go through different situations. The influence of these situations influence our emotions and the judgement of the persons & circumstances involved, they can be sometimes positive, some other times negative. Negative influence lead us to fear, hatred, anger, revenge, jealousy. It crowds our mind and blind our eyes making us do wrong things, obstructing us from dealing with the situation and persons the right way.

Jesus, You taught us to be non - judgemental in our attitude. But I understand that it is not humanly possible always. Help us My Lord not to be carried away by situations and persons. Help us Jesus from emotions choking us and defeating us in understanding the persons and the situations.

In the work I do there are certain projects which are not only very lucrative but prestigious to be associated with. These are projects offered by certain specialised companies and they invite applications every year to train the ones they hire. Since I was relatively new to the industry I did not know about this and the colleagues who knew never shared the information. The opportunity stayed with a select few. This year, I came across the information and applied. Unfortunately, the company official who was very encouraging over the phone misplaced my application and proceeded to publish the list of the selected, naturally my name was not there. I was disappointed, not because I was not selected but because I didn't made the grade inspite of my hard work to be among the best.

An elderly colleague who came to know about my plight called up the official and enquired about the status of my application to which she  sheepishly admitted that she has misplaced my application and asked me to resend it.

Ofcourse the elderly colleague was a God sent Angel, but my judgement of the situation and the persons influenced were so negative that it blinded me completely to see things right and react well for a some time.

Jesus, My Lord, for ordinary people like me, to survive we need a good mind to work our way through the day, I Pray and ask in your name Jesus,  let me not judge and fill my heart with wrong thoughts. 

Thank you.

Contemplations

The gift

Jesus.
To know you is the blessing of my life.
The mind To search for You is the gift you gave me.

16th July

There was a death in the parish and the funeral was in the new church while the 11.30am mass was going on. In all these years I haven't seen many funerals at midday.

May the soul rest in peace. The flowers I took to church I offered to him, as a celebration of a life I didn't know about. It seems he had lead a good life.

Recollections

My view as I sat recollecting my week in Thanksgiving at the church.
Reading Arundhati's "Ministry of  utmost happiness" was one big high light.
Surviving a family's "relative's obligatory" run down on me for not getting married and wasting life was another. I thank God for helping me to hold my mind even when the obligation talk turned to sheer disgracing and verbal murder.
I could step up on foreign language learning towards the end of the week.
Danke (German)

Flower offering

Today too, I had a Rose in our garden. I am enjoying very much taking flowers to Mary these days.
The flower was from the rose I pruned in the beginning of the monsoon. In four weeks it grew back and started bearing flowers.

New Van

A new Force van brought for blessing @Vallarpadam.

Beautiful

The new hall where they make the ransom offering and confessions.
The picture is so photogenic.

Thanks giving

₹ garland !

Monsoon pictures

Monsoon

Njattuvela Thiruvathira

The time of the year for planting. The rain, thank God, is very complementing this year so far.

Flowers

Three roses from home. The monsoon has made the roses bloom well. Last Sunday too, I could bring some flowers. But on my way to church an old from friend from another town rang up and asked me to pick him up from the railway station. Old friends meeting we know how it can be, I couldn't come to Vallarpadam that Sunday and the Sunday following that.
Today on 25th June, the church was happy and busy with worshippers. Mostly from other places.
Our monsoon is like in the old times this month. Rain and sun rotating every hour.

Yes, it is a beautiful day. The newly tiled courtyard looks neat and clean.