June 19 Who do you say I am?

In today's gospel Jesus confronts disciples with a question, who do you say I am? 

I would like to share a story from my novitiate. It takes long twelve years of study to become a friar priest. It's in the the fourth year we enter in to novitiate. It's an year dedicated to prayer and work and at the end of this year we receive franciscan habit.  As a preparation for receiving habit, we had a week retreat in a place like Gethsemani. And the preacher on the second day told, it's a day off and  we will have only one session in the evening and he asked us to find who Jesus for us individually? By 7 pm we all gathered in the meeting room to share about who Jesus is for us. One of the friars stood up and he said Jesus is Immanuel, he quoted Old Testament and New Testament, quoted theologians and he proved Jesus is Immanuel. Excellent presentation, everyone clapped. Another friar stood up and he said Jesus is the savior. He explained how Jesus is Saviour, how Jesus forgives our sins how he fulfilled the Israel's waiting for the Saviour.  Everyone applauded again. Then the third friar stood up and he said Jesus is a friend. He shared several people's experiences and stated that Jesus is a friend. He also got appreciation. Then we reached last friar, we all looked at him, we all had notes, books, Bible to talk about Jesus. Here a friar stands without any notes. He looked at the preacher and us and he said with a fearful voice, Jesus is the love I betray (deny) everyday. We could see tears flowing from his eyes. We felt the notes and books in our hands on fire. Nobody looked at each other for a moment. It was a deep silence for several minutes. We all answered from our head, what we learned, the informations we collected from different sources but this friar answered from his heart and from his deep thought and his personal experience. 

Today Jesus is addressing us this question to us, who do you say I am?   we may respond as disciples did, what we learned in the catechism, from parents, from priests. It's very easy answer. But that's not satisfying answer for Jesus.

Jesus is not looking an answer from what you learned from the bible, from the books from catechism but he is looking for an answer from your personal experience. Certainly it is important to study and to know it, but it is not enough or do not stop with that.

Pope Francis says, in order to know Jesus, “what is needed is not a study of notions but rather a life as a disciple”. We come to know him “in the daily encounter with the Lord through our victories and through our weaknesses”. It is precisely “through these encounters” that “we draw close to him and come to know him more deeply”. 

Fulton J sheen said, 'if you see jesus either you will throw stones at him or you will throw yourself at his feet' 

There are two types of faith, the faith we inherited from our parents, family members and friends. The second the faith we personally experienced. What we need is the faith we experienced. This faith will have more energy and enthusiasm. This faith is more in to loving Jesus and living for him.

By asking who do you say I am, Jesus is not asking for information but commitment. Jesus continues after this question, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me". This is what Jesus wants, if you love him follow him always and everywhere. I have heard many people say that when you really follow Jesus,he gives us pain and suffering. People say this when they look only for happiness and success by following Jesus. Let me put this in another way.When we have suffering why don't we hold on to his comfort?  When we are humiliated why don't we look at Jesus who was humiliated on the cross? When we are wounded why don't we look at Jesus who is wounded on the cross?When we loose hope why don't we look at Jesus who is the hope for the world? When we are in sin why don't we look for Jesus who is forgiveness? When we do not have peace why don't we look for his comfort? Remember if we love Jesus, we have to follow him everywhere and always rather than looking at our benefit. “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me". 

I conclude with Pope Francis' prayer,  "Father, grant us a deeper knowledge of Christ, Holy Spirit explain to us this mystery of Jesus”. Let go in to deep reflection and seeking to find who Jesus is for me and to follow him everywhere and always.

Fr. John Pozhathuparambil

June 5 Do you feel your dream dying?

We call the word of God as Evangelion or good news. What's the good news? Good news is about the resurrection of Jesus. Resurrection is the key point to understand the Bible. After the resurrection so many people started believing deeply in Jesus. Many of them became missionaries to proclaim this good news. Evangelists started writing New Testament after the resurrection episodes. Everything Jesus said or did is in anticipation of his resurrection. What is resurrection? Resurrection is about life- a new life.  It's life giving message. 

Jesus is God of life. His ministry is ministry of life. He heals blind eyes, he heals deaf ears, he heals spiritually dead, he gives hope to hopeless. He is God of life. And today's reading proves the Jesus is God of life, he is compassionate to our pain and suffering. 

We have attended many funerals and it's not happy time, It's awful experience. Sometimes we loose words to comfort the family. And today's miracle is set in such a sad situation. The mother of this young man is a widow. Being widow at that time means no guaranteed income, no insurance, no support. This young man was her only support. Her son had comforted her in her first loss of a husband, but now that her son was dead, therefore the sadness doubles. It's a disaster for her. She lost all hope.  Jesus moves with pity.  He asks the young man, stand up again- arise. He gives the young man back to mother. Jesus gives a new life to the young man and to his mother. This is the Jesus we proclaim. He is the giver of life. 

Why Jesus did this miracle? This miracle was to show God has visited his people and he will visit again. In a world of broken hearts, God sees and cares for us in our grief. God is made flesh in the person of Jesus, and He can understand our pain and suffering. He is no more someone above, he is with us. He is not someone enjoys human suffering, he  shows the capacity to suffer with us, to be close to our sufferings and to make them his own.

You may feeling spiritually dead, no life, no hope but Jesus can give you life. He can resurrect you. God hates sickness, suffering, sin, stupidity. He has compassion on our miseries and gives us His healing touch. 

Do you feel your dream is dying? Or your dream could be dead, prepared for burial and on the way to the cemetery like the Widow of Nain. Jesus says to you, stand up and rise.  Get your hopes up. This is your Time of Resurrection. Resurrect your dream with the power of Jesus. 

 The people around  were afraid. Whenever there is new life people are afraid. People are afraid to welcome newness in life. Do not be afraid like people in the crowd, decide today to allow the resurrection of Christ to inspire you. Activate your resurrection power and bring back those amazing and awesome dreams to life with Jesus. 

I would like to share one of my friends story. They were a rich family in Dubai. Three children, very happy life, a home in India and another in Dubai. One of the business partners cheated then and they lost everything. They lost both of their homes, money, friends and their dream all dead. Their dad was in prison. They decided to take their lives. At that night they get a call from a priest to attend a retreat and trust in Jesus. They decided to attend and nothing much happened but their youngest daughter received hope from Jesus. She felt like Jesus saying to her dead dream, wake up! And she started searching for jobs, she was only 21 and she got a job in a company. From there she started building their life with the hope given by Jesus. She hard worked, she is working now as a air hostess in Qatar airways. She visited me couple of  weeks benefit and she said Jesus gave her life back. He gave me hope, I believe he is God of life. Now they have a new home in India, her dad is released from the prison. Paid off most of their debt. And this is and this was only possible by God and God alone. 

Dear brothers and sisters,

Do not be afraid, decide today to allow the resurrection of Christ to inspire you. Activate your resurrection power and bring back those amazing and awesome dreams to life with Jesus. He is the God of life. 

May 22 Holy Trinity Sunday

One day a Christian group came to my grandma's home and questioned her faith about the concept of Holy Trinity. She invited them to her prayer room and asked them to kneel down and pray to Jesus that you will understand the mystery of Holy Trinity. This was a teaching for her grand children and to the Christian group that everything of the faith is not understandable through head, everything of the faith cannot be proved in the lab. 

The mystery of the most Holy Trinity is a basic doctrine of Faith in Christianity, understandable not with our heads but with our hearts. It teaches us that there are three distinct Persons in one God, sharing the same Divine Nature.  Our mind cannot grasp this doctrine which teaches that 1+1+1 = 1 and not 3. But we believe in this Mystery because Jesus who is God taught it clearly, the Evangelists recorded it, the Fathers of the Church tried to explain it and the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople defined it as a dogma of Christian Faith.

Why Trinity is important in our Christian life? 1) All prayers in the Church begin in the Name of the Holy Trinity and end with glorifying the Trinity.

2) All Sacraments are administered (we are baptized, confirmed, anointed, our sins are forgiven and our marriage blessed and our Bishops, priests and deacons ordained) in the name of the Holy Trinity.

3) We bless ourselves, and the priest blesses us, in the name of the Holy Trinity.

What are the Biblical proofs? There are only vague and hidden references to the Trinity in the Old Testament. But the New Testament gives clear teachings on the Holy Trinity.

1) At the Annunciation, God the Father sends His angel to Mary, God the Holy Spirit overshadows her and God the Son becomes incarnate in her womb.

2) At the baptism of Jesus, when the Son receives baptism from John the Baptist, the Father’s Voice is heard and the Holy Spirit appears as a Dove.

3)  At the Ascension, Jesus gives the missionary command to his disciples to baptize those who believe, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

What are the life teachings of this feast? 

 1) Let us have the firm conviction that the Trinitarian God abides in us, that He is the Source of our hope, courage and strength and that He is our final destination. The awareness and conviction of the presence of God within us, gives us the strength to face the manifold problems of life with Christian courage.  It was such a conviction that prompted the early Christian martyrs, when taken to their execution, to shout the heroic prayer of Faith from the Psalms: "The Lord of might is with us, our God is within us, and the God of Jacob is our helper" (Psalm 46).  

 2) This feast is inviting us to practice the Trinitarian relationship of love and unity in the family relationships of father, mother and children because by Baptism we become children of God and members of God’s Trinitarian family. Pope Francis says, Holy Trinity is the model of the Church “in which we are called to love one another as Jesus has loved us.” Love, Pope Francis said, is the distinctive mark of the Christian. This mystery of the Holy Trinity asks us to renew the Christian mission of living in communion with God and others.

In the letter to Corinthians chapter 13 we read about the conflict in the church of Corinth. Somebody said, I am following Peter, somebody else said I am following Paul. Finally paul said, brothers and sisters, stop fighting, this is all about Jesus.  And this is then last thing paul said to the church in Corinth as the answer to bring them together, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.  He wanted the church of Corinth understand the love among the Trinity and the communion of the Trinity and be peaceful and love one another. Communion is so rich word. It means 7 things, presence, fellowship, Sharing together, intimacy, participation, communion, friendship. 

We live in a world of confusion, fight, war, hatred and individualism. Therefore, celebrating this feast is very meaningful. 

Let us pray to open our hearts and our minds to understand this.

We have heard the old age saying, no man is an island. But we are proud to be islands. We  are proud to be individualistic and narcissistic. Pope Francis says: “We are not called to live without the other, above or against the other, but with the other, for the other and in the other”. 

Any psychologist will tell you that addictions, depression, anxiety, neuroses and many other mental ailments flourish in isolation; however, by sharing honestly in groups they tend to get better. Man is not an island, he is created to live like Holy Trinity in loving relationship. And whenever he looses this relationship he looses happiness and peace.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us remember when we have a broken relationship the only help we have to seek is grace of God -God the Father, who created us, his Son who saved us, and the Holy Spirit who continues to guide us. Our lives should reflect the Trinity. This is our mission as Christian. We should be always creative like the Father, compassionate like his Son, and dispose our talents in the service of others like the Holy Spirit. Let us celebrate this feast reflecting and renewing about our relationship with God and others. 

St. Francis Xavier’s favorite prayer was this: “Most Holy Trinity, Who live in me, I praise You, I worship You, I adore You and I love You.”   Let us say this prayer mindfully.  May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.  

Fr. John Pozhathuparambil

Courtesy: Catholic Bishops Confrence India 

Homily 6th Sunday

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him".

Today's gospel is written in the background of Jesus' departure. Jesus knows that his departure will create pain in the hearts of the disciples. Therefore, he assures disciples that he is not abandoning them and promises his continuous presence will be among them through word of God, Holy Spirit and his peace. These words of Jesus are so comforting to disciples and to us that he is present among us. He is alive and live with us! 

There is a Sufi saying, If you step once in to God, God will step thrice in to you. According to eastern thought three is a full number. Therefore, it means if you make your first step in to God, God will come in abundance. 

Jesus says in today's gospel, that if we keep his words, he will come and live with us.  Jesus is talking about the simple first step that we should take in our lives. The simple first step is to love Jesus, and invite him in to our lives. If you want to love him spend a little time each day in personal prayer, scripture reading and reflection. 

Today approximately 25% of all adults live alone, they feel abandoned, belong to nowhere. Spouses, parents and children often live as virtual strangers to one another.   This is unfortunate because we never need to be alone.  Jesus promises us he can always be present to us.  He can give is peace, he can make our burden light and He can turn our grief into joy.  In order this is to happen, just make your first step, start loving him and make a personal relationship with him.

You all might have seen the painting the light of the world by William Hunt Holman. It's picture of Jesus knocking at the door, if you carefully observe, the door has no handle which Hunt purposefully did. He wanted show us that if Jesus wants to come to us we have to open our doors of our lives, our hearts.  

I know the  first step is a struggle. I asked one of my friends to go for a renewal retreat, he said, I can't because I will be transformed. He knows once he transformed, he has to accept new ways in his life. So he wants to be just as he is now. 

We fear to give up our sins and pleasures because it is a challenge. 

In this process of opening our hearts to love Jesus, Jesus promises he Is not only the one who is going to help us, we are going to get an advocate who will teach us and remind us of Jesus teaching. Therefore,  the role of the Holy Spirit is two fold a) to teach "  b)to “remind" us of what Jesus has taught us.

Pope Francis says, God has left the guidance of the Church "in the hands of the Holy Spirit." "The Holy Spirit  as Jesus said, will teach us everything" and "remind us what Jesus taught us"

"The Holy Spirit is the living presence of God in the Church. He keeps the Church going, keeps the Church moving forward. More and more, beyond the limits, onwards. The Holy Spirit with His gifts guides the Church. You cannot understand the Church of Jesus without this Paraclete, whom the Lord sends us for this very reason. 

When Jesus lives with you another beautiful thing happens in our lives, he brings peace in to our lives.  "Peace" is not just the absence of conflict or the peace world gives you, it is the concept of shalom, the total well-being of the person and community.  “In Johannine language, peace, truth, light, life and joy are figurative terms reflecting different facets of the great gift that Jesus has brought from God to the world. 'Peace is my gift to you,' is another way of saying, 'I give them eternal life' (Jn 10:28) (Raymond E. Brown)

Dear brothers and sisters this is the opportunity Jesus promises us. Everything begins in loving him.  Depends on our first step.

We have cows in India and we tie them up on a pole to feed them grass. They can eat only the grass around.  We are like cows tied on a rope eating grass from a circle. Let us break our bondage of sins, pleasures and enjoy the great opportunity ahead of us. Let us take first step, open the door snd let Christ live with us and let us enjoy peace.

Fr. John Pozhathuparambil OFM Conv.

Fourth Sunday of Easter is known as good shepherd Sunday. It is the world day of prayer for vocations. May ask you to close your eyes, think of an young man in your family or community who can become a priest. If you have him in your mind, will you able to tell him tonight that I thought of you as Fr. John was giving homily and start praying for him?

 I will start with my vocation story. I joined the seminary when I was fifteen. I was a normal kid, loved to have a family, my dream was to have a beautiful wife and two kids; one girl and one boy. But God had another dream for me. He sent a Franciscan friar to my religious study class to talk about St. Francis and the beauty of priesthood. I went to a come and see program and I was attracted by the Franciscan community life, the way they prayed together, the way they did manual work and seeing this, I said this is my nitche.

After my 10th grade, I left my family and joined Franciscan life. My father wasn't happy in the beginning but later he started loving my life. I remember my first travel to the seminary, the bus I was traveling met with an accident and the bus run in to 6 feet deep muddy and dirty water. I tried to get up from the water to take my breath. I knew someone was on me. I felt that I was going to die, I said God, God I am coming to your home.  Suddenly the man or woman who was on me moved away. I somehow got out of the bus through a window and took my first breath. But the strange thing is that I didn't return home, I was so decided to peruse God's dream for me which by that time had become my dream. Mud and water came from my nostrils for two days. 

Now looking back, I have been a Franciscan priest for fifteen years. Never regretted. I helped so many people, saved people from ending their lives, saved families from braking up, spirituality directed many souls, forgave the sins and could do many things just because my call as priest.

Blaga  Dimitrova, one of my favorite poetess wrote: Nameless are the ones who have given their future –without them I’d lost all confidence in the future. 

Dear brothers and sisters, the church is made of people who have sacrificed and dedicated their lives. We have to encourage vocations. I am so sad to see aging priests and Friars in this part of the world. We need more people to dedicate their lives for God. Let my story inspire someone in this room and let me encourage you to continue to pray for the young person you thought of.

 Coming to today's gospel Jesus is using the metaphor of sheep to talk about us. He says, my sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.  

Sheep is the most vulnerable livestock. We cannot train a sheep, that’s why no sheep is an item in the circus. Sheep is a very filthy animal. Enemy can easily conquer a sheep. Sheep eats everything even dangerous plants and food, they are near sighted creatures. Sheep is very timid and terrified animal.  Can't even drink water from running stream that’s why shepherd leads them to still waters. They need constant attention.

Hearing all these, is our human nature is comparable to sheep? No way!  Then why Jesus is comparing us with sheep? 

 Jesus uses the metaphor of sheep and shepherd because, He knows spiritual nature. With our instinct, our fears and timidity, our stubbornness and stupidity, and our rebellious nature, we’re very similar to sheep. In our spiritual journey, we feel we are repeating the same sins over and over again, we make imprudent decisions, we feel that we cannot discipline our lives, evil is easily attacking us, we eat everything like a sheep, even some things dangerous to our spiritual life, we tend to escape from the watch or eye of God. Yes, we are like a sheep in our spiritual journey. This is why we need Jesus in our lives as good shepherd. 

That’s why David, who was a shepherd himself sings, "THE LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." (Psalm 23:1-4) 

Yes, Jesus is our shepherd who guides us on right path. We need his constant protection and care to grow in our spiritual life. If we follow the Good Shepherd, we can be assured that He will always lead us in the right path, he will help us to make right decision, he will protect us from evil. Our enemy may walk about as a roaring lion looking for victims to devour but if we have Jesus with us we will be protected.  Yes, let us hold on to our good shepherd who has promised us salvation. Jesus says, I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.  

Let us sing in our hearts,

Shepherd me O God, beyond my wants, beyond my fears, from death in to life. 

Fr. John Pozhathuparambil OFM Conv.

Divine Mercy Sunday

Divine Mercy Sunday

April 03, 2016

Acts 5:12 16 // Rv 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19 // Jn 20:19-31

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Jesus,

This is the Second Sunday of the Easter and we celebrate this weekend as Divine mercy Sunday. I believe that this Sunday is worth to be celebrated not only because it is the last day of the octave of Easter Season, but also we, our generation, are in a desperate need of God’s Mercy. Putting in the words of Pope Francis, from the book, The Name of God is Mercy, “at a time when “humanity is wounded,” suffering from “the many slaveries of the third millennium” — not just war and poverty and social exclusion, but also fatalism, hardheartedness and self-righteousness”- we realizes that we have no other place to relay upon except in God’s Mercy.

It is interesting to me to reflect a little bit more on the wounds of Jesus and along with that our own wounds. I know, we are now Easter People and we have a joyful him, Alleluia, to chant. Yet, the Gospel makes me think that Faith in Christ is roaming around the wounds of Christ. The Gospel gives me a picture that there is a wounded Lord and there are also wounded disciples. And again, it plays like an identity of each person: The Wounds of Jesus prove that he is the Christ and he is risen from the dead. The wounds of the Apostles, which is expressed through their fear, anguish and anxiety proves that they have abandoned their master and they desperately need healing.

What does it all mean about the wounds of Jesus? The wounds of Jesus are the expression of God’s love for humanity. “He so loved the world that he gave his only son to redeem them” from their fall, from their brokenness. When God’s love meets the brokenness of humanity, we experience His Mercy. Today, as we profess in this divine Mercy Sunday, Jesus I trust in you, remember that we are wounded, broken and God will never abandon us alone, for his Mercy endures forever.

What do we mean by the wounds of the Apostles and of ours? How are we wounded? The Scripture gives us the picture that it is the price that we pay when we abandon God in our life. This is very clear all throughout the salvation history- from the life Adam, the first man to the life of that Apostle that we see in today’s Gospel. When we decides that we are capable to do everything and we don’t want a God to explain our wonder and explore our future, we are beginning to hurt ourselves. Then, we end up in some kind of masochism, in which we find pleasure in our own wounds. But it is an abnormality; a deviation from our original identity which is given by God, His image and likeness.   We are wounded and our society is wounded for we abandoned our Lord in our life and the life of our society.

The Feast of Divine Mercy invites us to explore His Mercy where God’s love encounter our brokenness. It invites us to return to our original identity. We can no longer live and enjoy the pleasures of our wounds, that is a perversion. A wound, that is to be treated and healed. The wounds of Jesus have the power to heal our wounds. So, like Thomas, who was healed by touching the Jesus’ wounds, let us be healed by opening our wounds of the Risen Lord. Only he can heal our wounds.

May this celebration of this Eucharist, and various occasions of our sacrament of Reconciliation be an occasion to open up our wounds to the Lord especially in this year of Mercy.

Fr. Tony Vattaparambil OFMConv

Palm Sunday

Passion Sunday

March 20, 2016

Is 50:4-7 // Phil 2:6-11 // Lk 22:14-23:56

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Jesus,

Today we are beginning the best week in the whole liturgical year. Centuries ago, it was called the ‘Great Week‘. Nowadays we Catholics call it ‘Holy Week’.[i] For, we follow Jesus every step in our spiritual life for its perfection. So whatever the title, this is going to be a great and Holy week.

As I am standing here to share my reflection with you on this day, my mind flies to my state in India and praying with Salesian Fathers who sends Missionaries not only to India and all over the world, for the release of Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil from the clutches of present day evil forces called Isis. Fr. Tom is a missionary in Aden, Yemen and was abducted on the 4th of March by Isis. We don't know regarding the whereabouts and well-being of the Father Tom.

Later this week, on March 24th, is the anniversary of the martyrdom (1980) of Archbishop Oscar Romero from El Salvadore, a man who stood for justice for his people.

The lives of these innocent people and their suffering leads to me a number of questions and sometimes shakes my religiosity. It may be true with you too. So what does it really mean to us all these liturgical celebration of this week? 

We know that Religious wisdom often speaks in the language of paradox. The age old wisdom of the ancient religions never failed to speak on the continuing battle between light and darkness, good and evil. These sources of wisdom are pretty sure that the final victory is for light and goodness. Let us look at today's reading in the background of this wisdom. And also, let us look at the suffering of Fr. Tom and the Martyrdom of Archbishop Romero that Justice and goodness will prevail over darkness.

The Gospel takes us today to witness two Processions. The First one leads us into Jerusalem with Jesus’ being welcomed and proclaimed and we cheer with the crowd “Hosanna to the Son of David…… Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” The other procession pictures Jesus leaves Jerusalem a few days later in disgrace and abandoned, going to his own crucifixion. There we also join the crowd cheering with other words: “Crucify him, crucify him!”[ii] What a paradox! We see the glory of a man and his ends in the same page.

 It is a reality in our life and we experience the glory and failure in our life and believe me, sometimes, the bitterness of our suffering makes us to think that our life is a total failure. It is only here in this state of mind that we can understand the real meaning of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is seemingly the suffering of Jesus, but it is the proof of the obsessive love of God.

In fact, contemplating on the passion of Christ an excellent way to answer our own idea of God. In my childhood, my mama taught me God is almighty, all powerful, omniscient, etc. And I believe this is the concept taught by all religions down through the centuries and we believe so. But during this great week, we may look at the cross and ask the same questions that people who traveled along calvary in today’s reading. What a God who even cannot help himself from the suffering?

This is a real shift in the idea of God that we professed. We have no more a God that stays up above who has nothing to do with my life. We have now a God who stays beside me not only in the moments of my glory, but more in the moments of failure. And I have such a confident to preach that my God is so powerful, even the extreme sufferings of this world cannot defeat him.

So, dear brothers and sisters, Let us walk together spiritually in these days and know a little bit more about our God who is obsessive in loving and whose Mercy we have hope.

Fr. Tony Vattaparambil OFMConv.

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[i] Fr Brian Gleeson cp, http://www.frnick.com/homilies/a_c_p_/

[ii] Luis A. Vera, O.S.A. http://www.augustinianfriends.org/homilies/hom_palma08.htm