Hello Sunshine

  Daily prayer.... bang! That is never going to work. It starts great, goes a little further and then just slips away. I think it is the same with many like me. When there are problems, then things are different: I just am on my knees. Well, I wonder why I cannot have a systematic approach to prayer? I’ll try harder paths...  and see if no-ordinary paths to prayer really works. I set three distinct alarms on my handset (the blessed cell phone) to ‘praying the hours’. My staff and the friends hear the phone ‘ring’ often. They ask me if someone is calling very often. No, they do not know that it is the alarm of the phone telling me of ‘praying the hours’.   Praying the hours is the ultimate in my prayer relationship with God. If ‘Praying the hours’ cannot remind me of God during the day, I may not remember God at all rest of the time. I wonder who developed ‘praying the hours’. The Jews?... of the early Christian church? The Bible tells us of ‘praying the hours’ even in the...

  Irish Celtic Monks assembled these beehive-shaped stone huts on the rock island of Skellig Michael off the western coast of Ireland. OUR monastic past have inspired me. Monasteries  were a symbol of power, learning, corruption and scandals. They were also places where men and women remained isolated and holy. In the past both kings and the commons feared monasteries.     From the outside, I have always looked at a monastery to be a place of grandeur. If not with gold or silver, they were indeed large places were monks could isolate themselves. They were also places of flowers and gardens, chapels and libraries. In the church history, we often read about the servant-class monks  who live and work in these huge monasteries. These servant-monks had to cook, clean, garden or work long hours in the laundry. Among certain sets of monks, everyone was to do some of these tasks in rotation. When printing was not invented, even skillful works like coping the Holy S...

  Parish life is riddled with news, gossips and stories. This is the case all across the world. This Lent, it would be best to do a new reading of the old law: “Judge not and you will not be judged” How easy it is to fall into a cycle of judgment! Many times, I have found it difficult to keep silent about some issue I want to cry about! Even if my mouth is kept shut, believe me, my heart would be whispering judgments about the issue! We spend an enormous amount of energy making up our minds about other people. Why? Not a day really goes by without refraining from saying something that evokes in us the need to form an opinion about him or her,...opinion about the ongoing church programme,...opinion about the events in the Parish…. We hear a lot, see a lot and know a lot about most everything. The feeling that we have to sort out all of it in our minds and make judgments about it can be quite a job!!  The Desert Fathers spoke that judging others is a heavy burden. No, I am not a...