Annunciation

Joyful mysteries.

1. Annunciation.

Meditation for each Hail Mary.

1.Virgin Mary had humbly vowed her virginity to God himself. Joseph knew it and agreed to be her guardian all his life.

2. It was God's will that Jesus be born of a virgin.

3. He sent His messenger  Angel Gabriel to Virgin Mary to inform her that she had been chosen to be the Mother of God becoming man.

4. He greeted her with the words,. "Hail, thou who art full of grace; the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women."

5. He gave her God's message thus:
"And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call him Jesus."

6. Mary could not understand the message as she had vowed to be a virgin.

7. Angel Gabriel convinced her that the Divine Child would be conceived not by any marital act, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.

8. Mary accepted the message after being convinced that her virginity would be safe, with the words: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be unto me according to thy word." She dedicated herself for carrying out the will of God.

9. We too are the children of Mary.
Jesus is our Brother. We are bound by our filial and fraternal love to be of service to them in carrying out the will of our Heavenly Father

10. Pray for us, dear Mother, that we may be faithful servants of your Son. Amen.

Lourdu Selvam.

Rosary, a pretaste of eternal bliss.

Rosary, a pretaste of eternal bliss.
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Why should we pray to Mary?

Why should we say Rosary repeatedly, repeating the same prayers with meditation?

There may be many answers to this question, as different people do the same thing for different reasons, but my answer is this:

I want to imitate Jesus.

Yes, I say Rosary because I want to be like Jesus.

So I think that we should say Rosary in order to imitate and be like Jesus.

Say Rosary to imitate Jesus?

Did Jesus pray to Mary  reciting
Rosary?

Of course not.

Then why does praying to Mary make us imitate and be like Jesus?

Let me explain.

Whatever Jesus did and is still doing are acts of deepest love for His Father.

Jesus is the perfect model of love for His Father and for others.

All His acts are acts of obedience to His Father.

"I came down from heaven not to do my will but the will of the One who sent me.”(John 6:38)

“He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was
obedient to them.”(Luke 2:51)

It was in obedience to His Father's will that He was obedient to His Mother.

As a man, Jesus depended on His Mother for the fulfillment of His needs, not only during His childhood but till He was thirty, when He began His public life.

Just bring back to mind our dependence on our mother when we were children.

For our conception itself we depended on our mother.

After birth if she had not fed us with her milk-turned blood we would have perished.

We looked up to her face for whatever we wanted.

"Mom, take me up into your lap."

"Mom, I am hungry. Is lunch ready?"

"Mom, l want snacks right now."

"Mom, please help me do my homework."

"Mom, I want to take part in the school tour. Please recommend father to give permission and money."

"Mom, dad wants me to become a doctor. But I want to be a teacher. Please change dad's mind."

" Mom, I love one girl. It is up to you to get us married."

Just bring to mind thousands of other things for which we approached our mother.

Even now I am praying to my mother, who is with God, for my temporal and spiritual needs.

Just think about Jesus' dependence on Mother Mary.

His human life began from the moment of His conception in Mary's womb.

We know that Jesus was conceived only after Virgin Mary accepted to conceive Him at Annunciation.

           
"let it be unto me according to thy word." (Luke.1:38)

Mary accepted to conceive Jesus only after knowing that it was the Will of God.

Though Jesus was God, who created Mary, He subjected Himself to obey His human Mother and to depend on her for His temporal needs. 

If Jesus Himself asked His Mother for His temporal needs, why can't we, His followers?

St. Luke describes Jesus' early life just with a few words: ''was obedient to them.”

When we approach Our Lady for our needs, we are imitating Jesus, our Saviour.

Prayer, alright. But why repeated 'Hail Marys'?

Have you ever  enjoyed your mom's kisses?

When we were children our mother would take us into her embrace and shower on us countless kisses.

In my experience my cheeks, forehead, head, chest and  belly are still, in my 80th year, wet with my mother's kisses.

Have we ever asked our mom, "Why are you kissing me again and again?"

Just close your eyes, focus your mind on Jesus and keep on saying, "Jesus, I  love you."

Just four words.

During the time you repeat the words with concentration, you will experience the continuous flow of God's grace into your heart.

Focus your eyes on Mother Mary's eyes and say continuously, "Mom, I love you."

Our concentration of our eyes on hers will imprint her face in our heart, which is the seat of love.

Repeated expression of our filial love will draw upon us a continuous shower of motherly affection.

To get wet in it is equal to get immersed in the grace of which our Mom is full.

Now we understand that repeated prayer will draw us into the ocean of God's grace rather than making us tired of it.

'Hail Mary' is a graceful prayer.

The more we repeat this prayer the more grace will we be blessed with.

Our repeated expression of love for our Mother will make her more happy.

She herself has promised to Saint Dominic:

"Whatever you ask in the Rosary will be granted."

"Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces."

We don't recite the Rosary mechanically.

We pray the Rosary meditatively.

During the full Rosary we make a meditational tour right from the Annunciation to the Heavenly Queenship of our Lady.

We start our tour from Nazareth, where Our Lady gives  her concent to give birth to Jesus.

Then we go with Our Lady by walk to Elizabeth's house where we stay till the    birth of St.John.
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Then we go to Bethlehem where Jesus is born in a stable.

Then we go to Jerusalem Temple, where Our Lord was presented  before our Heavenly Father. 

Then when Jesus was twelve we once again go with Him to the temple and are with Him when He was expounding God's word to the elders.

During all this we are in a happy mood.

Then we follow Jesus in His  way of the Cross, in a sorrowful mood, repenting for our sins which were responsible for His death on the Cross

Then we are at Jesus' tomb from where He rose to life on the third day after His death.

We are with Jesus till His Ascension, listening to His words to His Apostles.

Then we receive the Holy Ghost together with the Apostles.

Then we go to Heaven together with our Lady and are with Her when she is crowned as our Queen.

During every Rosary we Spiritually live with our Lord and Our Lady.

Those who regularly say Rosary continuously live with our dear Mother and Our Lord and have a pretaste our eternal bliss with God.

So when we say Rosary we show our love to our dear Mother.

We are Jesus-like because we too are Mary's children and we love her as He does.

Lourdu Selvam

Words must give birth to actions.

Words must give birth to actions.
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The cheapest thing in this world, as far as I know, is what comes from our mouth, our word.

We freely give plentiful of our words  to others.

By our nature we are more interested in giving our words to others than receiving from them.

We give more importance to our mouth than to our ears.

We forget one thing.

Our word is the only thing in the world which should be kept by us after given.

We must keep our word.

Just bring to mind the promises we have given when we were baptised.

How far are we keeping them?

We have promised to reject Satan.

But whenever we break God's commandment we side with him.

We have promised to believe in God.

To believe is to have Faith.

We have Faith, no doubt.

But how strong is it?

What steps have we taken to make it stronger?

It is not enough to sow a seed.

We must water it, manure it, protect it from pests and take care to see that the plant  grows and yields fruit.

Are we keeping our Faith at the starting point or growing it?

" If you have faith, though it be but like a grain of mustard seed, you have only to say to this mountain, Remove from this place to that, and it will remove;" (Matthew.17:19)

How was St. Antony able to work wonders?

Because of his strong Faith.

Faith is the gift of God.

We must request Him to strengthen it.

If we feel like wavering in our Faith in times of trouble it means that our Faith is weak.

We must pray God to strengthen our Faith.

Actions speak louder than words. 

I had a friend who was famous for his lip service.

If he happens to see me while doing any work he would say with a smile, " I would like to help you, but...."

One 'but' will do away with whatever goes before it.

Anybody can offer lip service, real service can be done only by one who has Faith.

Faith must reveal itself through good works.

'Faith without good works is dead'.

(செயல் இல்லா விசுவாசம்  செத்த  விசுவாசம்.)

' I believe' will have life only if 'I do'.

Word did.

The 'Word' of God, The Second Person of The Holy Trinity, Jesus did not show His love for us merely by words, but by doing, by sacrificing Himself on the Cross as amendment for our sins.

We are His followers.

Only if we express our 'I believe'
and 'I love'  by our actions, our service to our neighbours, we can call ourselves 'followers of Jesus'.

"you, therefore, must go out, making disciples of all nations, and baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all the commandments which I have given you." 
(Matthew.28:19,20)

Jesus makes it clear that the Apostles should baptise and teach us, His disciples, to make us 'observe all the commandments'.

Only our 'actions' as per the commandments of God and service to our neighbours  make us followers of Jesus.

As we too are disciples of Jesus we are also duty bound to spread His word.

How are we to do it?

Spreading it by word of mouth is not enough.

We must live the word which we spread.

Our word and life must tally with each other.

If we speak one thing but live just opposite to what we speak, our word will have no value.

Our life must speak God's word together with our mouth.

If others see our unconditional love and service, they will automatically be attracted to our side.

They will see Jesus in us.

So let us love and live Jesus.

Lourdu Selvam.

Birthday present to Jesus.

“What have you to give Jesus for His birthday?
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When we attend the birthday function of a friend, we don’t go there empty handed.

We have a birthday present with us and present it to him during the function.

Just imagine  we attend the birthday function of Our Lord Jesus.

Of course there are three months for the function.

But let us get ourselves ready for the function.

What will we give Him as our birthday gift?

Usually all the attendants don’t bring with them the same gift, of course except those whose gifts are in the form of currency.

Gifts differ from person to person, depending upon the closeness of the relationship of the giver and receiver, the generosity amount and  the economic condition of the giver,   availability of the gift article in the market, so on and so forth.

I asked a few friends of mine what they will give Infant Jesus as their birthday gifts.

Their replies are given below.

“I will buy a new crib set this year and offer it to Jesus.”

“I  will offer my prayers to Jesus.”

“I  will  feed some beggars with sumptuous food.”

“I  will offer donation to my parish Church.”

“I will offer my Christmas celebrations as a gift to Jesus.”

“I will   make a good confession and prepare myself to receive Jesus.   My pure and loving heart is my birthday gift to Jesus ”

“I  will attend  Holy Mass and offer it to Jesus.”

“I will take a resolution never more to insult him by mortal sin.”

“I  will promise Infant Jesus to help those in need unconditionally. I will offer Jesus this promise as my Christmas gift.”

“I will visit the sick in the hospital and pray for their cure.”

“Having nothing as my own in this world, I will offer Infant Jesus Himself to God the Father as my gift as nothing is more precious to Him than His Son.”

“As Jesus was born poor I will promise Him to love the poor and help them.”

“I will make a promise to name my child ‘Christa’ so that I may be reminded of Christ’s love for me whenever I see my child and will offer this promise as my Christmas gift. I will grow my child in the love of Jesus”

“  I will offer myself fully together with all my thoughts, words and actions to Jesus.”

“I will offer myself to Mother Mary to give me to her Son as her gift.”

You choose the best answer from the above or give your own answer if none of the above satisfies you.

Lourdu Selvam.

Faith, Hope and Charity.

Faith, Hope and Charity.
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Faith gives us belief,

and Hope, a goal,

but to keep both alive and active we need  Love.

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Faith settles the doubts in our
intellects.

Hope calms our emotions.

But we need love to give us the endur­ance to persevere.

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We  have to nourish
and maintain within ourselves
a never-ending source of love.
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Faith tells us what we believe.

Hope tells  us why.

Love tells us Whom we believe in.
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In the journey of life,

Faith is the boat.

Hope the anchor.

Love the rudder.

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We should maintain an ever growing Love for God and neighbour

and look to Jesus to tell us how.

Jesus has said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We shall come and make Our home with him” (John 14:23).

The secret then is: If we  keep His word, Holy Trinity will live in us.

The Spirit makes us sons of God at Baptism;

an indelible seal is placed upon us — a seal never to be erased in time or eternity.

Like the sons of men, we have to grow and mature in our new life.

Our life is fed by God Himself.

Faith and Hope will be with us till our death.

We won't need them in Heaven as we will see God face to face.

Love will be with us for ever

Lourdu Selvam.

Let us repent and return to Jesus.

Let us repent and return to Jesus.
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The religious leaders of Jerusalem questioned  Jesus' authority to enter the Temple to teach. (Mt 21:23). 

He answered their question with a question :  “The baptism of John, whence was it?” 

They refused to answer.

If they said, “From God,”  Jesus would embarrass them by asking why they didn’t believe him.  If they said, “From men,” the people would be up in arms.

  They pleaded ignorance, thus forfeiting any explanation of Jesus’ authority.

Now, Jesus asks them another question. 

He  tells them about two sons. One son refuses to obey his father in words but obeys in action and the other  accepts to obey but disobeys.
(Matthew.21:28-32)

Jesus asks, “Which of these two did his father’s will?” 

The religious leaders can recognize true obedience in this story. 

They know that words alone don’t count.

Surely they are not expecting what comes next: 

“Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of heaven before you.” 

These words of Jesus may  have been an insult to the men who prided themselves on being the spiritual leaders of God’s people!

  Tax collectors and prostitutes were sinners on the lowest rung of Jewish society. 

So, how on earth would they be ahead of those in positions of religious authority?

Ironically, it was out of their own mouths that the chief priests and elders had condemned themselves. 

They knew that action speaks louder than words. 

Lot of sinners  flocked to the Jordan River to hear John the Baptist preach. 

The sinners had asked him, “What should we do?” in their sincere desire to repent and start fresh with God (Luke.3:10-14). 

They repented for their sins and were  baptized by St. John.

By doing this, they did the will of their Father. 

But the religious elites, who rejected John, did not. 

In their very public offices, they said “yes” to God, but in their actions, they said “no.”

Jesus says that the sinners who changed their ways would enter the kingdom of Heaven “before” the religious leaders who were questioning Him.

Why did He say ' before you'?

A religious leader should not think that he alone will go to Heaven; when he goes there he will see  whom he thought sinners also there.

'Before' does not refer to time; it is used to stress the point that repenting sinners are  more pleasing to God than the just.

In the parable of the Shepherd and the lost sheep Jesus says that the Shepherd leaves the 99 sheep where they are and goes in search of the lost sheep.

"in heaven; there will be 'more rejoicing' over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine souls that are justified, and have no need of repentance." (Luke.15:7)

Jesus came to the world in search of sinners.

"I have come to call sinners to repentance."(Luke.5:32)

There is good news here, even in His stinging rebuke. 

Those who stray far from the Father’s will can always return. 

It is never too late to repent.

Let us not lose heart if we are sinners.

Let us repent and return to Jesus.

Lourdu Selvam

Dependency is a blessing.

Dependency is a blessing.
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"Independence' is a word which is usually used in political histories.

When a country becomes free from foreign rule, we say that it has become independent.

People like to be politically independent.

But in spirituality Independence is an imposibility.

From the moment we were created from nothing we were dependent on our Creator.

We should be happy over this dependency because we are dependent on Almighty God, who loves us unlimitedly.

He has provided us with all our needs, both Spiritual and temporal.

He takes care of us all our life.

Whether we like it or not we are dependent on God; to make our dependency more fruitful we must voluntarily surrender ourselves before God, whole heartedly accepting our dependency on Him.

If we desire to be independent of God, it only means we reject Him, which will result in everlasting loss of Him.

We are dependent on God, but God does not depend on anyone, He is self-existent.

We need Him for our existence,  but God does not need anyone.

We, human beings, are dependent not only on God but also on our neighbours.

We depend on God for our existence and for our attainment of the purpose for which we have been created.

We, human beings, depend on one another ( that is, we are interdependent)  in order to be of help to one another in our journey to Heaven with the grace of our Almighty Creator.

We depend on our spiritual Fathers for our spiritual nourishment.

They nourish us with the Seven Sacraments and their Spiritual Direction. They are our Spiritual parents and we are their Spiritual children.  We must approach them only for our spiritual needs, not material needs.

As children we are bound to take care of their temporal welfare.

"You shall provide for the material needs of the Church."- is the sixth precept of our Church.

We are interdependent as the children of the same God.

No one can lead a spiritual or temporal life alone without the help of others.

Children depend on their parents for being brought up and parents on their children in their old age.

Jesus commanded us to love our neighbours as we love ourselves.

Real love cannot remain dormant.

It will be active and express itself in acts of kindness and love, which will increase our treasurer in Heaven.

Mutual love, mutual understanding and mutual help will build up a healthy Spiritual family, which is united not merely by blood relationship but by love, which makes us Christ like.

Christ sacrificed Himself for us out of pure love and this love which we inherit from Him enables us to sacrifice ourselves for our neighbours.

We depend on our neighbours  to serve as people for whom we can make some sacrifice.

Sacrifice need not necessarily mean sacrificing our life, which is the greatest of all sacrifices.

In our daily life we can sacrifice our time, comfort, food, money and such other small things for others. What makes the sacrifice great is not the thing sacrificed, but the love with which it is done.

One boy had the habit of noting down whatever he did during the day on his diary.

From one of the diary pages:

1. I got up at 5 in the morning instead of 6 to help my brother to do his homework. I am happy to have sacrificed one hour for him.

2. My brother wanted one more coffee in the morning. I sacrificed my cup for him.

3. I sacrificed 10 minutes for my mother by helping her in the kitchen in washing the plates.

4. When I was going to school by bus I gave my seat to one old thaaththaa, sacrificing my comfort.

After noting down such other small small sacrifices, he has ended the page with the words:"Dear Jesus, I offer you my small sacrifices as amendment for my sins and the sins of the whole world."

My point here is that we depend on our neighbours to do acts of love and sacrifice.

Thus all the children of God are interdependent to be of help to one another in our heavenward journey.

God is self-existent.

We are all dependent on Him for our existence and salvation.

All the human beings are interdependent in their heavenward journey.

Dependency is a blessing.

Lourdu Selvam.