His Blessings are always with you

Why should we worry When He is there for us. Be prepaired to face difficulites. YOu need to fight against the enemies. Devil is running like an unwanded and brocken Mad Man, not knowing what to do. Devil will try to tempt you with different things but do not give up. Jesus is there to help you and His angels will guard you Just Say Amen to What HE says ...

Lent First Sunday Year C

Temptations
My Dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
A mother camel and her baby are talking one day and the baby camel asks, “Mom why have we got these huge three-toed feet?” The mother replies, “To enable us trek across the soft sand of the desert without sinking.” “And why have we got these long, heavy eyelashes?” “To keep the sand out of our eyes on the trips through the desert” replies the mother camel. “And Mom, why have we got these big humps on our backs?” The mother, now a little impatient with the boy replies, “They are there to help us store fat for our long treks across the desert, so we can go without water for long periods.” “OK, I get it! Mom. We have huge feet to stop us sinking, long eyelashes to keep the sand from our eyes and humps to store water. Then, Mom, why the heck are we here in the Bronx zoo in this freezing winter?” Modern life sometimes makes one feel like a camel in a zoo. And like camels in a zoo, we need sometimes to go into the desert in order to discover who we truly are and how we are expected to live our lives as true followers of a crucified God. Lent invites us to enter into this kind of desert experience of prayer and penance. Lent begins with a reflection on the Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.
There is no hiding place or shelter in the desert and we are asked to take the courageous step of going out into the desert like Jesus. Sometimes we are led into the desert by the Spirit like Jesus when a trial or cross comes our way.
Jesus was tempted to totally wreck his Father’s plan for his life. But Jesus overcame His temptation with the power of Holy Spirit and the Word of God. The three pieces of Scripture that Jesus quoted show him submitting to his Father’s plan:
“Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” “You must not put the Lord your God to the test.” “You must worship the Lord your God and serve him alone.”
Jesus submitted to his Father’s will. During Lent like Jesus we are to die to ourselves so that the Father’s plan for us can be accomplished in our lives.
A temptation always presents something to us as good – it comes to us wearing the disguise of good. We should not choose what only appears to be good – we should choose only that which is actually good. Some pious people think that God tempts us just to see which way we’ll choose. They think its God’s way of testing us. But remember St. James wrote in his epistle:
"No one experiencing temptation should say, ‘I am being tempted by God'; for God is not subject to temptation to evil, and he himself tempts no one. Rather, each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire." James 1:13-14
Let’s now look at the three temptations the devil put to Christ.
The first temptation was to turn the stones into bread,” The Evil One was tempting us all, suggesting that all of our appetites should be satisfied. Find heaven on earth; lack for nothing. Forget about that hunger you feel in your soul, that hunger for meaning and purpose, and that hunger for God’s love. As a matter of fact, why even bother with God. Deal only with what is here and now. It was also a temptation to Jesus to ignore His real mission as Messiah and to respond to others’ physical needs alone considering the kingdom of God is mere food and drink.
The second temptation is to simply give up on the struggle to be good and surrender to the world as it is. In the gospel account you just heard, the devil himself declared “It is all mine, and I give it to anyone I choose.” The world, he claims, is his – it belongs to him. That, of course, is a great lie. The world is God’s.
The third temptation is to turn your religion into something that you do to make God act. Take for example our Prayers? Well, that’s to tell God what He needs to do for you. It’s informing God that He hasn’t made a perfect world and that He needs to fix it up here and there with me. Our prayer style is like going to a small shop and giving out the long grocery list to get it ready when you come back. God has to do everything you ask. We say “Your will be done”. And we know whose will, we wish to be done! Go to church, the devil suggests, so you earn redemption points, and then when you die tell God He’s obliged to give you a death benefit, that God owes you a place in heaven because you are a Sunday church going person.
The third temptation is to make God act, not you. In other words, don’t put yourself to the test, put God to the test. Make God responsible for what happens to you. Force God’s hand. In this final temptation, Jesus is urged to doubt God. Satan suggests that Jesus should put God to the test: "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down,” Sometimes we become angry with God when He fails to respond to tests we set up for Him. The test may be something like this: "If my husband is healed of cancer, then I'll know God loves me." "If my boy comes back safely from Iraq, I’ll know God is on my side." "If I get the job that I’ve been praying for, I’ll know that God cares about me." Jesus teaches us that the Spirit-filled life requires unconditional surrender to God's will. We have to allow God to do his will be done in us, not as we wish but as God wish.
Each of the three temptations, according to the Fathers of the Church, represents an area in which humans regularly fail: the lust of the flesh (stones to bread), the lust of the eye and the heart (ruling over all kingdoms), and the pride of life (a spectacular leap from the Temple). Note that Jesus overcame these temptations through the knowledge of his identity, his purpose, and God's plan for human salvation. Sometimes we imagine the devil is going to try to bring us down with a huge temptation, like a million dollars or a beautiful woman or a handsome man, but we have to remember the devil is very stingy. He would love to trip us with something as small as a hamburger—and then give us indigestion to boot!
One would not really be human if one had never had any contact whatsoever with the attractiveness of sin. Jesus sets a model for conquering temptations through prayer, penance and the effective use of the ‘‘word of God’’. Temptations make us true warriors of God by strengthening our minds and hearts. We are never tempted beyond our power. In his first letter, St. John assures us: "Greater is He who is in us, than the power of the world". Hence during Lent, let us confront our evil tendencies by prayer, by penance and by meditative reading of the Bible.

Feast of Chair of St Peter Feb.22

CHAIR OF ST. PETER
Happy Feast day of the Chair of St Peter My dear brothers and sisters,
St. Peter was the prince of the apostles and the first pope. Jesus said to him, "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church" (Matthew 16:18). After Jesus went back to heaven, St. Peter preached the Gospel. He guided the small but growing Christian community. At first, Peter labored in Jerusalem and in Antioch, two big cities of the east. Later, he went to preach the Gospel in Rome, the capital of the world.What chance did Peter have to perform his great task for the Lord? His Master had been crucified but then had risen. Who would believe that? The evils of pagan Rome would drown his voice no matter how dedicated he may be. But the Holy Spirit was alive in Peter. He courageously took up the ministry Jesus had left him. Never again would Peter deny his Lord. Never again would Peter put his own personal well-being before the good of the Church.The feast of St. Peter's Chair at Rome reminds us that St. Peter started the Christian community in that city. The special chair is a symbol of the authority that was given to him by Jesus. Kings of old sat on thrones and ruled. Peter's chair is a symbol of his authority from Jesus to rule the Church.St. Peter was martyred for the faith, but down through the ages there has always been a bishop of Rome. He is the pope. The pope rules the whole Church, as St. Peter did, in Jesus' name. We call the successor of St. Peter the Holy Father.
What did the Lord mean when he said to Peter, “You are rock and upon this rock I will build my Church?” In the Gospel of Mathew there are three particular images of great importance to us concerning Peter - the naming of Peter as the rock on which Christ would build His Church, the giving of the keys, and the declaration of Apostles’ power to bind and unbind things on earth and in heaven.
When the Pope defines a doctrine ex cathedra, from the chair, he is asserting the magisterium of the church, the authority to speak without error about an important doctrine, a power believed to have been given by Jesus to Peter, the first Bishop of Rome and the first Pope, and authorized by Scripture.
The Pope is the Vicar of Jesus Christ on earth. A vicar is one who stands in the place of another and has his full authority. The Pope has jurisdiction over the whole Church in its beliefs, moral teachings and discipline. He "is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and the whole company of the faithful" (Universal Catechism, N. 882). Justly it is written in the Psalm which we so often chant: Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the seat of the elders.
We thank God for giving us Leaders for our faith. We thank God for all the popes that served the church and pray for the good health in mind and body for the present Pope Benedict IV.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Ash Wednesday

ASH WEDNESDAY
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your holy Spirit from me" (Ps 51: 10-11).
Lent is a forty day period. But how meaningful our Lent would be, my dear brothers and sisters, if we could every day LISTEN TO YOUR HEART and LIVE!
LISTEN TO YOUR HEART: We know that Lent is a time for prayer; but it is more than saying more words or spending more time on your knees. It is about listening to your heart. What is going on there now, today? Do you invite Jesus into the places of joy and the places of pain? What part of your heart needs to be changed to become more like the heart of Christ? What makes you sad today, what needs to be changed in your life?
LIVE At the end of each day, do you ever look in the mirror and ask did I really live today? Did I bring Christ to someone else by my ability to affirm, to help, to be quiet? I could tell you now that Lent is about penance, prayer and giving things up. You know that. But it is also about asking the hard question: how did I live today? Did I live a life of God’s expectation of me?
This is our challenge in Lent, to turn our hearts toward God.
We heard from the first reading "Return to me with all your heart" what is our whole heart?-- with a broken heart -- broken by awareness of sin and its effects -- that's what repentance is -- a waking up to the reality of sin, and a turning to God.
Our fig leaves are not sufficient to cover our sins. We need to return to the Lord who forgives our sins and welcomes us into his heavenly Kingdom.
Lent is a time for repentance, a time to look at the way we have been living, to identify what needs to be changed -- to resolve to change -- and to pray for God's enabling grace. That's what Jesus recommends when he speaks about prayer, fasting, and giving money to the poor.
St. Augustine said "The entire life of a good Christian is in fact an exercise of holy desire. You do not see what you long for, but the very act of desiring prepares you, so that when he comes; you may see and be utterly satisfied."
Lent can be understood as an exercise of holy desire. Augustine points out what has become a willful blindness. We tend to fill our days with three things: work, problems and diversions. For most of us we work and try to solve problems (like health or car breakdowns) in order to have more time to spend on our diversions--reading, vacations, friends, meals, sports, games, TV, etc. None of those things are bad in themselves, but they keep us from seeing what we really long for.
Lent is a time to put aside some of the diversions and, as they say, get in touch with our true desire. Our true desire is to be like Jesus. This inner struggle between our old and new selves is the reason that Pope John Paul II could so often say, become who you are. What the late great Pope meant was: become morally in your affections and actions what you already are spiritually in Christ. Lent is a retreat period to find out the truth in us and to live up to that true nature of our life. We have to rise above ourselves.
How do we rise above ourselves? I believe that we can do this with the Eucharist and personal prayer. We have the opportunity at every Eucharist to receive the Lord Jesus. The Lord lives within us. The Lord can transform us. We have to be like the clay in the potter’s hand. To be pliable clay we must be open to the will of God in our lives. We must give up some of the control that we enjoy and seem to want to have in our lives. To open our lives to the Lord and His will is an act of faith and trust. It is to let the Lord be in control and we to submit to His control.
May this season of repentance bring us the blessing of God's forgiveness!

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Photos with Mar Jose Porunnedam and Fr Jose

Happy Chinese New Year's Day

Happy Prosperous New Years to All my Brothers and sisters from China and chinese Origin

Happy Valentine's Day

A true friend is someone who reaches for your hand and touches your heart.

Love Your Enemies-7th Sunday Year C

Love your Enemies

My brothers and sisters, the message of Jesus in today’s gospel is a radical, challenging message. We are all very familiar with the Job description or the rules and statutes of the groups and congregations. We have to learn it practices it and review it time to time. Today Jesus is asking his disciples to review the formulas of the Christian life. We realize that it is not easy to be a follower of Christ.
Today’s first reading teaches us that we must never base our morality on our emotions. In, David has the chance to kill King Saul—the man who was trying to kill him! But, to his credit, David’s moral conduct here was not rooted in his emotions; it was rooted in the truth. It was rooted in the truth of who Saul was! David realized that Saul was still "the Lord’s anointed".
Every one here has at one time or another been wounded by someone or, at least, we believe we have been hurt or offended. Because of this we can accumulate a tremendous burden of resentments, grudges, hatred and anger. In today's Gospel, Jesus gives us the solution to our anger and wounds. "Be merciful as your Father is merciful." He asks us to love our enemies and do good to those who harm and hate us. The key is forgiveness, to forgive those who wound us and hurt us no matter how severe those wounds are.
Forgiveness is at the very core of Christianity and is the most divine thing anyone can do. Forgiving does not mean that the wound will disappear, but it will allow you to be able to live with that wound and love them as Jesus loves them. The virtue of forgiveness finds its fullest expression in the challenge of Jesus to love our enemies. Father they do not know what they are doing, forgive them. We are all the recipients of that divine forgiveness. No matter how far any of us has strayed from God, He always gives us a way back to Him and is ready to forgive us. God touches us in our sinfulness, which is part of our very humanity, and is there to forgive us. God's forgiveness is the love He has for us that reaches into the dark spaces of our failings and brokenness, raises us up, and holds us in the palm of His hand until we are healed. The love of God and His willingness to forgive us gradually leads us from our sinful ways to a life of grace and purpose.
The love he calls us is to be pro-active. It is not the kind of love that says, "I love humanity. It is just my neighbor that I cannot stand". Here is a cute little story that may illustrate the pro-active love that Jesus calls us to. We know it by another name-The Golden Rule.
One day, a mother happened to overhear her daughter and a few of her friends concocting a scheme of revenge against another little girl who apparently had done something mean to them. Well, she took the girls aside and said, "It seems to me that you are doing to her exactly what you do not want her doing to you. That is not the Golden Rule that Jesus taught us, is it"? "Well", replied one little girl, "The Golden Rule is OK for Sundays but, for every other day, I prefer to have an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth". Not exactly what Jesus taught! Isn’t it?
And, that is exactly the way the world looks at things. It makes sense to most people to take revenge on their perceived enemies and to love only those who love you. The world is also quick to judge those with whom they disagree. The world lives as if God does not exist at all.
Jesus prefers that we speak and live his words in our everyday lives. The love that Jesus calls us to is not a noun-it is a verb-something done. That is the way Jesus lived and he wants us to do the same. We are to live every minute of our lives as if God truly exists. The writer, G. K. Chesterton, said this about Christianity. "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried".
In June 1902, when 20-year-old Alessandro Serenelli stabbed Maria Goretti 14 times in her heart, lungs, and intestines, she survived for 20 hours in the hospital, undergoing surgery without anesthesia. When she was asked if she forgave her murderer, she replied, "Yes, for the love of Jesus I forgive him...and I want him to be with me in Paradise."
After serving his prison term, Alessandro Serenelli sought Assunta Goretti, Maria's mother, and begged her forgiveness.
Assunta told him, "Maria forgave you, Alessandro, so how could I possibly refuse?" The following morning, Christmas Day 1937, Assunta and Alessandro entered the parish church side by side to attend mass.
Remember what the father of India and an ascetic (1869 - 1948) Mahatma Gandhi said “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”Is there anything that can help us to forgive those who have hurt us? Forgiveness is a decision. Decide today to forgive. Forgiveness does not mean blotting out painful memories but it means not acting out of them. Those who are having difficulty forgiving a hurt have to repeat to themselves, “I will not allow him/her to control my life. I take control of my life back from him/her. From now on I will control my life”. When you hate some one he or she is in control of you. You are not free any more.
Another help to forgive somebody is to be humble enough to admit that we cannot control another person. Giving up the need to control or dominate the person who hurt us, surrendering the need to expect them to ask forgiveness from us frees us to forgive them.
“Love your enemies” doesn’t mean approval of evil, acceptance of evil. It doesn’t even mean that we have to like everybody. There are some people who are just not likeable. Let’s face it. But we are asked to love everybody. And that’s a very, very different thing. It goes way beyond liking. It means for a start, that we wish them no harm. Indeed that we wish them good.
We all know that we are called to love our enemies. begin with Jesus, gazing upon the Crucified, and listening to His first words from the Cross: "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing". Then continuing to gaze upon the crucifix and repeating those powerful words over and over again, we may ask the Lord to help us to forgive.
Secondly, we should act out our forgiveness. Perhaps a phone call, or letter, or a friendly knock on someone's door will convey forgiveness. For forgiveness requires an act. It is not enough to simply think about it “O K I am going to forgive him or her” Make an action with your decisions. If the person who has hurt us is deceased, then going to the cemetery and there reading aloud a letter forgiving that person from the heart and praying provides a means whereby we may act out our forgiveness.
Yes dear brothers and sisters, how can we kneel down and ask God for forgiveness, and then refuse to forgive an enemy? As John the Evangelist said, "He who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love the God whom he has not seen" (1 John 4: 20). Remember Jesus’ words “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Ministers of Communion

Beatitudes Year C 6th Sunday

The Beatitudes: the way of life for Christians
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
“Happiness is that which all [men] seek.” So says the great philosopher Aristotle. Aristotle also observes that everything people do twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, is what they believe will bring them happiness in one form or another. But the problem is that what people think will bring them happiness does not in fact always bring them true and lasting happiness. Observing people, one thing stands out constantly, namely, they are never completely satisfied. No matter how satisfied a particular experience leaves them, the euphoria quickly wears off and, like Oliver, of Charles Dickens fame; they soon want "More"!
We know that the good things of this world are good indeed; but we also know that they never completely satisfy. As we cross one horizon, another stretches out ahead of us. There is no end for our dreams. There is always a dream waiting for us to dream.
In today’s gospel, Jesus in the Sermon on the level ground shows that he really wants his followers to have true and lasting happiness, the happiness that the world and everything in it cannot give. Everybody seeks happiness. But often we look for it in the wrong places.
There are four Beatitudes according to Luke but they have to be considered as four facets of discipleship. Each of the four aspects constitutes a road map for anyone who seeks to attain this happiness of the kingdom. We ought to spell the word beatitudes to “Be-attitudes” to make the point that these are lifestyle stances of the Catholic who understands what his or her life is for.
The four Beatitudes do not describe four different people such that we need to ask which of the four blessings or four woes suits us personally. No, they are eight different snapshots taken from different angles of the same godly person. The blessed moments are those in which we recognize that nothing in this world can bring us total security or happiness. The moments of "woe" are those in which we deceive ourselves into thinking that riches, pleasure, power and fame can provide total fulfillment and happiness.
These beatitudes are like rungs on a ladder which Christ has arranged in an exact order. There is a pattern to his arrangement. Each step builds on the foundation of the previous step, each leads to the next, and each is indispensable. We can’t divide them up, retaining those we find appealing and leaving those we don’t care for to others.
We have to start at the bottom, and the first step is a big one. Here we find a rung that immediately makes people living in a rich society at least a little anxious: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”
What does poverty of spirit mean? It is my awareness that I cannot save myself, that I am basically defenseless, that neither money nor power will spare me from suffering and death, and that no matter what I achieve and acquire in this life, it will be far less than I wanted. Poverty of spirit is my awareness that I need God’s help and mercy more than I need anything else. Being poor in spirit means letting go of the myth that the more I possess, the happier I’ll be. It is an outlook summed up in a French proverb: When you die, you carry in your clutched hand only what you gave away. Poverty of spirit is a letting go of self and of all that keeps you locked in yourself.
The second Beatitude is “Blessed are they who hunger, for they shall be satisfied.” Jesus praises those who want what is right as urgently as a person in the desert wants a glass of water or a child in a refugee camp cries for a crust of bread.
The third rung has to do with grieving: “Blessed are they who mourn for they shall be comforted.” We have a lot to mourn. Mourning is linked to poverty of spirit. Without poverty of spirit and the hunger for truth, I am always on guard to keep what I have for myself, and to keep me for myself. An immediate consequence of poverty of spirit is becoming sensitive to the pain and losses of people around me, not only those whom I happen to know and care for, but also people I don’t know and don’t want to know. To the extent that I open my heart to others, I will do whatever I can to help — pray, share what I have, even share myself. I also open myself to the grief of my neighbor.
God grant us the gift of tears: for those whom we miss, for our past sins, for the sins of others, for the violence we do to each other and to the world God gives to us each day.
The fourth rung of ladder beatitude: Addressing his disciples Jesus calls those who are persecuted for their faith blessed because 1) they are eligible for a glorious reward ("Your reward will be great in heaven"), 2) they are given the privilege of sharing in the pain and suffering and rejection which Jesus Himself endured for our sins, and 3) they are following the footsteps of the martyrs of the Old Testament period and of the early martyrs of the infant Church. The thousands of Christians who courageously face persecution for their faith in different parts of the world today share in practicing the same beatitude, bearing heroic witness to their faith in Christ Jesus and inspiring us to do the same. We are called to end anything and everything that oppresses the human spirit.
A monk once visited a priory, when one of the monks greeted the visiting monk and took him to the guest room, as they climbed the stairs; he apologized to his brother monk for the many steps
The visiting monk replied to his apology in this way: “There are many steps in my abbey, too.” Then he added, “I count them as I climb…. This is how I count them: one, one, one…!” In the spiritual life it is always the beginning.
As you can see, the program that Jesus calls us to live is not any easy way of life. For many the Beatitudes may seem unrealistic, even impossible, for they appear to contradict every fundamental attitude of the world. But begin from one.
Jeremiah gives a beatitude of blessing (17: 7-8) paired with a curse (17: 5-6), as its opposite, when he compares the wicked to a barren bush in a desert and the just to a well watered tree growing near a running stream. In essence, this “beatitude” teach us that if we choose God as our hope, our security, and our happiness, we will be blessed, truly happy. On the other hand, if we choose human standards for our guides, ourselves as our source of security and the meeting of our own needs and desires as our happiness, we will find ourselves living in increasing misery and confusion, that is, with woe. Jeremiah tells us that the only source of lasting happiness is trust in God and hope in His promises.
Blessed are those who are poor, hungry, weeping, hated, excluded, insulted, and denounced because in poverty, we recognize God’s reign; in hunger, his providence; in sorrow, true happiness; and in persecution, true joy. What makes one blessed is not simply poverty or hunger or sadness or suffering for faith, but commitment to Jesus and His spirit of sharing.

Video Clips of Beautiful paintings of St Stephen's Church

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yza8MFnJxM4 part I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1T60dgN0ng Part II

The great Church, land mark of Spiritual Paintings. Worth to visit. Best to pray.

5th Sunday Ordinary Year C.Don't Give up! Change your life

Don’t Give Up: Jesus is there to Help You
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
We find Simon Peter, the fisherman in today’s gospel account in a moment of failure. Many of us do know the feeling; many of us have had moments of such profound doubt that we’ve been ready to give up.
We note first that after Christ had commanded them to let down their nets once again, Peter, who was certainly an expert in fishing, disputed the possibility that any fish would be caught. They had fished all night and caught nothing. His mastery of his occupation told him that to lower the nets again would be a waste of time. Nevertheless, Christ commanded that he do it, and he did. Christ was teaching his followers that they must put their trust in Him, even when it seemed a waste of time, even when it seemed foolish, even if they thought they knew better. The obedience of these men to Christ command was rewarded by a huge catch of fish. Christ commands us, equally strongly, to put our trust in Him and to obey His commands. Sometimes that seems illogical to us, and yet that we must do. When, for example, illness overtakes us and puts us through pain and suffering and doubt about our future, we must still look to Him, place our trust unconditionally in Him, and believe that in our obedience, we shall eventually find our reward.
There is a true story of little Andrew and his father. One day when Andrew’s was father arrived back home from the work his building was covered with the firemen and the crowed. They were trying to save the life of little Andrew, but it was not easy and the fire was swallowing the building and for the worse it was covered with smoke. Little Andrew was in the 10th floor of the building. Andrew’s father shouted to his top calling Andrew. Andrew came to the window and called daddy. There was no way to save the life of Andrew. The fire fighters all came back thinking there were no more lives to save. Andrews’s father called again and asked Andrew to jump down. Andrew cried out “dad I can not see you it is all dark”. But Andrews’s father was crying out to the top of his voice. “Andrew even though you can not see me I can see you; jump down I will catch you down”. Andrew jump down and they saved his life.
Yes my dear brothers and sisters, when we feel everything is over and I have no ways to get out of it there is one person there to help you from your depressed life. But you may not see Him because of the darkness that covers you but He can see you clearly. If you are not ready to jump down then no one can help you other than Jesus who sees us all.
The second message is that though we try in our lives to accomplish certain things, and fail, we must never cease trying, we must never give up. Peter, after working all night, was ready to give up, to surrender to failure. But he did not. Those who struggle on, despite all, can only triumph at the end.
Peter was offered a window of opportunity that came to him when he would have least expected it, after a night of failure. He took the chance, gave God what he did have, namely hope and trust, and suddenly defeat was transformed into victory.
Winners never quit and quitters never win. If we try to limit God by our own limitations we will only succeed in limiting ourselves. In today’s first reading we find the prophet Isaiah in such a state of mind. His soul was heavy; he was in near defeat. No one was listening to him; some wanted to get rid of him by killing him. Isaiah was very conscious of his failures and limitations. The great Jewish prophet Isaiah, like Simon Peter, was given a window of opportunity in the midst of failure. He took the opportunity and said: “Here I am Lord, send me.” Peter, having confessed that he was sinner, heard Jesus respond: “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be a fisher of men.” Peter responded to the challenge, the opportunity, and became the chief of the apostles. Believe that “with God, everything is possible,” and then live our lives depending on Him.
As I see it, there’s one word which unites all three of today’s Scripture readings—the word "change."
"Life is a series of changes," To make it easy to remember how to make positive change, let us use an acronym. The six letter word CHANGE: “c” is for choice; “h” is for humility; “a” is for assistance; “n” is for now; “g” is for goal; and “e” is for effort!"
The "c" in change stands for choice. Every positive change requires a conscious, deliberate choice. If the change you’re seeking is a deeper prayer life, you must choose to spend time alone with the Lord each day; if the change you’re seeking is to get rid of a sinful habit, you must choose to avoid the near occasion of the sin.
The "h" in change stands for humility. Lasting, positive changes don’t happen until we are humble enough to admit that they need to happen! Notice the humility of Isaiah: when the Lord appeared to him, his first response was "Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips . . . " He recognized his unworthiness. So did St. Paul. And so does Peter in this Gospel scene, when he falls to his knees in front of Jesus and says, "Leave me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" If we don’t recognize our need to change, we never will. That’s why the first step in AA is for a person to admit that they’re powerless over alcohol. Without that expression of humility, they will continue on their destructive path.
The "A" in change stands for assistance. If we are truly humble, we will not only admit that we need to change, we will also realize that we need the help to change!—help from God and from others.
Which brings us to the "N." The "N" in change stands for now. Notice—Isaiah didn’t wait to accept the Lord’s call; he said, "Here I am, send me!" Peter, James and John abandoned their fishing business on the spot and followed Jesus as his disciples. If we say, "I’ll go to Confession one of these days” and we know “one of these days” will probably never arrive.
And all positive change must have a goal, which is what the "G" in CHANGE stands for. And what should be the ultimate goal of every positive change was expressed beautifully by St. Paul when he wrote in Philippians 3:12-14 "I do not think of myself as having reached the finish line or made perfect. One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus"
But none of this comes without effort on our part, which is what the "E" in CHANGE stands for. The daily effort Paul expended in living a holy life is illustrated powerfully in that same passage.
Choice, humility, assistance, now, goal, effort—that’s what might be called "the Biblical formula for lasting change."
Sometimes we, like St. Peter and his companions, have empty nets. Do not give up but just ask: "Lord, look my net is empty." And He will tell you "cast out again," and if you trust Him, He will fill you up.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Catholic Chapal in Bellevue Hospital

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Presentation of the Lord Feb.2

Presentation of the Lord
Today we celebrate the feast of the Presentation of Jesus, the day we remember all the consecrated lives called vita consecrate, and also it is the Groundhog Day and also First Friday.
Do you know what happened forty days after Jesus' birth? We have it in today's Gospel: the purification of Mary and the presentation of Jesus.
As far as I know, only the Catholic Church keeps track of the days since Christmas. If you add the days between Christmas and New Years (7), the month of January (31) and the first two days of February, you reach a total of 40.
In the image of Joseph and Mary presenting Jesus in the Temple, we have a wonderful model of husband and wife united in practicing the faith and in raising their child in the faith.
We read that “When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord” (2:22) There is a confusion of detail here because, according to Jewish law, purification was for the mother alone while presentation was for the child. The story appears to be speaking of the two ceremonies as if they were one. Luke stresses the fact that they are doing it “as it is written in the law of the Lord” (verse 23). Joseph and Mary are presented as people who keep God’s laws. Moreover, they are presented as doing it together. It is easier to walk in the ways of God when husband and wife walk it together and encourage each other along the way. The author of Ecclesiastes had something like this in mind when he wrote: “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10). Husband and wife are companions in the journey of life, especially in the journey to our ultimate destination. We see this as we contemplate Joseph and Mary together in the Temple in obedience to God’s law.
Some people are against the infant Baptism. But I think if parents are supposed to provide their children with the basic necessities of life, what is more basic than one’s faith in God. No parents would think of allowing their children to decide whether they want to go to school or not, whether they want to learn the common language or not, whether they want to be a citizen of their country or not. We make these decisions for them, knowing fully well that when they grow up, they may decide to continue with what we gave them or abandon it. But only a foolish parent would refuse to send a child to school or teach a child their language and tradition in the name of respecting the child’s freedom to choose. Similarly parents have a responsibility to initiate their children into their faith traditions. This is what we see today in the feast of presentation as Joseph and Mary present Baby Jesus in the Jewish Temple.
In our Gospel Reading, Saint Luke tells us that the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph went to the Temple in Jerusalem in accordance with the Jewish law that said each first-born male child had to be offered to God forty days after being born. Jesus, the Son of God, did not have to be offered to God the Father. Nevertheless, he allowed this to occur because he wanted to be like us in everything, except sin. A physical and emotional re-integration into the community. Even though the feast we celebrate today is not exactly Marian in nature, we should remember that Jesus arrived at the Temple, for the first time in his earthly life, in the arms of his mother, Mary. It could be said that by taking Jesus to the Temple Mary was the instrument through which humanity would first hear of the mission that was given to her Son, Jesus, the enlightenment of all the nations on earth with the light of his life and his grace. The role of the Virgin is to show us the road to her Son, Jesus. The greatness of the Mother of God is based on her Divine Maternity.
Happy Feast to all of you
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.