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WHO I BECOME:

The main decision in life is not about which group to join (priesthood, religious life, marriage, etc.), or which profession to enter, but about the kind of person I want to become:

A friend once told me: “You are busy with many things. Is that what is most important for you? Do you think of the kind of person you want to become by the time you die? Isn’t that the most important thing in life?”

It certainly is.

I can be a saint or a crook in any setting. There is nothing great or wonderful about just being a priest or religious or lay professional. What really matters is: What kind of a person do I want to be? Do I give this all-important central question due time and attention?

Who I become matters much more than what I do, which group I belong to, or what titles I accumulate.

A layman I admire greatly was told by a friend of many years: “I have been observing you for years. Whenever I praised you for something, you always gave the credit to someone else. What if I tell you: You are the finest human being I have ever come across?”

Wouldn’t it be great if such a compliment could be sincerely given to us?

MOST BASIC CHOICE:

This central decision involves a basic choice: to love or not to love.

The kind of person I want to become depends mostly on cultivating a basic attitude: to be loving and to be selfish—to truly care for others, or to make use of people for my selfish ends.

As a friend once told me when I was busy writing: “At the end of your life God will not ask you how many books you wrote, but how much you loved!”

In fact, what makes a vocational choice—e.g., to become a religious or a priest or doctor or teacher—good is whether it is taken out of love. Am I here to love and serve people, to respond to God’s love, or to have a self-centred or fear-centred life?

Those who choose celibacy need to remember: Love is a must; celibacy is not. Being loving is more important than holding special titles (Bishop, Father, Sister, etc.).

Fr Pascual Chavez SDB, former superior general of the Salesians, used to remind his communities, “Perseverance is not the same as fidelity.” That is: Just staying in is not an achievement. If all I do is to stay in a marriage or a religious order or priesthood, that is nothing meaningful. If I am becoming a more loving person in this setting, great!

RESPONSIBILITY FOR HAPPINESS:

Becoming a happy person is my personal responsibility.

No setting can make me happy. I can be happy or unhappy in any place or profession.

Neither marriage, nor celibacy, nor the priesthood, nor belonging to any particular group will make a person happy. Others can do things for me, can make my life easier or harder, but they cannot give me something called happiness.

Sheila, a young working woman, suffers from painful health problems, financial constraints and unloving treatment in her marriage. Yet she says: “I have decided to be happy.” She realizes that it is not in her power to change her husband’s character or several other conditions in her work and family. But it is in her control to decide whether to let external circumstances make her unhappy or not.

Do I take responsibility for my happiness? Or, am I waiting for others to make me happy?

Am I generally a happy person—or am I waiting for some special occasion to be happy?

When I find I am not happy, do I take steps to come out of it and find my path to happiness?

 FORMING MYSELF:

I form myself. Others can help me, but they cannot form me. They can influence me; they cannot make me a good or bad person

A priest I had taught in the seminary said this about formation: “Father, already when I was in the seminary, I was convinced that you superiors cannot form us; we form ourselves.”

So true. The main agent of formation is the person in formation. This is true in a family or seminary or convent. Others can tell us good things, correct us, guide us; but no one can make me good.

I form myself into the kind of person I want to become through the choices I make.

Just because my parents are good, does not mean that I will be good. Just because someone’s father was a drunkard does not mean that the sons will be drunkards.

Every human being retains the inner freedom to make choices, to become the person one really wants to become. This is the mystery of the human heart.

HELP FROM OTHERS:

In forming myself, I am helped by others

God places many persons on our path, all through life, right from our conception and birth to the time we die. We owe much to many.

Of these, our family is the first and probably the most influential. Much of our formation is over by the time we come to the seminary or the novitiate or college. Our deeper traits are picked up at home—honesty, sense of God, compassion towards the poor, sense of justice, humour, respect for people, the dignity of women, …

After our family, come our close friends. Those we are closest to, influence our values. If my closest friends are persons of integrity, it says much about me and about what I seek. If they are gossips, I too will tend to gossip more easily.

Thirdly (and only thirdly!), we are influenced by our religious order or seminary or college and similar structured helps we receive: talks, books, retreats, community prayers, life of the founder/foundress, etc.

Fourthly, other people and events: can influence us—even a stranger in a bus, or someone we read about.

There are so many teachers around us the whole time. Every day. In every place. Helps are available in plenty—if I am open to receiving.

What I do with what others offer, is the main thing. And that, once again, is my choice.

EAGLE OR DUCK?

Eagles fly alone; ducks in flocks!

If all I want is to float and say “Quack! Quack!” I will have plenty of company.

If I simply follow the majority—gossiping or being biased, doing the minimum, or telling lies, repeating others’ words rather than thinking for myself—I will be surrounded by crowds of other mediocrities. The majority are mediocre, passive, easily manipulated.

If, instead, I want to follow worthwhile dreams, make a difference, and do something meaningful with my life, I need to face aloneness. Heroes and saints are not mass-produced! A heart-felt passion—not the crowds—will light up my life.

Changes are never brought about by the majority. Great things are achieved by committed individuals and small groups.

The ancient Greeks used to put it this way: “A thousand mediocre geometers will not make one Euclid.”

Do I want to strive for the stars or wallow in mud?

Do I want to discover the best that lies hidden in me and in others, and construct something beautiful—or sit down and grumble?

What difference will my life make?

What will I do today that will make the world around more beautiful and more human?

Do I want to fly, or just float?

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-Jeff T. Manning

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He was the first Catholic priest to be arrested in the U.S. for leading protests against the Vietnam War and the nuclear weapons of the U.S. government.Later he was arrested hundreds of times in protests against war and nuclear weapons. He spent nearly two years of his life in prison. Time magazine featured him on its cover, and he was repeatedly nominated for the Nobel peace prize.  A Jesuit priest, he was also an award-winning poet and a prolific writer who authored more than 50 books. Fr Daniel Berrigan, SJ, died in New York on 30 April this year. He was 94.

Dan, as his friends called him, was born on 09 May 1921 in Virginia, Minnesota, U.S. After his schooling, he joined the Jesuits, and after his formation, was ordained a priest in 1952. In 1953 he travelled to France for a training programme that Jesuits call ‘Tertianship’ and there he met ‘the worker priests’ who must have made him see a totally new dimension of priesthood. When he taught New Testament at Le Moyne College, Syracuse, he founded the ‘International House’ for students who wanted to show their solidarity with the poor of the ‘third world.’

His younger brother, Philip Berrigan, was an equally committed and courageous activist and anti-war protestor. Later Philip left priesthood and married, but continued to live the life of an activist till the end. When Dan wanted to join his brother in 1963, his Jesuit superiors did not permit him to do so. He went to France and other European countries and South Africa on a sabbatical.

When he returned he began to oppose the U.S. involvement in Vietnam War and co-founded Catholic Peace Fellowship. A retreat he made along with his brother and other friends in 1964 became a turning point. The retreat was directed by the renowned monk and spiritual writer, Thomas Merton in his Trappist monastery in Kentucky, called Abbey of Gethsemani. The Berrigans, as well as Merton, resolved to advocate Christian peacemaking and so launch a crusade, through writing and speaking, against war and the nuclear weapons. Writing in one of his books about meeting Dan Berrigan, Merton referred to him as “an altogether winning and warm intelligence and a man who, I think, has, more than anyone I have ever met, the true wide-ranging and simple heart of the Jesuit: zeal, compassion, understanding and uninhibited religious freedom. Just seeing him restores one’s hope in the church.”

In 1965, he co-founded ‘Clergy and Laity Concerned about Vietnam’ with the well-known Jewish Rabbi Abraham Heschel. On 22 Oct1967, Berrigan was arrested for the first time with hundreds of students protesting the Vietnam War at the Pentagon, when the U.S. government was engaged in mobilizing the youth to fight in the war. What he did the next year made him known all over the world. On 17 May 1968, along with his brother and eight others, he burned draft files at Catonsville, Maryland. The media coverage of the event  ignited anti war protests all over the country.

He and his friends called such protests ‘Plowshares actions.’ Why Plowshares? ‘Plowshares’ is the way Americans spell ‘Ploughshares.’ And the reference is to the Biblical prophecy that declares there will be no more war. Isaiah 2:4 says, “He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”

He published in 1957 his first book of poetry, Time without Number, which won Lamont poetry award. Since then he kept publishing one or two books of poetry or prose every year. From 1965 till about 10 years ago he was speaking against violence and war at least once a week somewhere in the U.S.

If we want to understand why Berrigan chose to live this way, it is enough to look at what he said during his trial in 1981: “The only message I have to the world is: We are not allowed to kill innocent people.We are not allowed to be complicit in murder. ‘Thou shalt not kill.’” When an underground group of revolutionaries who opposed wars that U.S. was responsible for began to blow up buildings and indulge in violence, Berrigan wrote: “The death of a single human is too heavy a price to pay for the vindication of any principle, however sacred.” Because of the inevitable loss of hundreds of innocent lives in a war, he held that no war can ever be just and so called the Church to abandon its ‘just war’ theory and return to the non-violence of Jesus.

John Dear, another well-known priest-activist, said in an obituary, “All along I considered him one of the most important religious figures of the last century, right alongside with Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day and his brother, Philip… I consider him not just a legendary peace activist, but one of the greatest saints and prophets of modern times.”

When Dan Berrigan’s funeral Mass began on 06 May, the audience sang, “We’re gonna lay down our swords and shields, down by the riverside…We’re gonna study war no more!”

In the light of this Berrigan candle, we need to remind ourselves that if we are followers of Jesus, we ought to be peacemakers. If we are, we will be blessed, because we will be children of God(“Blessed are the peacemakers…”Mt 5:9). But in our homes or communities, how often do we indulge in violence – physical or verbal?  In our parishes, dioceses and congregations how many of us keep creating conflicts and destroying unity and peace – for power or profit, exploiting language or caste, race or region?

 

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-Fr M.A. Joe Antony, SJ is at present editor, Jivan, the magazine of South Asian Jesuits and the executive secretary of and advisor to the  Provincial Superior of Jesuits in Tamil Nadu. For 20 years he edited the New Leader and gave it a new life and reputation.

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Two ways of living and loving: beautiful, demanding, fruitful. Not in competition, but showing two aspects of God’s love. Each has much to give to, and receive from, the other.

Fr Joe Mannath SDB

“The best advice I have heard about marriage is a simple sentence my husband told me on the day of our wedding,” Annie, a wife and mother in her fifties told me. “The reception was over. We both were on the stage. My husband turned to me and said: ‘During the party, waiters came around with nice things on a plate. We simply had to stretch our hand and pick it up. Marriage is different. Let’s remember that happiness will not be served us on a plate. We both will have to work for it.’ This is so true. I fully agree with what he said.”

The same is true about celibate life. Joining a convent or seminary will not assure my happiness—or my becoming a good and loving human being.

We find wonderfully inspiring and radiantly happy persons in both walks of life.

We can find cruel, crooked and deeply unhappy people in both groups.

It is not marriage or celibacy that makes a person good or happy or holy.

Let’s have a look at both paths.

Both paths are meaningful and beautiful—if lived well.

And awful if lived badly.

Both need to face disillusionment and let-downs.

Both need the support of faith, and good human beings to lean on and learn from.

They are not in competition, nor one above the other. They are paths of life meant to be walked in love.

Here is a frank look at both.

MARRIAGE

George and Edith are a couple who inspired many. George, a teacher, would also take classes on marriage for young pre-nuptial couples. One thing he would always tell them: “Marriage is not a fifty-fifty arrangement. It has to be a hundred-hundred commitment.”

“What does that mean, George?” I ask him.

“See, Father, marriage is not like a business contract. In business, one partner can say: ‘I contribute 50 percent, and you put in the other 50. This is my job; that is yours.’ In a marriage, we cannot think like that. Each of us has to give oneself one hundred percent. There are times when I am down or weak, and Edith has to carry the whole burden. Other times, I have to take the whole hundred percent. Only this way will a marriage work.”

So true, isn’t it?

In a marriage, two persons,  very different in temperament, upbringing and tastes, have to learn to love and adjust to each other the rest of their life. This 24-hour, 365-days adjustment is far from easy. It is wonderful if both adjust, forgive, see the positive, find inner strength and make huge efforts to put love above one’s ego. If not, it can really become hell. Because of the constant closeness and the intensity of feelings involved, marriage can really feel like heaven or have the tone of hell.

 The Key Factor

One key word can summarize what distinguishes marriage from celibacy. That word is ATTACHMENT. A man or woman becomes deeply attached to one’s spouse and children. There is hardly any human emotion that can match the intensity of man-woman love and parental tenderness. [photo of a family with hildren]

Anna Maria said this about her husband’s sudden death: “I didn’t want to live. I thought my pain would drive me mad. Thank God a grand-child was born soon after; that prevented me from going crazy.”

Margaret, a middle-aged religious sister, shared this: “I asked my mom once, when she was already old, ‘Mom, do you remember the time a car was about to hit me, and you jumped in front of that car to save me?’ My mother replied, ‘No, I don’t. But I would be ready to do that for any of my children.”

This is what parental love does to a human being. It makes a man or woman care for another human being even more intensely than for oneself.

For Lara, a really transforming experience happened when her sister adopted a baby. The child was brought home, and family members were holding the kid. Lara said she knew that day the meaning of the expression, “dearer than life.” That is how she felt when she held the baby in her arms.

This intense attachment has strong and beautiful results. Let me list four.

Four Fruits

The first is DEDICATION. We can see this in the way a husband or wife puts the needs and comforts of the spouse above one’s own, and loving attention to children. Parents work for children every day, for years, often in the face of coldness, ingratitude and many hardships. The typical mother or father puts in longer hours to raise their children than a factory worker does for payment. In our early years, we depended on them literally twenty-four hours of the day—for everything. As a young mother once said—when I pointed out to her that she had not had her breakfast, although it was almost noon—“Being a mother means that your own needs come last.”

The second is COMMITMENT: Husbands and wives, parents and children, can count on each other—in health and in sickness, in wealth and in poverty, in youth and in old age. I remember the intense devotion with which my mother looked after my father, especially in his last illness. Committed people find an inner source of energy that physical health alone cannot explain. That is what Philo found when her husband was in semi-ICU for eight days. She sat or stood next to him for all those eight days. I asked her, “How did you manage without lying down for eight days?” She said, “I do not know. I think that, when we are in need, God gives us the strength.”

This commitment—being there for someone who can count on us with absolute certainty—gives children (and, later, grown-ups) emotional security. The strongest basis for our emotional security is the committed love and care we received at home when we were children.

The third fruit of healthy attachment is SACRIFICE. In fact, making sacrifices becomes such a “normal” part of family life that people do not speak about it. It is generally taken for granted. Gerard, by no means a soft or sentimental man, once told a group, “I am ready to expose myself to any danger without hesitation, to protect any of my children.”

A couple I used to visit and bring Holy Communion to, really impressed me. Tom was 98; Annie, 93. She would pray to God not to let her die before him, “otherwise, Tom won’t be able to look after himself.” Impressed by the way this frail 93-year-old woman looked after her still older and weaker husband, I told her one day, “Annie, I am really edified to see the way you look after Tom.” Do you know her answer? It was the summary of a good marriage. She said, “I am sure he would have done the same for me.”

A fourth result of mutual family attachment is PRAYER. Don’t we all have lovely memories of our parents praying—for the children, for sick members of the family, for special intentions? For many of us, priests and religious, the most moving examples of prayer have come from our parents and other family members. Married people pray, not as a result of novitiates or seminars or long retreats, but moved by two deep experiences—love and hardships. Love for a husband or wife, love for a sick or troubled or wayward son or daughter, makes a father and mother run to God in heart-felt prayer. So, too, hardships of life push people to the limits of their resources, and they take hold of the Lord’s hands or feet in humble prayer.

The Pitfalls

This beautiful picture, is, alas, not what most marriages are!

The following vices can creep into marriage and turn it into a dark prison, or worse. To make retention easier, I shall use four words beginning with the letter ‘A’—addictions, avarice, attachments, aggression.

Addictions: An addiction is anything that has become stronger than my good will. I feel almost powerless to resist. Thus, more marriages are ruined by alcoholism than by infidelity. For the alcoholic, the drink comes first—not spouse or children, not peace or honour. Or—to quote a true case—a man was so addicted to gambling that he would gamble away his wife’s whole salary in one evening or two. A person can get addicted to different things—to alcohol, drugs, food, gambling, shopping, TV, Internet (including pornography), gossip… The addict often does not recognize the damage being done, or does not want to admit it; but others can see it clearly. Addictions need to be faced and tackled head on. Tolerating addictions or treating them as a joke, or pretending they don’t exist will not work.

Avarice: Behind the wide-spread corruption we complain about in public life, is avarice—the greed to have more. The greedy person never feels he/she has enough. One feels an almost insatiable desire to have more—to have more money, to possess the better gadget, to own the costlier car, to live in the bigger house. Abraham, an officer known for his upright life, had this conviction, “Nobody feels he has enough money. When we earn Rs 10,000, we think we will be fine if we earned Rs 20,000. And the one earning a lakh is looking at the fellow who makes three lakhs and wanting that…The only way to be happy is to be content with what we have.”

One result of avarice is the reluctance to help or share. You may know richer persons who refuse to do charity, to lend or give money to poorer people, or even to pay just wages to their workers. Accumulating wealth is what interests them, not helping others with their money.

More fights and divisions in families are caused by money matters and disagreements on property and finances than by practically any other single factor. Love of money can also make a spouse put down the other for earning less, or measure people’s worth by the wealth they have.

One of the essential things a married couple needs to learn is to how to manage money—without either greed or neglect.

Attachments:

I said earlier that the specific trait of married and parental love is attachment. Then, why am I mentioning it among the pitfalls?

The human heart is fickle and easily misled. I can get attached to other people and get closer to them than I am to my spouse or children. Such attachments can lead to infidelity. Or I can get attached to my comfort, pleasure or preferences. Thus, a man may want his wife to cook the food that he likes, or she may insist on travelling to the places she prefers to visit. Some are very attached to their possessions, or to luxury. These attachments can easily become a millstone around our neck and pull us down to our doom.

David, known to family members as a very loving man, shared this conviction, “the toughest challenge in marriage is to overcome our ego, and to truly love our wife and children. If we are honest, we will admit that our ego is the biggest hurdle. We make ourselves the centre.”

Aggression:

Violence in families is, sadly, commoner than we would want to believe.

There are married female lecturers and secretaries and cooks coming to work, trying to hide the marks left by the beating received from the husband. Wife-beating occurs in more homes than we think.

Verbal aggression is even more prevalent. As a marriage counsellor half-humorously put it, “In the first year, he speaks, and she listens; in the second year, she speaks, and he listens; in the third year, both speak (shout!), and the neighbours listen!”

Angry words and bouts of silence are often the fruit of misunderstandings, lack of communication, or minor hurts which are not addressed and handled. Often, accumulated irritations can lead to a huge and loud flare-up.

Thus, an over-worked wife or mother, who feels ignored and taken for granted, can reach the end of her tether, and suddenly burst out in anger, or burst into bitter tears, or become severely depressed.

Or a man may take out on his wife and children the anger he has accumulated at work, where he cannot shout back at his boss.

Or shouting can be a way of avoiding a real discussion of issues.

CELIBATE LIFE

A much misunderstood call.

The heart of celibate life is not attachment to any human being, or to one’s religious order or diocese.

If there is a core attachment at all, it is to God’s will.

Celibacy involves saying ‘No’ to two of life’s deepest, most meaningful and most beautiful experiences—spousal love and parenthood. It would be crazy to give up these two core commitments—unless one has very good reasons for it.

Doing social service, or teaching, or medical work is no reason for choosing celibacy—or for coaxing others to be celibate.

Celibacy, to be meaningful and happy, is based on a simple and deep awareness: This is where God wants me; my heart has found what it is looking for.  This is the best way for me to express the love deep in my heart, in a way that is true to myself.  So, it is the best choice I can make.

Clara, a friend about whom I have written elsewhere, is a good case in point. Coming from a very wealthy family, and employed, and with a loving fiancé whom she was planning to marry, she experienced this “other call.” She told her boy friend, who did not understand it. She went to a convent to see for herself what religious life was, stayed for a few days, found it too hard, and went back home. She reflected for a week, and found, “Yes, I have much at home; but I do not need these things to be happy. Jesus Christ is enough for me.” She went back to the convent, and joined. Now, more than thirty-years later, she says, “I have never lost the joy of my vocation.”

I have met such celibates—sisters, brothers, priests—in different parts of the world. They are not frightened little children from over-protected families or afraid of speaking their mind in front of their superiors. They are confident, HAPPY women and men who have given themselves to a different way of loving—as real as a marriage or parental commitment, but different in expression, and hard to understand for those who do not share the same spiritual vision.

I put “happy” in capitals, because genuine celibates (like truly loving married couples) are deeply happy. They were not pushed into this by overly controlling “vocation promoters” or sent off from unhappy families. They made a choice based on the awareness of responding to a Love. This Love is true and faithful, and sustains the celibate on his or her inner and outer journeys.

Celibacy is a happy choice on four conditions—that it is based on the life and teachings of Jesus, sustained by meaningful personal prayer, leading to a loving and compassionate heart, and expressed in service.

The world, or the church, does not need many celibates. What it needs are happy and inspiring celibates, about whom the Catholic community and the rest of the world can say: “They live as Jesus lived and taught. Just seeing them helps me to become a better person, and closer to God.”

It is a well-known fact that celibate men and women have done and still do an amazing amount of inspiring service. Here is what a non-Catholic journalist writes in The New York Times:

“I am awed that so many of the selfless people serving the world’s neediest are lowly nuns and priests…overwhelmingly it’s at the grass roots that I find the great soul of the Catholic Church.

“I met Father Michael …To keep his schools alive, he persevered through civil war, imprisonment and beatings, and a smorgasbord of disease… Father Michael may be the worst-dressed priest I’ve ever seen — and the noblest…

“I met Cathy Arata, a nun from New Jersey who spent years working with battered women in Appalachia. Then she moved to El Salvador during the brutal civil war there, putting her life on the line to protect peasants. Two years ago, she came here on behalf of a terrific Catholic project called ‘Solidarity With Southern Sudan.’

“There are so many more like them. There’s Father Mario Falconi, an Italian priest who refused to leave Rwanda during the genocide and bravely saved 3,000 people from being massacred. There’s Father Mario Benedetti, a 72-year-old Italian priest based in Congo who fled with his congregation when their town was attacked by a brutal militia. Now Father Mario lives side by side with his Congolese congregants in the squalor of a refugee camp in southern Sudan, struggling to get schooling for their children.

“It’s because of brave souls like these that I honor the Catholic Church.” (Nicholas Kristof, “Who Can Mock This Church?” The New York Times, May 1, 2010.)

And there are so many other consecrated priests and religious  who, by living the Gospel of Jesus in very selfless and practical ways, walk beside the poor and needy and love them into life.  Many of us, for example, remember Sister Nirmala working among leprosy patients with so much love and evident joy.

Or Fr P. P. Louis SDB, about whom the communist party leader said, “That Father had no ego; his only concern was the good of the people.”

Or a parish priest I know who donated his kidney to save a man he was not related to.

Or sisters, brothers and priests volunteering to serve in the poorest parts of the world or in the poorest regions of our country.

Or a bishop telling us why he was not afraid staying in a violent setting where even the police were scared to enter, “I am ready to die for my people.”

Or religious and priests speaking up for the rights of the poor, and paying a heavy price for it.

Or Pope Francis, who radiates such evident love and goodness. No wonder The Washington Post wrote about him, “We like to listen to this Pope, because he speaks like Jesus, acts like Jesus, and is like Jesus.”

While the inspiring service provided by celibate women and men is undeniable, the core reason for celibacy is not social service. Its meaning can only be understood by someone who has heard the same inner Voice—the voice of God’s Spirit in the depth of their hearts.

Celibacy is neither a way of claiming to be superior to married persons, nor a way of providing hands for work. Hardly any work done in the church—in schools, hospitals, social ministries, retreat centres, media platforms—needs celibacy.

Much of the so-called “vocation promotion” going on in India seems to be attempts to find hands for work—staff for our institutions, partly resulting from our unwillingness to involve laity in administration as equals or as leaders.

Someone “roped in” to do work, may not have his/her heart in the right place. Such a person may be a “reluctant celibate,” who feels more caught or trapped in a structure, rather than called in love, to respond to a Love. A sign of reluctant celibacy (or reluctant anything) is that the person will not be happy. Unhappy people will also try to cover up the inner emptiness through power games, quest for positions and money, love of comfort and mediocrity. This, too, unfortunately, is a part of the reality of the church.  Celibacy, chosen for the wrong reasons can lead people to direct their attention mostly to the potted plants, the cat or the gold fish.  They grow into sour lemons instead of radiating the love of Jesus and his Gospel to those with whom they live and to all they encounter in their ministry.

Danger

The greatest danger in celibacy is not addictions or violence. The real danger is to live an unloving life and take it as normal. I may live under the same roof with others, go to the same chapel, share the same meals, but not really care for anyone. This can, and does, happen to a number of religious and priests. (Married couples say that the same danger is great and frequent in family life as well.)

The second danger is to make the self the centre. Since I have no children of my own to care for, nor an aged mother to look after, I may become centred on my own comfort and pleasure. My food, my sleep, my comforts and my conveniences may come first for me.

Thirdly, I may not be committed to the mission, but follow my own selfish ambitions and pursue power and money.

In fact, Sister Melanie Svoboda, an American novice mistress and writer, says that she used to warn her novices of two dangers in celibacy—that of going too far in relationships, and that of not going deep enough into relationships. The first, she says, will cause scandal, but is rare. This is not the greatest danger in celibacy. The real danger, Svoboda insists, is the second—that of living next to people without really relating. Many of us, celibates, disappoint and hurt people, not through sexual misbehavior, but through our unloving and uncaring ways. Celibacy then becomes dry, unhappy, uninspiring bachelorhood or spinsterhood. It will do more harm than good.

Helps for a Happy Celibate Life

This would be a whole book by itself. I have written more about it elsewhere. Here, let me list five absolutely essential helps:

Personal and community prayer.

Meaningful relationships.

Confidential help (counselling, spiritual direction and confession)

Learning to face solitude creatively.

Taking responsibility for one’s happiness and for the person one becomes.  

May I say something about the first of these, namely, prayer?

I said earlier that many married people are very prayerful and God-centred. Then why this special insistence on prayer for celibates?

The reason lies in the difference between these two commitments (marriage and celibacy):

Marriage, strictly speaking, does not require any faith commitment. In fact, men and women came together and formed families and raised children even before any organized religion existed. People marry and have families even if they do not practice any religion. What marriage requires is that this man and this woman want to live together, love one another into life, have children and bring them up.

Celibacy is very different. Except for a faith vision that makes this choice meaningful, why say “No” to marriage and parenthood, or propose celibacy to others? I have no right to deprive a young person of spousal love and parental life just to get some work done, e.g., teaching in a religious school.  (There are people who do not marry, and are positively engaged in society, e.g., Professor Abdul Kalam; this is not the Catholic meaning of celibacy.) What unites me and the other religious in my community is not sameness of culture or ideas or personal fondness, but our commitment to God. What makes me obey my superior is not that he is smarter, but my promise to God to do so. Without this faith vision, religious life has no basis to stand on.

Only one vocation

The Catholic Church is a very pro-marriage and pro-parenthood institution. It does not glorify bachelorhood or spinsterhood.

Celibacy is different. It is a well-discerned response of the heart to what one perceives as an inner call from God. One of the surest signs that there is such a call is a life lived out in JOY and LOVE.

This is true of both celibacy and marriage.

There is really only ONE VOCATION in the church—the call to holiness, the call to live as Jesus lived and taught. The settings differ, but that is a secondary matter. The call is the same—from the same Love, and leading to a life of love in imitation of what Jesus lived and taught.

To walk this path of life, we celibates and married people have much to learn from each other. In fact, only a man who would have made a good husband and father will be a good priest or brother. Only a woman would have been a good wife and mother can be a good nun. The same qualities are needed in both settings.

Both paths are called to find the “joy of love,” as the Pope’s recent encyclical reminds us. Finding that joy takes faith, effort, sacrifice and generous self-gift in love. As any happy married person or celibate will agree, the path is not easy, but it is worth walking on it in love. On both paths, we are sustained moment by moment by the same all-powerful Love. That Love called us into being. The same Love knows best where and how our hearts find fullness and rest. Whether married or celibate, the longings of our heart are for the Infinite; God alone can slake that thirst.

As Susan, married to Stephen, said about her marriage, “Stephen is not my first love. My first love is the Love that created me, sustains me every day, and meets me every moment.”

In both marriage and celibacy, the FIRST LOVE is the same.   It is up to each of us to decide whether marriage or consecrated celibacy is our way of responding most authentically to that First Love.

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– Fr Joe Mannath SDB

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15 points for personal and community reflection

(For religious, priests, seminarians and other committed Christians)

We have all heard—and these weeks we shall hear more—good and edifying things about Mother Teresa. Shall we check how far we personally and our community live by the Gospel ideals she took to heart so radically?

1.  Religious and Missionary Call. As a young woman, Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu responded to God’s call by joining a missionary order, taking the name of Teresa, and went to serve in far-off India.

Am I ready to serve wherever the need is greatest—or do I stick to familiar settings, or, worse, use religious life and priesthood as a career rather than as a mission?

2. “Call within a Call”: At the age of 37, Sister Teresa hears this new call—to leave the convent and live among the poorest. She seeks spiritual direction and guidance in discerning God’s will. Her priority is to do what God asks, not what others think, or simply go on doing what she was doing.

Am I simply staying and growing older in religious life (priesthood), or do I take my own personal call (to holiness and mission) seriously? What is the good God wants from me, with the gifts and opportunities He has given me?

3. Security or trust? When dead tired after a day in the slum, and without even enough money for a tram fare, she felt the “real temptation was to go back to Loretto.” (And the sisters would have taken her back). But she stuck to the harder path, without money, without helpers, without knowing what the future held.

Do I have this type of trust in God? Or do I put my trust more in money, security, connections and a comfortable life?

4. Start with those near you: Mother Teresa did not start with some grandiose plan, but with helping the neediest person near her, e.g., caring for a terribly ill Hindu pujari. She was convinced that God met her in the poorest and neediest persons around her.

Do I (we) really reach out to the neediest persons around us, or lose ourselves in endless discussions? Is my life expressed in loving service, or have I let my love wither and die?

5. Vocations: Mother Teresa did not go on aggressive “vocation promotion” campaigns. Her example drew committed followers to her, beginning with some of her former students.

Are our candidates joining because they are inspired by our example, or under the influence of high-pressure “vocation promotion” methods? Are the younger members inspired by the life of the older members?

6. Good people everywhere: Help came to Mother Teresa from all sorts of unexpected and unusual quarters: British TV personality Malcom Muggeridge; people in the Indian government; Navin Chawla, former election commissioner, who wrote a moving book about her; so many people of various faiths who helped her financially…

Is my heart open to people of all backgrounds, trusting that God can act in and through anyone? Or am I biased against persons of other faiths or backgrounds?

7. Concrete and practical: Mother Teresa would give simple, practical advice rooted in daily life: Want to build world peace? Start by loving your family members. “Peace starts with a smile.” Spend time in prayer to listen to God.

Is my spirituality simple and practical, making a difference to my life? Or made up of big theories with little connection to daily life?

8. Dark Night:  Mother Teresa endured nearly fifty years of dryness in prayer (What the mystics call, the “Dark Night of the Soul”), yet she persevered in prayer and in good works, without fail. She trusted in God and sought His will, even when she experienced God as absent. And she sought help in spiritual direction.

Am I faithful to prayer and my commitments, even when I have no feeling for it? Do I seek spiritual direction when I feel rudderless or lost, rather than neglect my inner life?

9. A pencil: During years of ill health, Mother Teresa was not anxious about herself or about the future of her work. She saw herself as a “pencil in the hand of God.” God’s work would continue, whether she was there or not. (This is a mark of all saintly founders.)

Do I look to the future with trust in God, or with anxiety? Is my main concern doing God’s will and seeking God’s guidance, or getting others to do what I want? Do I see our mission as God’s work or as my work?

10. Facing criticism: Mother Teresa was severely criticized by some well-known writers and media persons—for not challenging unjust structures, for accepting money from unsavoury characters, for not providing up-to-date medical care in her homes, etc. She did not become bitter, or try to defend herself. Nor did she stop doing what she was doing because of the criticism.

How I deal with criticism shows a lot about my character and my faith.  Do I learn from criticism, and improve, and do the good I can? Or do I stop doing good out of fear of criticism?

11. Learning from the poor: Mother Teresa said she learnt much from the poor. She saw them not as objects of pity, but as persons she loved. She mentioned how the poor help us to get closer to God. She cared; she was not patronizing.

Do I really love the poor I come across and deal with, or keep my distance? Do I only talk about the poor, or really relate to concrete poor persons?

12. A life of poverty: Mother Teresa was certainly one of the most famous persons of the twentieth century, and probably the most venerated human being in the world. But she did not seek acclaim, or the company of the powerful. She remained poor and simple, and close to the poorest. She lived the life of poverty of the poor people she served.

As we advance in our responsibilities and become “more important,” do we remain simple and poor in our life-style and relationships? Or do positions and titles go to our head?

13. Convinced and courageous: Mother Teresa was comfortable with the poorest leprosy patient and courageous to express her difference of opinion with the mighty. She would speak up for the poor in front of the world’s mightiest leaders, or express boldly her staunch rejection of abortion.

Is this how we behave—with the same respect and dignity before rich and poor, weak and strong? Or do we cringe before the powerful and humiliate the poor? Do we speak up when we need to?

14. Indian at heart: Mother Teresa took India into her heart. She did not speak of inculturation; she lived it. Beginning with her decision to wear the simple cotton sari of poor Indian women (something which foreign missionaries did not do then), eating what the poor ate, speaking their language, she truly was Indian at heart.

Do I truly love and respect the poor I work for, including their culture and values? Or do I remain an “outsider” who looks on the local people with suspicion or contempt?

15. Joy: Mother Teresa radiated joy. She was vibrant and full of life. She not only spoke of the importance of a smile; she herself was a warm and joyful presence. She insisted that God loves cheerful givers.

Do I radiate joy? Will people who meet me go away happier? Are our communities happy? Are we living witnesses to the joy that God brings us?

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Have you heard of a book called, God Exists: I Have Met Him?

It was written by André Frossard, a famous French journalist. His father was the secretary of the French Communist Party, and raised his son (André) as an atheist. At the age of twenty, totally uninterested in religion or God, Andre’ went out with a friend one day. The friend entered a building in which there was a chapel, and André waited outside. Tired of waiting, he went in to look for his friend. It was 5.10 pm. He went in an atheist. He came out at 5.15, convinced that God exists. The meeting transformed him. He would later write a book about it with the title given above.

An acquaintance who heard of his experience asked him, “But why you?” André told him there is no answer to that question, except this: “If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.”

Have you met God? How do you meet Him? When? Where?

We invite readers to share their experience of meeting God. More people than we think have had deep and transforming experiences of meeting God. People from all backgrounds, age groups, religions, educational levels.

In our first account of God-experiences, we listen to Sister Margaret (Margot) Power PBVM, an Irish missionary who has spent most of her life in India. Sr Margot is known for her deep humanity, loving attention to people, joyful presence, sense of humour and convinced life.

In Pain, in Children, in Silence
Sr Margaret Power PBVM

The event I had dreaded most in my life turned out to be different from what I had imagined it would be. It happened this way.

I was very, very attached to my father and always believed I would not be able to bear his death. I was already in India when he fell ill, but I was in my home in Ireland during my father’s last illness. He became critical. My Mom and I were outside the ICU. Then, a young doctor came out of the ICU. He was an Indian. This made me feel good, since I was just coming from India. He was at a loss what to tell us. So, we asked him, “Is Dad…?” He nodded sadly. We knew that Dad was gone.

This was the moment I had always dreaded. Yet, when it actually arrived, God filled my heart with a deep sense of peace.
I need not fear facing the situations I am scared of. He is present in my pain. He knows what I need better than I do.
* * *
One day in 2011, I had a chat with a little girl on our school campus. I asked her who she was, her name and where she was studying. I remember having some sweets in my bag. So I asked her if she would like to have anything. I thought she would ask for sweets! Her answer was a total surprise and God’s gift for me. She said, “Sister, I want to see the face of Jesus.”
I had thought of children as nice and charming and a source of joy. Now I see that they are also God’s voice for me.
* * *

The following incident may appear trivial to some. Though it happened many years ago when I was in Presentation Convent, Egmore, it has never left my mind. It was a moment of deep encounter with God.
I had received a considerable sum of money for a particular purpose. Workers were doing repair work in the house, furniture had to be shifted, and the house was in a bit of a mess. It was only after two of three days that I thought of the cash I had received! I searched everywhere, but could not find it. I had a heavy heart and was beginning to get desperate. On the second night I had a dream. In the dream I saw a brown cover at the back of the steel drawer (not inside the drawer but behind it). I remember being at peace after the dream. Early next morning I got a screw driver and managed to remove the drawer completely and there was the brown cover with the cash inside. I just folded my hands and said, “I knew you would see me through, Lord!”

***

Nature is a powerful call from God every day. My early morning walk in the campus is a beautiful experience for me as I begin my day surrounded by nature ….trees and plants that bring me in touch with God. As I walk, a song usually comes to my mind and stays with me throughout the walk. I remind myself of how privileged I am to be in a place that is so quiet and peaceful.

* * *

I sit quietly in my room at night and go through the day, relishing the moments that went well and become aware of the blessings that God gave me during the day. The Spirit often helps me to remember small details that went unnoticed. It is a time for me to ask pardon for my many failings and I ask God to give me strength to live tomorrow better. I cherish this time of the day as it is here that I meet God, with whom I can be completely transparent. He knows what’s going on beneath the surface.

* * *

Sometimes I just do nothing but sit still and become aware of my breathing. This leads me to realize that it is God who keeps me in being every moment.

* * *

Silence also teaches me something that otherwise I would forget: That God is close, that God talks to me the whole time, in so many ways, through people, events, nature, silence, music, pain and joy. I need not live in fear. I need not fill my head with worry. I can let go. I need to listen attentively, as He speaks to me through our children, workers, community sisters. He waits for me in silence and in noise, in rain and sunshine, in birds and trees and blades of grass. If only I were more open to His tender voice of love!

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– Sister Margaret (Margot) Power PBVM

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In the second week of April 2016, Jesus Youth, a Catholic movement originating from India, was  officially recognized by the Vatican as an International Private Association of the Faithful. The solemn bestowal ceremony was held in Rome on the 20^th of May. Jesus Youth has been the first movement from India to receive such approval and the second one from the whole of Asia.

The name “Jesus Youth” is more of less familiar to the Catholic circles in India, but the newfound recognition has stirred up a renewed interest in the movement.

WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT THIS MOVEMENT TO GAIN A PONTIFICAL ATTENTION? 

AND HOW HAS IT GROWN TO THIS STATURE?

WHAT IS ITS MISSION?

WHAT WORK DOES IT DO?

A real case may answer these questions better than theory.

Smitha’s story is perhaps the testimony of a majority of the members of the movement.

“I secured admission to this famous engineering college and plunged into a hectic life of coping with the difficult curriculum and at the same time seeking approval and getting accepted into the trendy peer group and their fashionable ways.” A few senior girls in her hostel gently reached out to her and invited her to a friendly evening of prayer and Bible study in one of the hostel rooms. In the beginning she went there to please her seniors. Later their joyful company and their mature view of life kept Smitha as a regular member of the group. A few months later she was invited to attend a weekend retreat for students. That became a life-changing experience for her, as it provided greater clarity about her faith and a newfound depth in prayer. And she was introduced to the Jesus Youth path called ‘the Six Pillars.’ Today, Smitha is a vibrant missionary in JY Campus Ministry.

A gradual growth

This is how the movement was born.

The UN declared 1985 the Year of Youth.  In Kerala, a grassroots network of Catholic youth was already active from 1978 and its leadership planned a number of initiatives that year. All that concluded in a leaders’ conference held in December at Cochin, which was named ‘Jesus Youth 85’. The phrase became quite popular and the members started calling themselves by that name and the network of groups also came to be named as Jesus Youth.

With its focus on an experiential renewal based on Charismatic spirituality, JY programs bring youth to a personal Christ encounter and to its spiritual mentoring groups. The movement spread through friendly contacts and motivation for evangelistic initiatives. By 1985, it had spread to all parts of Kerala. As committed Jesus Youth moved to other states for higher studies and jobs, they carried along their missionary enthusiasm. And the result was Jesus Youth initiatives in other centres of the nation.

By mid 1990s JY groups were already well in place in the Persian Gulf. In another few years, it spread other parts of the world. A coordinating system was put in place in India in 1998. In 2002, during the Toronto World Youth Day gathering, an International coordination team for the movement was formed. In 2008 Jesus Youth received official recognition from the CBCI. Now the Universal Church has approved the movement. Presently Jesus Youth movement is active in about 35 countries and in all 5 continents.

Sharing the Good-news with Joy

The name Jesus Youth evokes different images in people’s minds. Campus student groups in universities and colleges, parish-based prayer gatherings, Rex Band and similar music bands, year-long fulltime volunteering trainings, JY professional initiatives among doctors, engineers and nurses, interesting training sessions for teens, young family groups and a variety of other groups and initiatives sprout and grow under the banner of Jesus Youth. Those who are familiar with the movement are surprised not only by tireless zeal of its members, but also by its creativity and variety. How is all this held together? What is the secret of its cohesion and continuity?

In the wider Catholic world Jesus Youth is not singular in its nature. The recent Popes, starting from St John Paul II, noted with enthusiasm and encouragement a new brand of Catholic entities, now referred to as Ecclesial Movements. These post-Vatican II groups bring together enthusiastic lay leaders, priests and religious around some specific charism. The Church has been quite positive in discovering and promoting these new ways, discerning unprecedented intervention of God’s Spirit in the contemporary times. The Focolare Movement, the Neo -Catechumenal Way, Opus Dei and so many other movements are recognised under this label. John Paul II talked of this lay commitment with admiration: “One solid cause of hope [for a new springtime of Christian life in Asia] is  the increasing number of better trained, enthusiastic and Spirit-filled lay  people, who are more and more aware of their specific vocation within the  ecclesial community” (John Paul II, Ecclesia in Asia, 9)

What is the specific charism of the Jesus Youth movement? Introducing Jesus and His Church to the contemporary youth. This takes place effectively through a variety of initiatives.

Through a variety of groups and a wide array of colourful programs, the JY movement introduces young people to a new relationship with Jesus. They in turn begin an active Catholic life. Those who continue in Jesus Youth groups are trained to become active evangelizers of other young people.

The Six Pillars

Jesus Youth is an attractive platform where youth of all sorts discover the beauty of Catholic life and connect to it effectively. Starting with a God-encounter, youth are led to a life of commitment to the “Six Pillars,” namely, daily prayer, Word of God, Sacraments, fellowship, witnessing to the Lord and serving the poor. When one gets connected to Jesus Youth, he or she is gradually introduced also to practical ways of evangelising in one’s everyday life. An array of talent-cum-career-oriented missionary initiatives called ministries have come up in the movement. Campus, teens, nurses, teachers, doctors and a host of other ministering network ensure a wider reach and relevant Christian guidance to all kinds of young people.

A strong missionary call in the movement finds its rich fruit in a natural vocation promotion and career guidance. Through the example of the active senior Jesus Youth who are already working and leading a family life, youngsters receive a spontaneous life-related mentoring. JY has not only become a formation ground for the preparation for joyful missionary families. Through it many youth have discovered their call to priesthood and religious life.  Many priests have found a new missionary dimension to their priestly ministry through their contact with JY.

This was the case of Fr Cherian, who was introduced to Jesus Youth when he was in the Seminary. He joined the Jesus Youth Fulltime Volunteer Program and took a year-long missionary commitment in the North East of India. “I became much more person-oriented through my contact with the Jesus Youth movement. From a liturgy-centred priest I was changed into a pastor concerned with the life and problems of people. Through my contact with these committed lay people, the intellectual and theological input I received in the seminary found its practical application. Not only with the youth segment that I am active, but with all sections of the society and, what is more, even in our priestly koinonia I am a voice to connect to today’s challenges.”

Deeper and wider in mission

Planting Spirit-filled missionary enthusiasm in ordinary youth is the special gift of the movement.  Over the last few decades the movement has developed a variety of formation packages to ensure growth in Christian maturity and personal holiness. Many priests and bishops discover in the movement a good way to invite to the heart of the Church the contemporary generation that would otherwise never connect to spiritual life. And this invitation and a further continuous personal mentoring are done in a manner quite appealing to the tech-savvy generation.

A senior bishop would put it this way, “Jesus Youth is an enormous opportunity for the Church and society. I find its non-competitive leadership and non-threatening evangelisation fascinating.”

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– Dr Edward is one of the pioneering members and senior animator of Jesus Youth. He shares several key responsibilities in the church including being the joint secretary to the CBCI commission for Laity. Hes also serves as a syndicate member, Sree Sankaracharya University, Kakady in Kerala.

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AREA ONE: PERSONAL CONVERSION

Only when I am aware I myself have been forgiven much, and need mercy, will I be truly merciful. As Pope Francis told a group of prisoners, “Standing before you is a man who has received much forgiveness.”

1. Ask pardon from those you ill-treated or cheated or slandered. Follow with a good confession.
2. Forgive those who hurt you. Pray extra for them, and seek the grace to forgive. (If you are a priest, be available for hearing confessions.)
3. Keep your life simple, so that you will be more willing to share resources with the really needy, rather than surround yourself with comforts and luxuries.
4. Avoid habits that cause pain and division: Gossip, bigotry, exclusion of those who differ from you. Pope to religious on February 2: “if, in this Year of Mercy, each one of you could avoid becoming a terrorist of gossip, it would be a success for the Church, a great success of holiness!”
5. When people want to give you gifts (e.g., on birthdays, jubilees, etc.), ask for things for the poor or for the mission, rather than personal gifts for yourself.

Father Spadaro writes about his interview with Pope Francis: “I ask him point-blank: ‘Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?’ The pope stares at me in silence. I ask him if this is a question that I am allowed to ask…. He nods that it is, and he tells me: ‘I do not know what might be the most fitting description…. I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner.’”

AREA TWO: COMMUNITY RECONCILIATION

We need to be a reconciled family, overcoming divisions, injustice, jealousies and destructive agendas. We need to heal the increasing violence and intolerance with an onslaught of mercy. 

1. Heal and overcome divisions, if any, in your family, religious house, parish or diocese, based on language, caste, tribe, etc. Never write or encourage anonymous letters denigrating anyone.
2. Arrange at least one meaningful penitential rite and reconciliation service in every community and parish.
3. Treat employees with love and respect. Check their working conditions, salary, health condition, etc. Condone the debts of your employees up to a certain amount. Or offer to pay off their outstanding debts.
4. Mission, not money: Make sure that our schools and hospitals are not run like a profit-making business, but really doing it with a Gospel-based spirit of love and service.
5. Study Pope Francis’ writings on mercy—at least Misericordiae Vultus, The Name of God is Mercy, his Talk to Major Superiors, Amoris Letitia and Fr Antonio Spadaro’s Interview with Pope Francis. Discuss them in community. Get copies for community members.

AREA THREE: CORPORAL WORKS OF MERCY

Each person, family, religious community, parish and province can choose some and make plans. Areas: food, clothes, shelter, sickness, imprisonment  and burial.

1. Celebrate events like birthdays, profession, ordination, jubilees, etc—by helping the poor (e.g., scholarships, medical help, etc), rather than getting personal gifts.
2. Make a personal sacrifice that costs, eg, skipping a meal or not buying an unnecessary personal article, and use the money to help the poor. Keep family functions (weddings, First Communion,…) simple, to help the poor.
3. Become an Organ Donor. Pledge your organs—at least after death: Tremendous need and shortage in India! One dead person’s organs and tissues can give life or sight or health to eight others.
4. Donate blood. Encourage your family members and religious community to do it. .
5. Sponsor nets. Caritas India plans to provide 5 lakh mosquito nets in areas most affected by malaria. Cost per net: Rs 300.
6. Move from “comfort zones” to the “peripheries” the Holy Father speaks about. Examples: A well-to-do school adopting a poor rural school; allotting more personnel to works for the poor; using our education and skills to help the deprived.
7. Prison Ministry: Ready to visit prisoners or find advocates for poor prisoners?
8. Mid-day Meal: For the poorest students in school or college. How many will we help?
9. Day care for the aged: Whose sons/daughters are at work during the day. Can you look after one or two elderly persons?
10. Anti-human traffic network: Human trafficking, especially of women and children, has become the second most profitable business worldwide. And a very cruel one. Willing to save and help victims?
11. Anti-drug addiction: The problem is very huge in some areas, e.g., Punjab. Ready to help victims with counselling and treatment?
12. Home-based palliative care for terminally ill patients: Many cannot afford hospitals or private hospices. Ready to visit and do services for such patients in their homes?
13. Medical camps: Some schools arrange this, and are ready to arrange it for others, too. How about our institutions?
14. Care of drop-outs and street children: India has more dropouts than those who complete high school. One centre in Andhra has saved and rehabilitated around 24,000 boys and girls. Ready to engage in this ministry? Ready to send your younger religious for this?
15. Care for AIDS patients and their children, or support for those who care for them.
16. Migrants and refugees: There are 223 million refugees in the world. India has many refugees, both internal and external.
17. Share your vehicles with poorer neighbours who need to go to the hospital or on other urgent errands.
18. Take a stand for justice and human rights, when the occasion presents itself.
19. Enter government service to bring about a more just and compassionate society.
20. Use mass media, especially social media, to highlight justice issues and to help those who suffer the most. Eg, during the floods in Chennai, many did this.

AREA FOUR: SPIRITUAL WORKS OF MERCY

There are many ways of doing them.  Areas: teaching, counselling, correcting, consoling, patience, forgiving and praying. Practical plans need to be made, e.g., counselling services in schools.

 Education: Admit poorer students into our schools. Several schools open their buildings and premises in the evening, and provide teachers, to coach poor children attending government schools. Every school can do this.

1. Teach catechism in parishes or schools, and do it creatively, in an interesting way. Offer retreats for teachers and senior students.
2. Pray with and for persons who are sick or troubled.
3. Make the Pope’s teachings (e.g., on ecology, justice, care for the poor, putting people above profit, etc) known to our students, lay collaborators, parishioners, etc.
4. Fraternal, loving and direct correction (not gossip) of people involved in bad habits, such as addictions, slander or cruelty.

AREA FIVE: BEING A COMPASSIONATE AND POOR CHURCH, FOR THE POOR:

Leaders need to be compassionate brothers and sisters. Otherwise, as the Pope says, we will train “little monsters” who will then be in charge of our people. It is a terrible counter witness when priests, religious or lay leaders are harsh or cruel, unforgiving or agents of division.

1. Form religious, seminarians and lay leaders into loving healers. “We must form their hearts. Otherwise we are creating little monsters. And these little monsters mold the People of God.” (Pope Francis)
2. Implement the church’s and the government’s rules for the protection of minors in all our institutions. Avoid every form of abuse (physical, verbal, emotional or sexual).
3. Make sure that parents, superiors and seniors set an example of compassion and a simple life close to the poor. Be humble healers, not haughty bosses. The younger ones will follow.
4. Laudato Si’: Study it. Be ecologically responsible. Do we care for the poor, for the earth, and for future generations? Is our life simple or wasteful? Avoid luxuries and keep our life simple. “The emptier a person’s heart is, the more he or she needs things to buy, own and consume.” (Laudato Si).
5. Start each new day deciding to do at least three acts of love that day. At night check what loving and compassionate deeds you did that day. That is the only lasting thing you carry with you for eternity.

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– A summary of the CRI Brochure 2016. Text by Fr Joe Mannath SDB

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Lots going on. Religious work, pray, study, celebrate.

Here are shots of CRI activities in different parts of India.

1. Conclusion of the Year of Consecrated Life together with the CBCI Plenary, at St. John’s Academy of Medical Sciences, Bangalore, on March 5, 2016. 180 bishops and 700 religious took part. The bishops wanted this combined celebration to show their love and appreciation for the religious of India.
2. As part of the Year of Mercy celebrations, 1600 CMC sisters donated blood. May more of us follow their inspiring example!
3. In several regions, the bishops, diocesan priests and religious came together to conclude the Year of Consecrated Life. The picture shows the gathering in Bhopal on January 24, 2016, in which the bishops of Madhya Pradesh, 2000 religious and 5000 laity took part. Similar celebrations were held in many other places all over India.
4. As part of the Year of Mercy programmes, the North Eastern CRI organized a seminar on “Meaningful, Merciful Religious Life” in Bethel Spirituality Centre near Shillong, on April 15-17,2016, in which 92 religious took part. More such seminars are planned for 2016.

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This column will present brief summaries of important documents. We start with “Amoris Laetitia” (The Joy of Love), Pope Francis’s recent encyclical on marriage and family. The summary is by Fr K. J. Louis SDB