home

This article is an attempt to focus on the spiritual sparks in ‘memory’ that enable a person to have access to God. Here, the term spiritual Alzheimer’s means the temptation to neglect the role of memory in advancing to the final communion with God.

Notion of Memory

In simple terms, the word memory can be defined as follows: ‘the capability of the mind, to store up conscious processes, and reproduce them later with some degree of fidelity.’ In fact, memory is more than just a psychological process of data retrieval, it is the capacity that tells us who we are and where we are heading towards. In fact, without our memory, we would effectively cease to be ourselves. We could not even think of this 100^th issue of Magnet, if we do not possess the faculty of memory!

Here we mention four ways through which memory enables us to be connected with the Divine:

1) Love to Recall (Communal Identity)

Memory is the essence of relationships – with one’s own being, with others and with God. Let us not forget that memory shapes not only individuals but also human groups like family, clan etc. In fact, memory helps to relate with a community through activating every individual’s memory.

Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa gives examples of two personalities in relation to collective memory. In history, we see Adolf Hitler, who wanted to systematically stamp out the cultural memory of the people he sought to rule. Contrary to this idea, we have the teachings of Karol Wojtyla (viz., St John Paul II), who sought to keep the spirit of Catholic faith, and Polish culture, alive through the medium of drama. He undertook this process by establishing the underground Rhapsodic Theatre. This attempt shows the effort of a person who brought together a larger group of people under the banner of remembering for the sake of keeping one’s identity and moral compass. In fact, human groups find their collective wealth and communal identity through the way in which they remember where they come from. Once there are positive attempts to bring to memory the past wealth of a community, the community as well as the individual can have easy access to the Divine.

Fr Dr Binny Mary Das

To read the entire article, click Subscribe

As society evolves, so too do the ways in which we create and share memories. Digital technology has transformed the landscape of memory-making, allowing individuals to document their experiences in real-time and share them instantly with others. Social media platforms have become a modern repository for collective memory, where stories of faith, service, and community can be shared across vast networks. This digital age has enabled new forms of connection and engagement, making it possible for individuals to reflect on their memories in a common space.

As I write this article, I recall with gratitude the memories associated with the Magnet Magazine, especially as I am reminded of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Letter to All Consecrated People on the Occasion of the Year of Consecrated Life in 2014. In that letter, he invited us to do three things during that year: look to the past with gratitude, live the present with passion, and embrace the future with hope. In his World Youth Day 2013 address, he urged young people to embrace their past with gratitude, live in the present with enthusiasm, and be hopeful about their future. In various homilies, he has often highlighted the importance of gratitude for past experiences, the need to engage with the present moment, and the call to maintain hope in God’s promises for the future.

Sr. Ranjita Tirkey H M

To read the entire article, click Subscribe

India has the world’s largest number of Catholic religious—about 131,600, belonging to 399 religious orders, with 1025 major superiors. The religious communities (houses) in India number about 19,400. All this without counting the secular institutes.

In 2016, I presented a plan to the National CRI executive to start a magazine which today’s religious would find useful and appealing. I was asked to prepare a sample issue. I did. The executive loved it, and approved the idea.

To get the magazine registered with the government is a long and laborious process. I felt thrilled when the government department approved this title (Magnet) for our new magazine. It took over a year of work to get the registration completed.

Why take so much trouble to have a magazine registered?

One: An unregistered magazine is not seen as a real publication, but simply as a newsletter, or matter copied from elsewhere.

Two: We save enormously on postage. If Magnet were unregistered, the postage per issue would be Rs 7. Registered, it costs only 50 paise.

Most publications pay the writers, especially if they are competent and well known. Magnet has an excellent team of regular writers, who contribute regularly and DO IT TOTALLY FREE. This is a huge asset.

Magnet has another precious asset, often unrecognized: international consultants who give regular feedback on the magazine. They are highly qualified persons from various countries, who do this service free of charge.

Joe Mannath SDB

To read the entire article, click Subscribe

She has been physically assaulted 17 times. Someone tried to fling acid on her face. Another time a van deliberately rammed the auto rickshaw she was riding. They have tried to poison her. In 2012 a mob tried to attack one of her centres. But Sunitha Krishnan is not afraid. She says that these assaults have only steeled her resolve to carry on her crusade against human trafficking.

Sunitha Krishnan was born in 1972 in Bangalore to Malayali parents who were from Palakkad in Kerala. Since her father worked in the Department of Survey that makes maps for the entire country, he was frequently transferred. So, Sunitha and her family had to move to different places as she grew up.

But she was constantly thinking of others. When she was just eight years old, she started teaching dance to mentally challenged children. Before she was twelve, she was running schools in slums for the poor slum children. At the age of fifteen, while working on a neo-literacy campaign for the Dalit community, Sunitha was gang raped by eight men. They did not like the changes she tried to usher into their society. The violent beating that she suffered that day made her partially deaf in one ear.

“Suddenly my life changed. I was pure and then I went down, in terms of becoming the most cursed human being and the most dishonored person. Everything I had been I was no longer. I saw another world, where my family cursed my existence and parents would tell their children not to talk to me because I would be a bad influence…My eyes opened to the world of reality. That is when my gods were giving me signs of where I should be and who I should be with. I was accused of a crime I didn’t commit; I was blamed for something I had never done, I was shamed and made to feel guilty for something I was not responsible. All that triggered an anger that drove me then and still drives me today,” says Sunitha.

FR M A JOE ANTONY SJ

To read the entire article, click Subscribe

On October 31, the National Conference of Religious India (CRI) organized an impactful online session in which over 500 men and women religious from across India participated in a webinar exploring “Artificial Intelligence and Its Relevance to Religious Life.” This session, featuring a presentation by Fr. Paul Pudussery CSC, marked a groundbreaking event for CRI. In an era where artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly reshapes society, the gathering offered a moment to reflect on AI’s role within the unique mission of religious life. Participants examined the challenges and possibilities AI presents, aiming to understand how this technology might serve as a tool for ministry and faith.

Fr. Paul began with a powerful image on the screen: a heart. This symbol, he explained, represents the Church’s commitment to compassion, understanding, and active engagement in modern society. Much like Pope Francis’s appeal to the “heart” of humanity in his recent encyclicals, Fr. Paul called on religious leaders to embrace AI with love and discernment. “We need to be people with a spark and a heart,” he urged. This core message framed his presentation, and it set a reflective tone, underscoring how technology should never eclipse the humanity that religious life embodies. A Church that forgets its heart will lose its spirit.

Pushpa Joseph

To read the entire article, click Subscribe

The Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office, is an invitation to all Christians to join in the eternal prayer of Christ. Rooted in Christ’s command to “pray without ceasing” (Luke 18:1, 21:36), it provides a way to sanctify each day through praise, thanksgiving, and intercession. Traditionally seen as a prayer for clergy and religious, today it is an opportunity for everyone to ground their lives in prayer.

The Development of the Divine Office

From the earliest days of Christianity, the faithful sought ways to fulfil Christ’s call to constant prayer. Drawing on Jewish traditions of praying at set times, the Church structured the Divine Office into seven key moments: Matins (Night Prayer), Lauds (Morning Prayer), Vespers (Evening Prayer), and the minor hours—Prime, Terce, Sext, Nones, and Compline. By the ninth century, this prayer became formalized, sung primarily by monastics and clergy. Over time, as languages evolved and fewer people could dedicate hours to prayer, the Breviary was created as a simplified version for clergy and religious.

A Prayer for All: Not Just for Clerics

The Second Vatican Council recognized the need to make the Liturgy of the Hours accessible to all. Sacrosanctum Concilium emphasized that the Divine Office should not be reserved only for clergy but should be open to everyone. As Pope Francis notes, it’s not enough to simply provide the texts; the faithful must allow the liturgy to shape them.

Sr Shalini Xavier CTC

To read the entire article, click Subscribe

The thick white creamy layer on a cake often seduces the customer into purchasing the cake only to discover on cutting it, he or she was thoroughly cheated. The real cake is buried deep into the cream. The cream is only an attractive coffin entombed with white marble slab soon to be decayed! Such is the picture of Christmas for thousands. It has been an annual indulging in fun and frolic, food and drink, regardless of the enormous expenditure on all spheres and regardless of human predicament which surrounds daily life. Numbing one’s senses towards human wounds, affliction and despair on the faces around is what often Christmas is made of. It is turned into a mere cream in the name of the cake! There ends the story of the profound and immense birth of the child who had a precarious birth, passionate life, painful death and glorious resurrection. Limiting oneself to a cream-surfaced happy-comfort, the “Great Story” disappears quickly from the scene leaving the human interior empty and wasteful. Christmas is turned into an illusion each passing year, moving away from  Christmas as a life-reality. It has become the celebration of the white cream rather than the delicious cake!

Occurring on the threshold of the Holy Year 2025, Christmas this time can regain its original significance of a new hope to humanity by the practice of human rights as the thick war smoke hovers over the Middle East nations and Ukraine leaving thousands dead or displaced, in injury and pain, even as the responsible parties in the conflict are not willing to find a peaceful solution to provide hope for a better future. The Child of Christmas Himself was born as a pilgrim, with the insidious enemy Herod plotting to eliminate Him, threatened by what he perceived as a powerful and arrogant presence. However, the “Hope of the world,” born in a manger among the animals was determined to live on, on the road all His life as a stranger and pilgrim. He wished to be with those who live the experience of people on the move—the migrants, refugees, and unemployed—seeking a bit of physical comfort in a world that is self-enclosed and attached to attractions. As opposed to the spectacular, the Child whose nativity we celebrate willed to be a ‘Pilgrim of Hope.’ The birth of this Child points out the evils in our society: communalism, hate crimes, violence against people. It is a time to look beyond one’s needs, to cross borders of one’s interests, embrace empathy and bridge the divides among people. It is a time to be purified of our ego and focus on a wider world of human beings whose struggles never seem to be ending.

Gerry Lobo, OFM

To read the entire article, click Subscribe

Mostly What God Does: Reflections on Seeking & Finding His Love Everywhere (2024)
Savannah Guthrie

In Mostly What God Does, NBC broadcaster and former attorney Savannah Guthrie offers heartfelt reflections on God’s love, sharing her personal experiences and spiritual insights. “Mostly what God does is love you,” she says, framing her book as an exploration of God’s presence in her life rather than a memoir. The chapters are organized around six central themes that have shaped her faith journey: Love, Presence, Praise, Grace, Hope, and Purpose—all rooted in Biblical teachings and deeply personal experiences.

Guthrie recalls growing up in a close-knit Australian Baptist family, where “God was the sixth member,” and how her “conversation with God” began in her youth. Her father’s sudden death when she was 16 and a later divorce in her thirties challenged her faith but ultimately deepened her relationship with God. Encouraged by her colleagues on the TODAY show, where she is an anchor, she wrote this book to share how God’s love has guided her through life’s highs and lows.

In each chapter, she encourages readers – whether devout, curious, or disillusioned by past religious experiences – to approach God as they are. “Come as you are,” she writes, emphasizing a personal connection with God where questions, doubts, and fears are welcomed. She acknowledges that her faith journey has been a blend of belief and doubt, joy and sorrow, and believes these experiences have enriched her understanding of God.

In challenging times, Guthrie finds strength by returning to the basics: surrendering control and trusting God’s love. She offers her story as a source of hope, reminding readers that God’s love is constant, personal, and transformative. This book invites anyone, regardless of their faith stance, to explore a loving, approachable relationship with God.

The Power and the Glory (1940)
Graham Greene

Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory, considered one of the greatest Catholic novels of the 20th century, is set during Mexico’s brutal Cristero Revolution (1926–29), a period marked by intense persecution of Catholics under dictator Plutarco Calles. Inspired by Greene’s own experiences in Mexico, where he witnessed the people’s resilient faith amid oppression, the novel centres on a renegade “Whiskey Priest” who continues to serve the faithful in the southeastern province of Tabasco, despite the government’s strict ban on religious activity. Priests who refused to renounce their faith were executed, while those who complied were forced to marry and receive a state pension.

The unnamed Whiskey Priest, a flawed and alcoholic man with a daughter named Brigitta, secretly returns to Mexico, determined to minister to his people. His journey is perilous, as he is relentlessly pursued by a zealous police lieutenant who sees the priest as a threat to the state. This lieutenant, shaped by his own painful past, methodically arrests and even kills villagers suspected of sheltering the priest.

Though twice narrowly escaping capture, the priest’s journey takes a tragic turn when a mestizo betrays him, urging him to attend the confession of a dying American gunman. The priest suspects treachery but cannot refuse the sacrament. Captured, he faces the lieutenant, who admits admiration but insists the priest must die to protect the state. A former priest, Padre José, is arranged to hear his confession but is prevented by his wife. After the Whiskey Priest’s execution, the lieutenant believes the province is free of priests—only for another priest to arrive in secret. In the end, Greene’s hero becomes a symbol of enduring faith, honoured by locals as a martyr among the saints.

To subscribe to the magazine, click Subscribe

The Season of Advent holds a dual purpose: it is a time to prepare for Christmas, remembering the first coming of God’s Son through the Virgin Mother, and a period to anticipate Christ’s return at the end of time. This season invites joyful expectation and deepens Christian hope.

The Liturgical Significance of Advent

Advent, marking the beginning of the liturgical year, is a profound season of hope. The four weeks before Christmas help the faithful prepare for Jesus’ birth, grow in hope, and welcome Christ’s continual presence. The Church, in this season, embarks on a journey of faith, affirming the mystery that “our God comes to us as human, calling us to move towards Him.”

Advent has two parts:

• First Epoch (Dec 1-16): Focuses on the eschatological themes of Jesus’ second coming, encouraging spiritual awakening and conversion.
• Second Epoch (Dec 17-24): Highlights the first coming of Jesus, the Incarnation, with Mary as the figure who brings forth the Word made flesh.

The season of Advent begins with Vespers on the Sunday closest to December 1 and concludes on Christmas Eve.

Fr G Dolin MMI

To read the entire article, click Subscribe

End or Beginning of a New Life?

In today’s society, much of the suffering associated with death stems from our denial of it and the lack of a positive vision for life’s end. Many people believe that death marks the absolute cessation of human existence, and a final termination of life. However, this perspective is not shared by Christians. For us, death is not an end, but a new beginning. It is viewed as a transition to another existence, much like sleep is temporary and does not signify the person’s total disappearance. The Christian understanding is rooted in the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Christ, which provides believers with a hope-filled vision for what comes after this earthly life. The Catholic Church emphasizes that every human life has inherent dignity and value. Living and dying with full awareness and grace is considered a path to upholding that dignity. While secular culture may often encourage a fear of death or an avoidance of its reality, the Church urges its faithful to approach death with a sense of wonder and faith, rather than with fear and anxiety.

As Christians, we also understand death as “a return to the dust,” reflecting the biblical teaching that since the fall of Adam and Eve, humanity has been subject to mortality (Gen 3:19). Yet, this does not imply the total cessation of life. While the physical body may decay and return to the earth, the soul, which is immortal, continues to exist. Losing a loved one is undeniably painful, regardless of their age. However, Christians find comfort in believing that death is not the final chapter. Expressions like “endlessness of eternity,” “threshold of eternity,” and “glimpse into the other side” suggest that there is more to life than what we experience here on earth. In Christian faith, death marks the end of this present life, but signals the beginning of another.

Fr Arnald Mahesh SDB

To read the entire article, click Subscribe