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KEVIN

As I write to you this month from the northern half of the United States, our autumn season is in full swing. The temperatures are dropping and daylight hours are shrinking.  As one drives through the countryside, farmers are gathering their harvest of corn and soybeans. Farm stands selling apples, pumpkins and squash seem to appear around every corner. The new life of Spring and the explosive growth of Summer are now manifested in the abundance that one cannot help but notice.  This season is marked by harvest festivals in many states throughout the region, much as it is in agricultural regions throughout the world.  We celebrate the grace of abundant food that should be adequate to sustain us through the long, cold winter ahead.

Thanksgiving Celebration in the US

In the United States, our harvest season culminates on the fourth Thursday of the month with the national holiday of Thanksgiving. The holiday has its roots in the earliest years of the settlement of what has become the United States. It commemorates the feast celebrated after the European pilgrims’ first harvest in the New World.  Fifty-three Pilgrims who survived difficult conditions feasted with some 90 Native Americans responsible for helping the foreigners to adapt their ways to their new surroundings.  The colonists were not only thankful to God for an abundant harvest but also grateful to the natives who generously shared their knowledge of the land and its ways, knowledge without which the colonists may not have survived their second winter in the New World.  Some nearly 400 years later, families, whether rich or poor, gather in homes all across the country to commemorate the first Thanksgiving and give thanks for the abundance they enjoy.

The Thanksgiving holiday is centered around the family meal, with a large roasted turkey as the star of the show.  The grand bird is surrounded by side dishes of all kinds and more than one delicious dessert. As the designated chef for the big day, my responsibility is to make sure that no one leaves hungry and that everyone gets the chance to enjoy one of his or her favorite dishes. The whole celebration cries out “Abundance!” (perhaps even over-indulgence.)  For many, Thanksgiving remains the favorite holiday of the year. For most of us it is permeated with a genuine and profound sense of gratitude for the blessings of family and friends. It is a day when we can deeply appreciate that which we have and not focus on what we might still want. The sense of gratitude is real and palpable. Invariably, no matter who leads it, the opening prayer asks for blessings on those who do not have adequate food or shelter.

We easily forget the poor

While the poor are with us in our prayers and in the spirit of gratitude that permeates our Thanksgiving celebration, I have come to realize that we can sometimes leave our concerns for them at the dinner table.  In the United States, the day after Thanksgiving has become the biggest shopping day of the year, contributing to the sense that we should continue to celebrate the privilege of excess.  In contrast, as I reflect on the gospel message, the appropriate response to blessing and grace, beyond mere gratitude, is to share with others who are in need.  I must not only feel grateful, I must act generously.  But for me, like for many, gratitude comes easily, but generosity is a lot more difficult. In fact our feelings of gratitude can even lead us into a place of comfort and complacency.  I can become content with regularly thanking God for my many blessings and forget those who are in need of my generosity.  I feel good about loving God but don’t feel compelled to show love of neighbour.  I am almost embarrassed as I reflect on how in our early years of marriage Crystal and I were often looking for soldiers, sailors or others who were far from home to be part of our family’s holiday celebrations. It seems that, as we prospered, our concern for those in need of a family dinner experience diminished.  Now we might contribute to dinners or other events for the hungry and the homeless, but we don’t invite them to our table. It strikes me that generosity with our excess is no substitute for sharing our blessed lives with others.

How about sharing our spiritual blessings?

It further strikes me that this notion of putting gratitude into action through generous sharing doesn’t apply only to material blessings.  As I have been blessed to grow in my faith, I am ever more grateful but ever more conscious of my responsibility to share the gift of faith with others.  The call of Jesus to go forth and make disciples of all nations is a personal mission I know I must actively live out.  As I come to appreciate the abundance of joy and peace promised to those who follow Christ, the more compelled I am to get to work.  It is not hard in this day and age to recognize spiritual poverty in our world.  I know God has richly blessed me with a wonderful Catholic faith and a dynamic and holy wife who shares that faith. Yet, I remain reticent to share that faith with others, even with my own family.  I judge that I don’t know enough and that I don’t practice what I might preach.  I let myself be comfortable with committing to get better at prayer, more regular in daily Mass attendance and seeking reconciliation. I allow myself the space to imagine that if I will spend more time in front of the Blessed Sacrament in adoration and commit to a regular morning prayer routine, then I will be ready to evangelize.  If I get holier, maybe then I will get more generous.  I suspect it is fear that keeps me from sharing what is perhaps the greatest gift I have to give anyone.  If I have come to understand about how deeply God loves me and how He desires to be united with all of His children, how can I remain silent?  If by voicing my faith I can draw even one soul closer to Christ, why would I shy away? Yet I do. So my prayer this Thanksgiving is for myself and for all of us to be thankful to God for all of the many gifts, material or spiritual, that He has so abundantly bestowed on us and to have the strength and the courage to generously share them with those we encounter who are in need of His loving goodness.

 

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CRYSTAL AND KEVIN SULLIVAN

Thousands of poor people – of all creeds and castes – in three districts of Tamil Nadu, India and hundreds of men and women in U.K. and U.S. consider him a true hero, and a saint.

Brother James Kimpton was born in a presbytery! Poverty forced his parents to take shelter in the parish presbytery in Conway, in Northern Wales, England, where he was born on 23 May 1925. When their fortunes improved, the family shifted to a rented house. Then, in 1937, his father, Charles Kimpton, bought a small house for his family. James had to walk to his school four miles away.

He felt close to his mother, Doris Kimpton, and imbibed her qualities of simplicity, frugality, punctuality and a spirit of generous service. When he was fourteen, he decided to become a De La Salle Brother and made his first profession in 1945 and five years later his final profession. In 1952 he was sent to work in a college at Wattala, Sri Lanka. Apart from teaching art and coaching the students in sports, Brother Kimpton started a printing press and a school for visually challenged children.

In 1964 the Sri Lankan government ordered all foreigners to leave and that turned out to be a blessing for India, especially the southern State of Tamil Nadu. He established a 120-acre ‘Boys’ Town’ near Nagamalai, Madurai, where boys from very poor families learnt farming and other trades, like carpentry and welding. In 1966, hearing the sad news of his mother’s serious illness, he rushed to England and managed to see her in her last moments and say, “Mother, I am here!”

In 1974, he started ‘Boys’ Village’ near Batlagundu and soon started working in surrounding villages. In 1976, his parish priest, a good friend, brought him four orphaned children. But Brother Kimpton told him that, as a matter of policy, the Boys’ Village did not admit girls or boys under seven. But a persistent inner voice kept reminding him of the orphaned children. He brought the children and asked the widow who was working as a gardener to be a mother to the children. When more and more destitute children came, he came up with a unique way of caring for them. He trained ‘mothers’ to care for seven or eight children in a homely, loving atmosphere, as if they were their own children.

A registered society called ‘Reaching the Unreached (RTU)’ was started in 1978. Its office in a village called G. Kallupatti in Theni district of Tamil Nadu became his home. The services RTU offered to the poor in a number of villages were so many and so well-planned that those who came to know about them were awe-struck. Four Children’s Villages, schools, bore-wells, day-care centres for working women, drinking water projects, balwadis, hostels for girl students, nutritious food schemes, low-cost houses, clinics, home for HIV-affected children, mobile tailoring unit, mobile science labs…. His friends who admired his amazing achievements formed RTU-UK and RTU-USA to raise funds for his projects.

Kimpton woke up at 4.30 am to pray. He prayed the Rosary every evening. He deeply believed that ‘where God guides, God provides.’ When lack of rain caused problems, he filled a bottle with water and placed it before a statue of St Joseph and prayed. Soon, there was a heavy downpour! When a ten-year old girl’s condition became critical, after a sudden attack of fits, he stuck her photo on a picture of Mother Teresa and asked everyone to pray. The girl miraculously recovered! One who never believed in religious conversions, Kimpton advised all those who worked for him to remain true to their faith. He joined the festival celebrations in local temples and attended Muslims’ iftar ceremonies. Festivals of all religions were celebrated joyfully in all Children’s Villages.

Apart from his inspiring and practical love for the poor, Brother James was a gifted artist and architect. His drawings of village children are works of art. He designed and constructed hundreds of houses for the poor.

Bro James Kimpton died peacefully on October 5, 2017, at the age of 92. The Englishman who left his mother and motherland to work here continues to live in the grateful hearts of the thousands of poor Indian children and adults he reached out to.

 

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Fr M A Joe Antony SJ

This article shows how service of the poor should be at the heart of any organization that claims to be a charitable trust. If not, we should have another look at the very purpose of these institutions.

The mere word ‘charitable’ denotes service of the poor and the mere fact that we have chosen to form a charitable society or trust shows that we have opted to serve the poor through such a charitable society or trust.  If we have opted to serve the poor, then all the properties and funds that we hold  are also meant for the same purpose.  Thus service of the poor becomes the reason and purpose of the very existence of any charitable society or trust. Understood thus, the statement that all that the Church owns is the property of our Lord Jesus Christ and the patrimony of His poor makes sense.

Need of Radical Questioning

Our charitable societies and trusts are involved in very many activities, like running parishes, schools, colleges, hospitals, social service centres, youth animation centres, community centres, research centres, rural training programmes, etc. All the institutions that run such activities also hold properties and funds meant to support these activities.  If all these institutions with their properties, funds and various activities are meant for the poor, then definitely they should have made some impact on the lives of the poor. By impact, we mean effecting a positive change in their lives. Thus, we can say that all our institutions exist to bring about a positive change in the lives of the poor around us.  If not, we should relook at the purpose of the existence of these entities.

Any positive change in the lives of the poor is possible to the extent that the poor  have access to our institutions and their programmes.  Giving such an access would mean having a preferential option for the poor.  Here are some of the ways in which we can concretely show our preferential option for the poor:

Twelve Steps that Benefit the Poor

1. When our charitable trust was begun, it was begun with the specific purpose of serving the poor. But over the years it is possible that the trust has lost this original purpose due to the pressure of maintaining a standard in order to compete with the fast-changing environment.  Hence, we can now re-examine the priorities and activities of our institutions and re-focus our attention in providing sufficient opportunities for the poor to get the benefit of our charitable activities.
2. One of the concrete ways in which we can show our commitment to the poor is to choose those activities that would directly benefit the poor. Thus the choice of the activity matters a lot, but that is not enough. Even the choice of the place for such activities matters.  Thus a school of a medium standard near the rural or slum dwellers will benefit them a lot more than a high-fi school well established in a posh area of the city.
3. Having decided on the choice and place of the activities the next important step would be to allocate a budget, for, if there are no funds, nothing much can be done for the benefit of the poor. There may be many willing to serve the poor, but due to lack of funds they are not able to do anything in this regard.  Here is where the allotment of funds matters.
4. Serving the poor does not mean much if we try to look for the poor in some far away location. We have heard the saying that charity begins at home. Hence, it would make much sense if we first attend to the poor within the campus, namely our own employees, students of the school or patients of the hospital.  This makes it an obligation for us to pay decent salaries to our employees, salaries that would be reasonably sufficient to take care of the members of their families and their basic needs, such as, education, health, food, shelter, etc.  Concern for the poor can also be concretely expressed through our concern for the employees in times of need for some salary advance, loan, etc.
5. Similarly it makes us to be on the lookout for the poor in our institutions and help them with scholarships or fee concessions in their school, college or hospital fees.
6. Option for the poor would also mean having preferential option for the poor in admissions, in employment and in the choice of the beneficiaries of all our activities. It would mean giving job opportunities to the poor on a priority basis. Here we should seriously consider the jobless and the poor for the contract works, like maintenance, gardening, other labour work, etc.
7. The other area through which we can express our option for the poor, unlike the rest of the world, is to narrow the gap between the rich and poor of our institutions. This can be shown by raising the salary of those attached to the lower grades of the pay scale, which can be done by paying them all uniform allowances across the grades of the pay scale system.
8. Having a reservation policy for the poor can be another concrete way of showing our preferential option for the poor so that they also become beneficiaries of our charitable activities.
9. The other area of concern for the poor can be in our marketing. Every institution has to do a lot of marketing for its daily provisions and other needs. If the poor are our concern, then we would certainly do the purchases from shops run by the poor, be it vegetables, groceries, stationery, clothing, construction materials,

• Our option for the poor should also mean that we lead a life of the poor, both in our personal and community life. It would also mean opting for simplicity that will have an apostolic witness value in our institutions.
• Our option for the poor would also mean making the facilities of our institutions, like the playground, hall, classroom, etc., available to the poor and the underprivileged. It would also mean organizing some programmes for them like games, sports, cultural programmes, camps, seminars, etc., which would be educative and motivating.
• Another concrete way of reaching out the poor is by adoption for a long term. It can be adopting a village or a school in a remote area or a backward village that may need our intervention or at least some poor families which may need our support for education or health. The institution as a whole may opt to reach out to the selected group through their periodic visits, regular activities like coaching, financial support for the education of the children, financial help to repair the houses or the community centre, school building, etc.

The last can be a very important and concrete way of getting our institution and all its people like the staff, students, management, etc., involved on a regular basis. This is a direct approach and it will certainly bring about a positive change in the lives of those people.  Such an institutional approach will have not only a long term impact on the beneficiaries but also on the donors, i.e., the institution as a whole.  Here, our Lord’s saying “whatever you do unto the least, you do unto me” will become very real, concrete and perceptible.

 

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Fr Alex Gnanapragasam SJ

Freedom from Poverty and Solidarity with the Poor

In this article, an expert explains the crucial issues involved in poverty—what it is, what causes it, who and how many are affected, the many forms of poverty around us and ways of tackling this central human problem.

Continuing poverty is one of the most pressing problems faced by humanity today. The magnitude of human deprivation is still alarming. As per global poverty update from the World Bank, almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day. More than 80 per cent of the world’s population lives in countries where income differentials are widening.

The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (IDEP) is dedicated to focus our attention on the issue of poverty and the dignity of the poor. Every year, October 17^th is observed as IDEP. The 2018 theme is “Coming together with those furthest behind to build an inclusive world of universal respect for human rights and dignity.”

Since 1992, United Nation has observed October 17^th  as the World Day for Overcoming Extreme Poverty. The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty promotes dialogue and understanding between people living in poverty and their communities, and society at large. “It represents an opportunity to acknowledge the efforts and struggles of people living in poverty, a chance for them to make their concerns heard and a moment to recognise that poor people are in the forefront in the fight against poverty.” (UNSG 2015)

Sustainable Developmental Goals

Poverty eradication is the central theme for many of UN deliberations. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are a collection of 17 global goals set by the United Nations General Assembly in its 70th session on October 2015. Of these seventeen goals,  Goal 1 is to end poverty in all its forms everywhere, and Goal 2 is to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. All other goals are collectively to contribute to ending poverty.

The global community has agreed to eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 (roughly Rs 90) a day by 2030.  According to their agreement, ‘by 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions’.

To reach the goals of poverty eradication, the global community has agreed to implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all poor and the vulnerable. So, too, to ensure that all men and women, in particular, the poor and the vulnerable, have equitable rights to resources, as well as access to essential social and health services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services.

UN policies and Plans

The UN member states have promised to build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters.

The UN member states also have promised to ensure significant mobilisation of resources from a variety of sources, including through enhanced development cooperation, to provide adequate and predictable means for developing countries, especially the least developed countries, to implement programmes and policies to end poverty in all its dimensions.

Further, the global community has agreed to create sound policy frameworks at the national, regional and international levels, based on pro-poor and gender-sensitive development strategies, to support accelerated investment in poverty eradication actions.

Pope Francis: World Day of the Poor

In addition to the UN system, other state actors, such as the Holy See,  observe the Day of the Poor. The Holy see declared 18 November 2018 as the day of the poor and ‘called all to make a serious examination of conscience, to see if we are truly capable of hearing the cry of the poor.’ According to Pope Francis, ‘We are so trapped in a culture that induces us to look in the mirror and pamper ourselves, that we think that an altruistic gesture is enough, without the need to get directly involved.’

The persistence of poverty, including extreme poverty, is a significant concern for the global community, reflected through the deliberations of the United Nations. In its 72nd session, the General Assembly launched the Third United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (2018–2027), under the theme “Accelerating global actions for a world without poverty.”

Involvement of people living in poverty is essential for the eradication of poverty. The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty aims to ensure that the active participation of people living in extreme poverty and those who are left behind is a critical force in all efforts made to overcome poverty, including in the design and implementation of programmes and policies which affect them.

Creating and nurturing a genuine partnership, based on human rights, and respect for the  dignity people living in poverty are essential to building an inclusive world where all people can enjoy their full human rights and lead lives with self-respect—a necessary step towards poverty eradication.

How do we understand “poverty”?

The World Development Report (1982) defined poverty as “a condition of life so characterised by malnutrition, illiteracy and disease as to be beneath any reasonable definition of human decency.” Being poor is more than just material deprivation. Poverty is a multi-layered issue that concerns a person’s range of survival issues such as access to health care, the ability to influence the determinants of health, available educational opportunities and quality of life.

Poverty is a complex concept which may include social, economic, and political elements. Absolute poverty, extreme poverty, or destitution refers to the complete lack of the means necessary to meet essential personal needs such as food, clothing and shelter.

The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI)  has created a Global Multidimensional Poverty Index, which enables us a better understanding of the causes of poverty, an essential step in addressing the issue. The index offers a more in-depth measure of poverty through a checklist of “deprivations.”

The OPHI classifies poverty at an individual level.  The ten indicators of poverty are subdivided into three dimensions, Health, Education and Living Standard.  ‘For the health dimension, the measures are nutrition and child mortality, while, for education, the indicators are the years of schooling and school attendance. The standard living dimension includes access to cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, living space and assets.’ 

According to the OPHI report, more than a fifth (22 per cent)—or 1.6 billion people!—are considered to be poor, and 40 per cent of them live in India.

About 85 per cent of the poor are from the rural areas, where development progress remains elusive. More than half are deprived of health, education and standard of living. They are the ones living in households where educational attainment is less than five years, at least one member of the family is undernourished, and at least one child has died. Access to adequate sanitation presents challenges to 81 per cent of the poor.

Though poverty has been reducing in many countries, through the improvement in sanitation, education and health, the challenges remain for the global community in tackling poverty. It is evident that higher income does not always translate to a reduction in multidimensional poverty.

Connection between Poverty and Human Rights

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). In this context, it is essential to acknowledge the connection between extreme poverty and human rights. People living in poverty are disproportionately subjected to many human rights violations.

 “Wherever men and women are condemned to live in extreme poverty, and human rights are violated, to come together to ensure that these rights be respected is our solemn duty.”

Facilitating social inclusion is fundamental in assisting those left behind and enable them to overcome poverty in all its dimensions.

The commemoration of October 17 each year is an opportunity for people living in poverty to take the floor, share their experiences and expertise on how we can achieve greater social inclusion and poverty reduction, to respect the human rights and dignity of people living in poverty.

The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty underscores the importance of reaching out to people living in poverty and building an alliance around their priorities and concerns to end extreme poverty. It recognises the critical mutual roles and relationships we have with each other based on our collective and equal dignity and shared rights.

Poverty remains as one of the most pressing problems faced by India. The World Bank, in 2011 based on the 2005 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) International Comparison Program, estimated that 23.6% of the Indian population, or about 276 million people, lived in poverty, that is, spending below $1.25 (Rs 90) per day, based on purchasing power parity.

We cannot simply blame a high population for poverty. When living standards and literary rates go up, people tend to plan their families. This has happened in the more educated parts of the country. To ask a couple to limit their number of children when they are not even sure of the next meal, is a cruel thing. We need to provide a basic minimum before people can feel they have control over their health and their future.

Caste-based social segregation and stigma, and unequal distribution of income and resources is another reason for persistent poverty in India.

Groups Most Affected in India

Older destitute women, women and children from marginalised communities,  indigenous population, members of certain traditional occupations, the urban poor, migrant workers in the informal sector—these groups do experience severe poverty in India. Traditionally oppressed classes, those who belong to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes who continue to be subject to pervasive discrimination, e.g., Dalits and Adivasis, are disproportionally affected by poverty. With 104 million people, 47% of the rural tribal population lives below the national poverty line, compared to the national average for rural areas of 28 %. The level of poverty and malnutrition of the tribal people continues to be a significant issue. Though there are multiple programs for poverty reduction, they are seldom consulted on what is right for them, and their voice is hardly heard in any forums.

Poverty, including its extreme forms, is all around us every day, but receives little attention.  The desensitisation of society to poverty is a real scandal in India.  The destitute older widow on the road begging for survival, the orphan children who do odd jobs on the street, the pregnant mother who lost her child for lack of access to health care, the rickshaw puller whose only asset is his labour power and who is beaten up by the passenger because he insisted on the ten-rupee minimum charge for the trip he just completed—such pathetic human tragedies are all around us everyday.

The face of a traditional fisherman who laboured all night and returns home empty-handed and faces his hungry children, the face of the women waiting for their daily wages after they worked under the guaranteed employment scheme of the government, the face of the ‘Adivasi’ child waiting eagerly for the mid-day meal at the school,  the face of the  girl child who is struggling to cook a meal for her siblings with the fire from the twigs and leaves she collected,  the non-smiling flower girl at the traffic signals of major intersections in the city,  the face of the street sleeper—all these of part of our daily experiences. They are the human face of poverty.

 The poor in India disproportionally experience the violation of their citizenship rights, the impact of environmental change, urban pollution, lack of safe housing, violence, depletion of clean water, lack of access to sanitation and life-saving medicines and health care. Poverty in India particularly impacts children in a variety of different ways:  high infant and neonatal mortality, severe malnutrition, child labour, lack of education and child marriage.

The Way Out

Mass poverty and associated degradation of human dignity is not a product of fate, nor a justifiable social phenomenon. It is a product of specific structural-social arrangements, fuelled by inequitable distribution of opportunities. What is needed is the political will to introduce and execute policies and programs that will increase economic security and expand equitable opportunities for the poor and marginalised. A range of policy options is available to address acute poverty.  Creating jobs and reducing unemployment, raising the minimum wages, supporting equity in pay and benefits, providing paid leave and paid sick days, reforming work schedules that accommodate specific needs of women and vulnerable populations, increasing investment  in affordable, high-quality child care and early and primary education, ensuring and expanding  Universal Access to Health Care, ensuring that  economic growth is equitable, supporting agricultural growth and farm employment, increasing  investment in the development of infrastructure, accelerating overall human resource development, promoting decentralised non-farm employment, increasing social support benefits to the poor, promoting access to assets and credit, strengthening and expanding access to the Public Distribution System (PDS) and promoting increasing involvement of  local governments in poverty reduction and supporting the organizations of the poor and marginalised.

Poverty will remain a question of the political morality of the ruling class and of society in general. The demand for poverty eradication is not a call for charity; it is a fundamental human right. The legitimacy of any ruler should be assessed against his or her willingness and their sense of urgency to address poverty and developing poverty eradication programmes.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND SHARING IN COMMUNITIES:

• Do I try to understand why so many people are poor, although the world is rich in resources?
• Am I truly interested in making a difference?
• What do I do in concrete for at least a few poor persons?
• If I am an employer, do I treat my employees justly?
• Have I become indifferent to the poor I see around me everyday—or do I do something about it?
• How shall we—as a family, religious community, parish or institution—observe the Day of the Poor (Sunday, November 18^th) in a meaningful way?

 

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Dr Joe Thomas is the executive director of an intergovernmental organisation of 26 governments-partners in Population and Development. He has hosted high profile bilateral meetings in Kampala, Geneva, New York, Beijing, Dhaka, Jakarta and Senegal. He has been active for 25 years in the field of global health, population and development. He is a technical advisor to WHO in Geneva. He was the Secretary General of the 12^th International Congress of AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP). As the Director of UNAIDS-Technical Support Facility (TSF) for South Asia, he coordinated the work of nearly 250 consultants in ten countries. Twitter @joethomasIN   web   www.joethomas.in

Instead of reviewing one book, why not present ten good books on happiness, I thought. Looking at lists found on the Net, I found hundreds of titles.

Please do not take anyone’s list as the Gospel truth. You may go ecstatic over a book, which does not impress me, or vice-versa. What you and I are looking for, may be different.

Having mentioned this caveat,   let me present a list of ten good books which many people have found useful and inspiring.

One more word of caution: Reading a book will not make you happy, just as reading a book on fitness will not make you physically fit. You need to DO what the book talks about. Happiness is not something a person or a book can bring us. People or books can tell us what they found helpful in their pursuit of happiness. Becoming happy is my choice and responsibility. Books and experts cannot give it to me.

Want to learn more? Here are ten books, in alphabetical order.

1. The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama is a simple and practical exposition of the Buddhist philosophy of peace and compassion as a foundation of “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” (Available also in Indian languages.)

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2. Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment by Martin Seligman. Seligman is the “father” of what is known as Positive Psychology, which explores the positive aspects of life rather than focus on what goes wrong.

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3. The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are by Brené Brown. She calls herself a “researcher-storyteller” who has researched, written and spoken about vulnerability, shame and ways of leading happier

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4. Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar, who teaches a very popular course on happiness at Harvard University, which thousands of students have attended. The author sees happiness as something we can learn to cultivate. One of the chief obstacles Ben-Shahar sees to happiness is perfectionism.

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 5. Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill by French scientist-turned-Buddhist-monk Matthieu Ricard. He has a degree in molecular genetics, and later turned his attention to Buddhism. Became a monk, and lives in Nepal. His book combines the wisdom of the Buddhist tradition with the findings of Western science.

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6. The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom,   Jonathan Haidt unearths ten great theories of happiness from ancient times until today. Combines ancient and perennially valid spiritual teachings with the insights of contemporary science.

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7. The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin is based on her experiences which she wrote down in a blog. It is humorous, practical and also based on scientific data.

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8. Stumbling On Happiness by Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbertis rated by some as the best-researched yet easily accessible book on happiness. It explains some of the common misconceptions about happiness and ways in which we limit ourselves in our quest.

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9. The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want by Sonja Lyubomirsky. Her current research addresses three critical questions: 1) What makes people happy?; 2) Is happiness a good thing?; and 3) How and why can people learn to lead happier and more flourishing lives? Why Are Some People Happier Than Others?

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10 % Happier by Dan Harris. A straight-forward, humorous, intelligent book on what meditation did for his busy media man. He shares his struggles and the changes he has noticed in himself as the result of meditation. According to Harris, even a few minutes of meditation can make a difference.

(Apart from these books, it is worth watching the videos of the TED talks by Seligman, Ricard, Brown and Gilbert, which are among the highest-rated TED talks ever.)

 Deeper and more lasting guidelines for finding happiness and peace are found in the world’s great religious and spiritual traditions. The Beatitudes given by Jesus, for instance, are a blueprint for happiness very different from the ways of the world. The lives of the saints, who lived out these gospel teachings best, are vivid illustrations of happiness. People found deep joy in the midst of rejection, pain, illness and when facing death. There are far deeper truths about human life than what psychology can explore or teach. Thus, a person who has never read any book on happiness, nor heard of therapy or positive psychology, may be deeply happy because of a profound sense of God or a deeply committed life. Such lives are probably the best “books” on happiness. Meet them! Read them!

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 – Fr. Joe Mannath SDB is the National Secretary of CRI and the editor of this magazine

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