The Herald Weekly

"For every one who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 14:17)

Dear DLL Jesus,

This verse is from the last line of today's Gospel passage!

And the photo attached with this post is my first write up that appeared in the Herald Weekly magazine!

Thank you so much, Lord!

The world rejected you but you proved them wrong by being triumphant over death! The world rejected my writings but you proved them wrong by making me an instrument to write about your love and mercy!

We both were humbled by the world but we both have been exalted now! What a beautiful situation!

Now just one more dream has to come true so that your name is glorified further!

Lord, I want this handbook to see the light of the day so that the world knows how much you love me and have been abundant in your blessings!

Let your name be glorified, Lord!

Let your will be done, Lord!

Mystics of the Church

Dear DLL Jesus,

I am done compiling my second handbook on the Doctors of the Church. There are around 36 Doctors of the Church.

I have started the compilation of my third handbook on the Mystics of the Church. I have not counted them yet. But the first one is Ignatius of Antioch. From tomorrow I will get going with the research.

This handbook will be the third and the last in this series. Last night I got the idea of creating a trilogy of handbooks:

1) Carmelite Saints and Blesseds

2) Doctors of the Church

3) Mystics of the Church

Diwali

Good morning my Jesus!

Soon it will be your festival - Diwali - the festival of Lights!❣️

My favourite festival since my childhood but during my RCIA I was told that I can't celebrate any Hindu festival! How disheartening it was for me because Diwali was the only festival I enjoyed the most because I could me myself!

In Bhilai, I enjoyed a lot during Diwali. I made rangolis every day and made this thing called "Ghar kunda" and decorated it beautifully according to my abilities. I burst crackers in the afternoon itself and then would cry in the night because I had no crackers left while others were bursting them.

Basically it was fun because I could be myself. Unlike the Vanity Fair, I could be alone and not get bothered by the jazzi essentials. I guess I celebrated in Vasai also.

Then everything stopped!

But then thanks to the Liturgical Inculturation session during the catechists training course in 2015. Here we were told about the true meaning of Diwali! We actually celebrated Diwali by making rangolis with flowers and colourful rangoli powder. We applied chandan tikkas and even celebrated an Indian-style Mass!❣️❣️

Thanks to that I started celebrating Diwali again since 2016. This photo is of 2016. In 2016, Diwali was on 29th October. This year it's on 14th November. 

Now I know why I always enjoyed celebrating Diwali - because it is your festival; festival of Lights! You knew me then but sadly I didn't know you!

Late have I known you Lord!

But it's better late than never!!!

Monastic Life

Though I had heard about monasteries, and I knew they existed, I had absolutely no idea how they looked like. Actually I never paid any attention to monasteries!

And then in October 2017 I visited the Carmelite monastery in Goa! I was taken aback by its beauty! First I fell in love with its garden - it was the most beautiful one I had ever seen in my life! Then I saw the green vegetables and the boars and the more I saw, the more I fell in love with the monastery! 

The Carmelite monastery in Goa is the only monastery that I have ever seen in my entire life. I have already blogged about it before but the reason I am blogging about it again today is because of something I have been thinking about for quite some time now.

I am in the midst of compiling my second handbook! This time on the Doctors of the Church! I have compiled 23 of them till now. 

The reason I am writing about monasteries is because most of these great Doctors lived a monastic life and never ventured out much! They did all their writings from the cells of their monasteries!

What made me think and stop my research and write this post is that if all the monasteries in the world are as beautiful as the one in Goa or maybe more beautiful than it, why would a monk ever want to venture out in the big bad world?

If you have a beautiful garden and beautiful vegetables and beautiful boars around you, why would you want to be out? Wow, just the thought of being amidst so much of beauty is so soothing to my soul! No wonder St. Bede hardly went out of his monastery and St. Elizabeth of the Trinity fell in love with the monastic garden which she saw from her home!🏡 In fact she wanted to join the Carmelite Order only because of its beautiful garden!🤩

Jesus, my dear DLL, I want to visit the Carmelite monastery again! Just one more time!😇

“I live life”

Something I wrote in 2015 still holds true!

In 2015, somebody asked me, “So, what do you do nowadays?” Without batting an eyelid, I had answered smilingly, “I live life”.

And this answer got me thinking. And I thought over it the whole night and am still thinking over it.

And I am so glad I gave this answer.

Indeed I am living my life – the kind of life I had always dreamed for myself – with only positive people around me. I have started loving the most dreaded chore – cooking and today I again thank the Almighty for this beautiful life and giving me the chance to enjoy it with the people I love the most.

No more negativity and no more rushing to work – I do things at my own pace and I am not answerable to anyone except the people who love me the most – and the most beautiful part is that they never question and they never judge. 

I have cultivated hobbies and I study and I read and I write for pleasure and not for people…I laze around, I stand at the window looking at the rising sun, admiring the leaves trying to touch the window pane and I smile and I live life. 

Yes, indeed, my life is beautiful even though it’s ordinary and I am living it to the fullest!😍

Have a Happy Wednesday!!!