God's Wonderful People

Today's Entrance Hymn

I love the thrill that I feel

when I get together with

God's wonderful people

Love the thrill that I feel

when I get together with

God's wonderful people

What a sight just to see

all the happy faces

Praising God in heavenly places

What a thrill that I feel

when I get together with

God"s wonderful people

Now it can be just anywhere

Two or three are gathered there

That the spirit of the Lord

will be there too

There's no fellowship so sweet

No thrill can compete

With the thrill, I feel

whenever God's children meet

And on that great reunion day

When our Lord says, 'Come away

And the saints from every land

stream through the gate

Joining loved ones around the throne

At last, we'll all be gathered home

That will be the greatest

the thrill we've ever known

I love the thrill that I feel

when I get together with

God's wonderful people

Love the thrill that I feel

when I get together with

God's wonderful people

What a sight just to see

all the happy faces

Praising God in heavenly places

What a thrill that I feel

when I get together with

God's wonderful people

I love the thrill that I feel

when I get together with

God's wonderful people

Love the thrill that I feel

when I get together with

God's wonderful people

St. Teresa of Avila

Today is the solemnity of St. Teresa of Avila. Since morning I have been receiving forwards on Whatsapp and reading a lot of posts on Facebook. I revere her for being the Founder of the Discalced Carmelites along with St. John of the Cross. They are the Founders of our Order. Without their reformation, our Order would not have existed today. So we owe it to them both.

And it was Blessed John Soreth who included the laity in the religious Order. So a heartfelt thanks to Blessed John Soreth for thinking about us - let him indeed be blessed. 

If I am not wrong did Fr. Rudolph too say something similar? That the origin of the Carmelites on Mount Carmel was through a group of lay people coming together? The priesthood came much later. 

So again a sincere thanks to those Crusaders for establishing this beautiful garden. And I feel so honoured and privileged to be a part of this perfumed garden of Carmel - thank you, Lord, for giving me a small space in this huge garden!!!

Forever indebted.......!

Monastic Life

Dear DLL Jesus,

Today is the day when I just want to go on looking at the photographs and go on writing to you about them!!!🤗 The more I see them the more I want to write to you about them!🤭 But I don't know what exactly to write to you!

The heart is extremely overwhelmed by the whole trip to the Infant Jesus shrine. My love for this beautiful place is simply overflowing right now! But it is not that I am getting the desire to live there - the way it had happened to me in May when I went to Bangalore. It is a feeling that I am unable to explain - I don't want to live in this monastery - no, there's an extremely different kind of feeling that I am getting this time - I can't name it but it could perhaps be "loneliness" - maybe that's it - because I am not getting the same vibes that I got in the Goa monastery - this monastery has a very sombre look and feel - a lot lonelier than Goa. Any which way, it was not a monastery in Bangalore. 

But the Carmel Hill monastery or seminary did not give me a positive vibe - I felt lost and lonely, I managed only because of Fr. Michael, Fr. Lancy and Fr. Deep - even though the others were equally good to me, somehow the monastic life of the young seminarians overwhelmed me - this time I felt that I cannot live that kind of life. Last evening when I was sitting alone listening to Fr. Rudolph's 6 pm Konkani Mass, I was in so much tears that I wanted to come back home at that very moment! Thank you for sending the angel in the form of that priest/deacon who rescued me by speaking to me. That made me get up and go start talking to Fr. Michael - that conversation rejuvenated me a lot! That was the time I started feeling bad for the seminarians studying there - what a hard and disciplined life they live - do everything at the ringing of the bell - unlike last time in Bangalore, this kind of life scared me - I wondered why are their lives so hard - I feel like crying even now while writing this - oh, I am already in tears!😢 Please accept my prayers for them, Lord! My sincere prayers are to strengthen them in this way of life - not only for the young seminarians but the priests also - what an austere and hard life they live and we dare to judge them! They are set apart for you - perhaps that's why you made me sit there outside and brought this enlightenment - make me realize where everyone has been going wrong! 

Thus,  it is my humble request to you to please remind me every day to pray for all your priests and seminarians - even though I may not remember, from today I am dedicating my prayers to them - don't make them feel lonely the way I felt yesterday evening - please strengthen them to carry on the work you have entrusted to them!

Martha and Mary

Dear DLL Jesus,

This morning my eyes opened at 7:50 AM and I scrambled out of the bed to rush to the bathroom as water had already come!🙃 While all this was happening I told myself that I can't afford to wake up so late in Mangalore. The Carmelites wake up so early in the morning and right now most probably they must be having their breakfast! The reply I got from myself was that they have chosen that kind of life!

The moment that thought came to me I remembered Martha and Mary. You told Martha that Mary had 'chosen' one thing and that will not be taken away from her. It was then I realized that the Carmelites were the Marys and I was Martha. I realized that all the laypeople are Marthas and all the priests & religious are Marys. 

I always thought that I was Mary but today I got a different understanding - that I am actually Martha! 

But Martha though I am I would still like to call myself Mary and be at your feet and listen to your every word - as you are aware Lord "my heart is never at peace until it finds its rest in you."🤗

Italy

She was at Salento Airport. From there she was driven to Hotel Orientale. Everything was so beautiful - she was basking in the beauty of Italy. 

She reached the hotel and shyly said "grazie" to the chauffeur! This was the first time she had gotten the opportunity to speak Italian - it was one of the many foreign languages that she had been learning since the lockdown because of the pandemic. She was mighty pleased about it.

She had reached one day before the seminar. The seminar was scheduled for the next two days - Sunday and Monday. Today was Saturday - the rest day - and a luncheon had been arranged for the media - it was at the banquet room. She had hours to rest and get ready for this luncheon. She decided to check into her room. 

Her room was on the first floor. It was tastefully decorated and the window overlooked the beautiful region of Apulia in southern Italy. She quickly dressed up and sat looking at the picturesque Apulia. Soon it would be time to go for the luncheon. 

Today's Recessional Hymn

If I were a butterfly,

I’d thank you, Lord, for giving me wings;

And if I were a robin in a tree,

I’d thank you Lord, that I could sing;

And if I were a fish in the sea,

I’d wiggle my tail and I’d giggle with glee;

But I just Thank You Father, for making me – ME!

’Cause you gave me a heart and

You gave me a smile

You gave me Jesus, and

You made me His Child

And I just Thank You, Father

For making me – ME!

If I were an elephant,

I’d thank you, Lord, by raising my trunk;

And if I were a kangaroo,

I’d hop, hop, hop, right up to you;

And if I were an octopus,

I’d thank you, Lord, for my good looks;

But I just Thank You, Father, for making me – ME!

‘Cause you gave me a heart and

You gave me a smile

You gave me Jesus, and

You made me His Child

And I just Thank You, Father

For making me – ME!

If I were a wiggly worm,

I’d thank you, Lord, that I could squirm;

And if I were a crocodile,

I’d thank you, Lord, for my big smile;

And if I were a fuzzy-wuzzy bear,

I’d thank you, Lord, for my fuzzy-wuzzy hair;

But I just Thank You, Father, for making me – ME!

‘Cause you gave me a heart and

You gave me a smile

You gave me Jesus, and

You made me His Child

And I just Thank You, Father

For making me – ME!

1992

What do I remember from the year 1992?

Probably nothing!

It was the year I turned 16.......

Was it sweet 16 for me? 

Not at all because in 1992, we lived in Durgapur and I lived in my world of cricket and tennis. It was the year of the cricket World Cup and South Africa had come out of the apartheid policy and they were my favourites - right from Kepler Wessels to Jonty Rhodes to Hansie Cronje - all of them were my favourites. Also, Sanjay Manjrekar and Waqar Younis and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in tennis. I lived my life watching cricket and tennis as there was nothing else. 

I guess the craze for these sports and sports people is what got me into journalism - I was super excited to meet them and write about them! I discovered that I could write and thus the bug of sports journalism started gnawing at me and my 1980s dream of becoming a teacher took a back seat.

It was the year when all the vagaries of a 16-year-old teenager came cascading upon me - all thanks to books and Bollywood movies and songs - especially the songs like Pehla Nasha (Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander) and Wada Raha Sanam (Khiladi) - I remember being crazy for these songs! 

The songs created havoc in the heart - I wonder how the intellectual PhD students decided their course of life? Did they never fall in and out of love? Or even have crushes? Didn't they ever listen to these romantic songs? Didn't they ever think twice before taking such important decisions about their career? Didn't they ever look back?

Well, for me it was the year when even the idea of a Prince Charming was taking place in the heart!❤️ I had two ambitions in life - to be a sports journalist and be swept away by my handsome Prince Charming.

OMG, I remember so much about the year 1992. And at the beginning of the post, I said I don't remember anything that happened in 1992. But the more I am writing about this year, the more I am reminded about it.