Author: Editor, Kingdom Revelator
A Touch Of Heaven On Earth
The Mass is a communal celebration.
The Eucharist that we receive is the Body and Blood of Jesus. It is sometimes called Holy Communion because when we receive it we are united with God in heaven. Through the Eucharist we are also united with all the Catholics worldwide who also receive the Eucharist and those who have died and gone before us to the glory of heaven.
The Mass is a sacrifice.
Jesus offers himself to us in the Eucharist and in exchange we offer our lives to God and commit to serve one another in charity. Every Mass presents again the death and resurrection of Jesus, the making present and the sacramental offering of his unique sacrifice, in the liturgy of the Church. In the celebration of the Mass somehow these events, become present and real to us. In the Eucharist Christ gives us the very body which he gave up for us on the cross, the very blood which he “poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
The Mass is a Meal.
The Mass feeds us with the word of God from the Scripture readings and with the Eucharist, the Bread of Heaven and the food of eternal life. To prepare ourselves we fast for at least an hour before Mass. As we need food and drink to keep our bodies healthy so we need the Eucharist to keep our spiritual life healthy and to grow in our Christian life. “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “Those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35).
The Eucharist strengthens us. When we receive Holy Communion we are given the grace to help us to stay close to God, to resist the temptation of sin and to be more loving to others. Through the Eucharist we are united with Christ Jesus and become more like him. “He who eats my esh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I in him.” (John 6:56)
The Mass is The source and summit of our christian life.
It is the source because we derive our strength from the Eucharist and when we receive Jesus, in the Blessed Sacrament, we are receiving the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings into our bodies. This must be the high point of our lives. Nothing can compare with the great privilege of being reconciled with the Father, united with Jesus and lled with the Holy Spirit.
The Mass is a promise of the things to come.
In the Mass we get a foretaste of heaven. Jesus is present but his presence is veiled. Receiving the Eucharist prepares us for the time that we will meet Jesus face to face in his heavenly kingdom.
We are all participants, There are no spectators.
Christ himself is present, presiding invisibly over the celebration while the priest celebrating the Mass acts in the person of Christ to lead the liturgy. We may be in the pews, but when we gather together for Mass we are all participants, there are no spectators. There is a role for everyone in the celebration by joining in the prayers and the hymn singing, by silently offering ourselves to God when the gifts are presented and by echoing the great “Amen” at the end of the Eucharistic prayer. It is by participating more fully in the Mass that we will appreciate more fully the great grace that owes from it into our lives.
Jerrin’s Journey
Praise the Lord!
Hi, my name is Jerrin and I am here to be a witness to Jesus – and tell you how I changed from how I used to be, to who I am now. How I moved from searching for happiness to searching for eternal happiness. So here goes…
After finishing college I took a gap year. I thought money was the key for happiness and so I set out to make it. I started two different jobs and in no time my life got very busy. I never had any time for myself and I started surviving on little sleep. I was earning money and pretending to be happy, but deep down I felt an emptiness.
On the Path to destruction
During this time, my life took a turn, a path not to joy or happiness, but to my own destruction. I started becoming angry because of stress at work. I became restless and started arguments. I stopped eating food at home or spending time with my family and my mom was very unhappy. I thought that the problem was my workplace, so I changed jobs and became a oor manager in a restaurant. At rst I felt good telling others what to do. But after a few days I started feeling the same emptiness. I tried to ignore it and started drinking and partying hard and came home late every night.
A Mother’s Love
But Mom never went to bed until I got in. She was there waiting by the door for me, no matter how late I was. This carried on for months. My beloved mom just sat, cried and prayed every day, because she believed. She had faith in the one called God, in the one called Jesus. She believed that there is someone always listening to your prayers and watching over you. After a few months, my mom heard of a fiveday retreat for young people, called
School of Evangelization (SOE). Mom said: “Son, I have booked a place for you there. Will you go? I will pay you as much money as you want – just go there!” She pleaded with me for three months and annoyed me so much that I finally agreed to go.
A Turning Point in my Life
Maybe I went there for the wrong reasons,in fact I know I did. I thought that I mightmake new friends, new girlfriends perhaps.When I reached the door of the so-called School of Evangelisation, I didn’t know what to expect and I was not really bothered. A day passed, then came the day of confession and spiritual sharing. That was the turning point of my life! I went to a spiritual sharing session and the guy who I saw seemed to know everything about me before I could tell him. He told me about my past life history, my search for happiness, everything. I was shocked, my mind went quiet and I suddenly felt eager to listen to him. He said: “The Lord knows everything before you even ask him. He knew you before you were even born.” He also told me, “Your past is past. You can be a better person.” Those words struck me like a lightning bolt and I started feeling this burden of guilt within me. I made my way to the confession room. I swear it was a very long walk,every step I took I could see my past life, my sorrowful mom, the arguments, my temper. I knelt there in front of the priest and told him everything, every sin, the whole A-Z. I didn’t have anything to hide for it is written in Acts 1: 24: “Thou, Lord, know the hearts of all men.” I just had to call out his name and repent, as we are told in Acts 2:21: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
I felt so happy
After confession, for some reason I started fearing God. I went to the chapel to pray. I didn’t know what to pray. In fact, I didn’t know how to pray. I just sat there in front of the cross and asked: “Should I still be afraid, even though I have confessed everything?” That’s when the Lord spoke to me! He said – an inner voice literally told me – “Don’t worry child, this is just the beginning, there is a long way ahead of you filled with temptations. I will give you my strength to face them.” I jumped for joy and started dancing – never in my life had I felt so happy. I wished that those five days of SOE would never end. After the retreat was over, I didn’t want to go back home. I was afraid that I might return to my previous lifestyle. On my way back I was thinking: What’s my next step from here?” I got home, went to my room, looked in the mirror and challenged myself: “From now on, I know I will be a better person than I was in my past life”. My whole life didn’t change from there, but flipped the other way around. I had caught a wrong train in the past, now I was on the right platform waiting for the right train. I started doing charity work. I started going to church and spending more time with my family. I now realize that they are actually amazing people. My mom’s prayers were answered. She still cries and prays for me because she loves me so much. And so, I am Jerrin and that’s my encounter with Jesus and how I have started practising the Christian way of life and glorifying the Lord everywhere I go.
May 2014 – Editorial
Dear Readers St. Don Bosco was the spiritual guide of St. Dominic Savio. Every morning after Mass, the boys would go to attend school. On one occasion, Don Bosco did not find young Dominic at school. Curious to know where he had gone, Don Bosco went to the chapel to find St. Dominic Savio lost in the love of Jesus with both hands on his heart. On enquiring, Don Bosco realised that Dominic had spent four hours with Jesus without even realising it! This is what happens when the Holy Spirit comes into our life. He instils in us a deep desire to love Jesus.
I am very happy to introduce our new magazine for children and teens –‘Kingdom Revelator’. The meaning of the word ‘Revelator’ is – the one who reveals. When we are young we have many questions and doubts regarding our faith. The Word of God says that the mystery which has been hidden throughout the ages and generations has now been revealed to his saints (Colossians 1:26). Who will reveal to us the mysteries of God? It is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will teach us everything we need to know. The Holy Spirit will reveal to us the love of God and the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. Romans 14:17 says, “the Kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Our Lady of Lourdes told St. Bernadette that true joy cannot be found in the world. True joy is found in heaven which is our real home. In other words the moment we invite the Holy Spirit, He will fill us with heavenly joy.
May the exemplary life of St. Dominic Savio of purity and holiness inspire all young people all over the world. I pray that as the Holy Spirit revealed the love of Jesus to St. Dominic Savio, may the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit flood our hearts and soul.
Written by Rev. Fr. Soji Olikkal
DIVE INTO THE OCEAN OF GOD’S MERCY
‘You only live once’ is the motto of many young people today, encouraging them to take risks that can harm them physically and spiritually. Judy Jose looks at how this affects their lives and the remedy that God offers.
“To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, LORD my God, brought up my life from the pit.” Jonah 2:6
Following the crowd
As young people these days we often tend to follow the crowd. We make a choice to reject Christ from our lives and only pray at Mass on Sunday or before an exam. We are at that age where many of us are obsessed by the phrase “YOLO”. It is everywhere Facebook, twitter, instagram In fact it’s hash-tagged on twitter all the time. It’s a common phrase that has won the hearts of teenagers and youth, which tells us to enjoy life, live it up and live life to the full. But is this an excuse for us to do whatever we want? Is it an excuse to make mistakes and not to think about the consequences? Living by the motto “YOLO” can mean that we wander away from the highway to holiness and turn towards what the world offers us.
Distant from God
In James 4:4 it says “Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” Jesus tells us that worldly pleasures only give us the illusion of being happy.
We commit sin each time that we say yes to the world and no to Jesus and that sin can blind us. It is as if our wireless connection to God has been disconnected. This leads us to feel very distant from God so that we fall into temptation and we feel that we don’t have the strength to win the battle. Just like a piece of fur stuck on to Velcro; we too cling to what the world can offer us. We then decide to put an offline status for God and an online status to world.
Going downhill
However, after a while we hit reality and realize that our lives are going down the drain. Instead of making our lives happy and enjoyable, we find that we are going downhill. This is the point where we usually say things like “I give up”, “God doesn’t want me” “What is the point?” or “Does God even care?”
God does not want to make our life miserable, he can transform us into a new creation. All he asks is for us to leave behind the “I know what I am doing” syndrome and the Lord will pour out his mercy upon us. Jesus knows that when we are in the pit of sin we live in darkness, but God is waiting for us, stretching out his merciful hands to us, ready to shower the rays of his healing light into our lives. St. Paul says in Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
He will transform your life
God is calling us to surrender our entire lives to Christ and he will pour out his mercy upon us, but we need to be willing to take up the cross and follow him. This can be a challenge, but we can do all things through Christ because of his act of mercy. In the Bible we read the story of Saul who started out hating and persecuting Christians, but God had a bigger plan. He showed his mercy by changing the sinful Saul to the Christ-filled Paul. When we surrender our lives to God he will no longer see our past but he will bless our life ahead.
Dive into his everlasting mercy and he will transform your life. Trust in the Lord!
Your sin is not greater than God’s mercy
What do i do with my life
Life is not a rehearsal
Most people wonder what to do with their lives. It is important that you give it some thought. When you get into your teens, you have some serious choices to make. Life is not a rehearsal. You only get one go. We all make mistakes and we learn from them. It is a bit like learning to ride a bike. You learn by trying, falling off, getting back on and trying again. According to John’s Gospel 10:10 (even I can remember that reference), Jesus says “I have come so that they may have life to the full.” We are here to enjoy life. So think about what makes you happy. Don’t just go with the flow and end up in a job you hate.
What are yo u good at?
One thing I have learned over the years is that “Grace builds on nature” (actually one of the cleverest people ever to live, St Thomas Aquinas wrote it nearly a thousand years ago). What he meant is that “You have the skills to be what you are good at”. Some people are good listeners – they make good nurses; some people are good talkers – they make good teachers. God is not stupid. He gives you a job to do and the skills to do it. Some very special people are given the job of being ill – without them we wouldn’t be able to show God’s love to them by caring for them. God gives them the grace to cope. Each of us has gifts, skills, talents and abilities. We have them for a reason.
We are God’s work of art
In the Bible God asks Moses to sort out the Israelites – a big job! So Moses asked God “Who are you? In effect he was asking God if he knew what he was talking about (along the lines of “Who are you to tell me what to do?”) God Said “I AM WHO I AM” or to put it bluntly – I am the one who made you, the world, the universe…..everything. That’s what being God means! God is BIG! And there’s more… He says to you now
UR? UR and I MADE U
You are who you are and God made you and He doesn’t make mistakes. In fact in the Bible it says we are God’s “Work of Art”. It says He dances with delight over us. WOW!
We are all different
Think about what you are good at (be honest), think about what you like doing (as a job of work – after all you are going to be doing it for about 50 years). You will realise that some jobs are just not right for you. That’s OK. God has made us all different. Thank God! Wouldn’t it be a boring world if we were all the same, looked the same, did the same things and thought the same way? That’s why God made us all different. Some jobs you like, other people would hate.
In the Bible St Paul talks about people being the body of Christ. He says if we were all heads, how would we walk about, if the whole body was an ear and we had no noses how would we smell? (Yes I know – Terrible like that joke!) He also says we were made to work together. So if a stone is thrown at your eye, your hand doesn’t say “Its not my problem”. Your hand goes in front of your eye to protect it. That is one way of telling a good bunch of people from a bad one – the good group look after the weakest people, they don’t bully others or let them get hurt. Everyone matters.
Talk to people who do the job you think you might like – Do you like them? Do you want to be like them?
Pray
Pray about it! God likes that and he answers……….Try it…..what have you got to lose? The Bible is full of people who asked God what to do, and what not to do. After all God is pretty clever. He did make the Universe. (And if anyone says He didn’t then you can ask them who did……….and if they say it all happened through a miraculous big bang a long time ago then you can say that is not news because that was written down in the Bible 3,000 years ago…..and if they say it all happened by chance then ask them if they seriously believe that. Even a three year old has worked out that things don’t happen by chance – food appears because parents provide it!)
God knows each of us through and through – our names are written on the palms of His hands. “I love you and I died for you.” is something we all need to hear. Remember that there is only one person like you. There never was and never will be anyone else the same as you. You are Unique and Precious in God’s eyes. A guy who may soon be made a Saint, John Henry Newman put it like this “I have my mission”, he wrote, “I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for nothing. I shall do good, I shall do his work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place … if I do but keep his commandments and serve him in my calling.”
You will probably be a parent one day
For most people their main vocation (calling or job) is to be parents. After all, that is the first commandment in the Bible – bring up children. That is not easy and we all make mistakes. Remember this next time you get upset with your parents. Sometimes they are right (be honest – most of the time); but they are human and sometimes they get it wrong. Don’t complain, use it as a way to learn. Your turn to be a parent will come one day. At the end of Mass we hear the words “Go in Peace, Glorifying the Lord by Your Life.” That is a commandment to everyone. But it is also a promise. You will have peace in your heart if you spend your life showing how wonderful God is by being nice to everyone – doing a good job! Remember
Miracle Healing
The Theory
Miracle healings? To say I was sceptical would be an understatement. Every time I heard a testimony of healing I would immediately apply scientific logic to explain why it happened. This is how I thought:
Example 1: Cancer patient prays and finds out their tumour has gone.
Possible explanations:
• The scan was faulty
• There is a psychological phenomenon in that if you believe something will make you feel better, you will start to feel better. So this was no miracle- just a mind trick.
Example 2: People being healed in the sense that they are relieved of some sort of pain:
Possible explanation:
• Again, it’s just a psychological phenomenon. Formally called the ‘Placebo effect.’ So with all this in the back of my mind I went to a retreat earlier this year. On the first day I developed a severe back pain down the middle part of my spine and I was finding it difficult to get to sleep due to the pain. This went on for three days.
The experience
During Mass on the third day I was in so much pain that I couldn’t stand. Around the time of the consecration of the Eucharist the priest announced that two people with back pain were being healed. The second that he said it, a great warmth came over my back and suddenly the pain disappeared! I was so confused. I told myself, “It can’t be, I’m not one of the two.” As soon as Mass finished I started bending my back, twisting and testing it in every way. The pain had truly gone!
The Conclusion
I wondered how someone who does not believe in healing can be healed. For it to have been a psychological effect I had to have at least wished, expected or prayed to be healed. Then the answer came to me – God says: “I am the Lord, the one who heals you.” Exodus 15.26. I’ll leave you with one of my thoughts about this- how do babies get healed? Babies do not have the mental capacity to believe in God. So what scientific explanation is there for the fact babies are healed when others pray? I want to be a great doctor so I must study the works of the greatest healer of all time – Jesus Christ.
Experience God through Science
I started to question my beliefs
Growing up in a strong Catholic family, I was grounded in my Catholic faith, going to Mass regularly and receiving the Sacraments. As a young child I found it all very exciting and I accepted and believed what I was taught. However, as I grew older and my knowledge of the world increased, I started to question my beliefs and came to a point of not believing in God.
I was not happy
This was difficult for me because it was going against my parents’ strong faith and everything that my catechists and priests had taught me. There was a battle within myself too. On one hand science for me suggested that there was no God but on the other I desperately wanted to believe in God, who St. Anselm describes as “which nothing greater can be conceived”. This internal conflict meant that I was not happy in my position as a non-believer. This is my journey and the personal experiences that converted me from non-belief to belief in the True Living God.
The arguments that convinced me
I was in a class one day debating the existence of God when I heard the following revised argument which was first used by William Paley in his book on ‘Natural Theology’ in 1802. Imagine yourself stranded on an uninhabited island and as you are walking on the seashore you hit your foot on a rock. You assume that the rock had been there forever and don’t think much about it. But say that your foot hit a watch in the sand. You would pick up the watch and wonder how it got there. You would want to investigate further. As you open the back of the watch you’d see the mechanism, the cogs and wheels working in sync to make the watch work. Obviously the watch cannot have been there for ever like the rock because a watch, so intricately made and designed cannot just appear on the seashore: it must have been dropped there. It would also be safe to conclude that the watch had been created by someone – a watchmaker. There is no way that the bits of metal could have randomly come together. Thus, in the complex world where we live that is governed by many natural laws, one can conclude that someone must have created this universe – this someone is God. David Hume, in his book ‘Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion’ gave a similar argument. He suggests that the world is nothing but one great-machine, which is divided into a number of smaller machines, which are each divided into smaller and smaller machines until you get to a level that our human senses and minds can’t understand. If man with all his intelligence can make a watch, a machine that is intelligent, then the world had to be created by someone who was intelligent enough to make the world so finely balanced.
We are all made of the same basic particles yet we are all wonderfully and individually made.
My conclusion from hearing these arguments is that the world is too fine tuned to happen randomly or by chance. In a world where we are governed by basic atoms and most organic material is made up of carbon atoms what differentiates me from you? Each carbon atom is the same, theoretically, and yet we all look so different and act differently. What is it that differentiates us from each other? We are all made of the same basic particles yet we are all wonderfully and individually made. The world we live in is fine-tuned, precise and everything has an intelligent design behind it. Let us not look to randomisation and the theory of probability to explain our world and explain who we are and what we are. Everything has a plan, and every plan has a purpose, therefore this purpose must have a designer and that designer is God.
“My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they stand at attention”. Isaiah 48:13
Dearest Mother of God, please pray for me, so that I might have an increase in Faith and to love God with all my heart, mind, soul and strength. Amen
Never Again
Upon my face shone down your rays, And upon my lips was Your glorious name. Never again could I return to who I was, Never again will I be the same.
You found me, tears streaming down my face, You found me when I had lost all my happiness and hope. Not once did I think I could find a way out of this mess, But You pulled me out of the waters and I grabbed onto the rope.
You found me in an empty room, bruised and beaten, You found me when I was seconds from leaving this cruel world. Not once did I think I’d want to breathe and live again, But You brought me joy and made me feel treasured, like a pearl.
You found me when I hid myself behind an emotionless mask, You found me when I smiled, even if I was in pain. Not once did I think I’d have the courage to be myself, But You showed me my true self and I danced in the rain.
You found me when I lost myself in false illusions, You found me when I thought I was completely happy. Not once did I count my blessings or think there was more, But You showed me there was a greater joy, more than I could see.
I found You where I had abandoned You without a second thought, Patiently waiting for me to love You as much as You love me. Not once did I think You’d gather me in your loving arms And fill me with Your love, but You did and at once I was happy.
Into my life You appeared, full of love and indescribable joy And I fell to my knees and praised Your magnificent name. Never again could I be who I was in the past, hopelessly lost, For You have changed me and I will never again be the same.