The Generation Gap: In search for the optimal

In Every 20 years, a new generation happens. It always comes in a new way of look and outlook, priorities and value system . That’s why we have to try hard to ‘configure’ ourselves to the thought-patterns of the younger ones as well as the elder ones. To Strike the balance between the two is the key, along with identifying and solidifying our own identity.

There needs to be a lot of openness and readiness to be surprised, when dealing with persons of different generation bench. Most of our relations hit the dead end, neglecting this essential aspect of differences. We always speak about ‘discovering the similarities’, but ‘recognizing the differences’ should precede that. It should create the strong foundation of knowledge, understanding and adaptability that should facilitate the growth in togetherness with the other.

In his time....

"In His time, in His time
He makes all things beautiful in His time
Lord, please show me every day, as You're teaching me Your way
That You do just what You say, in His time"


This hymn is made so beautiful with its divine sense of time.
It is important to have a Divine sense of time , that renders all our life experiences valuable 'in his time'.

All the harships we have benn through gets its real and enduring divine sense only in God's own time. It needs a lot of endurance and grace to know it.

what i am today is made of all that i had been through.
All that i am today is the formation of what i will be tomorow.
it is aninterconnected unity....
Lord, give me the wisdom to accept itin all gracefulness and hope

Our Winemaker God

Our God is a wine maker
He prepares his promises quite ahead
Prophecies are like wine,
It needs to time to ferment
It needs time to prepare the earth for it.
May be that’s why the Incarnation was proclaimed long ago,
In a more sensible situation….
And then vinify it ,over the times,
It prepared a people for it to receive,

The greatest promise ever made to humanity

Restoration and Redemption

There is a great difference between Restoration and Redemption.

It is the same difference between John the Baptist and Jesus.

John was asked only asked to restore and not the Redeem.

We call ourselves a failure when we attempt the redemption- part of the plan of God.

Redemption is the business of God.

Let God work his own part. in his own time, in his own way.

We shall not make ourselves miserable with the unnecessary.

A Book of Questions

Bible is a book of questions. It is more of a book of questions than a key of answers. The questions it posses are so fundamental that it will force you on a journey of inner discovery and a deep-rooted trust in the Divine-providence. In its very first question it asks; ‘Adam, where are you?’ It is an everlasting question reminding men of all the ages his unique place in the created universe.

When John the Baptist sends his disciples to Jesus to ask; “ Are you the one who is to come or are we wait for another?”, it becomes the question of the entire humanity in search of God. Even today and will ever be so also, there are many on the brink of the doubt sounding the same question to Jesus; “ Are you the One who is to come?” It is in the lives of such the true Christmas should happen.

The Many Myths Of the Magi????

i read this interesting article on Magi

The Many Myths Of the Magi
Were They Really Kings? Were There Really Three? And Did They Travel by Camel to Bethlehem?

By Benedicta Cipolla
Religion News Service
Saturday, December 8, 2007; B09

They came. They saw. They gifted.

That's about all we know of the foreign visitors who traveled to Bethlehem to see the infant Jesus.

The scene ingrained in the public imagination -- a stately procession of three kings in turbans, crowns, elaborate capes and fancy slippers, with an entourage of servants and camels trailing behind -- is a common image in books and films, but it isn't from Scripture.

In fact, there's no evidence in the Gospels that the Magi were kings, or even that there were three, much less that they sidled up to a manger on dromedaries exactly 12 days after Jesus's birth.

"Legends pop up when people begin to look closely at historical events," said Christopher Bellitto, assistant professor of history at New Jersey's Kean University. "They want to fill in the blanks."

Only the Gospel of Matthew mentions "wise men from the East" who follow a star to Bethlehem. In the original Greek, they were called magoi (in Latin, magi), from the same root that gives us the word magic. It's been posited that they were astrologers or members of a Persian priestly caste.

But what matters more than their number and status, say historians and Biblical scholars, is the fact that they were not Jews.

"For Matthew, the magic star leading the wise men to the place of Jesus's birth is his way of saying what happened in Jesus is for the Gentile world as well," said Marcus Borg, professor of religion and culture at Oregon State University and co-author of "The First Christmas."

After being warned in a dream to avoid the murderous King Herod, the Magi returned home "by another road." Metaphorically, that suggests they were transformed by their experience. While Matthew doesn't say they converted to Christianity, legend holds that they were baptized by St. Thomas and died in Armenia in 55 A.D.

The first artistic depictions of the Magi are found in second-century Roman catacombs, but it wasn't until the early third century, when Christian writer Tertullian referred to them as "almost kings," that they began to cultivate a royal air.

Their kingly designation also echoes biblical passages in Isaiah and the Psalms, keeping with the common belief that Jesus's birth was predicted in the Old Testament. Prophecies foretold gifts of gold and frankincense, two of the three gifts the Magi brought. The third, myrrh, was a burial spice, which some believe foreshadowed Jesus's death and resurrection.

Around the same time as Tertullian, Origen -- a theologian in Alexandria, Egypt -- set their number at three, likely because they carried three gifts, said Teresa Berger, a professor at Yale Divinity School.

Later, the wise men were portrayed as representatives of the three races of man as descended from Noah's sons -- Semitic, Indo-European and African.

Fast-forward to the sixth century, when a Latin document recorded their names as Gaspar (or Caspar), Melchior and Balthazar, although the source is unknown. By the time their relics arrived at Cologne Cathedral in 1164, the Magi were venerated as saints, and festivals sprang up to honor them.

Today, Roman Catholics and some Protestants commemorate the Magi's visit with the Feast of the Epiphany on Jan. 6. Orthodox Christians celebrate both Jesus's birth and the adoration of the Magi together, either on Dec. 25 or Jan. 7, depending on which calendar they follow.

The Magi might get short shrift in the United States compared with other countries, but they play an integral part in the Christmas story, cropping up in songs and often stealing the show in pageants.

William Studwell, a retired professor at Northern Illinois University and an expert on Christmas carols, chose "We Three Kings of Orient Are" as one of two "Carols of the Year" for 2007 to mark the song's 150th anniversary. He recalls his own Magi days fondly.

"It's one of the only things I remember about third grade," he said, "being one of the kings."

Neglected sheeps

The classic gospel story of the lost sheep (Mt 18:12-14) is often meditated by keeping the 99 ones in favorable light. Is it true?It is the need of the times to notice the 99 ones, even before thinking of going back in search of the lost one. It is sad the other 99 gets little care whereas all celebration is made in honour of the one brought back. The shepherd in Jesus story should have been so sensible, but sadly most of the shepherds of the day are not.

Why there are less sports in our mid ages....

Nikos kazantzakis attempts an answer:

"The civilization begins at the moment sports begin. As long as life struggles for preservation – to protect itself from its enemies, maintain itself upon the surface of the earth - civilization cannot be born. It is born the moment that life satisfies its primary needs and begins to enjoy a little leisure."

Do you see it.....

I saw an old man Kneeling over a channel and watching the water run,
his face bathed in inexpressible ecstasy.

‘What do you see there, old man?’ I asked him.

And without lifting his head, or removing his eyes from the water, replied,
“ My life, my life which is running out…”

(Nikos kazantzakis, Report to Grecco, Ch.17, Pilgrimage through Greece)

People and places

The earth is of the Lord, says the Psalmist.
But there are some, who are as intrusive as the leaven.
They sour even the heavens with their sophisticated and well-executed malice.
It is against such, Jesus warned us when he said: “ Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees….”

when God hesitate storms

Even when God hesitate storms on the earth,
Man is busy creating storms in tea-cups.

There is an inherent and primitive urge to violence in man.
Some express it in all bloodshed, while others in thought and words.
But only a few are enlightened enough to grow-up from those infantile instincts.
They are the messiahs of Peace.
Today’s world needs many of such

Would it get me anywhere?

A poor but learned Talmudist worked on his Bible commentary with great zeal.
“how Impractical!” remarked the rich man of the town.
“why don’t you stop writing, it’ll get you nowhere!”
“And if I stop writing, would it get me anywhere?” asked the scholar

Most of the time, I think like the rich man in the story.
But I am blessed at few times, to think like the scholar and ask that question to myself.
And this question keeps me going…..

“Man is like a musical clock, move him even slightly and he begins to sing a new tune”
Ludwig Börne

Why i dont write these days.....

Clever people

Clever

Main Entry:clev·er

Pronunciation:\ˈkle-vər\

Function:adjective

Etymology:Middle English cliver, perhaps of Scandinavian origin; akin to Danish dialect kløver alert, skillful

Date:circa 1595

1
a: skillful or adroit in using the hands or body : nimble <clever fingers>
b: mentally quick and resourceful clever young lawyer>
2: marked by wit or ingenuity clever solution> clever idea>

____________________________________________

______________________________________________

There are some clever people
Who may be compared to
The small fashionable shops;
All their merchandise is displayed
In the show window.

(Berthold Auerbach)

Clever people are like fragrant roses;
When you smell one rose it’s delightful,
But smelling a whole bouquet
You may get quite a headache

(Mortiz G. Saphir)

When copper excels the gold…

The classic gospel narrative of the copper coin shows the alchemistic nature of the Kingdom of God. Who else on earth will value two copper coins more that the many golden ones? Only God who assigns the worth and value of everything can declare it to be so.

We all give ourselves to each other in different and varied ways. It may be through our acts of service, support, thoughts, or through acts of authority. We all believe in equal sharing. Each and everyone puts in equal amount of service for the well being of the other. It is even marked as a sign of good democracy; the equality of all.

Do Jesus fall for this ‘trickery of equality’? I think ‘No’ because that’s what all the lesson these two little copper coins teach us. All what you give will be valued only in the context of what you have stored back in your wallets and barns. That’s why the golden offerings did not glow better in Jesus’ eyes. Yes, we will be valued by not what we give, but by what we hold back for ourselves. The story of the death of the couple in Acts also testifies to this.

Incredible Visual Illusions (You won't believe your eyes!)

Incredible Visual Illusions (You won't believe your eyes!) [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)
by Al Seckel (Author)

i read this great book of visual illusions only today.

subtle differences

Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.
-Scott Fitzgerald, American Author-

On Limits and Limitations:

Most of the times, we count our limits as our limitations.
Our limits are never our limitations;
They are actually the most realistic paths to the many real possibilities life offers us.

On Fences:

We should never dream about a world without fences.
History has proved that as an impossible one,
Though seemed quite enchanting and beautiful.

It is good to written as poetry,
But even when in writing it,
We are limit or words by the Margins,
For they are the boundaries of our writing pad.

We should dare to dream about a world with better fences,
Which respects the rights of all,
and gives each one his due.

On Living on the edge:

Sometimes our thinking patterns knock us out onto the edge of everything.
It happens in when there is more thinking and les living or vise versa.
Anyhow it happens to everyone.
Being on the edge is an invitation to a balance,
between the life and the thought.

Nobody can live on the edge for so long.
Either we fall back or move ahead.
It necessitates the need to be informed and prepared,
Realistically and creatively.
To accept the very many surprises the life offers us,
We should be Zen- like; well balanced.
It comes from experience, and never from learning.

Many of Life’s choicest blessings come in gloomy wrappers.
If only we are experienced in unwrapping those miseries…

The ordinary is not just the ordinary

The ordinary is not just the ordinary.
It will either kill you or create you, anew..
It all depends on the way we opt out.
Actually we can do things better than the way we do now.
It all begins when we force ourselves to think and behave different and difficult (at times)
All the journeys are hard for a lazy onlooker.
The game is to start walking, whether comfortable or not.
The journey in itself is wisdom, strength, and grace.
Get going….

The origins of the prayer ‘Hail Mary’

we see these days that many are changing the wordings of this beautiful prayer to suite their ‘private revelations’…
whatsoever may it be, I hold firm in my opinion that the wordings Must Not be changed in any way, for it is the wisdom and grace of the Holy Catholic Church, evolved through the times with due divine interventions.

The history:

The early history of the Hail Mary is not clear, as the words are taken from Scripture and it is difficult to ascertain when the greeting/prayer was distinctly used. One source attributes the distinct use of the first half to St. Idlefonsus of Toledo in the 7th century. Its use as a salutation and prayer begin to appear from frequently in the 11th and 12th centuries, though the first half only was regarded as the 'Hail Mary'.

Here are the parts of the prayer:

· Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee (Luke 1:28 with 'Mary' gradually added by the Church)

· Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus ( Luke 1:42 with 'Jesus' being added by Pope Urban IV in 1261)

· Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen (based on the declaration of the Council of Ephesus (ie. Mary the Mother of God) in 431, this part of the prayer appeared in the mid-15th century, being codified by the Council of Trent in 1568)

http://www.memorare.com/mary/marianprayershistory.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hail_Mary

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosary

Pass through the Neutral

How do you beat your despair?

It is an often asked, often answered, but seldom satisfying, a question.
Well! My way should be simple, I suppose.

I believe I have a right to be desperate, just as I have a right to be hopeful.
To be desperate is not the final option but just a mid-place just as the neutral gear in the car. We have to pass through the neutral gear to reach one gear from the other.

The game is to keep on the movement.
The beginner may have some initial troubles with the neutral.
But when accustomed, we shift between higher and lower gears effortlessly
Without much bothering about the ‘Naughty Neutral’.

Despair is such a Neutral state.
It means nothing, neither the positive nor the negative.
It is an absence of hope, the force behind our wheels.
It all matters where you go from this state of decisive Neutrality.

You can’t stay long in despair (if so it becomes Melancholy, a not so normal condition)
You have to move on. It all matters to where do you move.
To up or to down?

Fishing Lessons: Graces should be Manageable!

It was a bright sunny morning. There were many people on the pier sitting almost still as in a meditation, waiting to feel the pull on their specially designed fishing lines with multiple hooks.

I stood there watching them in all expectation.

Suddenly the man next to me surprised us all with a great catch.
There were more than fifteen; practically each hook had a medium sized silver coloured booty on it.
I was excited to see it, but the man was a bit desperate.
“It’s all gone” he muttered in low voice, looking at me, with an apparent hesitation to lift the line up.
I felt even more surprised at the way he behaved so odd to this morning grace. But things became clear, when he began to draw the line back. It snapped the mid-way!!! He lost everything, the fish and the fishing line. I felt sad, but he was not. He had anticipated it already.

It is not enough that we are successful but is also must be manageable. For a success to benefit us, it should be in our control. Most of the times certain huge successes surprise us all unaware, but they never result any standing transformation.

That is why we are cursed to find many ‘lucky people’ falling back to their previous state of impoverishment, even though the heavens tried to lift them up through some really mind-blowing lottery prizes. Sadly and oddly enough those instances of glory literally blow their minds out of them, and they fail to mind their luck/success

Learning to manage our graces is of equal importance as that of attaining them.
We should learn how to manage our graces.

The curious Misunderstandings

Today it is about understandings and misunderstandings.

“You are such a lucky soul. Wherever you may go, there the people misunderstand you to be a good man.” This interesting observation was made by another about one of my friends. Quite often we struggle to understand the misunderstandings, because they are so vital to our social life.

Often I have thought that we understand ourselves and misunderstand others. But now it proves the other way around. In most of our personal lives, it is in the reverse. We misunderstand ourselves but read others with better and finer accuracy. We surprise them with our ‘Inner Wisdom’ by discovering even their hidden giftedness and blessedness.
We prove ourselves to be the successful mentor for their inner journey.

Here the bet is how well you grasp the width and the breadth of your own blessedness. It is not work of knowledge, but an act of discernment. When it is the matter of the other people, knowledge helps us to be factual and true; but to deal our own inner process we need the grace of discernment.

I am not to be like the biblical servant with a single talent. I am rich in graces, so too I am rich in responsibilities. (“Much will be required of the person entrusted with much,
and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more” Lk 12:48).

I should learn to count my own blessedness.
I should learn to grow out of my own misunderstandings about myself.

No nonsense Malayalam software: deshavani

at last it took me this much time
to discover this free and easy malayalam software:

www.deshavani.com

When A frog jumps....

“Into the ancient pond
A frog jumps
Water’s sound!”

What happens when a frog jumps into a pool….
I chanced upon this insightful Matsuo Bashô’s Frog Haiku.
It has over 100 translations and commentaries….(Wow!)

(http://www.bopsecrets.org/gateway/passages/basho-frog.htm)

http://no-sword.jp/blog/2007/10/types_of_frogs.html

http://www.zencommunity.org/html/articles/frog.html

Have a great Read....

art by Anne Hughes

The Inverted Grace:

At times it takes a lot of courage and a miraculous sense of patience, to look at life gracefully. We struggle hard with our words and concepts to get even the smaller and seemingly insignificant things right. Most of the times the knowledge of our limits becomes not a boon (which it supposed to be), but a bane that cuts us short of what we should would have to be. This is a real situation we all face, and it needs no further illustrations or examples to aid clarity. Do the Boundaries help us to surpass? It is often asked, sometimes in words, but mostly in silence of deep sighs.

I swear by four johari regions.There are It seems to me, all the boundaries I am aware of are not grace but indeed they are also not curses. They are in actuality, INVERTED GRACES. I have seen many limitations turn into great Possibilities. Boundaries helping people to abound in life.

Yes, I am in all my rights to turn all those limitations into expectations., boundaries into abounding streams of Gracefulness. Inverted Graces are to inverted into Invited graces…

This week busy with a library automation process............

Last week i was away for a retreat....

Chant Gregorian..the Lost Song of Gregory

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7468225911563224908

Fighting it over a psalm…(silly people and reasons)

The other day, I chanced upon a curious dispute: It was all about a set of Psalms to be used in a private prayer service. I found it to be totally unnecessary and a sort of ostentatious arrogance. I told them “Whatever Psalm you may recite, it is enough you are able to pray a prayer.”

But now it seems to me, that it has been an inherent nature of humanity to wage war over a broken mud-pot, in such situations wherein there is no any chance that you can jump out to conquer the continents. We always find reasons to fight each other, somehow. When you are not blessed with serious ones, you can make many little unnecessary ones…

Believe me, the worst destructive storms that the humanity have seen, never originated from the God’s skies, but from little tea-pots. However, the fight must go on and on…

philosophy of life: Brother Dennis

"God puts you where you need to be and later you see why "

I read about Rev. Dennis J. Klemash OFM cap in Charleston Daily Mail.
Pls read the article here.

peals from elsewhere...: Innovation and Acceptance

"Resistance is futile. Acceptance is the only way forward. Is it? "
(asks DK Matai a global risk specialist)

Robert Tucker on innovation:

'If you don't innovate, someone else will'

innovation is the process of coming up with ideas and bringing them to life. Any time you come up with an idea and implement it, you have essentially innovated. Not all ideas are commercially viable but, nevertheless, they are innovations.In business, the commercial viability of an innovation is of supreme importance.

in a corporate scenario, innovation is essentially of three types:

1. Product innovations, like the i-Pod or Post-It notes
2. Process innovation, when you come up with a new process that reduces time or cost or makes you reach from point A to point B faster: Toyota and Tata are continuously making process innovations.
3. Strategy innovation: Air Deccan, for instance. A couple of years ago it looked at low-cost airlines across the world, picked some of the best practices, and then made itself.

People by nature are creative, but you as an organization need to be able to tap it. Employees are either being creative at their work place or are going home to their sports, passions, interests and spending their creativity there.

the time between your implementing an idea and it being copied by competitors is the real life span of an innovation.

The story of Kevlar

Ideas can be implemented badly or they may be not be commercially viable, but there is nothing called "bad" innovation. Many times, an idea may be just ahead of its time.For instance, DuPont invented Kevlar, which is 10 times stronger than steel, many, many years ago. At the time tyre manufacturers, who were approached with the product, were not very keen. The product was not used for many years, until the company found new uses for it. Today, Kevlar is used by people who work with glass, oyster-opening gloves are made of Kevlar, armies and police personnel around the world use Kevlar vests, embassies of many nations have Kevlar curtains draped on their walls... So Kevlar was not a bad innovation. It was just not used correctly.

A company is the result of its ideas. When the leadership shows serious intent for innovation, it percolates to all levels and you build a culture of innovation. Behaviour that gets rewarded gets repeated.

Turning Wine into Water

Graham Brown sings:
.....................
And once upon a time you turned the water into wine
Now on my knees I'm turning to you father
Could you help me turn the wine back into water
............................

It is an earnest prayer of an alcoholic desiring to break out of that gripping habit...

The life of Ants: A visual story

"All the best work is done the way that ants do things --
by tiny but untiring and regular additions."
-Lafcadio Hearn-

My new Ant Visual-story at: http://flickr.com/photos/bencap

Reading Is Believing, or Not

"How to read Bible" by James L. Kugel
'nytimes' review of this book here.

Read also:

"The Bible and History"

"The Documentary Hypothesis"

The Secret: Law of attraction and Magical thinking

Pls steal some time to check these links below. I do not claim it to be absolutely true at all times, but this is not 100% nonsense either...

The Law of attraction

Magical thinking

The Movie "The Secret"

MENDING WALL: Robert Frost

"Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence." (MENDING WALL, Robert Frost )

Chak De! India claim thrilling Twenty20 win

India claim thrilling Twenty20 win
India claim thrilling Twenty20 win
India claim thrilling Twenty20 win'
India claim thrilling Twenty20 win
India claim thrilling Twenty20 win

"Sometimes winning is everything"

we were waitng for this moment!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank You for making this so memorable........

Intimate Experiences:

Creation would have been such an intimate experience to God.
For even today men and women share it with no less reduced intimacy.

In intimacy the breath becomes life,
Just as god breathed life into the nostrils of Man.
That Man is the face of Humanity,
Humanity altogether is the face of God,

What would that breath of God would smell like?
In ‘Song of Songs’ the lovers find it as the fragrance of apple.
Breath of God in the fragrance of an apple
“thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one bead of thy necklace”

Struggling to make history

(A certain old Cretan Captain, now a shepherd received a citation inscribed on a parchment in the red and black letters, congratulating him on his acts of bravery and declaring him a hero)

“What is the Paper?” He asked the messenger with irritation.
“Did my sheep get into somebody’s Wheatfield again? Do I have to pay damages?”

The messenger unrolled the citation joyfully and read it aloud.
“ put it in ordinary language so I can understand. What does it mean?”

“ It means you are a hero. Your nation sends you this citation so you can frame it for your children”
The captain extended his huge paw.
“give it here”
Seizing the parchment, he ripped it in shreds and threw it into the fire beneath a caldron of boiling milk.

“Go and tell them I didn’t fight to receive a piece of paper. I fought to make history”

(Liberty: Report to Greco, Nikos Kazantzakis)

Sometimes we forget that we all struggle to make history,
for the convenience of piece of paper though it may be in the form of a currency, of a certificate!!!!

Enter through the Proper door

It is essential to enter the right place through the right way.

Sometimes we fail to enter the Old Testament , through the right door.
That door is Christ Jesus, it is only through him we grasp the unfolding of the divine mystery of the Old Testament.

If we fail to enter through that ‘Christ – Door’, The old testament will be a fairy tale, full of beautiful gardens, dreams, the devil, angels, and lot of other fascinations….everything except salvation.
The New Testament will then become a place where nothing new really exists, just an uninteresting travelogue.

Do not fail the scriptures…. Enter through the right door (Christ),
read in the correct light (Holy Sprit).

Quietness: Rumi ( Sufi poetry)

Inside this new love, die.
Your way begins on the other side.

Become the sky,
Take an axe to the prison wall.
Escape.

Walk out like someone suddenly born into color.
Do it now.

You're covered with thick cloud.

Slide out the side. Die,
and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign
that you've died.

Your old life was a frantic running
from silence.

The speechless full moon
comes out now.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2nYZSoIMY8

let us hear the bird

“Be quiet, sir, Be quiet let us hear the bird”

cries little Nikolas to his master Periander krasakis

“A little madness is the grain of salt which keeps good sense from rotting”

(Report to Grecco- Nikos Kazantzakis)

theo jansen: the new creator

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_Jansen
http://www.strandbeest.com/
http://www.strandbeestmovie.com/

I know these links will speak more and better about this wonderful atrist: Theo Jansen.
seeing is believing
http://www.seeingisbelieving.ca/

The Road to Emmaus: Christ Experience

They had a personal knowledge about Jesus, and were curious about the things that happened in Jerusalem those days.
( we all have personal interest in Jesus)

Through out their journey they had the presence of the Word of God, which they later explained as a heart burning experience.
( we have read the scripture and experienced the divine touch of it at least in the minimum)

But they could experience Jesus only at the table when he broke the bread.

( But all these individual interest and knowledge of the scripture is not enough..., one should dare to be incorporated to the body of Mystical Christ, The church.
Experience him in the Eucharist. )


Christ experience = Personal search + Holy Scripture + Holy Eucharist
( if you miss anyone, dare to incorporate it quick……no shortcuts to grace.)

The Hush of heaven

How to listen to the hush of heaven?

I know Hugh Prather has a saying on it.
I have read it in his book “Spiritual Notes to myself”.
I searched the pages again…for almost three days!!!
No way ..i cant find it.
It seems like a fairy tale…
You read it at one time and miss to find it another time…
I am waiting for the ‘hush of heaven’

:::The Hush of Heaven:::

nirvana...Kahlil Gibran

“Yes,
there is Nirvana;
it is in leading your sheep to a green pasture,
and in putting your child to sleep,
and in writing the last line of your poem”

:::Kahlil Gibran:::

This is how Mat experienced ‘Life of Pi’

"Dear Mat,
I know, you will be surprised by this post, if not shocked.
You may even shout at your mom…
Please don’t be the either….
You have a great sense of words and expression.

And when you make it big in the home of words,
Remember that it is me ,who published (stealing!!!) you first.

Love,
Ben."

(Please read this brilliant essay by Mat, on Yann Martel’s Life of Pi.)

Although the novel was required reading for my tenth grade Language Arts class, I find the theme of Yann Martel’s Life of Pi to be a solid guide to living one’s life. (I don’t discount the importance of this book because I did not discover it myself; instead, I value its message even more highly, considering the serendipitous encounter.) The novel stresses the idea of embracing numerous philosophies and of respecting all points of view to come to a better understanding of one’s self and one’s world. In a broader sense, this message can be applied to all corners of life: the main character’s desire to understand different visions of his world can be interpreted as a feeling of discontent with limiting himself to any singular lifestyle. Between these two ideals of well-rounded open-mindedness and uninhibited ambition lies all that I aspire to be. Before reading this novel, I was a strictly academic student. Afterwards, I found a calling in various other activities, from volunteer work to athletics. And although engaging in new experiences can prove a daunting task that can stretch a person thin, I approach each task with great resolve and commitment, while ignoring the fear of putting myself in a position where I may always struggle to succeed in the wake of others’ triumphs.

Fully applying myself on a difficult project of any kind creates a sense of satisfaction that fuels my desire for success in every activity. The feeling of having done something impressive is almost an addiction for me, and I am consistently fascinated with the amount of success attainable through the proper use of hard work.

Regardless, I cannot assume full credit for my accomplishments. Although I take pride my undertakings, and I believe strongly in a stringent work ethic, I realize that I am fortunate enough to be in a position where I can succeed. I find that accrediting oneself alone for accomplishments derived from natural talents is hopelessly arrogant; I am not personally responsible for my intelligence, I merely utilize the resources I was born with to the best of my ability. And so many people have had a hand in my development: a supporting family, inspiring teachers, close friends. In considering these factors, I have concluded that I am in debt to these people and others, and that squandering any opportunities I have to benefit others by engaging in selfish endeavors would be truly disappointing, even morally objectionable. So ultimately, I hope that years of hard work will result in a career where I can do just this, to repay the world for all the good fortune it has given me, because anything else would be a massive waste of potential

The magic of Bible : The story and the storyteller

We never let any story to remain uncompleted.
and that is the magic of the Bible.
He told it al in the forms of parables and stories.
Now, even after many millennia, we feel the fascination
A fascination to narrate and to listen to stories…

Stories are ‘Repeated Grace’.
We have listened to the gospel stories quite a lot of time.
But hey have a magic within them;
Each time they transport to the realm so different.
Sometimes surreal, sometimes so tangible
It varies… and it is in that variety the magic lies…

Often we talk about the storyteller fashioning the story
But, at times is the other way around.
The storyteller is moulded by the story he tells.

The Bible is all about the stories and the storytellers…
Moulding and creating us all anew…
Let the stories make better the storytellers…

Nikos Kazantzakis: Three prayers

1. I am a bow in your hands, lord. Draw me. Lest I rot.
2. Do not overdraw me, Lord. I shall break
3. Overdraw me, Lord and who cares if I break!

When Grace Never Delays:

It takes a pristine sense of time to obtain graces.
Having been forced to delay for the nuptial ceremony for a couple of hours, by traffic congestion
the bride and the bridegroom reached the chapel, very tense and their glued to the Gothic clock on the wall.
But, they were greeted with a graceful welcome, assuring them of Graces that will never go delay.
It was from the timely thoughtfulness of a patient minister.

This indeed is one of the greatest blessings in life to have such an assurance of timely graces.
Whenever and wherever you are in need of a divine intervention,
Believe it, the angels of heaven will reach you in time.
Angels never delay…

Tail end:
We should have two clocks in the churches.
One for the pastor to be aware of,
and the another for the congregation to be beware of.

From the Reading Desk: Nikos Kazantzakis and the Divinely Despair

God is the most resplendent face of despair. ,
the most resplendent face of hope.
You are pushing me beyond hope and despair,
Grandfather, beyond all age-old frontiers.

Where?
I gaze around me,
I gaze inside me.
Virtue has gone mad, geometry and matter have gone mad.
The law-giving mind must come again to establish a new order, new laws.
The world must become a richer harmony

( Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco)

Why the butterflies refuse to fly away?

Nature at its uninterrupted best knows no fear. Chasing a group of butterflies, the other day, was a fresh experience. It was not a typical wild area, but really a calm, serene, and secluded area in this vast rubber plantation near to my stay. I could sit close, point my macro lens so close, as if almost touching them…but they refused to fly away… They never bothered about my presence. My friend Joyson too shares a similar “ butterfly effect” that occurred to him while filming at the Alpine ranges in Venice. Nature at its undiluted and unpetrified best , knows no fear. Mel Gibson’s latest film “Apocalypto” too reels on this subtle aspect of fear. Fear is death.

All scriptures ask men to be bold.
The Bible asks us not to be afraid
Krishna asks Arjuna the same,
Buddha asks his disciples the same,
Prophet Mohammed exhorts his followers the same.)
Scientists also asks us the same
(http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040117/bob9.asp).
Okay fear not…..do dare, for nature at its best is fearless

Stealing the sun and moon

today we shall reach an agreement
that we will never steal each other
of our sun and moon,
of grace and wisdom.

Also we promise each other,
even if everything else fails
we will not fail each other.

And if we see, everything is lost,
we promise each other
to evolve ourselves...
into a new sun, moon, wisdom and grace.

Yes! we will evolve...
lest we all will be lost,
groping in the endless darkness...

The children of heaven”

“ The children of heaven” an Iranian Movie directed by Majid Majidi, tells the story of two kids who struggle to grow up in the limited situations. The boy participates in a footrace in order to win the ‘third’ place. It was his haunting need of the moment to have a decent pair of shoes, and the third prize was a pair of shoes!!!

We should strive for only those successes that matter us the most. We shall not force ourselves, out of sheer instinctual compulsion of the “survival of the fittest’’. All our success should really benefit us.

Tomb of Jesus: where is it?

I was searching for the tomb of Jesus on the internet land
I find this interesting data from net….
Kashmiries will fight with Japanese…for sure..hahahah

My general search tag:
http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=tomb+of+jesus

‘Titanic’ Director has his own discovery:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6397373.stm

Kashmir friends want to have Jesus tomb amidst them at any cost:
http://www.tombofjesus.com/2007/home.html

But Japan is not to be left behind, they too have Jesus’ tomb:
http://thiaoouba.com/tomb.htm


Now read a theological study by Dr. William Lane Craig:
http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/docs/tomb2.html

My dear Jesus, It never matters me to locate and struggle for your empty tomb so much more than experiencing you….

The art of loving: Erich Fromm

"Most people see the problem of love primarily as that of being loved rather than that of loving, of one's capacity to love."

Is love an art? Then it requires knowledge and effort. Or is love a pleasant sensation, which to experience is a matter of chance, something one "falls into" if one is lucky? This little book is based on the former premise, while undoubtedly the majority of people today believe in the latter.

Not that people think that love is not important. They are starved for it; they watch endless numbers of films about happy and unhappy love stories, they listen to hundreds of trashy songs about love -- yet hardly anyone thinks that there is anything that needs to be learned about love.

This peculiar attitude is based on several premises which either singly or combined tend to uphold it. Most people see the problem of love primarily as that of being loved rather than that of loving, of one's capacity to love. Hence the problem to them is how to be loved, how to be lovable. In pursuit of this aim they follow several paths. One, which is especially used by men, is to be successful, to be as powerful and rich as the social margin of one's position permits. An-other, used especially by women, is to make oneself attractive, by cultivating one's body, dress, etc. Other ways of making, oneself attractive, used both by men and women, are to develop pleasant manners, interesting conversation, to be helpful, modest, inoffensive. Many of the ways to make oneself lovable are the same as those used to make oneself successful, "to win friends and influence people." As a matter of fact, what most people in our culture mean by being lovable is essentially a mixture between being popular and having sex appeal.

A second premise behind the attitude that there is nothing to be learned about love is the assumption that the problem of love is the problem of an object, not the problem of a faculty. People think that to love is simple, but that to find the right object to love--or to be loved by--is difficult. This attitude has several reasons rooted in the development of modem society. One reason is the great change which occurred in the twentieth century with respect to the choice of a "love object."

(from the book "the art of loving")

Risking it for a Stigmatist:Fr. Zlatko Sudac

I know I will be risking my Analytics ratings….
But I post this.
I am sure 50% of my friends will be interested in this…
40% will be annoyed…
and 10% will not be affected at all…

pls follow the link below:
http://www.stjeromecroatian.org/eng/frsudac.html to read about Fr. Zlatko Sudac,
( what is Hype and happening?)

I do not advocate or promote… I just point at..

Thank You readers

This  is  to say a big thanks to all those friends out there 
who visit this little blog.
Thanks to al who have pointed their feed readers
 to my blog.
The Analytics report makes me more encouraged, 
and a bit more conscious 
about what i scrrible here...

Thank YouVery Much!!!!

Gregory Colbert: Ashes and Snow

“When I started Ashes and Snow in 1992, I set out to explore the relationship between man and animals from the inside out.”
—Gregory Colbert

Canadian-born artist Gregory Colbert began his career in Paris making documentary films about social issues. Filmmaking led to his work as a fine arts photographer, and the first public exhibition of his work was held in 1992 at the Musée de l’Elysée in Switzerland.

For the next ten years, Colbert showed no films and exhibited none of his art. Instead, he travelled to such places as India, Burma, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Dominica, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tonga, Namibia, and Antarctica to film and photograph wondrous interactions between human beings and animals.

In 2002, he launched the Ashes and Snow exhibition in Italy at the Venice Arsenale, a 125,000-square-foot shipyard owned by the Italian navy.Built in 1104, the Arsenale was originally used to construct and launch boats to sea via the Venetian canals. Ashes and Snow was the largest solo exhibition ever mounted in Italy. The interior architecture of the Arsenale provided an ideal setting for the exhibition, and served as the model for the Nomadic Museum, which debuted with the opening of Ashes and Snow in New York City in March 2005. The museum then travelled to Santa Monica in January 2006, and Tokyo in March 2007.

More than 1.5 million people have attended the show since its debut in Venice, Italy. The project has been embraced by both the general public and a critical audience. Gregory Colbert received the 2005 Lucie Award for Curator of the Year for the Ashes and Snow installation at the Nomadic Museum in New York and the 2007 THEA Award for Outstanding Achievement in a Museum or Touring Attraction.

Colbert continues his expeditions and the development of Ashes and Snow.

Narrow gates

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

In Some places narrow gates are a must.
“ Enter through the narrow Gate” exhorts the bible.
We live in a world which never believes in doors…
It always asks us to ‘Open Up’

But Have you ever noticed that all the important places are well protected with ‘narrow entries’
Yes! Entry to the places that contain valuables, are always restricted.
You enter through a narrow door that helps Scrutiny
It helps us to know and regulate who enters in and goes out…

Your life is a precious thing before God.
Protect it by keeping some narrow doors of gifted discernment.
Ask the Holy Spirit for it…
He will enlighten you.

Through the eye of a needle: part-2

Sometimes gods lets camels through the eye of a needle.
The birth of nations from Father Abraham was such…
The journey of Israel from Egypt to canan was such…
The birth of Lord Jesus was such…

But miracles never limits themselves in the pages of bible.
It happens in our lives too.
Be open minded, in complete hope and faith.
Trust that things can happening your lives too.
Then, believe me, camels will begins to walk through the needle eyes…..

Through the eye of a needle:

Through the eye of a needle:

I thought that I will write about this here too.
But I searched the net…and found this interesting poem with the same title
By Stephen Mitchell in April 1991 issue of ‘Theology today’

So pls read it first….I can write later…

Through the Eye of the Needle
By Stephen Mitchell

The camel catches his breath, wipes the sweat from his brow. It was a tight squeeze, but he made it.

Lying back on the unbelievably lush grass, he remembers: all those years (how excruciating they were!) of fasting and one-pointed concentration, until finally he was thin enough: thaumaturgically thin, thread-thin, almost unrecognizable in his camelness: until the moment in front of the unblinking eye, when he put his front hooves together. Took one long last breath. Aimed. Dived.

The exception may prove the rule, but what proves the exception? "It is not that such things are possible," the camel thinks, smiling. "But such things are possible for me."

Read more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Through_the_Needle's_Eye

I am the dawn; and the new day Begun;

New Journey: Celtic woman

I am the dawn; and the new day Begun;
I bring you the morning; I bring you the sun;
I hold back the night and I open the skies;
I give light to the world; I give sight to your eyes;
From the first of all time, until Time is undone,
Forever and ever and ever and ever,
And i am the Dawn and the Sky and the Sun -
I am one with the One, and i am the Dawn.

I am the dawn; and the new day Begun;

New Journey: Celtic woman

I am the dawn; and the new day Begun;
I bring you the morning; I bring you the sun;
I hold back the night and I open the skies;
I give light to the world; I give sight to your eyes;
From the first of all time, until Time is undone,
Forever and ever and ever and ever,
And i am the Dawn and the Sky and the Sun -
I am one with the One, and i am the Dawn.

Only God can make a tree

“I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree”
Joyce Kilmer (American Writer, 1886-1918)

Papal trees to be chopped down
By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer
Tue Aug 14, 11:11 AM ET

VIENNA, Austria - They were planted to honor one pope. Now they're being purged for another.

Four stately lime trees ceremoniously planted near a popular Roman Catholic shrine in 1983 for a visit to Austria by the late Pope John Paul II are being uprooted to make way for a large grandstand for next month's pilgrimage by Pope Benedict XVI.

Environmentalists have criticized the action, but church and municipal officials are playing down the trees' significance.

"This shows the hypocrisy of the church," said Lambert Schoenleitner, a regional spokesman for the environmentalist Green Party in the southern province of Styria.

Schoenleitner believes nature should be revered as much as faith and doesn't think trees should be sacrificed for an event that will last just a few hours.

Organizers say the trees must go to make room for a 52 1/2-foot-high steel grandstand to accommodate some of the thousands of pilgrims who will flock to the shrine town of Mariazell, 60 miles southwest of Vienna.

During his Sept. 7-9 visit, the seventh foreign trip in his two-year papacy, Benedict will make a stop in Mariazell to mark the 850th anniversary of its founding.

Officials conceded that a few more trees might have to be felled for the pope's stop in Mariazell, which the Archdiocese of Vienna considers the highlight of his visit. Up to 30,000 faithful are expected to converge on the shrine to the Virgin Mary.

"Environmentalists have already been calling" to express their displeasure, hotelier Klaus Kloepfer told the Austria Press Agency on Tuesday.

Kloepfer, who owns the Schwarzer Adler Hotel, said local businessmen are unhappy that the trees are coming down — and are just peeved in general over all the preparations.

The four limes were planted to decorate Mariazell's main square for John Paul's first visit to the alpine country. John Paul made two other trips to overwhelmingly Catholic Austria in 1988 and 1998. He died in 2005.

Municipal and diocesan officials in Mariazell played down the controversy over the trees, insisting they are not being cut down solely for the pope's stop but as part of a general makeover of the plaza.

"The church does not sacrifice trees," Paul Wuthe, a spokesman for the papal visit, told the Catholic news agency Kathpress.

Benedict's visit will be his first to Austria as pope, though the German-born pontiff was a frequent visitor as a cardinal.

The pope also will meet with diplomats accredited to U.N. and other international organizations in Vienna, stop by a monument to Jewish victims of the Holocaust, celebrate a Mass at Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral and visit the Heiligenkreuz abbey outside the capital.

Mariazell Mayor Helmut Pertl told the Kleine Zeitung daily he thinks the fuss is completely overblown.

"If this was my biggest worry, I'd be pretty happy," he said.

Genius and Madness

Creativity and mood: The myth that madness heightens creative genius.
By:Hara Estroff Marano

There may be a link between creativity and mental disorders, but it is probably not in the way that you think. There is a widespread highly romanticized belief that madness somehow heightens creative genius among artists, writers, and musicians. And that may be because we romanticize the idea of artistic inspiration.

As with mental disorders, there is something mysterious and unexplainable about the creative process. But all significant creative leaps have two very important components—talent and technique. By far the most universal and necessary aspect of technique is dogged persistence, which is anything but romantic.

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, best known for his work on flow, has spent four decades studying the creative process. He recounts the experience of sculptor Nina Holton. "Tell anybody you're a sculptor and they'll say, 'Oh, how exciting, how wonderful,'" Holton told him. Her response to such comments: "What's so wonderful?" Then she explains that being a sculptor is "like being a mason or a carpenter half the time." She finds that "they don't wish to hear that because they really only imagine the first part, the exciting part. But, as Khruschev once said, that doesn't fry pancakes, you see. That germ of an idea does not make a sculpture that stands up. So the next stage is the hard work. Can you really translate it into a piece of sculpture?"

Even acknowledged creative geniuses find that endurance must follow intuition. Einstein's ideas were not worked out in a day. It takes a great deal of discipline, and often many bouts of trial and error, to work out an idea. Follow-through is critical to the realization of an idea. Discipline is not a hallmark of minds in the throes of emotional distress. "Despite the carefree air that many creative people effect," says Csikszentmihalyi, "most of them work late into the night and persist when less driven individuals would not."

Even having ideas can take a great deal of discipline. Robert Root-Bernstein is another long-time observer of the creative process. "If the writer doesn't sit at the computer every day," he points out. "The muse is not going to visit."

Nevertheless, some forms of emotional distress are more common among writers, artists and musicians. Serious depression strikes artists ten times more often than it does the general population. The link, however, is not creativity. Artists are more likely to be self-reflective and to ruminate, to mull things over. And that thinking style—as opposed to creativity itself—is a hallmark of depression and commonly leads to it.

Evidence that madness does nothing to heighten creative genius comes from a study done by psychologist Robert Weisberg. He studied in detail the creative output, along with the letters and medical records, of composer Robert Schumann, who was known to endure bouts of manic depression that drove him to attempt suicide.

Indeed, Schumann wrote a great deal of music during his manic intervals. But quantity is one thing and quality is another. Truly creative people are not just capable of producing novelty; they must have the ability to tell a good idea from a bad idea. Weisberg found that Schumann's compositional output indeed swelled during his manic years, but the average quality of his efforts did not change. To judge compositional caliber, Weisberg relied on an objective measure: the number of recordings available of a given work.

When mania struck, Schumann wrote more great pieces—but he also turned out more ordinary ones, too. Mania "jacks up the energy level," Weisberg points out, "but it doesn't give the person access to ideas that he or she wouldn't have had otherwise."

It's entirely possible, Weisberg notes, that the elevated rates of mental disorders among artistic geniuses comes about as a result of the creative lifestyle, which hardly provides emotional stability. Many artists struggle against poverty and public indifference in their lifetime. And if they do indeed produce works that are acclaimed, they could succumb to the overwhelming pressure to live up to their earlier successes.

What's more, says Csikszentmihalyi, the openness and sensitivity of creative people can expose them to suffering and pain. As electrical engineer Jacob Rabinow told him, "Inventors have a low threshold of pain. Things bother them." And yet, few things in life bring more satisfaction and fulfillment than the process of creation.

Via Crucis: A must-watch video

Please, please watch this movie by Eric Forrest on the persecution of Catholics in China. It is a dramatization that so powerful it will have you reflecting on all that we take for granted in the free world, especially the freedom to get up, walk out the door and go to Mass, or to be absolved of our sins, or to get baptized.



special thanks to Deacon Greg Kandra

:::::world's greatest photograph and camera:::::

Finished Size: 07'-5" X 31'-5"; 3,375 square feet.
Image size: 28 feet x 108 feet, 3,024 square feet in a single, seamless piece of fabric
Photograph type: black and white negative image with a gelatin sizing and a hand-coated silver gelatin emulsion
Subjects depicted in the photograph: the MCAS El Toro control tower, twin runways, and heart of the future Orange County Great Park, with a backdrop of the San Joaquin Hills and the Laguna Wilderness
Location: former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, Irvine, CA
Camera location: Bldg: #115, a former fighter plane hangar that served as a helicopter hangar for the Seaelk squadron during its final days.
Camera size: 44'-2" feet high by 79'-6" feet deep by 161'-6" feet wide.
Materials used to darken the airplane hangar to make it into a camera:
24,000 square feet of six mil black viscuine
1,300 gallons foam gap filler
1.52 miles of two-inch wide black gorilla tape
40 cans of black spray paint
Fabric base of the photograph: single seamless piece of unbleached muslin specially ordered from Germany
Total weight of fabric and rigging: 1,200 pounds
Aperture size: one-quarter inch (6mm) pinhole—no lens or optics were used
Aperture height: 15 feet
Date of emulsion coating: July 7, 2006
Emulsion: 80 liters of Rockland Liquid Light—a gelatin silver black and white sensitizer hand-painted onto the fabric under safelight illumination. Emulsion applied on July 7, 2006.
Date of exposure: July 8, 2006 at 11am
Exposure time: 35 minutes beginning at 11:30 a.m. July 8, 2006
Developing materials: 600 gallons traditional B&W developer, 1,200 gallons fixer
Developing “tray”: Eight mil vinyl pool liner contained by a wooden sidewall-114 feet X 35 feet X 6 inches deep
Print Wash: Twin 4.5 inch fire hoses connected to a pair of hydrants tested at 750 gallons-per-minute

Sanctioned by the Guinness Book of Records as the World’s Largest Camera
Sanctioned by the Guinness Book of Records as the World’s Largest Photograph


http://www.legacyphotoproject.com/

Aye_Mere_Watan_Ke_Logo

O! the people of my motherland!
Raise all the slogans you desire,
This is a great day for us all,
Hoist your beloved tricolor,
But don't forget on the border,
The brave did lose their lives,
And remember each great soldier,
Who did not return home ever,
O! the people of my motherland!
Shed a few tears,
For those who martyred on ice,
Remember their great sacrifice!
When injured was the Himalayan might,
Our freedom was in jeopardy,
Till their last breath did they fight,
And then laid their dead body,
Resting their head on the soil,
Sacrificed and slept immortal,
For those who martyred on ice,
Remember their great sacrifice!
When the country celebrated Diwali,
They played the bloody game of Holi,
When we were sitting safe at our homes,
They dealt with deadly bullets and bombs.
Blessed they were those soldiers,
Blessed were their youths,
For those who martyred on ice,
Remember their great sacrifice!
Some Sikh, some Jaat and Maratha,
Some were Gurkha or Madrasi,
But each soldier who died on the border,
Was a brave Hindustani.
The blood that stained the mountain,
That blood was that of an Indian,
For those who martyred on ice,
Remember their great sacrifice!
With blood their body was drenched,
Yet they lifted their rifle and aimed,
One killed tens of the enemy,
Then fell down unconsciously.
When the final moment came on,
They said they will die now,
Be happy! O beloved of the nation,
We embark on eternal journey now,
How great were those patriots,
How great was their pride,
For those who martyred on ice,
Remember their great sacrifice!
Don't you ever forget their glory,
So I narrate this noble story,
For those who martyred on ice,
Remember their great sacrifice!
Victory to India!, Victory to her army!
Victory to India!
Victory to India!
Victory to India

Crossing the Tiber: (republished material)

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::Republished material:::::::::::::::::::::::::::


This morning, I stumbled across this good piece from a Tyler, Texas newspaper, about the conversion phenomenon commonly known as "Crossing the Tiber" -- when Protestants become Catholic. With some prominent Americans -- including a presidential candidate -- among those who have crossed that river to Rome (symbolically, if not literally), the paper decided to investigate what it means.

They uncovered some rich conversion stories:

When Lori Harris, 49, tried to express what it meant to become a Catholic after being raised in the Church of God of Prophecy, she got tears in her eyes. The buoyant former missionary and home-school teacher was momentarily and uncharacteristically speechless.

"I can't explain it," she finally said in a high, squeaky voice as tears appeared. "I started taking communion as a kid. We even made the flat bread at home for use in our church."

But something was missing from her years as a Protestant Christian, she said. She turned to the Catholic Church and said she found "a deeper expression."

"I saw that through the Eucharist, the (Catholic) church was holding a form and holiness that Protestants simply do not," she said. "There was a deeper understanding of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross."

Mrs. Harris was the daughter of a nonbeliever who was "called to preach" upon conversion in his mid-20s. She was 5 years old.

"Daddy preached in Argo at a small church of about 50, and momma played the Gibson guitar at worship time," she said. "We had the gifts of the spirit, of course, at the church. We prayed for healing for everyone who came to us. We had a jar of (anointing) oil by the door at home for anybody who walked in with a need. We had no medicines at home. We believed in God to heal us. We believed in miracles. I still do. We kids sat in the pews until we fell asleep during late-night revival meetings. Church was our life."

After studying Catholicism for "about three years," she came to Catholicism in 2007. The "Tiber" was popularized by (R.R.) Reno in his book, "In The Ruins of the Church," explained Mrs. Harris.

"The Tiber River is in Rome, but it really means to the crossing over from Protestantism to Catholicism," she said. "I crossed the Tiber on Good Friday of 2007."
There's more, much more, so wander back to the link and continue. We who have grown up in the faith tend to forget just how meaningful it can be to those who are newly arrived. It's good to be reminded of that.


Posted by Deacon Greg Kandra