Falling in love in Paris

I just spent a week in Paris and I had a fabulous time. I went crazy for the gardens, the museums, the churches and the wonderful sweets. The weather was perfect - sunny yet cool. The roses were blooming, the trees were changing colour and shedding their leaves. There were just so much beauty assaulting my senses whether it was nature, the architecture or the art. Love. Love. Love,

What I found very encouraging was that people still believed in God and loved Jesus. Mass attendance was not just new immigrants but those of French descent themselves, young and old. There is a great love and reverence for Mary as the mother of Jesus. There were just so many Marian Churches which leads me to believe it is our Mother who is helping to draw people to her Son still.

Part of French culture, or should I say Parisian culture specifically, is Catholicism. The artists, the writers, the politicians, the great thinkers of old, many were Catholic. And even if the creative monde weren’t practising Catholics, many were commissioned to create works that had a religious bent and bore glorious results. 

The beauty of the stained glass and murals adorning most churches I visited are all attempts to glorify God and impart a sense of reverence for our Maker. I have to say I did experience the intended sense of awe. It was wonderful to be able to celebrate the Eucharist daily in any church several times a day. It was also inspiring to visit the tombs or discover relics of so many saints and martyrs in Paris. So many incorrupt bodies of saints, so many places where holiness resides. So many wow moments for me. 

While the week was a vacation, it was a pilgrimage of sorts for me as well. I got to know more saints, read about their lives and spiritualities, and I had time to reflect and pray, whether I was sitting quietly in church, or walking outside in the sunshine. 

Life is beautiful. Life is good. God is beautiful. God is good. I found myself falling in love, again, and again, and again. Thank you, Paris, you are indeed beautiful in the fall. Thank you, Lord, for allowing me to find you and love you in this beautiful city in so many ways.

Redemptive suffering

Thank you Father Bobby for sharing how and why we should make our suffering an instrument of salvation. Suffering need not be heedless or wasted. It can be more powerful than we think if we let God enter into our suffering and transform it.

Certainly suffering is never welcome

We don’t usually wish it on ourselves

But God is bigger than anyone or anything

So we can make it work for us

using it to save others’ souls 

while bringing comfort and consolation.

For redemptive suffering helps us

grow in holiness even as we make amends

for our own sins and shortcomings, 

All in one intentional act of selflessness.

Suffering can be an invitation to love more:

As we pray for family, friends and strangers

Where even enemies become brothers and sisters,

For sharing the same cup of bitterness unites us 

lending power to our painful prayer offerings,

We become more Christ-like when we choose to care.  

Let’s not forget the holy souls in purgatory, 

Especially those we’ve loved and lost,

Our own reparation is refined in our intercession

So pray for a thousand souls each day

Remember the nameless and faceless.

Nothing could be sweeter than eucharistia, 

As we lift our hands and hearts in thanksgiving,

At that sublime, sacred moment,

Our hearts and Christ’s are one.

The cross never looked more beautiful, more radiant. 

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!

Word of testimony

I just attended a three-day retreat at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament over the weekend past and it was like a spiritual vitamin shot in the arm. The theme was: Rebuild my church, what Saint Francis of Assisi heard the Lord say to him in San Damiano. Father Bobby Emprayil, a Vincentian priest living in Manipur was our retreat master and he was a most inspiring preacher. 

In order to build the Kingdom of God, or Mother Church, the first order is to examine ourselves as temples of God, and see what we need to do to effect some self-restoration. 

Part two of the rebuild is the focus on how we can influence our families in positive ways, bring change in these mini churches of imperfect, broken relationships. By our own strength, our efforts are often futile. However, if we clothe ourselves in God’s holiness, and continue to do His will in all things, undeterred by hostile intransigence, the blights on our family tree can disappear, and give way to a healthy crop of good fruit. 

The final piece of the puzzle involves our efforts not just within our parishes - just as we receive so must we give to ensure our parishes are flourishing physically and spiritually - but beyond. As true disciples of Christ we must be as serious and unflagging as He was in saving souls: to the ends of the earth, at all times. Sounds daunting? It is. 

The reality is we live in a world where forces of evil are present and where we are beset every day with new challenges and setbacks. There are limitations to our energies and capabilities, constraints to our circumstances. Suffering is real. Yet we are called to seek God, know God, and love God with all our strength (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph1). And He supplies us with all we need in order to reciprocate His tender, inexplicable love for us. As it says in Matthew 6:33 seek first His kingdom and all things will be given to you. 

Father Bobby highlighted ways in which we can shore up the foundations of our temples and grow in endurance which he describes as the willingness to accept any form of suffering with good cheer. Here they are:

Personal holiness. We need to live good Christian lives: praying constantly and availing ourselves of the sacraments on a frequent and regular basis. We also need to release unconditional forgiveness to those who hurt us, stay close to God in meek humility, and actively seeking to build up God’s kingdom. In this way we can rebuild ancient ruins and renew cities that have been devastated for generations (Isaiah 61:4). All things are possible. 

Commitment to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. A devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus will help us cultivate the zeal to save all souls, which is the will of the Father that Jesus took upon Himself to carry out to the point of giving His life up. It’s important to consecrate our families to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and commit to praying daily not just the Sacred Heart of Jesus devotion, but also the Divine Mercy chaplet. Fasting, as well as going for reconciliation and attending mass every first Friday of the month are recommended.

Commitment to the Word of God. Proclaim the Word of God out loud every day for there is great power when we speak the Word out loud and meditate on it. And for those of us who have not read the Bible cover to cover, Father Bobby encourages us to proclaim the Bible 30 minutes every day and to eventually read it from Genesis to Revelations in totality, at least once for starters. Father Bobby himself displays an impressive lively and intimate knowledge of the Word which also shows up in his humility, zeal and love for God. 

The Word of God is our personal protection for as Revelations 19:14 states the armies of heaven follow the Word of God, and verse 15 reminds us that out of his mouth comes a sword that can strike down nations. So when we pronounce and live the Word with faith, this will bring spirit and life into our families. Deep commitment will bring about deliverance. Change is around the corner. 

Commitment to our three mothers, earthly, heavenly and spiritual. 

1. We need to care for, spend time with and pray for the mothers who bore us, honouring the fourth commandment given to us. (Fathers are not left out but mothers do hold a special place in our hearts.)
2. To show our love and respect for Mother Mary, our heavenly mother, we should pray the rosary daily, which we already know is a powerful way to rout the evil one and this sincere and steadfast action of prayer gives rise to miracles.
3. The spiritual mother that helps us grow in faith is the holy Catholic Church. Mother Church, be it in Rome or where we reside is where the Trinity lives, where the saints and angels dwell. This is our church victorious and we need to honour and love our church, warts and all. Be of active service in your parish.

Commitment to giving/thanksgiving. The practice of tithing is highly recommended: one tenth of earned income, so that we know nothing we earn is by our own efforts, we are but stewards. Ownership is the Lord’s. If we give to God what is His, the whole tithe, then He in turn will pour out an overflowing blessing on us (Malachi 3:10). We are reminded to also be cheerful givers and to keep giving in the same vein Jesus Christ himself did, think woman at the well, feeding the hungry 5,000, the Gerasene demoniac...no one gets left behind. Jesus had a great desire for saving souls and so must we as His disciples. It’s something all the saints knew and engaged in as well. A good daily prayer to include in our arsenal of prayer: Jesus and Mary I love you, save souls.

Commitment/love for the Eucharist. The Eucharist is at the heart of the church from where miracles and deliverance occur. It is the source and summit of Christian life (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1322) and to love the Eucharist is to listen to the heartbeat of the Lord. Besides daily mass, frequent visits to the Adoration Room are de rigeur. When we sit in front of Eucharist, we either hear the Lord’s heartbeat or, like Judas, we can allow Satan to enter into us so we must stay vigilant at all times in thought, word and action. Use our tongues only to bless others.

Readiness to accept suffering for the salvation of souls. 

Suffering does not come from God, although it exists in the world and we often experience it through no fault of our own. It is invariably used by the evil one to keep us far from God. However, when we unite what we are going through with the suffering of Jesus on the cross, when we honour His mission of saving souls, we transform our suffering, we make it redemptive, an instrument of salvation for others. 

2 Corinthians 7:10 tells us godly grief brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret whereas worldly sorrow brings death. So when we willingly accept sorrow, hardship, loss, persecution, all forms of suffering, for others, we can use it to glorify God. Our word of testimony, our unshrinking courage at death will triumph over the evil one (Revelations 12:11). 

Besides blessing others, we will receive supernatural strength to endure whatever we are undergoing. Think the angel ministering to Jesus in Gethsamane, or Stephen at his stoning who was filled with the Holy Spirit and could see God (Acts 7:55).

Apart from these seven recommendations above, Father Bobby made special mention of praying for souls in purgatory. If we especially pray for people we know and love, we will make a difference to our own family histories. 

P and I ended the three-day retreat full of zeal and love for Jesus and we bless Father Bobby for giving us this gift of himself. We see Jesus in him. Likewise we hope that others will see Jesus in us as we undertake to worship God with greater fervour. I end with another prayer he taught us to say daily: Jesus I love you, increase my love for you.