SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS...

Christmas is just a few days away...I have not really got into the Christmas joyful mood just yet as it has been a really busy period of just trying to finish work before the Christmas Vigil Mass.

But at this moment, I decided to put aside all the work for my heart and mind to have a few silent moments to ponder over what Christmas this year means to me. It is my 9th consecutive Christmas away from loved ones back home. It is a very long time to be away from the love and joy of the Christmas tradition that I grew up with. More than any time of the year, Christmas  is a season I have always absolutely loved as it meant being together with family and great friends - celebrating the Christmas Vigil Mass,  to share hugs and kisses, good food, great cheer, presents and just feeling all the "love" that is in the air! 

So what is Christmas? Some friends have asked me before how I could give up all that I am used to especially during Christmas. I have often asked myself that very same question. The answer is best expressed by the beautiful Christmas song  in the YouTube Music video above - "THIS IS CHRISTMAS" by KUTLESS.

Christmas is all about Christ.  There is much to do to share and celebrate the Christmas joy with Divine's Family - here, across India and all over the world. It is a time to remember in a very special way the love and support of so many hardworking and generous people who remember our Divine mission's urgent charitable and evangelization needs - and they quietly and lovingly are our financial and spiritual partners  to proclaim the Good News everyday - not just in words but by their loving generosity. 

Being a part of the Divine mission, we all try, with God's grace, to make Christmas a very special and holy celebration of Joy - a Divine Christmas is always all about Christ! So it is not that I love my friends and family less - it is about helping to bring Christ's message of Love and Joy to our Divine Family of 3000 members who include the residents of all our charitable homes and the VC priests and fulltime volunteers and to ALL our Divine Family members across the world. 

Every year we visit many of the Divine Homes during Christmas and there is such expectant joy from everyone - the 300 orphan children of our De Paul Home for Boys and Samaritan Home for Girls, the De Paul school, the 600 mentally ill patients of Divine Care Centre , the 100 elderly women in Mari Santhi Bhavan , and the 100 residents of St. Vincent's AIDS Home. Just seeing that few moments of joy and laughter on their faces makes the sacrifice of being away from my loved ones worth it. We are all blessed with love and the security of enjoying Christmas as we wish. But for our less advantaged Divine Family members, it our own little actions here that can bring a special  little extra festive joy to their lives. For me, it is a little act of love - of bringing Christ to them. There are also people from all over India and overseas who come to spend Christmas with Jesus attending a Divine retreat. Every Christmas here is always a special holy, joyful and spiritual experience! The Christmas Vigil Mass always fills me with such hope and joy for the future. That is the true message of Jesus - He is our Lord of Love, Hope, Joy & Peace - He is not about fear and retribution.

Friends of Divine Singapore

Just last week, I had a group of friends from Singapore who were here for the Advent retreat. As we visited the Homes,  the joy they brought to the children and the residents of the other Homes was so heart-touching. The kids loved their wonderful rendition of one of my favourite songs - "This Little Light of Mine". I was not feeling too well that day but even I felt the great joy in my heart seeing Christ in their smiles, their singing, their spontaneous interactions and all the clapping to the songs at every Home we visited. The joyous "Jingle Bells" that all the schoolchildren sang along with them was the best rendition I have heard in the longest while! The Christmas goodies capped a great afternoon! They were Christ's Light - and their little lights shone and lifted up so many. To the Friends of Divine Singapore group (you know who you are) - may the joy you experienced in the Divine retreat and the joy you brought to our Divine Homes be a  special memory we will all always treasure - the bonding of Divine family ties!

Divine's De Paul school children singing along to Jingle Bells!

For Christmas is all about Christ and our family. As we strive to live for Christ, our hearts must be big enough to love beyond our "nuclear" or "blood-ties" family to include God's Family - especially those in need and to make the Good News known to every one.  There could be an elderly couple near you who could be spending Christmas all alone. Why not surprise them with a visit and some Christmas goodies or invite them over for a meal?  We are all one family in the eyes of God.

My Christmas wish for all my friends and loved ones is that Christmas will not just be a one-day festive celebration but a permanent state of our heart to love others and to express that love by our thoughts, words and deeds all the year through... 

ADVENT: BEGINNING ANEW TO RECEIVE THE GRACE OF GOD

It seems hard to believe that 2012 is coming to an end. Christmas is once again around the corner. 336 days have gone by which means 8064 hours or 483,840 minutes of our lives on earth in 2012 have gone by and we can never claim it back! I had a lot of time to think about time passing by recently as I was hospitalized and strictly watched by the nurses about following the doctor’s order of complete bed-rest. In fact, even now as I prepare this post, I am “resting” in bed except for a few hours daily which the doctor agreed with firm conditions. Time keeps passing by and I have had a lot of time to pray and reflect AND to discern how I should live and serve Christ in the upcoming New Year. Yes, God definitely raises the spiritual bar each year lest I get too complacent or indifferent. Not just through what works I do in my ministry – but also in all the moments of my daily ordinary life. I am sure God will do so for each of us.

December is usually one of my busy months and here I am being told to slow down! But I realized, now that I am happily back in Divine, that regardless of all the anxiety I felt being alone in a hospital room 3 hours away from everyone I knew in India and the difficulty of communicating in English properly - I felt the Presence and Grace of God closer to me than I ever had experienced before. During the Homily of the Holy Mass celebration the night before I went to the hospital, these words had struck my heart particularly.  The priest preached in a booming voice, “God is saying, ‘You are precious to Me! (Isaiah 43:4) Yes, you! Every tear you have shed has been counted and collected (Psalm 56:8) and every hair on your head I have counted (Matthew 10:30). It is I who formed you in your mother’s womb (Psalm 139:15) and I have a special mission for you on this earth. I am not FINISHED with you!” I seemed to have been ill since early September (for different reasons) and these words brought a hopeful stirring in my heart that night (20 Nov)...that God is not done with me serving Him yet! The next day what I thought was an outpatient appointment unexpectedly became an immediate 6-day hospital stay! I even had to shop for everything I needed after being admitted.

All I could think of was all my pending work and projects and if this meant I should think of moving back where I feel comfortable - with doctors, the medical system I am familiar with and most of all closer to loved ones. For the first time, I was rather anxious of my health which I tend to take for granted. Well, hospitals and needles are way, way down on my favourites list! Hence – the 6 days made me once again to ponder about life. As the minutes ticked by, I realized how important each moment is for me to use it to share whatever graces God is pouring into my life. 

I only had my Bible, my prayer journal, the Way of The Cross Booklet written by Fr. Augustine Vallooran V.C. (Director of this retreat centre I serve in) and the incredibly inspiring business leadership book “The Pope & The CEO” written by Andreas Widmar of what he learnt from Blessed Pope John Paul II which I was reading for the second time. I never felt lonely even for a moment with these books. All the inspiration and courage I needed came through the words written or jotted down in these books. Most of all, I truly realized that with Advent about to begin, I had this GREAT opportunity to prepare for a NEW BEGINNING – a whole new start with the arrival of Jesus – our Emmanuel (God-with-us) this Christmas!

The night before my operation, as I prayed the Way of the Cross, each Station’s reflection made me to once again to look at my own life. The past few Good Fridays in Divine Retreat Centre, I had wept at some of the reflections which brought back deeply buried (and I thought long-forgotten) experiences in my life. Now I knew as I prayed that Jesus was with me then – IS ALWAYS with me - at all times. He would have come down to earth to die – even if it was only to save me – ONE sinner.That is the amazing love of Jesus! I felt so precious; I also felt truly loved as a person. Jesus had shown me the incredibly supportive love of my close friends in Singapore - the JOY Family (I have no words to describe of their prayers and love), my brother - George who being a pharmacist explained the medications and kept daily tabs of my health, Fr. Augustine Vallooran – whose calm, assuring voice took away whatever anxieties I had and who made all the needed arrangements, and other very dear priests in India and friends overseas who called, wrote and prayed so lovingly for me when they heard of my hospitalization.

I guess some of us need sometimes a life-incident to stop us and to experience in our own lives that God loves us- that each of us IS precious as an INDIVIDUAL - and that we are loved by family and friends even if we all live in distant countries. I had chosen not to worry most of my family members just because my immune system had taken an extended holiday and my body was under some stress.

I do not want to waste any more moments in my life when I can share the Grace of God in me with every person God sends into my life. I want this Christmas to be a new beginning in my life for my Saviour. The book “The Pope & The CEO” that I am re-reading slowly and reflecting of Pope John Paul II is truly inspiring about how to live our Catholic faith so that it is a LIVING faith at all times – work, ministry, friends and family life. Well, I may not be leading any teams now but that does not mean my life cannot be an example to others. As followers of Christ, each of us must be a leader to inspire others by our “authentic Christ-centred living”.  I need to make sure that the people in my life feel personally valued and cared for – never ASSUMING that they should know! Pope John Paul II had this amazing gift. It is about always putting people first as Jesus does; nurturing, listening, acknowledging, loving, trusting and building up their talents and skills and their faith. That moment when a person needs my time or attention to experience God’s Grace will never come back again. I might not get another chance to show them they do matter to me. It is not easy but I am determined to try to live as Blessed Pope John Paul II who has always personally inspired me since a youth.  Nothing is impossible for God. Each of us – you and me - can be a “shining light” of Christ’s Love & Joy to others. Compassion, joy, caring, listening, acceptance, acknowledgment, understanding, trust and humility have no material value but infinite “Divine Value” to the person who may need it most from us even without our knowledge. That always touches and convert hearts more than correction, judgments, human logic or rules ever do. If change is needed, I have learnt one sure fact in Divine – TAKE IT UP TO GOD IN PRAYER! He will do the needed or show His Way at the right time.

 So as I meditate in prayer this Holy Season of Advent on the life of Jesus in the Way of The Cross and in my daily bible reflections, I lift up all my loved ones, friends, persons I find difficult to deal with, readers of my blog, my Divine Family, along with my own life to God….that with His Gift of His Precious Son - Jesus our Emmanuel – a new JOYFUL BEGINNING in life awaits each of us this blessed season of Christmas and for the rest of our lives!

I would like to share with you the soul-inspiring YouTube music video below - "AMAZING GRACE (MY CHAINS ARE GONE)" by CHRIS TOMLIN.

May our hearts be prepared anew to receive unconditionally the ultimate Grace of God – our Messiah and King!

“Come, Lord Jesus!” 

(Revelation 22:20)