My soul glorifies the Lord! (Luke 1:46)

Gazing at the Lord Jesus Dear friends, Greetings! Today is the Feast of the Visitation.  Today I would like to share with you on "Gazing on the Lord." Gazing is different from glancing. Gazing is a steady and more intent look, while a glance is a hurried look. In the Bible we read quite a lot about gazing. Gazing has to do with not only our eyes, but more importantly, our mind, and even our spirit.  What happens when we gaze? We look at something intently, and so allow a reflection and more importantly, an impression of the same object to be formed upon our minds. If we gaze upon good things, that has its effects, if we gaze upon bad things, that has its effects too. Our minds are indeed, are constantly "looking at" or considering or "seeing" something.  Just think of the human eye - can the eye be without sight? It is constanly looking at or seeing something. The Lord tells us, "The lamp of the body is the eye." (Luke 11:34) The eye fills our

Dear friends, may I present to you some very important Scriptures which if you can take time to read and treasure, will be a great fountain of life all through our lives - some of the "I AM" sayings of Jesus. Reading them, may we be attracted more towards Jesus, and discover Him as the real answer to our search - here they are: 14 "I AM" sayings of Jesus from the Gospel of John John 6.35 "I AM the Bread of Life. He that comes to Me shall not hunger: and he that believes in Me shall never thirst." John 6.48 "I AM the Bread of Life" John 6.51 "I AM the Living Bread which came down from Heaven. If any man eat of this Bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world." John 8.12 "I AM the Light of the world. He that follows Me walks not in darkness, but shall have the light of life." John 8.58 "Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I AM." John 9.5 &

"Saved in hope" Dear friends, Greetings! Today we share a little about being saved in hope. St. Paul writes to us in his letter to the Romans that we should have hope and that it is in this hope that we shall be saved. What is hope? Hope is a looking forward to something new, something better and this hope springs from faith, faith in the power of God. Again, why is it important to have hope? When God looks down on the earth, what does He see? "Now the earth was a formless void, and there was darkness over the deep. The Spirit of God hovered over the waters." (Genesis 1:2) Is God interested in the earth more than He is interested in His children? Not at all! We are God's greatest creation, and God is always concerned about us. God is watching over us. The Bible tells us that "The Lord looks down from Heaven at the children of Adam, to see if a single one is wise, a single one seeks God." (Psalm 14.2). When God looks down upon the earth, He sees

Becoming an infant Dear friends, Grace, peace, joy and all good! Today I share with you a little about becoming an infant. Yesterday I had already written to you briefly about ascending by humility and also about considering our own littleness and insignificance as one of the stepping stones or foundation stones of becoming humble. Today I share with you about a particular aspect of humility which is becoming "infant-like". Who does not love children? And who does not love infants! I have seen even teenagers who distance themselves from their parents or relatives because they feel they do not understand them; but when such teenagers see an infant, they smile, run to them and clasp them in their arms. And if this infant seems happy to be in their arms, the joy of these teenagers know no bounds. We all love infants, and our Lord loves them even more. What are the qualities of infants which make them so endearing? One great quality is their innocence. What makes them inno

Ascending by humility Dear friends, Today I would like to share with you a little about ascending by humility . We can consider an airplane as the subject of our reflection. The airplane is made to fly. It is also meant to fly high and not to fly in the lower levels where there are dangerous objects which may obstruct its flight. In the same way we too are created to fly high. The very nature of our soul is to fly high. To fly, an airplane needs fuel. If it has no fuel, or its runs out of fuel during flight, the airplane loses altitude and when the fuel runs down completely, it loses altitude fast! Now we come back to our soul. The fuel for our soul is humility. When we are truly filled with humble thoughts, we are already pointing in the right direction, which is upwards. Depending on the measure of our humility, the angle of our ascent increases. If we are downright humble, we fly straight up, at an angle of 90 degrees. The fuel is the amount of humble thoughts and considerations w

Frustration and Liberation Dear friends, today I continue to share with you about the intellect. We shared yesterday on light and darkness and how both of these influence the way our intellect (which means our mind and thoughts) operate. Today we share about two ends of the intellect: frustration and liberation. Very often, and quite so, without realising, the way of our thoughts end up in either of these two: either they are frustrated or they are liberated. What sadness to be frustrated, and what happiness to be liberated! We walk on the roads, lanes and the highways of our thoughts daily either ending up in frustration or liberation. What is frustration? Imagine the problems we struggle with daily: depending on our age or circumstance, they are different. A child thinks mostly of pleasure in play, how to win a game, about enjoyment from moment to moment - and depending on their upbringing and exposure, children choose from quiet pastimes such as drawing or painting to the mor

Dear friends, today's message I would like to share comes in the late evening! Today I share a little on light and darkness. The Bible tells us about light which surrounds our intellect (our mind and thoughts) and also the darkness which can cloud it. The effects of light are beautiful: we think clearly, we are calm, we judge with balance, we are not too excited by changeable emotions, our minds are able to receive even injuries and hurts with the calm of the deep (the depths of the deep seas) which is not too easily affected by the winds, even emotions such as lust or anger fail to disturb our minds beyond a certain slight initial stir - we know and are filled with the certainty of a deep peace of knowing that we are in the hands of the Lord! What a great grace indeed it is for our intellect to be surrounded by the Light of Grace. Now compare the effect of darkness - a certain anger troubles our mind, lust disturbs us constantly, pride makes its appearance at every turn and w

Dear friends, today I would like to share a little on reverence in prayer. It is said in Isaiah 66.1 that Heaven is God's throne and the earth is God's footstool . God is so great! Yet in spite of the greatness of God, how do we very often approach God? Do we approach Him with reverence? One of our brothers who is also a "co-founder" of our Community used to remind us, "In the world of today, one of the virtues that has almost completely disappeared is the fear of God. We are so used to hearing that "God is love", that we are not afraid to abuse His love and mercy! Whatever sins we commit, we can excuse ourselves saying, "God is love", so it is okay to keep on sinning."  Yet for a moment let us pause to think how we would behave in the presence of royalty. I live in the UAE which is governed by a Sheikh. If His Highness the Sheikh were to come to my house, I would think twice before sitting down before I am asked to or to sit down before

"His conversation is sweetness itself, he is altogether lovable. Such is my love, such is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem." (Songs 5.16) Dear friends, today I would like to share with you a little on the Beauty of Jesus Christ. Just think of some beautiful moments: for some of us, it could have been the moment when we "fell" in love with our future spouse (other loves could have, God forbid, left us bitter), the moment when a loved one held our hands, when we felt the deep comfort of companionship or friendship in moments of distress; for some others those moments when we had a quiet walk surrounded by nature at its best; a holiday in a forest, island or lagoon and so forth. Now just imagine if all this beauty that we may have experienced at different points in our lives, (and for which some of us may still be nostalgic!!!), would now concentrate and become a Person!!!! Yes, that is Jesus. He is the One in whom all the moments of beauty and the visuals of bea

Dear friends, today I would like to share with you a little on the great gift of God in Jesus Christ for the whole world. In times past, before God revealed Himself to Abraham and his descendants (the people of Israel) humanity lived in darkness: there have been moments when they were so filled with misconceptions about God to the extent that they thought God would even be pleased with human sacrifices. They would even misconstrue the Image of God with hideous forms of devils, beasts and humans. God would be one without any basis of justice, love or peace, one who would do anything he liked. So we have the origins of myths and legends which form the basis of various forms of worship. Still others denied the existence of the Deity altogether and preached a way of life leading to contentment without reference for God. There were also the ancient philosophers who struggled to answer the questions of their minds and tried to search for answers. But with the revelation of God to Moses and

Dear friends, today I would like to share with you a reflection on the crown of thorns that Jesus accepted. "and after this, the soldiers twisted some thorns into a crown and put it on his head.." (John 19.2) Jesus has here accepted a crown of thorns. I must confess that still there is in me a tendency to like it very much when the world praises me and acknowledges me to be of some significance. But in what sharp contrast this is to Jesus Christ! Jesus accepts a crown of thorns very silently when His hour of silent suffering comes. In our lives too there appears the hour of silent suffering, that of being asked to accept a crown of thorns. A crown is a sign of royalty, but a crown of thorns is a terrible mockery, a mockery of the fact that Jesus testified to the truth of His kingship before Pilate. Yet when the truth is mocked, Jesus is silent. What great power silence requires on some occasions. Do we have the strength to suffer in silence for the truth - the real truth abo

Dear friends, greetings! Today I would like to share with you a small reflection on the work of the Holy Spirit. All of us have a body, mind, soul and spirit. The soul is the highest and the most noble part of our being, bearing the reflection of the Eternal Nature of God. Within our soul is filled, or, exists in a mysterious union the spirit: either the Spirit of God or even other spirits. Every human being, and indeed, all of us, are thus a deep union of spirit and soul. The working of the Spirit of God in our lives is truly amazing and very much beyond all human comprehension or calculation. The Spirit of God "brooded over the waters" at the beginning of creation and also like a divine wind "blows where it wills". For this Divine Wind, this "ruah" to touch us a second is enough! If this Spirit touches our soul He starts His work in our soul (John 16.5-15). He starts leading us step by step towards the Image of God, Jesus Christ, some times taking mon