New language

Documenting the birth of a new language...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-51372265/how-nicaragua-s-deaf-children-invented-a-new-sign-language

Christian living

Witness to the Gospel with your life: by word and action, by love, by faith and by integrity.
1 Timothy 4: 12

Sums up Christian and even religious calling.  Was struck by the wording, as I never came across this version of the text.  Neither is this text some canonically approved edition.  Nonetheless, is a beautiful action plan. 

Stories of Jesus' birth

Had a good laugh when I came across this particular amusing venn diagram describing the various stories narrating the birth of Jesus...

Mother Mary reaches her place

Mother Mary finally gets to her place in the grotto at home!  Long winding journey and a long-awaited occasion.  Couldn't be on a better day - feast of our Lady of Lourdes. 

Those at home, are already enjoying some special blessings of this day, this event, this devotion!  Thanks to Mother Mary! 

Wine turned into water!

Today's Gospel is about Jesus changing water into wine, during the wedding feast at Cana.  This event is considered significant because it marks the first miracle of Jesus in public. 

For someone who has a great trust in God, the act of converting water into wine is a very consoling and confirming theory. But for one who has his or her whole life being tossed about by the winds of change and nothing seems to be going on according to plans or efforts, it is mostly the theory of wine being changed into water! It is not mere pessimism, but an actual experience of fighting against the current.  And despite all the effort and good will that one puts in, the results are the same: wine into water! 

However, I ask myself, is Jesus present at those moments of wine turning into water?  Is it Him who is doing it?  Perhaps, he is waiting for me to change the water back into wine!  Or perhaps water is the new wine (for me!)

Action reflection

The readings of Sunday, very sharp and going around in vicious circles for me!  They present a down to earth spirituality, on one side and on the other, shows the height of its conceptualization.

The first reading from Isaiah is the practical spirituality:

Thus says the LORD: Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn your back on your own. Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; Your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.

To do good, one does not need high level thinking and reasoning.  Just do it!  Do it for the less advantaged, those marginalised, those in need! Just do it!

Then comes the second reading, the lofty part of spirituality:

When I came to you, brothers and sisters, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive (words of) wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

If I'm to carry out what is good and needed, as Jesus did, I need to know Jesus!  Now understanding why he did what he did, is no easy task.  That requires great amount of reflection.  Merely imitating what Jesus did, will not take us far... sooner or later, we'll get tired of doing it or lose our sanity, unless backed by great amount of motivation and inner strength.  And from where do we gain that? From knowing - not merely an intellectual discovery - why he did what he did! 

However, one clue to resolve this going round in circles, one chasing the other and being chased, lies in the last phrase of the second reading: power of God.  Doing everything (action or reflection) all by ourselves may land us in that merry-go-round.  But if we let ourselves be guided by God's hand, perhaps we stand a better chance to actually get going!  

Mere sheep?

What was once considered a very useful analogy and is still regarded as one of the best descriptions of Jesus Christ and the church is that of the Good Shepherd.  Christ, in the Gospels, projects himself as the Good Shepherd, who leads his flock with tender loving care. 

Today I heard someone joking about the offence some individuals have taken against this parable and its description... not of Jesus as the shepherd, but of equating the people as sheep.  Mere, dumb sheep?? Now that's an affront to some who would consider themselves more than "meek, silent, and ignorant" sheep. That too needing one to 'herd' them!  Now that's too much! 

Well, I always thought it should be the priests who should take offence at this description.  My perspective being, that priests (and clergy/religious) should not think, they know it all!  As shepherd we are called to take care.  Not boss over!  In that sense, never look down on those whom we serve as "brainless or dumb".  That certainly is not the characteristic of a 'good shepherd'.  

Salesians in the world

As per statistics available on 31.12.2018, here's a video citing the Salesian presence in the world...

Glass, children and cows!

Was at the British museum today.  After almost two years. Actually revisited the very places that I viewed on my three trips earlier.  Nonetheless, got time to visit another gallery.  The rest for another visit(s)! 

New learnings of today:
The art of glass making and creatively using glass was something mastered in the BC!!  It is believed to have originated in the area around Israel. 

Second learning of the day, thought that the child potty was a modern invention! Not at all!  That credit also goes back to our great great forefathers... the Greeks, in Athens in the 6th century BC!

An amusing discussion:
In the Egyptian gallery, which also was the most crowded one, with all the mummies, saw a couple of animals mummified too!  Cats, of course!  Greeks thought of them greatly.  But also saw 'sacred bulls'.  Someone commented, "Hope Modi does not get wind of this! If he does, we'll soon have an official minister and a whole governmental department for the mummification of 'sacred cows'!"

Parental love and concern

The day's first reading has Absolem being killed by Joab.  But when the news reaches David, who is himself in hiding from Absolem, for fear of his life, he is distressed.  In fact, the first question David asks the messenger, "How is young Absolem?"  Such is parental love.

Even when the child is engaged in evil deeds, the parent is always concerned for the well being of the child.  Even if that evil deed is the murder of one's own parents!  The classical parable of the soldier who is told by the emperor to prove his loyalty to him, by decapitating his own mother tells us of the same value.  On returning to the emperor with the decapitated head of his mother, the soldier stumbles and the mother's head, asks with great concern, "Are you hurt, my son?" 

As religious we may really never reach that level of concern and love for our children or young people - at least not all the time!  But unless we love them, we will never really want their good.  We may be serving our own egos but not their well being.  

Salesian Past Pupils

One day in 1847, Don Bosco called into a barber's shop. He got into conversation with an 11-year-old assistant whose father had died and ended up asking the barber to let the lad Carlo Gastini have a go at shaving him.  It was an ordeal for Carlo and Don Bosco!

Not much later, Carlo's mother died and, remembering Don Bosco's kindness to him, Carlo wen to Don Bosco who welcomed him with open arms. He took up book binding, and ran the workshop for a number of years and only left the Oratory when he was able to support himself.  Now and then he would return to Valdocco to greet Don Bosco and receive an encouraging word from him. 

Carlo Gastini in the workshop amidst the boys 

Then one day ... on 24 June 1870, feast of John the Baptist, when the Oratory was celebrating Don Bosco's 'name-day' Carlo, by now 34 years old, has prepared a surprise for his beloved Don Bosco.  He brings along a group of former pupils of the Oratory. He has a speech ready.  He explains that 'the old boys of the Oratory' have formed themselves into a group and have come to him, on his name-day to present him with a gift as a 'sign of affection for our father Don Bosco' and their appreciation for the education he had given them. 

As a sign of their undying affection they have brought him a set of coffee cups - not an expensive gift, but one of great sentimental value.  The exchange embodied what the Past Pupils' movement came to signify: appreciation for the education received; repaying their efforts by living as song of Don Bosco, showing the world they could at the same time be, as Don Bosco wanted, good Christians and honest citizens. 

From that first group considered to be the 'mother' association, a vast movement of Past Pupils of Don Bosco arose and is today world-wide. 

[Extract from the article, 'It began with a set of coffee cups!'  in The Salesian Bulletin of the Province of Ireland, October - December 2019 Issue, p. 6.]

Learning English at Salisbury Cathedral

Learnt two facts about the English language, the etymology of two words/phrases, while at the Salisbury cathedral...

Underdogs:  The word comes from carpentry.  When a tree is felled, the master carpenter and his apprentice would dig a ditch under the tree to saw off sections.  The apprentice would go into the ditch and hold one end of the long saw, while the master would be above the fallen tree.  (By the end of the sawing, the poor apprentice would be covered in sawdust and mud!)  'Dog' is a tool used by carpenters to hold back the fresh wood that they are sawing.  Thus the dog used by the master would be over dog and that used by the apprentice (who is in the ditch) as the underdog! 
(However, the common meaning seems to arise from a different source).

Second etymology, found it in the Magna Carta display room...

St Lawrence and Papa at Salisbury

While viewing the Salisbury cathedral, was surprised to see an altar dedicated to St Lawrence - the deacon martyr.  And just when I saw it I remembered Papa! 

Right next to the sign was another board inviting us to pray for the one we miss!  What a coincidence.  I usually wouldn't have done this but today, this was just natural...

Salisbury Cathedral

Visited Salisbury cathedral today with the CathSoc from the University.  Amazed at the whole structure. Still more amazed at the thought of having to build one such thing in the 13th century!  Crazy! 

Some quick facts:

• The cathedral was built in just 38 years beginning in 1220.  
• It contains 60,000 tons of stone (that meant the same number of horse cart rides to transport the stone from the nearby quarry to the site of construction!). 
• 2,800 tons of oak wood from the forests and even from Ireland.  
• 420 tons of lead for the roofing.  
• It has a foundation of not more than 4 feet!  The whole structure sits - or rather floats - on a mix of gravel, sand, and water! That watery depth is about 27 feet!  That makes it the largest floating Cathedral.  None would even dare start a building of that sort. 
• It has the highest Church spire in the whole of Europe. There are about 300+ steps leading up to the foot of the spire!  A spectacular view of the whole city from up above.  
• The pillars supporting the whole structure are not more than 5 feet in diameter!  Built according to the early English Gothic architectural style, the Cathedral was primarily the work of a priest Elias of Dereham.  No monastery or convent existed around the Cathedral ever!  The height of it is really crazy.  If it were to be storied and each storey dedicated for some purpose I understand, but this is just the floor and the ceiling - way, way above!  
• A water font was added to the central part of the Cathedral.  It is beautiful, with water falling off from four corners.  Some great planning is behind it as there are no bubbles arising from the water being pumped from underneath.  The font, bigger than a table tennis board, appears like glass - water being so still and not a single bubble. Got to find out how they did that!  
• The Chapter house adjoining the Cathedral contains one of the four original (of the 40) Magna Carta's existing.  Surprisingly, it is very clear and legible - even though it was written in 1215 on animal hide!  The writing is so precise and beautiful it appears as though printed yesterday!  

  

  The world's oldest working clock!

  
  
  
  
  

  

  The statue 2 feet tall at the entrance to the Chapter house, which contains the Magna Carta

  
  

  

  The statue of Mother Mary and child Jesus.  Today it is used as a 'witness' to the induction of girl choir members - when girls pass their test and are selected for the girls choir, they kneel before this statue and are given three hits with a heavy Bible on their head!