Passion meets opportunity

 I am at Mariapuram today and was pleasantly surprised to see all the 23 boarders and one girl (daughter of one of the school helpers) making an all out effort to speak in English.  They recited the whole Rosary in English, perfectly well!  The little girl led the night prayers as well. And although she was reading out the text, her English was far FAR better than some of our Brothers and even Priests!! 

I think this is what happens when passion meets opportunity.  These children may not be the brightest of all in the school or the vicinity. But when provided with an opportunity to speak in English they have grasped it with both their hands.  

I would be a fool to believe that all 24 of them are equally passionate or motivated. But it certainly looks that most are!  They haven't had any language labs or special English tutors.  No professional help or assistance either.  It is pure old school insistence, practice, follow up and encouragement.  Much credit goes to the boarding master (an ex-Salesian himself, who I guess is keen to make an impression, to work a comeback! No harm, given the beneficiaries are the boarders!). 

The statue of Mother Mary, in front of the Church at Mariapuram, against the evening sunset backdrop

Carryon!

 Another instance of consistency and focus, rather than getting lost in the maze or craze of power politics and positions: the story of Elijah and Elisha.  

The latter asks for a parting gift from his mentor.  The master, does not promise him.  But states that if he does see him being taken upto heaven, he will have his wish granted.  Elisha sees the other being taken upto heaven.  I asked myself, what if he had not seen him and he was not granted his wish.  Would he still have carried on the apostolate?  

I guess he would have!  With what he had.  To ask and pray for more and better is fine, but the granting or receiving of it is not a criteria to carryout one's work.  One does what one is to do, not because there is some reward or award but because that is a good thing or the right thing to do. 

Addiction and responsibility

 Among the many vices some of us find ourselves making exceptional progress with, there is one who is an alcoholic.  He attended a 5-month deaddiction therapy at a reputed institution.  The person in discussion, was asked to stay on another month at the centre and was then assigned to a particular rural community, as teacher.  

From the de-addiction centre the staff accompanied him to his place of appointment.  The very next day, this particular confrere went into town and got drunk.  The very next day!  So much for a 6 month therapy.  This drinking binge continued for a couple of days and then he was 'air-lifted' to the centre because his body started to react badly and he needed to be hospitalised.  

Within two days after being discharged from the hospital, he is now getting ready to go to another therapy centre to take part in a three-month course!  

The travesty of this whole episode is that everyone, except the one in question, is keen to make a change!  And everyone thinks attending courses or therapy session will make him get rid of his addition.  He is barely given time to make that decision and LIVE IT! This is like sabbatical after sabbatical, with hospitalization sandwiched in. The confrere needs to take responsibility for himself. And if he isn't willing to, then he ought to bear the consequences of that refusal.  Pampering one for eternity is detrimental not just to the Province/Congregation, but worse for the individual himself. I fear we are making all the decisions for him and he is happily feeling guilty about it all, without making any serious efforts at change, relying neither on God, nor on self-control, nor out of righteous fear of any repercussions. 

Religious discipline

Most of us look for motivation... mostly to stick to our goals and resolutions.  Hence the plethora of motivational talks and quotes that one finds on social media and whatsapp messages.  Nonetheless, what keeps one going is a commitment, a discipline, a consistent rhythm.  In that sense, motivation gets you going, but discipline keeps you growing.  

So I ask myself, is religious life and its principles, my motivation or a discipline? It ought to be a discipline.  Motivation can be temporary and not always available.  But what I can and should commit myself to is a discipline, a rhythm of life based on the Gospels.  

Life as a religious is no different from that of a sports person. Both the streams of life demand a certain stringent discipline, without which one gets no where and barely achieves anything worth at all.  Perhaps, just a difference of reason and purpose. A religious lives for God and people to whom he or she has committed his or her life to.  A sports person lives for the merit of the game. 

The beauty of this discipline is that when supported by love, it becomes a vocation; if not, it is an obsession.  

Peter and Paul

Today is the feast of two stalwarts of the early Church. Two totally different personalities, yet founding pillars of the Church. 

One totally uneducated and a daily wage fisherman; the other a highly educated scholar.  One who went more by the heart than the head; and the other who went more by the head than the heart; one an introvert and diffident person; the other, fearless and daring.  One had the opportunity to spend time with Jesus in person atleast for three years. The other, only encountered Jesus, after the latter's resurrection.  

Nonetheless, what saw them work together was the one person, Jesus.  

So I ask myself: Do I see Jesus in what I do? Or is it only the work that I see? 

Lord, help me see!

Initiative and perseverance

In the beginning any and every enterprise undertaken is always exciting and fun.  As time goes by and a pattern gets set, the same exciting task seems boring and burdensome.  The initial fervour evaporates and is replaced with a sense of delay.  The task remains the same, it is only our perspective about it, that gets altered. We begin to delay, relegate, skip, mourn, and even when we get to it, do it only haphazardly.  Most initiatives undertaken are left on the road just as easily as they are picked up - and new ones tried!  If only we see to the end of all that we undertake, we'd be superheroes!

No wonder, most sages and the experienced seek not for creativity or success, but perseverance!  The motivation and the spirit to carry on, when the task has lost its initial shine and glamour.  When the going seems tough... that is a good test of our primary reason(s) to take up that initiative. The depth of that motivation is seen not at the beginning but somewhere before the halfway mark! 

Motivation inertia

During a training programme at the university today, I was surprised to hear something the presenter was talking about: action before motivation. 

I always thought and believed that to perform an action, one needs to be motivated.  The quality of effort is directly proportional to the level of motivation.  But this speaker, speaking in the context of tackling procrastination, was saying that one needs to start doing an action and draw motivation from that to continue!  This inverse logic was a bit confusing.  But given that I am waiting for motivation to start writing something, ends up with me still waiting, I thought there would be some truth in what he is saying.  At the same time, I also know from experience that once in the momentum, work just flows.  Writing just happens, when I've begun.  The whole problem is the start! 

So how does one get started at all, if one is least motivated to do it?  For now, all I can tell myself is to 'write 200 words'; in contrast, to 'finish my PhD'! 

Easier said than done!  

Teaching

George Bernard Shaw among his many quotes is also believed to have stated

The one who can, does; he who cannot teaches.  

On the face of it, this quote appears very damning for the teaching profession.  It basically degrades teaching to incapacity to actually do anything worthwhile.  However, one speaker at today's Teaching and learning symposium pointed out that if one is to really study this quote in its actual context, the meaning changes radically. 

The quote appears in the context of revolution and rebellion.  A few lines after this quote is where he explicitly states that activities are great source of learning.  The actual meaning can therefore mean, that one who has the capacity is directly involved in the work.  But one who cannot, for whatever reason be directly at the forefront of leading a revolution, can as a teacher, prepare others to become leaders!  A teacher, in that sense, is one who shapes and moulds leaders. 

Of course, none will ever dispute the fact that teaching is no business; when committed, teaching is a passionate service and a humble sacrifice, a noble one at that!  

This is me

The following song from the movie The Greatest Showman, titled 'This is me' is a good motivational song with a catchy tune too.  A song for celebrating individuality, being proud of who and what we are, no matter what others think and how they categorize me. 

Each one of us has our own inadequacies.  However, only those most insecure will make others feel insecure.  Only those who humbly embrace one's own weaknesses, lets others shine through their drawbacks... and in doing so, helps both... 

When the sharpest words wanna cut me down 
I'm gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out 
I am brave, I am bruised 
I am who I'm meant to be, this is me 
Look out 'cause here I come 
And I'm marching on to the beat I drum 
I'm not scared to be seen 
I make no apologies, this is me

Patience and perseverance

Elisha cures Naaman, the Syrian of his leprosy.  Here's an imaginative aftermath of the event...

Many of the lepers in Israel hear of Naaman's cure and rush to the Jordan to take a dip.  Some wash themselves more than 7 times.  Some do it for 7 days continuously.  None of them are healed.  (Don't ask me why!).  Some go to Elisha and ask him to heal them too of their leprosy.  To each he prescribes a different course of action - all of which often take many days of perseverance and continued effort by the 'patient'.  Of these most give up very soon, because nothing of the sort that happened to Naaman is happening to them.  Of the few who continue being faithful to the 'prescriptions' of Elisha, not all are optimism. As time goes by and no healing happening, they begin to lose hope.  Only the most adamant and the most distressed, 'hell-bent' on getting rid of the disease continue and are ultimately healed.  But by this time, Elisha has moved on.  Those who were watching all this, hawk-eyed, have long got bored and gone on to find something more 'instantaneous' to amuse themselves with.  And those handful who actually are cured as now not so sure that it is only the 'prescription' of Elisha that has worked. 

Obedience and rebellion

A couple of days ago in the Gospel reading there was this exclamation made by some who witnessed Jesus calming the sea and the wind, "... who is this?  Even the wind and the seas obey him!"

When I came across this particular statement I was wondering what could the person mean by 'even' the wind and seas?  For all practical purposes there was hardly anyone who 'obeyed' Jesus.  Perhaps the twelve whom he called to be his apostles.  But not sure if there were others whom he called and turned down his invitation.  Just because it is not recorded does not mean that there weren't any.  But for the rest there was hardly anyone who really followed his orders.  The religious and political authorities of his times were in no mood of taking instructions from a carpenter.  All the crowds that came to listen to Jesus heard him speak but follow his directives?  Doubtful.  The one cured of his leprosy, in the reading of yesterday was ordered strictly not to tell anyone of his cure and what did he do? He went about shouting!

In the recently released booklet on the life of Sean Devereux, the opening chapter is the testimony of his mother Maureen Devereux.  In the first para itself she writes

...ever since he was put into my arms, his mind was made up.  If I wanted him to go right, he went left.

There is something in human nature that makes following commands and orders distasteful.  The rebellious streak in the human DNA is something that makes obedience a real challenge.  No wonder it is one of the three vows of religious life - on par with poverty and chastity.  But it is also true that all inventions and discoveries were actually the result of breaking set norms and regulations.  No new knowledge or discovery is possible if everyone faithfully follows trodden path.  Among the religious it is those who refuse to be bound by rules and regulations and authorities that go on to make history.  However there is a fine line between being rebellious and being disobedient. Only those who have trod that fine line go on to positively impact the world; the rest, leave no good behind. 

Education

I came across the following poster today while reading something on education... It honestly has some truth about it.  Has real implications also for our formation, or more specifically, what we is taught, the attitude with which education is perceived (both by the students and teachers) and the whole purpose of education.

One stark difference I notice between students back in India and here is the perspective on education.  While most graduates in India study - if at all, one can still use the term - merely for the marks or in obedience to their parents, students in the UK do so out of their own accord and for experience and knowledge.  Hence their investment level is very high.  Not that they are all saints and bookworms.  Far from it.  But they do study and take education seriously - students and teachers alike.

Students go to college, to study!  This statement may seem odd, but is very true in the UK context.  All the more true in the case of those attending university for their post-graduation or higher courses.  

Motivation and Success

Extracts from 'Williams driven by a deeper purpose' by Matthew Syed in The Times of February 1, 2017 (p. 60)

We are motivated to do amazing things not when we are within our comfort zone, but when we seek a wider purpose, often (but not always) discovered in adversity. As Orson Welles put it in the Third Man: "In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had fiver hundred years of democracy and peace - and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock." 

As Frankl put it: "Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself."

Read the full article here.  

Transparency

Yesterday was the second death anniversary of Fr John Lens. I know not if his autobiography is being considered for publication or not.  Most probably with all the excitement of the visit of the Rector Major to the Province, this would have got shelved for another year.

Anyway, as I thanked God for this person, especially his role in my life, I could not think of a better description of him than this short verse from Thomas A Kempis, as quoted in Waymarks:

The purer the eye of the intention is, the more strength the soul finds within itself... but it is very rare to find a soul entirely free, whose purity is not at all sullied by some stain of a secret searching for itself... Work, therefore, to purify the eye of your intention in order that it might be single and upright.

Somehow Fr Lens, even in his weakness and shortcomings, made Salesian sanctity more appealing. He was not a perfect man.  He too knew that all too well and didn't in any way try to hide or camouflage it.  Neither did he take pride in his shortcomings.  But he did possess a great inner strength. He derived it from his transparent effort at being kind and loving. More than the love, it is this constant and transparent effort at being lovable, that I recall with great joy.

Something to live/die for...

From Dag Hammarskjold's Markings:

Pray that your loneliness may spur you to find something to live for, great enough to die for. 

Know not if he found this prayer answered or not during his lifetime, but for others who knew him it certainly did. Know not if this going to be true of me...

Study

For the past one week I've been coming early with Fr John to the University (that's because unless he comes in by 8 am he will not get a parking place!).  Anyway, I spend most of my time in the Bedford library (there is another called the Founders' library). I like the ambiance of silence in these places.  Particularly in this library which has three floors, the one in the middle (the entrance floor) is a noisy one!  One is allowed to talk, chat, sing. All that!  However, the upper and the lower levels are for silent study.  And silent it is!  Everyone practically has their own laptops and everyone is busy.  No one chats or disturbs another.

The other thing is the computers.  There are desktops at each level, plenty of them.  And they all seem to work.  Contrast this to our computers in our formation houses - every day there is some issue.  Here everyone uses it gently and with utmost care.  There is also a section where one can borrow laptops!!

Though there are books on the racks, most students have the digital versions and prefer to read the text on the computers or laptops.  Wi-fi everywhere on campus, and that makes access to information all the more easier - besides the digital library of the University itself.

I guess it is part of the fall out of what happens when students come to study!  I'm sure most of the students also have fun and like to swing it up and all, but primarily when it comes to study, they pour their heart and soul into it.  And from the looks of it, most of chosen their course of study based on their personal interest rather than any pressure or demand... another reason to 'enjoy' study.   

Someone else's life...

One thing the gentleman who offered me a lift in Bangalore told me was quite true - we religious live as if we are immortal!  We honestly don't have a sense of time and show some urgency about going about with our life and activities.  Somehow we are convinced that there is 'sufficient time'.  He said this is something he realized as an ex-Salesian and now a businessman.  In his present state of life he has deadlines and commitments he cannot afford to miss or jeopardize.  That's his bread and butter. He better not take it lightly.  While for us religious, fine... nothing is really really 'urgent'.

The article that I was reading today had the following line in its conclusion.  An article written by a teenager who owes her life to someone elderly who lost his life in the process of saving her. She speaks of her wayward life earlier and her present state of life wherein she is balancing the guilt/burden and the strength for a renewed life.

When you owe your life to someone, you better live it!  

Reminded me of Don Bosco's promise to his boys, when he begins his recovery after than near fatal illness that almost killed him.

From now on, my life is yours.  I'll dedicate my whole life for you! 

When driven by that commitment one cannot really take things in a lax manner... one cannot afford to have a laid back attitude. It is almost like you've lost your one chance at life and now you're living someone else's life - a sort of second chance at life! 

The food vocation

Last evening a gentleman offered me a lift from the Provincial house to the Yeshwanthpur railway station in Bangalore.  It was quite a ride.  He did not hide the fact that he was a Salesian once upon a time.  Today he is no more with the Salesians and living a good life as a business man.

Among the many things he spoke he was quite frank in admitting that he had joined the Salesians, many many years ago, only because he did not have sufficient to eat at home and liked the food prepared in the Salesian houses.  He liked the dosa he would be given after serving Mass in the Salesian Parish and subsequently that is what led him to join the Salesians.  Only later, he confessed, he realised that he had more organs than the stomach alone!!

This idea that young people join us for several reasons and for quite varied motivations.  Even in the case of this gentleman.  There is nothing wrong or bad about it.  However, when one sticks on with that same motivation - whether healthy or not - is the real issue. When one is not open to questioning oneself and evaluating one's priorities and thereby taking decisions based on that, then one is living a very flimsy life.  

Change

Mr Conrad while speaking of his impressions about the whole process of Strategic Planning stated that there could be three causes for one to change:

1. One has undergone great amount of pain and hence wishes for a change 
2. One sees others around undergoing change and therefore wishes for a change in oneself
3. One changes because of one's own choice / decision to change 

His challenge was to avoid reaching the first mode. Why wait till you are on the edge of the cliff or desperate?  The second mode however is not the ideal motivation to change.

Elaborating further he said that while undergoing transformation, one does not throw out everything!  It is not becoming totally a new entity.  It is mainly about managing the present (60%), selectively eliminate the past (25%) and then create the future (15%).  Perhaps the crux of the process is that 'selective elimination of the past' - you really need to identify that which you feel is something you can do without.  Owe to you if you are not sure of your essentials and in the process of jettisoning throw out the essence!!

Why become a Priest?

More and more today the idea of Priesthood is changing... changing radically.  Not always can we say that it is for the better!  Often it is for the worse.  Priesthood is seen by quite a few youngsters as some shortcut to fame and comfort.

We had an interesting passage during the spiritual reading from the Memoirs of the Oratory, written by Don Bosco himself.  He is narrating his childhood and he describes his first encounter with Fr Colosso.  The latter asks little Johny, if he wants to study.  To which Johny enthusiastically replies in the affirmative.  Asked why does he want to study, he replies, that he wants to become a Priest.  Colosso does not stop there and rejoice that he has found a candidate for priesthood.  He continues, "Why do you want to become a Priest?"

I wonder how many of us, especially vocation promoters, ask that question to the young people who approach us for becoming Salesians. Very many come with very different and subliminal motives. Rather than help them understand and grow up to see the right and best motives, we only gloss over the peripheral.  The youngster's motive only gets endorsed either by the silence of the formators or the counter-witness of the religious.  Does he really have the opportunity of discerning, purifying and strengthening the motives behind his choice to become a priest?