Don't chase the butterfly

 Inspirational thought for the day... 

Peace: Trust in the Father

Reflection for April 20

“Peace be with you...”

Jesus' repeated salutation after His resurrection: 'Peace be with you'. Given what those close to Him have gone through and are still going through, this greeting seems a bit odd. They are not troubled but sad. They grieve his absence but are not agitated. And to that add the fright of seeing a 'ghost'! Why peace then? Perhaps the way Jesus lived His life holds the key.

Jesus was always tranquil and serene. Never too excited about anything or too depressed. There was a sense of balance and equilibrium, not only in His actions but in His words and thoughts too. Even in the garden of Gethsemane when very well aware of what lay before Him, He did not lose it. His trust in the Father was so great that He knew it would all be fine. Peace is what fills ones heart when there is an underlying trust that no matter what and how things appear on the surface, there is a foundation that stands strong. No matter how sad, stressful, uncertain and hopeless the present moment seems, the Father will take care. He is at work and therefore I can rest

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Sr Eusebia Palomino and serenity...

This morning as I moved towards the Chapel for Mass I remembered that yesterday was the feastday of Sr Maria Romero, a Salesian Sister. Anyway, my mind drifted and I joyfully spent my meditation on another Salesian Sister on the road to Canonisation: Sr Palomino. Well I read her life and am truly fascinated by it.

She came from a very poor family, so poor that she had to go begging for food and basic necessities of life with her father when she was just a small kid. But she learnt very many things during those 'expeditions'. She never got to go to a school for studies and spent her whole life in the houses of rich people doing menial jobs. She later got to go to the Salesian Sisters convent and joined there as a maid. She slowly realised her vocation to become a Sister and with great difficulty became one. However, she continued to work in the kitchen, cooking, cleaning, washing and gardening. What amazed me is that even there she continued to 'touch people's lives'. Children, attending the school, would rush to the convent to meet 'their kitchen-Sister'.

Even when the end came (she was very young) she refused to leave her homeland for fear of llife due to insurgency and political unrest. She was killed! Yet all her life one cannot but avoid noticing the serenity and depth of life. Surely she had her roots deep inside somewhere strong and secure. Nothing that happened around her could lead her to desperation and fatigue!

Lord, grant me that strength...