Evening prayer in the car park

Our house is closest to the street and on side is the road leading into the cul-de-sac. So the Chapel is the one on that corner.  Usually we have all our windows closed and there is hardly any movement of the traffic heard.  But with any of the windows opened the traffic sound - luckily, none blare the horn - is quite audible.  However, this evening - thanks to our 'dial wars', wherein some raise the thermostat to high, while some others turn it the other way round to reduce the heat! - the Chapel windows were opened by Fr John. 

So we started our monthly recollection with the exposition of the Eucharist, then began our evening prayer, said the three psalms and the scripture reading and then paused for our silent reflection and time for confessions.  After a few minutes Fr John left the Chapel to make his confession in the adjoining meeting room.  As soon as he left, Fr Peter got up from his place and began closing the two open windows. Fr Sean, sharp as he is, loudly stated, "This is the first time I said evening prayer in a car park!"

I burst out laughing!  Am sure, Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament too would have had a good laugh! 

Prophecy and spiritual direction

Two points reflecting on the life of St Margaret Mary Alacoque...

The first one is more a social aspect but nonetheless rooted in spirituality.  This aspect is true of most 'prophets' who are called for a particular purpose, specially to tell his or her fellow people that what they are up to is not the ideal - far from it.  The telling part may not be the most challenging part, but the living together, after that, certainly is.  So when God tells Mary Alacoque to go and tell the community members and the Church at large that they are to do penance and increase their fervour for the Sacred Heart, it is a challenge.  First of all, she certainly was not the eldest in the community.  Secondly, not the superior herself.  But she has to tell this 'revelation' to all, even those older to her, those who have lived their life in the convent, following the vows for donkeys years.  I guess the same must have been true for St Theresa of Child Jesus too.  The only exception where a 'prophet' is actually invited to share his wisdom is Daniel, when as a child he is called in to resolve the Susanna dispute.  For the rest, beginnings were/are never easy. 

The second point is the pivotal role of spiritual direction.  In moments of such intense or out of the ordinary experience, to have someone who can direct and help one discern what actually is happening around you, is such a blessing.  To be able to live one's daily life imbued by that divine experience, rather than be run over by it, to have someone help you make sense of what is happening to you rather than be totally overwhelmed and lost, is a great help.  

School education system

We had dining with us for the last week a couple of French teachers from France.  They were here with a group of French students on an exchange programme.  Tonight at table, they were sharing the experience of their students at our Salesian school here in Chertsey.  They (the students) always exited the classroom at the end of the day, eyes wide open and jaws hitting the floor!

That they attributed the ambiance and the whole attitude of the English school education system.  The French school education system is highly teacher-centric and regimented.  The system expects every student to fit in.  In contrast the English school education helps each child seeks and build on his or her own unique difference.  The pressure is not to blend in but bloom out!  So the emphasis is always on the child discovering his or her own potential and seeking ways to enhance it.

They made a very interesting observation regarding the school uniform. In France, school children mostly do not have a school uniform - but the education system is too formal and rigid.  In England, most schools insist on a precise school uniform - and that they found, furthers their growth in differentiating one another on the basis of their individuality. 

That confirms why most children here love going to school.  I've hardly seen any child cry or drag his or her feet on the way to school.  The only other place I've seen such joy on the faces of children going to school is in Shillong.  All the other places, the joy is only while returning from school!  

I am...

An interesting observation ... (found on Aeon):

The Western focus on internal change makes anthropological sense: people in the West fixate on the internal. Psychologists have demonstrated this with a simple experiment. When researchers at Lewis and Clark College and the University of Nevada in Portland, Oregon, asked people to finish the sentence ‘I am ______’, people from the Western world responded with phrases such as ‘happy’, ‘a fun person’, or ‘a health-nut’. Meanwhile, rural Kenyans or Pacific Islanders said things such as ‘a mother’ or ‘a member of the Makea family’. Whereas most people define themselves by their relationships, people in the West emphasise their interests and personalities.

I'm not sure how the notion of 'interests and personalities' is internal and relationship is not.  Interests and personalities are actually outward tending - only in their expression is their realisation.  I fail to see how relationship is different.  Only in its exercise is a relationship alive.  One way of viewing relationships is restrictive.  They bind us to individuals.  On the other hand, is the fact that being in a relationship does not 'limit' us.  Rather than see as restrictive, relationships can be seen as linking, bridging. 

Anyway, that's a digression!

Am still amused by...

most people (rural, non-educated, tribal...) define themselves by their relationships, people in the West (educated, urban...) emphasise their interests and personalities.

'Parent' in Hindi?

One strange insight that hit me hard the other day, while talking in Hindi to one companion from India, at the university the other day: Hindi does not have a word for 'parent'!  We have a word for 'mother', a word for 'father' but not for 'parent'.  The closest word we use for parent in Hindi is माँ बाप or माता पिता ... that is 'mother-father'. 

Or perhaps nuanced Hindi has one, but it certainly is not in common use.  I wonder why is that so.  How come the English (Western?) language coined a common word to indicate both parents while the ancient Hindi never really thought it necessary to have a single word denoting both parents.  Parents were always specified as 'mother-father'.  

Why question the Samaritan?

In the gospel of the day, where Jesus heals the ten lepers and only one returns to thank him, Jesus asks the one - the Samaritan - 'where are the other nine?'

The cleansing of the lepers by Bicol Peryodiko

On first analysis it can be said that Jesus is expecting a 'thank you' from all those whom he cures.  However, the whole passage taken into account is to tell us a message to be grateful.  Not discounting that important and powerful message, how justified is Jesus in asking that question to the Samaritan who returns to thank him?  After all, he is the one who came back.  Jesus should have stopped at praising him for his sense of gratitude.  Why question him?  It is like giving a serious reprimand about coming late for Mass, during the introduction to the Mass -  but who are the recipients? Those who have come on time! 

However, I think there is one possible circumstance which justifies Jesus questioning the only one who returned about those who did not.  Just think of those ten lepers.  They were living outside the village.  Ostracised.  Not welcome into the village.  Surely the only people whom they could contact were the other nine lepers! They certainly were the only support for one another.  None else.  In such a circumstance their bond would surely have been strong.  And when ultimately they did receive the cure, to think that they forgot all about their only 'friends' and 'family' is unlikely.  Didn't or couldn't the one who thought of thanking Jesus spoken to the other nine and said, "Come let's thank him first!"

Or another scenario: Perhaps the other nine were fulfilling the one command of Jesus - Go, show yourselves to the priests.  And then returning to thank Jesus!  So it is actually the Samaritan, who broke ranks with the other nine and returned half way, without having met the priests.  Who knows, the other nine were on their way to thank Jesus!  

Faith

The gospel of the day, where Jesus heals the ten lepers and only one of them - a Samaritan, at that - returns to thank him for his cure, exudes of the theme of thanksgiving and gratitude.  However, what struck me most in the passage is the faith of the ten lepers. 

The cleansing of the lepers - Bicol Peryodiko

There are these ten men, lepers, outside the village.  Ostracized.  Marginalised.  Not having anyone to whom they can meet or contact with.  All that they ask Jesus as he passes is for the curse of leprosy to be take away.  "Lord, have mercy!" And in reply all that Jesus says or does is "Go show yourselves to the priests!" And they go!  Jesus did not offer them a long mantra for healing.  Nor did he dole out any treatment by way of ointment or medicine.  Just the instruction to show themselves to the priests.  And what faith must these men have to obey his instruction right away.  No one asks a question.  Or a clarification.  None asking him what will happen then.  Or when will they be cured.  Or even the basic doubt of 'will the priests see us in this leprous condition?'  They just go!

Looking at my own life, I see it riddled with so many questions and doubts and concerns.  That even after I receive answers, signs and solemn indicators, I've not moved much in the direction I'm asked to move!  

Gratitude

Thinking about thankfulness and gratitude, the theme of the Gospel tomorrow, where Jesus cures the ten lepers and only one returns to thank him, I remembered reading an article recently about how gratitude adds value to life. 

However, even at the end of the article, I still did not see what different or 'scientific' was the whole argument about.  It was like stating what we already know - or is it?  The article (found on Aeon) basically argued for gratitude to be the simplest way to lead a life of well-being, primarily also because gratitude leads one to grow in other virtues. 

NJlifehacks

I think there is basically - more in India than here in the West - a sense of entitlement.  That one is entitled to what one receives;  and for what one is entitled to one need not go about being grateful to others, certainly not to the ones 'below' us! And for those we pay, they are not doing us a favour.  They are getting paid for it, so why 'thank' them?  But the whole notion of gratitude is not about justice or balance.  It is not as if to set right the equation, that one thanks.  Basically gratitude is an attitude, not a means we use to level off trade or equations.  And the best thing about gratitude: there are no adverse side-effects, only further advantages! 

Cicero did have a point when he stated:

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, it is the parent of all others.

Vocation promotion

Listening to a talk on vocation came across a very different image of the whole process of vocational discernment and guidance.  That of a person using a metal detector!

The idea is that in today's world, vocation (in particular, to religious or Salesian religious life) is not something that is apparent or evident.  Even for the concerned individual. Leave alone for the one helping others to make a choice for religious life.  It is like buried under several things/layers.  Exactly like one searching for something special or different, using a metal detector, the one searching has to cover a lot of area.  Often finding nothing.  Pay great attention to even the slightest indicator for he or she never knows where exactly is the object located.  Searching for those indicators which are not always very prominently visible.  Makes sense for someone involved in vocation promotion. 

However, the drawback of this imagery is that this gives the appearance of vocational guidance as a distant and technical task. Also as something of a detached task from the mission one is engaged in (as in a hobby) or that it is the only mission (much like vocation promoters in our Indian provinces - full timers).  Not something that as an offshoot of the mission, prolonged and communitarian.  Nevertheless, the analogy is worth further reflection. 

The Emmaus story

The Gospel event of the Emmaus experience consistently continues to amaze me.  Perhaps it is the one event narrated in the Bible that I've found myself reflecting on most recurrently.

This evening it occurred to me that Jesus while joining the two disciples was leading them in the opposite direction.  Rather than lead them back to Jerusalem, where the whole action was being unfolded, he walks with them, in the opposite direction.  Then the comedy of the fact, the disciples reach Emmaus only to run back to Jerusalem, the place where they started their journey! Back to square one! 

One way of looking at it is that God often leads us away from where we are and where we think we ought o be, only to lead us in the opposite direction.  Perhaps later in life we get back to where we initially wanted to be, but then we are not anymore the same person who started off.  The journey, the new place we've been to, and the whole experience of the while, transforms us and our view of the place we are so convinced we actually ought to be in. 

Another way of looking at it is that God joins us in our journey. He does not cause abrupt u-turns in our life, just because he wants to or because that's where we are supposed to be.  He basically accompanies us, even if we are in a totally different direction.  It is in our daily living that we encounter God.  In our everyday choices and decisions.  He accompanies us.  The decision to change or retain paths is always ours!