Waiting...

We commence the season of Advent today.  While in the Mass, a thought came across my mind.  Whom do we usually wait for?  Someone we love or someone we have some work with. We usually don't look forward to someone with whom we have no relationship or business.  If someone does arrive, we care two hoots about him or her.

Speaks tons of our relationship with Jesus.  The Church offers us a good opportunity to 'get ready' for the Saviour.  But for one who is already deeply in love with Him, there is no 'waiting'.  Even if there is, it is something spontaneous and natural.  Not forced or another thing to be done.

So I'm asking myself:  How eager is my longing for His 'coming'?  Am I waiting at all?  Does He even feature in my thoughts and expectations - at least at random, in flashes?

Come Lord Jesus, Come!

Cell phone distance

The day before yesterday I went to the Secunderabad railway station to meet a couple of my companions from Chennai who had come to the city for a meeting and were returning back.  Since they could not make it to my place, we had agreed to meet in the station itself - none of us wanted to risk the Hyderabad traffic.

Having located them it suddenly occurred to me what if we were in the pre-mobile era?  How on earth did people locate someone in a place like a railway station someone whom they wanted to meet?  While chatting about this with my companions, one of them said, "Back then they used common sense!  And now we only use the mobile!"  True indeed!

In the name of advanced technology, we only have learnt the method of doing last minute work.  Planning much ahead and working towards something is not considered essential about all aspects of life.  Why anticipate something that can be done within a matter of few minutes.  So what then do you do with the "saved" time?

Earlier, when it was still the era of writing postal letters to dear ones announcing ones arrival by train, things were smooth, almost. Now even with the latest technology, there is more chaos and confusion!

Save face

A good thought to ponder and practice:

Save face - keep the lower part of it shut! 

If not in life...

Came back this evening from the funeral of Fr Pasala Jojappa, a novitiate batchmate of mine, who later joined the diocese of Nalgonda. He died under mysterious circumstances and things are too shady even for one to speculate.  However, the good that happened today, at least for me, was that I got to meet my Gunadala aspirantate and novitiate batchmates.  Most of them I am meeting after 20 to 23 years!  It was great to meet them.

Of the batch of 14 novices, way back in 1995, five of us are Salesians (4 Priests and me), one already in heaven, one laid to rest today and the rest are all married and settled down in life. Today Anil, Shantha, Kasu and William were absent.  The rest of us were all there: Anand, Kishore, Rayappa, Rajkumar and Thomas.

We stayed back after the funeral just to stand around and recall our days in Gunadala and Manoharabad.  We still remembered our nicknames and pet names.  Finally before leaving the village, we once again called on the family.  Most of us were not in touch with the family but all the same they invited us inside the house when we informed that we were a batch once upon a time.  We did spend some quality time with the mother, sister and a relative (a Priest).  Some intimate details about his death and the circumstances around the same too were shared in this close-knit gathering.

If not in life, his death brought us together.

RIP: Pasala

Sleep

Describes my present state pretty well...

Priests are not mushrooms

Pope Francis spoke of Priesthood and formation on Nov. 20, 2015 and here's what I liked most:

Priests also have a history, they are not 'mushrooms' which sprout up suddenly in the cathedral on the day of their ordination. 

It is important for formators and priests themselves to remember this and to know how to take into account this personal history along the path of formation … this means that one cannot become a priest, believing that one has been formed in a laboratory, no; he starts in the family with the 'handing on' of the faith and with all the experiences of the family. 

He added that each vocation is personalized,

because it is the concrete person who is called to discipleship and the priesthood.

A good priest, therefore, is first of all a man with his own humanity, who knows his own history, with its riches and its wounds, who has learned to make peace with this, achieving the fundamental serenity proper to one of the Lord's disciples. Human formation is therefore a necessity for priests, so that they learn not to be dominated by their limits, but rather to put their talents to use.

The good shoes

One of the priests to whom I was talking a couple of days ago was speaking about two staff members who were trying to become the right hand man of another confrere in a particular community.  So he stated it thus:

Both of them want to come close to him.  Both of them want to get into his good shoes. 

You see, that's what happens when you don't read the books right!

Fighting... movie style

One interesting phenomena I noticed among our boys... not only now, but even many years ago too.  Whenever words heat up and turn into blows, it is always a movie style fight.  The words and sentences uttered are all with the cinematic effect and so are the movements.  Now that's the first part.

The second part is the most interesting:  none of the other boys intervene!  They all merely stand by and watch.  Luckily they do not cheer on, but neither do they do anything to intervene and separate them.  All watch in deadly silence.  I guess that passivity too is a cinematic influence!

Air pack

One thing that I really did not see today, during the sports day of the neighbouring school, was children munching chips.  Usually, children when they have the liberty - and the money - go first for all that kurkure and chips packets.  Perhaps today there was no one selling them in the vicinity. However, I find it surprising that kids - and grown ups too - prefer the tight packed chips to something more filling and healthy, say a biscuit packet or some corn.  That too for the price you pay, there is more air than chips in some of these packets.

With children

Some old students and confreres often ask me how is my stay in Ramanthapur with the children from the street - honestly speaking, not all here are from the street!  Anyway, I sincerely tell them that I'm really enjoying my stay and work with the children.  Both here and in Punganur, working with children has certainly brought in a different perspective for myself.  Something I'd have really missed out had I continued in Karunapuram.  As of now, I do acknowledge that I have no great love for Karunapuram, but I certainly am doing a lot of introspection and self-reflection.

Children truly mirror a lot back to you... so no dodging!