Bishop’s Monthly Letter

My dear Brother Priests,

Let me first of all wish all of you, all our faithful and our Religious a very happy Easter Season full of the choicest blessings of the Risen Saviour.

It was heart-warming to learn from the Parishes that the “24 Hours for the Lord” event stipulated by the Holy Father for the Year of Mercy has been deeply spiritual experience for our faithful. Many Parish Priests informed me that the numbers of the parishioners who flocked to our Churches and Chapels was unpresidental. I wish to thank all of you for organizing this spiritual event during this Season of Lent by making our faithful aware of its importance as well as for providing them with the opportunity to make their Sacramental Confession. One Parish Priest has even recommended that the “24 Hours for the Lord” be made an annual feature in the Lenten Programme every year. We shall discuss the same in one of our forthcoming presbyteral meetings.

I am also very happy that both the Diocesan and Religious Priests participated in the Chrism Mass in the Parish Church of Hatton and renewed their Priestly commitment.

I wish to appeal to all of you to constantly remind our faithful about the importance of experiencing God’s unfathomable mercy in their lives. The Sacred Triduum made us profoundly conscious of the fact that Jesus our Saviour “being sinless, made Himself sin” for our sake and paid the ransom for the sins of mankind. In the Bull of Indiction” (Misericordiae Vultus) no 22 the Holy Father refers to the fact that this treasure of “indulgence” won for us by our Redeemer with the communion of Saints is available to us to pay the ransom for the wages of our sins. We must remind our faithful that God’s forgiveness knows no bounds. Therefore God forgives our sins and blots them out in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. And yet in the Pope’s own words “sin leaves a negative effect on the way we think and act”. By gaining indulgences the sinners are freed from every residue left by the consequences of sin, enabling him/her to strive towards the perfection of charity.

Please explain to our faithful of the importance of going through the Holy Door with proper dispositions to gain indulgences. Each day those who walk through the Holy Door in the state of grace can gain one plenary indulgence.

Now that the holy Week ceremonies are over. I hope that each one of you would take a few days off to rest.

I am happy to announce that Deacon Devadas Stephen will be ordained a Priest on the 25^th April 2016 at 3.00 p.m at our Cathedral. Deacon Dilan Perera is enthusiastically preparing himself for the language exam, after completing which he will have his Priestly Ordination. It will be announced in due time. Please keep our two Deacons in your prayers.

 

With prayerful wishes I remain.

 

Yours Devotedly in the Lord

 

 

Bishop Vianney Fernando,

Bishop of Kandy

 

 

PRIESTLY ORDINATION OF           DEACON DEVADAS STEPHEN    Deacon Devadas John Stephen was born in 1985 and he is from Moolloya estate in Hewaheta Parish. He is the son of Mr & Mrs Masilamani Devadas and Sinnaiya Nesamani. He joined the Minor Seminary on 8th of January 2006. After that he entered the Inter-Mediate Seminary on 12th of November 2008.He started his Philosophical and Theological studies at the National Seminary on 2nd of October2009. After formation at the National Seminary he was serving at the Parishes of Padiwatte and Nikewehara till his Diaconate. He was ordained a Deacon on 17th of October 2015 by His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith. He practiced his Diaconal ministry in different parishes such as, Rotewewa and Nuware Eliya. He will be ordained a priest on the 25th of April 2016 at St. Anthony’s Cathedral, Kandy by His Lordship Rt. Rev. Dr. Joseph Vianney Fernando, Bishop of our Diocese.

 

‘The Name of God is Mercy’: New Book by Pope Francis

               The pope, like Peter, is in need of mercy

“The Pope is a man who needs the mercy of God,” the Holy Father says in the book-length interview.

“I said it sincerely to the prisoners of Palmasola, in Bolivia, to those men and women who welcomed me so warmly. I reminded them that even Saint Peter and Saint Paul had been prisoners. I have a special relationship with people in prisons, deprived of their freedom. I have always been very attached to them, precisely because of my awareness of being a sinner.”

“Every time I go through the gates into a prison to celebrate Mass or for a visit, I always think: why them and not me? I should be here. I deserve to be here. Their fall could have been mine. I do not feel superior to the people who stand before me. And so I repeat and pray: why him and not me? It might seem shocking, but I derive consolation from Peter: he betrayed Jesus, and even so he was chosen.”

 

Pope John Paul I: ‘engraved in dust’

The Holy Father also remembers being touched by the writings of his predecessor Pope John Paul I, Albino Luciani. “There is the homily when Albino Luciani said he had been chosen because the Lord preferred that certain things not be engraved in bronze or marble but in the dust, so that if the writing had remained, it would have been clear that the merit was all and only God’s. He, the bishop and future Pope John Paul I, called himself ‘dust’.”

“I have to say that when I speak of this, I always think of what Peter told Jesus on the Sunday of his resurrection, when he met him on his own, a meeting hinted at in the Gospel of Luke. What might Peter have said to the Messiah upon his resurrection from the tomb? Might he have said that he felt like a sinner? He must have thought of his betrayal, of what had happened a few days earlier when he pretended three times not to recognise Jesus in the courtyard of the High Priest’s house. He must have thought of his bitter and public tears.”

“If Peter did all of that, if the gospels describe his sin and denials to us, and if despite all this Jesus said [to him], ‘tend my sheep’ (John 21), I don’t think we should be surprised if his successors describe themselves as sinners. It is nothing new.”

 

Miserando atque eligendo

Telling the story of his episcopal motto, Pope Francis returns to an experience of God’s mercy, which took place in his teenage years.

“I don’t have any particular memories of mercy as a young child. But I do as a young man. I think of Father Carlos Duarte Ibarra, the confessor I met in my parish church on September 21, 1953, the day the Church celebrated Saint Matthew, the apostle and evangelist. I was seventeen years old. On confessing myself to him, I felt welcomed by the mercy of God.”

“Ibarra was originally from Corrientes but was in Buenos Aires to receive treatment for leukaemia. He died the following year. I still remember how when I got home, after his funeral and burial, I felt as though I had been abandoned. And I cried a lot that night, really a lot, and hid in my room.”

“Why? Because I had lost a person who helped me feel the mercy of God, that miserando atque eligendo, an expression I didn’t know at the time but I eventually would choose as my episcopal motto. I learned about it later, in the homilies of the English monk, the Venerable Bede [672-735]. When describing the calling of Matthew, he writes: “Jesus saw the tax collector and by having mercy chose him as an apostle saying to him, ‘follow me’.”

“This is the translation commonly given for the words of Saint Bede [originally written in Latin]. I like to translate “miserando” with another gerund that doesn’t exist: misericordando or mercying. So, “mercying him and choosing him” describes the vision of Jesus who gives the gift of mercy and chooses, and takes with him.”

Church condemns sin, shows mercy to sinner

“The Church condemns sin because it has to relay the truth: ‘this is a sin’.

But at the same time, it embraces the sinner who recognises himself

as such, it welcomes him, it speaks to him of the infinite mercy of God. Jesus forgave even those who crucified and scorned him.”

“To follow the way of the Lord, the Church is called on to dispense its mercy over all those who recognise themselves as sinners, who assume responsibility for the evil they have committed, and who feel in need of forgiveness. The Church does not exist to condemn people, but to bring about an encounter with the visceral love of God’s mercy.”

“I often say that in order for this to happen, it is necessary to go out: to go out from the churches and the parishes, to go outside and look for people where they live, where they suffer, and where they hope. I like to use the image of a field hospital to describe this “Church that goes forth”. It exists where there is combat. It is not a solid structure with all the equipment where people go to receive treatment for both small and large infirmities. It is a mobile structure that offers first aid and immediate care, so that its soldiers do not die.”

“It is a place for urgent care, not a place to see a specialist. I hope that the Jubilee [The Holy Year of Mercy] will serve to reveal the Church’s deeply maternal and merciful side, a Church that goes forth toward those who are “wounded,” who are in need of an attentive ear, understanding, forgiveness, and love.”

 

Mercy yes, corruption no

Pope Francis goes on to point out the difference between sin and corruption, saying the corrupt man lacks the humility to recognise his sins.

“Corruption is the sin which, rather than being recognised as such and rendering us humble, is elevated to a system; it becomes a mental habit, a way of living. We no longer feel the need for forgiveness and mercy, but we justify ourselves and our behaviours.”

 

“Jesus says to his disciples: even if your brother offends you seven times a day, and seven times a day he returns to you to ask for forgiveness, forgive him. The repentant sinner, who sins again and again because of his weakness, will find forgiveness if he acknowledges his need for mercy. The corrupt man is the one who sins but does not repent, who sins and pretends to be Christian, and it is this double life that is scandalous.”

 

“The corrupt man does not know humility, he does not consider himself in need of help, he leads a double life. We must not accept the state of corruption as if it were just another sin. Even though corruption is often identified with sin, in fact they are two distinct realities, albeit interconnected.”

 

“Sin, especially if repeated, can lead to corruption, not quantitatively — in the sense that a certain number of sins makes a person corrupt — but rather qualitatively: habits are formed that limit one’s capacity for love and create a false sense of self-sufficiency.”

 

“The corrupt man tires of asking for forgiveness and ends up believing that he doesn’t need to ask for it any more. We don’t become corrupt people overnight. It is a long, slippery slope that cannot be identified simply as a series of sins. One may be a great sinner and never fall into corruption if hearts feel their own weakness. That small opening allows the strength of God to enter.”

“When a sinner recognizes himself as such, he admits in some way that what he was attached to, or clings to, is false. The corrupt man hides what he considers his true treasure, but which really makes him a slave and masks his vice with good manners, always managing to keep up appearances.”

(From Vatican News)

Top 10 Mercy Quotes of Pope Francis

1. I think we too are the people who, on the one hand, want to listen to Jesus

, but on the other hand, at times, like to find a stick to beat others with, to condemn others. And Jesus has this message for us: mercy. I think — and I say it with humility — that this is the Lord’s most powerful message: mercy.
                                                                                                                                                            Homily on March 17, 2013

2. It is not easy to entrust oneself to God’s mercy, because it is an abyss beyond our comprehension. But we must! … “Oh, I am a great sinner!” “All the better! Go to Jesus: He likes you to tell him these things!” He forgets, He has a very special capacity for forgetting. He forgets, He kisses you, He embraces you and He simply says to you: “Neither do I condemn you; go, and sin no more” (Jn 8:11).
        Homily on March 17, 2013
3. 
   Jesus’ attitude is striking: we do not hear the words of scorn; we do not hear words of condemnation, but only words of love, of mercy, which are an invitation to conversation. “Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again.” Ah! Brothers and Sisters, God’s face is the face of a merciful father who is always patient. Have you thought about God’s patience, the patience He has with each one of us? That is His mercy. He always has patience, patience with us, He understands us, He waits for us, He does not tire of forgiving us if we are able to return to Him with a contrite heart. “Great is God’s mercy,” says the Psalm.
           Angelus on March 17, 2013
4. 
   In the past few days I have been reading a book by a Cardinal … Cardinal Kasper said that feeling mercy, that this word changes everything. This is the best thing we can feel: it changes the world. A little mercy makes the world less cold and more just. We need to understand properly this mercy of God, this merciful Father who is so patient. … Let us remember the Prophet Isaiah who says that even if our sins were scarlet, God’s love would make them white as snow. This mercy is beautiful.
   Angelus on March 17, 20135. God’s mercy can make even the driest land become a garden; can restore life to dry bones (cf. Ez 37:1-14). … Let us be renewed by God’s mercy, let us be loved by Jesus, let us enable the power of his love to transform our lives too; and let us become agents of this mercy, channels through which God can water the earth, protect all creation and make justice and peace flourish.
                                                                                                                  Easter Urbi et Orbi message on March 31, 2013
5. Together let us pray to the Virgin Mary that she helps us … to walk in faith and charity, ever trusting in the Lord’s mercy; He always awaits us, loves us, has pardoned us with His Blood and pardons us every time we go to Him to ask His forgiveness. Let us trust in His mercy!
   Regina Caeli on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 7, 2013
6. In today’s Gospel, the Apostle Thomas personally experiences this mercy of God. … Thomas does not believe it when the other Apostles tell him: “We have seen the Lord.” … And how does Jesus react? With patience: Jesus does not abandon Thomas in his stubborn unbelief … He does not close the door, He waits. And Thomas acknowledges his own poverty, his little faith. “My Lord and my God!”: with this simple yet faith-filled invocation, he responds to Jesus’ patience. He lets himself be enveloped by Divine Mercy; he sees it  before his eyes, in the wounds of Christ’s hands and feet and in His open side, and he discovers trust.

Homily on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 7, 2013

 

8. Let us … remember Peter: three times he denied Jesus, precisely when he should have been closest to him; and when he hits bottom he meets the gaze

of Jesus who patiently, wordlessly, says to him: “Peter, don’t be afraid of your weakness, trust in Me.” Peter understands, he feels the loving gaze of Jesus and he weeps. How beautiful is this gaze of Jesus — how much tenderness is there! Brothers and sisters let us never lose trust in the patience and mercy of God!
                                 Homily on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 7, 2013

 

 

 

 

9. I am always struck when I reread the parable of the merciful Father. …

The Father, with patience, love, hope and mercy, had never for a second stopped

thinking about [his wayward son], and as soon as he sees him still far off, he runs out

to meet him and embraces him with tenderness, the tenderness of God, without a word of reproach. … God is always waiting for us, He never grows tired. Jesus shows us this merciful patience of God so that we can regain confidence and hope — always!
Homily on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 7, 2013

10. God’s patience has to call forth in us the courage to return to Him, however many mistakes and sins there may be in our life. … It is there, in the wounds of Jesus, that we are truly secure; there we encounter the boundless love of His heart. Thomas understood this. Saint Bernard goes on to ask: But what can I count on? My own merits? No, “My merit is God’s mercy. I am by no means lacking merits as long as He is rich in mercy. If the mercies of the Lord are manifold, I too will abound in merits.” This is important: the courage to trust in Jesus’ mercy, to trust in His patience, to seek refuge always in the wounds of His love.
Homily on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 7, 2013

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Mother Teresa to be made Saint on Sept. 4^th

Vatican officials have informed Indian Church Leaders that the Canonization ceremony will be in Rome

Indian Missionaries of Charity nuns gesture as they sing standing       beside a portrait of Mother Teresa while taking part in a prayer to observe her death anniversary at the congregation’s motherhouse in Kolkata in this 2005 file photo. (Photo by AFP)

Pope Francis has announced that the canonization ceremony of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta will take place on Sept. 4 but the program will not include a papal visit to India.

Pope Francis announced the date at a March 15 meeting of cardinals to give the final approval to several sainthood causes, including Mother Teresa.

The Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity congregation, dedicating        h                                  her life for the “poorest of the poor” was based in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta, now known as Kolkata.

Indian bishops during their plenary meeting in early March had formally sent an invitation to Pope Francis to visit India. During a discussion on inviting pope, some bishops had suggested that the pope’s visit be linked with the canonization ceremony.

However, Cardinal Baselios Cleemis of Trivandrum, president of the Indian Catholic bishops’ conference told them that Vatican officials had informed him that Mother Teresa’s canonization ceremony will be in Rome.

Father Joseph Chinnayan, deputy secretary general of the bishops conference, pointed out that two other canonization ceremonies of Indian Saints Kuriakose Chavara Elias and Alphonsa were conducted in Rome.

Pope Francis cleared the path to Mother Teresa’s sainthood in December when he approved a second miracle attributed to her.

Mother Teresa was born in Skopje, now the capital of Macedonia. She came to India in 1929 as a novice with the Loreto nuns. She left the congregation in the late 1940s and started the Missionaries of Charity in 1950.

Mother Teresa died of cardiac arrest at the congregation’s motherhouse in Kolkata on Sept. 5, 1997, aged 87. Her canonization process began two years afterward. Pope John Paul II beatified her in 2003. Her tomb at the motherhouse has become a pilgrimage center.

In 1979 Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the poor in the slums of Calcutta.                                                                                                                      (Vatican News)

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INSIGHT:

One of the great things about light is that it allows us to see where we are going. As believers in Christ, we are “children of light,” and we can clearly see the way we are to walk. Those in spiritual darkness stumble and fall. It is no simple turn of phrase that following Jesus is called “walking in the light.”

E.G.White Library

The True Sheep Respond to the Voice of the Shepherd

“I am the Good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also must I bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one Shepherd.”

In the East it is the custom of the shepherd to name his sheep, and as the sheep learn their names, they respond to the voice of the shepherd. The shepherd goes before them and leads them out, guiding them from the fold to the pasture. The sheep recognize the voice of the shepherd and follow him. Jesus declared himself to be the true shepherd, because he gave his life for the sheep. He says; “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man take it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”

Jesus spoke these words in the hearing of a large concourse of people, and a deep impression was made upon the hearts of many who listened. The scribes and Pharisees were filled with jealousy because he was regarded with favour by many. Among the multitude were also rulers, who were deeply impressed as they listened to his important words. While he represented himself as the True Shepherd, the Pharisees said, “He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?” But others distinguished the voice of the True Shepherd, and said:–

“These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind? And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch. Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not; the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.”

With what firmness and power he uttered these words. The Jews had never before heard such words from human lips, and a convicting influence attended them; for it seemed that divinity flashed through humanity as Jesus said, “I and my Father are one.” The words of Christ were full of deep meaning as he put forth the claim that he and the Father were of one substance, possessing the same attributes. The Jews understood his meaning, there was no reason why they should misunderstand, and they took up stones to stone him. Jesus looked upon them calmly and unshrinking, and said, “Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of these works do ye stone me?” The Majesty of heaven stood, calmly assured, as a god before his adversaries Their scowling faces, their hands filled with stones, did not intimidate him.

He knew that unseen forces, legions of angels, were round about him, and at one word from his lips they would strike with dismay the throng, should they offer to cast upon him a single stone. He stood before them undaunted. Why did not the stones fly to the mark?—

 

.

It was because divinity flashed through humanity, and they received a revelation,

and were convicted that his were no common claims. Their hands relax and the

stones fall to the ground. His words had asserted his divinity, but now his personal presence, the light of his eye, the majesty of his attitude, bore witness to the fact that he was the beloved Son of God.

Had the Pharisees misunderstood his words, he could and would have corrected their wrong impression. He could have told them that he was no blasphemer, although he had called himself the Son of God, and that his words need not necessarily mean that he had invested himself with divine prerogatives, and made himself equal with the Father. But he made no such statement. The impression they had received was the very impression he desired to make. Jesus answered them: “Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken; say ye of Him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works; that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.” Again the hatred and the wrath is stirred within the breast of the Jews, and they sought “to take him; but he escaped out of their hand, and went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized; and there he abode. And many resorted unto him, and said, John did no miracle; but all things that John spake of this man were true. And many believed on him there.

 

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1. Go to confession

We cannot give what we do not have. Experience God’s mercy first-hand.

2. Forgive someone

Do you have a difficult relationship with someone in your life?

Share God’s mercy with someone.

3. Try to practice Spiritual and corporal works of mercy.

Take each one and focus on sharing mercy simply

4. Pray the divine mercy novena daily.

This is a typical novena to invoke Jesus’ mercy

5. Take a pilgrimage.

It does not have to be far. Find a shrine or a church which has the Holy Door of Mercy close by and spend extra time in prayer.

6. Pray Pope Francis’ prayer for mercy daily.

 

By: Fr. Surendra Pragash

 

 

 

 

THAT’S HUMANITY

This is an amazing picture: Abdul Raheem, an Afghan soldier who lost

both his hands in war, received a pair of hands from Joseph of Kerala

who had suffered brain death.  Joseph’s wife and daughter are looking

at the hands that once caressed them.   The transplant surgery was performed by Dr Subramanian Iyer (right side next to Abdul Raheem) of the Amrita Hospital, Kerala.   A Hindu doctor – a Christian organ-donor – a Muslim recipient – that’s humanity!

 

Taken from UCANEWS.Com

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Taste the Orange

In London there is a very large famous park, a public garden where, especially on Sundays, hundreds of people go to relax. In this park there was an area that is called “Hyde Park Corner” where every Sunday all those who desire may go to voice their opinions on philosophy, religion and other tropics. You could see groups of people gathered around these speakers listening, shouting, protesting and applauding.

Now there was a man who Sunday after Sunday would go there just proclaiming that God did not exist. He was a very good speaker and so he was always challenging anyone to confront him in his ideas. But nobody dared to contradict him. Finally an old man presents himself. He went on to the podium near the speaker. At last speaker was very happy that he could make fun of this old man who dared to challenge him.

No the only thing the old man did was taking an orange out of his pocket and very calmly began to peel it. What are you doing here? He asked him? “Just peeling an orange!” The old, an calmly answered.” And what do you mean by that? The old man did not answer but continued to peel his Orange. Then he began to eat it. Everyone was laughing at him but surely not the speaker.

At last the old man turned to the atheist and asked him. “What does the Orange taste like? By the time speaker was very nervous, and angrily answered:” How could I know what the orange tastes like if you are the one who is eating it? The old man answered, that’s it, in the same way you cannot speak about God because you have never tasted him. So get down, and let me speak about God, and I have the right to do it and not you.

This was a great piece of evangelization. So if you are not on a journey in Jesus, you cannot taste him and obviously you will not be able to discern

 

   Sent By: Fr.Bala Rajendram.

The Power of Mercy

Loving Your Enemies

By Fr. Adrian Farrelly

No matter who you are, where you are and what you do, it is always good to have friends. In life, we all want to get on well with everyone, but that’s easier said than done! There are those who we find difficult and we tend to avoid. There are people we don’t get on with and those who don’t like us. There are even people who are against us.

Jesus draws our attention to people like that. They represent the “enemies” He speaks about in the Gospel. As a priest, I listen to many people and no one wants to have enemies! Life is very difficult when you have people who oppose you or want to bring you down. So it comes as no surprise that the one teaching of Jesus we all find hard to follow is “love our enemies”. Jesus taught, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

How can we love our enemies?

How can we love those who have no time for us, who are against us, put us down and make life difficult for us, and who might even hate us? Why should we love such people? Loving our enemies seems like approving of them and letting them get away with their bad behaviour. This teaching of Jesus can be a stumbling block for many. There are times when we try to build a bridge of reconciliation with our enemies, but they reject our attempts. How can we love them as Jesus asks? How can we love them if they refuse to change or feel any different towards us? So the question remains: How can we love our enemies?
We can love our enemies with mercy

It is possible to love our enemies. The key that unlocks this love is mercy. God asks us to be merciful and to bring mercy into situations where it is absent. Mercy does not give up on those who are bad, troubled or broken. Mercy helps us to see in them more than just the negative. Mercy changes our attitude and actions. Mercy helps us to look at people differently. We look at people with eyes of mercy and suddenly, we see more in them. Mercy is about looking with compassion, with understanding and not being judgemental. Mercy is about giving another chance.
Love the sinner but not the sin

When Jesus was on the Cross, He was able to forgive those who crucified Him. He was able to love and to see beyond their cruelty. We have often heard, ‘love the sinner but not the sin’. By loving the sinner, we are not approving the sin. We’re loving

the person God created and Jesus died for. With mercy comes new hope. When we love our enemy, we also hope that one day, they will return to the Lord.

Mercy can change enemies

As a priest, I see every day how mercy can change people. But instead of waiting for others to change, we are called to be the first ones to show mercy, the first ones to change, to start seeing the truth and the possibility of change in others. I have seen mercy paving the way

 

For peace and enabling good things to happen. I’ve seen mercy

healing division and hatred and controlling anger. I saw mercy

enabling people to be tolerant and forgiving, stopping the feelings

of hurt, hatred and resentment. Mercy will enable you also too see the other person in a new way, because mercy sees the hurt and anger but is gentle with it and brings comfort, thus allowing healing to begin.

Divine Mercy helps us to love our enemies
Love causes us to look differently at our enemies, with compassion and forgiveness. Love sees the good, love sees what is possible. Love facilitates forgiveness. The truth is that love and mercy go together. Mercy brings love and enables change to happen even when things seemed impossible. In this new light of God’s Love and Mercy, the person who we called “enemy” is more than what is negative, more than just badness and hatred. That’s why Jesus was slow to judge His enemies. On the Cross, Jesus spoke to the Father and said ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do’. When we show mercy to someone, we give that person dignity. We remind them that we see in them more than just their badness. When we are merciful towards our enemies, God’s love flows through us; it changes and transforms us and them.

The enemy within myself
For some people, the enemy is not the person outside but within oneself. A man once said to me, ‘I hate myself’ and we can all be like that because of exterior things that control us and destroy us. The ‘enemy within’ might be an addiction or the inability to resist temptations. The ‘enemy within’ might be me putting myself down because of shame or guilt. The enemy might be our sins. But we are more than that; we are more than our addiction or our weakness. Loving your enemy might mean learning to love yourself. Our sins can make us enemies of ourselves. We can feel ashamed for what we have done. Loving our enemies means being able to let go of the pain and hurt and divisions and allowing the love to grow and transform us. Loving our enemies enables us to touch Divine Mercy.

(Taken from zenit.org)

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Our Deepest Sympathy

to Mrs. Clive Taylor

 

 

Mrs.Clive Taylor a former member of the chancery office passed away peacefully        on 8^th of March 2016 at home. She was buried at the catholic cemetery of St. Thresa’s Church, Peradeniya. Mrs. Taylor had served many years both at social action centre in the early 1970s.later over 3 decades in our chancery office.

She was always willing and dedicated worker. Her contribution to promote     the cause of beatification and canonization of our beloved Apostle, St. Joseph Vaz has been significant. She had a great love for the Diocese and Priests whom she always considered as her own children. We thank God for the service for the Diocese, and we pray that the lord may grant her eternal peace in his Kingdom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birthdays

 

02^nd     -Sat      -Rev. Fr. Leslie Perera

06^th      -Wed   -Rev. Fr. Dominic Sandanam

09^th      -Sat      -Rev. Fr. Jayanath Perera

22^nd     -Fri      -Rev. Fr. Clement Jesudasan

26^th      -Tue     -Rev. Fr. T. Christopher

 

Ordinations

02^nd     -Sat      –           Rev. Fr. Iranga Iromal Dias, OSB

07^th      -Thu    –           Rev. Fr. Rasika Lakmal Perera

10^th      -Sun    –           Rev. Clement Gnanapragasam, OSB

22^nd     -Fri      –           Rev. Fr. A. Mathew

–           Rev. Fr. Dosminraj

Deaths

03^rd      -Sun    –           Rev. Fr. Justus Perera

11^th      -Sat      –           Rev. D. J. Philippupulle

15^th      -Fri      –           Rev. Fr. B. J. Fernandez

17^th      -Sun    –           Rev. Fr. Mellitus Perera, OSB