Charitable strides

Charitable strides

      More than 6,500 Amdavadis participated in the 11th Annual Motif Charity Walk; helped to raise Rs 44 lakh

Amdavadis walked and jogged their way to good health on a chilly Sunday and in the process helped raise Rs 44 lakh. More than 6,500 people, from the age of 6 to 60, participated in the 11th edition of annual Motif Charity Walk. 

    The 5-km walk and 10-km run was flagged off from LD College of Engineering and passed by B K School of Management, Vijay Crossroads, Helmet Circle, Blind People’s Association and PRL before coming back to LD. 

    Chartered Accountant Pushpendra Sisodia said, “Thirty of us have come to participate in this event. This is a great initiative and we want to take this opportunity to set an example for youngsters. Bringing about social awareness is very important.” 

    The beneficiaries of the fund raised this year would be Jivdaya Charitable Trust which helps injured stray animals and birds, Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust that supports victims of social injustice in rural areas, Prabhat Education Foundation that nurtures children with special needs and learning difficulties and Special Olympics Gujarat Charitable Trust which empowers people with intellectual disabilities. 

     CEO of Motif Inc Kaushal Mehta said, “This year, we had 60 corporates supporting us, which is a record. It is indeed heartwarming to see this kind of awareness among the people.”

     The director of the Unteshwari Sammilitalayam - a centre for and with the disabled persons, Fr Girish expressed his joy at Motif Charity walk “Indeed, I, in a small way, am part of this process of making our fellow brethren to commit for a noble cause. What a joy to walk with all”! 

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FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US

When one reads Helen Prejean's, Dead Man Walking, what is often lost in the sheer power of the story is what she recounts at the very end of the book and intends precisely as the real ending to the story.

The book ends with the story of Lloyd LeBlanc, the father of the boy who was murdered, and his struggle to forgive his son's killer.

After the execution of the man who killed his son, Prejean describes how she would occasionally meet Lloyd LeBlanc at a chapel which holds perpetual adoration. Kneeling with him, in the middle of the night in a silent chapel, they would say the rosary together. Prejean describes how, at a point, he shared with her his struggle to forgive his son's killer.

When he arrived with the sheriff's deputies in the deserted field to identify his son's body, he had knelt down beside the body and prayed the Our Father. When he came to the words: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us," he had not stopped praying or made any mental reservations. Instead he added the words: "Whoever did this, I forgive them."

There, beside his dead son's mutilated body, he had forgiven the man who had done that to his son.

FASTING - "Give it up"

It might surprise some Catholics to learn that fasting during Lent is not meant to be undertaken solely for one’s spiritual well-being. While self-abnegation can serve as a vivid reminder that our physical bodies should not rule our lives, the early church fathers thought that fasting needed to be connected to something else: almsgiving. St. John Chrysostom wrote that fasting without almsgiving was hardly praiseworthy; in fact, it hardly counted as fasting at all. Ironically, he compared it to gluttony and drunkenness, since it smacked of selfishness. For St. Augustine, fasting was avaricious unless one gave away what one saved. The practice, then, needs to be informed by charity, not simply a desire to attain spiritual perfection.

Pope Benedict XVI is to step down

Pope Benedict XVI is to step down

Pope Benedict XVI is to step down, the Vatican announces

Pope Benedict XVI has announced he will resign in two weeks. Here is his full statement:

Dear Brothers,

I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.

Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.

From the Vatican, 10 February 2013

What is Faith today?

RON ROLHEISER, OMI Speaker, Columnist and Author

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FAITH THROUGH MYSTICISM

Karl Rahner once said that the time is fast approaching when one will either be a mystic or an unbeliever.

He's right. None of us can rely much longer on the fact that we were once given the faith and that we still walk within a community that, seemingly, has some faith. These things are no longer, of themselves, enough to sustain faith in an age which is as agnostic, pluralistic, seductive, and distracting as is our own. In the past, a certain cultural (sometimes, ethnic-based) faith was still very powerful and could carry individuals in a way that is no longer possible today.

The Cat at the Puja.- A story

During the Puja
the Master asked the disciples to tie the cat
because it was disturbing the Puja.
So it went on till the Master died. Later the cat also died.
The disciples faithfully brought another cat to tie during the Puja.
They thought that it was an essential part of the Puja.

Now after many years the authorities sent strict directions and rules how to
tie the cat with ritual purity. Color of the cat also had to change according to the seasons.
it was made compulsory to  follow the rules while tying the cat during the Puja.

[ Any similarity with today's reality is accidental not intended]
Devasia

IGNATIAN RIPPLES - Fr.Hedwig Lewis

Ignatian Ripples 
go to the page with the same name
Devasia