God has blessed me with two little angels, Sancia and Tanya. As a father, the most intimate bonding time with them has been funnily enough through changing diapers and for my wife perhaps it is feeding them. In my experience as a parent, kids can make a complete mess till they learn to use the bathroom and even then it takes them time to learn not to dirty their diapers or clothes. In our spiritual lives, that's what sin does and some of the saints even had the spiritual gift to smell sin on people. So just as babies need a mother or father when they get dirty, we need mother Church when we sin.
In the sacrament of Reconciliation, we go with the stench of sin on us and as a good parent would always welcome the child in such a situation and take them to be washed and cleansed, so also in this Sacrament, the priest who represents God and man listens to our sins and says "through the ministry of the Church, may God grant you pardon and peace and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen". The priest is using the authority given by Christ when he appears to the Apostles on Pentecost and told them "receive the Holy Spirit. Whose ever sins you forgive, they shall be forgiven and whose ever sins you retain, they shall be retained". In this sense, Confession is a spiritual diaper change where God our Father cleanses us and makes us clean and gives us the grace to avoid sin and be holy. However in my opinion, the costly price of this Mercy is the Blood of Christ, the holy Lamb of God. Yet, we must realize that no matter how many times we sin, Confession is free and limitless because the Mercy of God is free and limitless. Just as a parent will not charge the child money for a diaper change (imagine how crazy that would be!), and do it as many times and as frequently as needed, so also the Church will freely dispense of the Mercy and Grace of God in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Breast milk is actually produced by the alveoli taking nutrients from the blood of the mother. So this is paralleled by Christ giving himself to the Church by giving his Body and Blood for us. Pelicans are known in times of famine to feed their young by ripping their own flesh and feeding their flesh and blood. Thus they have become a symbol of the Eucharist. In this context, Eucharist gives us spiritual nourishment like nothing in the world can give. While breast milk and regular food which we as parents give our children is nutritious, there is only one food that can make us live forever, and that food is the Eucharist. I have found in my own spiritual life, that when I have been frequent to the Eucharist, I am much fortified in my challenge to avoid sin and live out holiness in my life. Hence Eucharist is considered the source and summit of Christian life. No wonder then, that I consider my time and effort in releasing the Mass Finder app a labour of love to do what is in my power to bring people closer to God through the Eucharist.
One of the great blessings in the spiritual life of our family is being part of a community of like minded people. All this started when Sancia was about 3 months old and my wife was at that time in her mothers house (an Indian tradition) and I wanted to make the right spiritual start to our now 3-member family and felt we both badly needed time together to reflect and meditate since the last few months was an arduous journey in our relationship as recently married couple. So we attended a retreat that immensely blessed both of us and enabled us to clear lots of issues with a firm resolution to turn a new leaf and work more towards making our family as God wants us to be. Now we are part of Couples for Christ, India where we get regular spiritual nourishment and opportunity to live our lives deeper in the Gospel.
I used to teach Sunday school catechism some years back and this year, since my little one is a few months old and little less dependent than she was, I decided it was time I answered the desire to share the faith through catechism again. When my kids were baptized, we became more fully conscious of our role and responsibility to bring them up in the faith. I feel that since I have a love for the faith and since that love has inspired me to study it over the years, I have almost an obligation to answer this call and inspire the young people in my charge to love their faith and grow deeper in it. Thus I share in a spiritual parenthood of the Church and of the Father who wants to all people them to himself. So there you have it, so many parallels which show how beautifully we can relate our Catholic faith to our own family relationships and especially to parenthood in a spiritual sense. That's why when Jesus was on the cross in his most important moments, he said "Woman, behold your son and son behold your mother" thus giving his mother Mary as a Mother for us all. Many of the thoughts for this article came while listening and reflecting on Mother Mary in this video, which I highly recommend:
In the sacrament of Reconciliation, we go with the stench of sin on us and as a good parent would always welcome the child in such a situation and take them to be washed and cleansed, so also in this Sacrament, the priest who represents God and man listens to our sins and says "through the ministry of the Church, may God grant you pardon and peace and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen". The priest is using the authority given by Christ when he appears to the Apostles on Pentecost and told them "receive the Holy Spirit. Whose ever sins you forgive, they shall be forgiven and whose ever sins you retain, they shall be retained". In this sense, Confession is a spiritual diaper change where God our Father cleanses us and makes us clean and gives us the grace to avoid sin and be holy. However in my opinion, the costly price of this Mercy is the Blood of Christ, the holy Lamb of God. Yet, we must realize that no matter how many times we sin, Confession is free and limitless because the Mercy of God is free and limitless. Just as a parent will not charge the child money for a diaper change (imagine how crazy that would be!), and do it as many times and as frequently as needed, so also the Church will freely dispense of the Mercy and Grace of God in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Breast milk is actually produced by the alveoli taking nutrients from the blood of the mother. So this is paralleled by Christ giving himself to the Church by giving his Body and Blood for us. Pelicans are known in times of famine to feed their young by ripping their own flesh and feeding their flesh and blood. Thus they have become a symbol of the Eucharist. In this context, Eucharist gives us spiritual nourishment like nothing in the world can give. While breast milk and regular food which we as parents give our children is nutritious, there is only one food that can make us live forever, and that food is the Eucharist. I have found in my own spiritual life, that when I have been frequent to the Eucharist, I am much fortified in my challenge to avoid sin and live out holiness in my life. Hence Eucharist is considered the source and summit of Christian life. No wonder then, that I consider my time and effort in releasing the Mass Finder app a labour of love to do what is in my power to bring people closer to God through the Eucharist.
One of the great blessings in the spiritual life of our family is being part of a community of like minded people. All this started when Sancia was about 3 months old and my wife was at that time in her mothers house (an Indian tradition) and I wanted to make the right spiritual start to our now 3-member family and felt we both badly needed time together to reflect and meditate since the last few months was an arduous journey in our relationship as recently married couple. So we attended a retreat that immensely blessed both of us and enabled us to clear lots of issues with a firm resolution to turn a new leaf and work more towards making our family as God wants us to be. Now we are part of Couples for Christ, India where we get regular spiritual nourishment and opportunity to live our lives deeper in the Gospel.
I used to teach Sunday school catechism some years back and this year, since my little one is a few months old and little less dependent than she was, I decided it was time I answered the desire to share the faith through catechism again. When my kids were baptized, we became more fully conscious of our role and responsibility to bring them up in the faith. I feel that since I have a love for the faith and since that love has inspired me to study it over the years, I have almost an obligation to answer this call and inspire the young people in my charge to love their faith and grow deeper in it. Thus I share in a spiritual parenthood of the Church and of the Father who wants to all people them to himself. So there you have it, so many parallels which show how beautifully we can relate our Catholic faith to our own family relationships and especially to parenthood in a spiritual sense. That's why when Jesus was on the cross in his most important moments, he said "Woman, behold your son and son behold your mother" thus giving his mother Mary as a Mother for us all. Many of the thoughts for this article came while listening and reflecting on Mother Mary in this video, which I highly recommend:
