Archdiocese of Bombay - Lent - A Springtime to build Relationshipss | Fr Ashwin Castellino

[Music] my dear brothers and sisters we are in the season of lent and lent is a favorable time for personal and community renewal and during lent we carry out our practices like fasting prayer abstinence and arms giving which is all very good but lent is not a time as jesus would say to move around with sad or grumpy phrases even as we undertake these practices but rather lent is a period of joy lent is not about being a bit hard on ourselves or having extra devotion or moving on to the next gear with our spiritual practices but rather it is about revival and renewing my relationship with christ and therefore it is a joy of getting back to our first love as the book of revelations chapter 2 verse 4 will tell us it is being in touch with the source of unconditional love in our lives jesus and therefore dear brothers and sisters i don't do anything just for the sake of or simply doing it or because everyone else is doing it or just because the church tells me to do it but rather i give up something i let go of something to gain something greater something better something my heart desires more than ever and therefore lent is about our relationship our relationship with god with ourselves and with others and therefore lent is a kairos an opportune time to look into our lives and allow god's grace to transform us and not just rely on our own strength and capacity and therefore the devotions that we undertake whether it is prayer fasting abstinence the way of the cross or anything these become channels of god's grace to help us dear brothers and sisters lent is a journey where god accompanies us and guides us on our path and this implies that lent is not how much i can do or give up but how much do i seek god's grace and turn to him rather than the pleasures and attractions of the world and lent invites us dear brothers and sisters to a conversion and this is an experience to a change in our mindset so that life's beauty may be found not so much in possessing as in giving and reaching out to those in need all too often in our lives greed pride and the desire to possess accumulate and consume have the upper hand but now it's time we once again focus and bring our attention to the cross and not get distracted by the pleasures of this world and therefore dear brothers and sisters i would like to present lent as a lived experience with a three r's that will help us grow in our relationship with god with ourself and with one another the first star is to review we are living in a fast-paced world we are all in a rat race so much of competition so many distractions so many things to do we are always preoccupied even there when there is nothing much and we have some time for leisure our fingers are still preoccupied with our phones our gadgets and if that is not happening then we are just staring into space with our minds wandering and overthinking and creating more stress to the already existing situation and we do not know how time flies we sometimes don't even know what we are doing and what are we trying to achieve what is my goal what is my purpose and because we are troubled and not at peace we are all the time restless dis restlessness this impatience spills on to our relationship with others we begin to lose our temper we cannot be calm we cannot think right and therefore we need to pause we need to reflect and review our life and this cannot happen just once your brothers and sisters but we need to do this every single day and lent gives us that time wherein we can pause and reflect on our life review my thoughts what am i thinking about why do i get angry why do i lose my cool with this particular person maybe it could be my spouse my children my parents or colleagues why do i behave in this particular manner how do i conduct myself what am i trying to achieve in my life and prayer helps me to review my relationship with god myself and others regular meditation reminds me to pause and become more aware rather than just get carried away by my feelings or emotions and get affected by what others say or do can i spend some time in the day examining my conscience the famous philosophers socrates as we all know once said an unexamined life is not worth living and through this statement he means that an unexamined human life is deprived of the meaning and purpose of existence and to become fully human means to use a highly developed faculty of thought to raise our existence above that of mere beast let us spend time reviewing our actions our thoughts and our words the second hour is to renew in our journey no matter how hard we try to be good true honest sometimes our words our thoughts and our actions create damage damage to our self damage to others none of us are bad dear brothers and sisters none of us we all have good intentions and everything may seem right according to us and we are so good in justifying our actions i did this because of such and such a reason but just as we are so good in reasoning and justifying everything we do or say can we also spend the same amount of time and energy to repair the damage caused and to restore the relationship therefore dear friends renewal starts with the mind as saint paul will say in his letter to the romans chapter 12 verse 2 we are called to renew our minds first if my mind is healthy then i will have healthy relationships when my mind thinks in a particular way may be wrong or maybe based on some kind of false assumption or something unrealistic what do we do we try to seek the approval especially from those who can affirm those false actions or thoughts for example maybe i spoke a harsh word to someone and then was not too sure if i said or did the right thing and then i go about talking to someone about it what am i seeking i'm hoping that that someone will say yes yes you did the right thing he or she deserved much more so what is happening instead of mending the relationship i'm turning it into gossip and creating more damage than good and this lent your brothers and sisters we are called to renew our relationships rather than just hurting creating damage and becoming indifferent to our actions we are called to renew and in order to renew i have to once again begin to trust i must learn to forgive i must learn to let go so that the damage can be repaired it's so easy to justify to give in or latch on to our false ideas and beliefs about people we judge people quickly on the way they act on what they say we form opinions about how they behave but it is a challenge to accept when i accept that's when renewal begins i accept you in spite of your faults your weaknesses your limitations whatever it may be and if we want renewal dear brothers and sisters i cannot hold on to my old beliefs and opinions but i need to give a chance i need to give up my old way of thinking and allow the relationship to grow and develop am i really seeking renewal in my life do i really seek renewal in my relationships and this leads us to the third r that is revive do not go back to the old self lent is a springtime it's a newness it is an experience of joy and we have to restart dear brothers and sisters if we want to experience the grace that transforms our lives and our relationship with others saint paul in his letter to the ephesians chapter 4 verses 22 to 24 will tell us so get rid of your old self which made you live as you used to the old self that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires your hearts and minds must be made completely new and you must put on the new self which is created in god's likeness and reveals itself in the true life that is upright and holy i should never give in to the temptation that i cannot change this is the way i am this is the way i function this is what i do i don't care about anything or it's too late already a lot of damage is done i don't know if i will ever be accepted and therefore we run away from situations we run away from people we live in a denial mode we suppress our emotions and live with hurt for the rest of our lives brothers and sisters this is not good and definitely not the right way to live we carry wounds we carry hurts emotional baggage for years and this may be caused by our family our friends the ones in our workplace and even the church but we need to ask ourselves what am i trying to achieve by carrying all this hurt have i given up on myself and given in to despair and hopelessness or can i through a thorough review once again refresh and restart a good and healthy relationship but you may say father why should i get hurt again why should i get into a mess again but i would like to tell you who hurt you we say people hurt us this person caused me pain and because of this person my life is miserable my life is ruined and if we think like this dear brothers and sisters we are only accepting defeat remember i am the creator of my hurt i create hurt when other people do not meet my expectations i get hurt when i am too attached to people and i have a fear of losing the other and due to which we are so afraid to get into real relationships and as one would say we have become like zoombies we prefer a virtual reality we are literally dead we prefer the alternate virtual reality virtual people whom we can control but our real relationships are dead therefore we are called to revival in the season of lent revive our relationships with others through forgiveness kindness sacrifice acceptance in our thoughts in our words and in our actions we have to take that step it is we who need to initiate that communication with others never mind if people may not respond but through this we are reviving our true selves the way god made us in his own image and likeness and not the image that people have created about us or we have created for ourselves based on other people's standards and situations and therefore dear brothers and sisters let us during the season of lent put into practice these three r's review renew and revive and then lent becomes a true springtime a time of joy in our life a time wherein we are able to review to look within renew ourselves and revive our relationship with god with ourselves and with others god bless you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] say to him [Music] is [Music] removed [Music] [Music] [Music] hold your spirit [Music] [Music] in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen dear brothers and sisters we have just heard a teaching on how to grow in our relationships during the season of lent by reviewing renewing and reviving therefore let us spend this time as we are in god's presence to look into our lives change begins from within and we need god's grace to help us we need god's spirit to convict us especially of our faults that we will be able to transform ourselves with god's help and therefore let us look into our lives the lord has blessed us with so many things gifts talents possessions health and things which we have even taken for granted very often we have allowed our weaknesses to get the better of us this has created damage to our lives and also to the lives of others what is it that i need to do in order to bring about a change from within look into our lives how do i treat myself do i give in and succumb to every kind of temptation greed anger lust am i so weak that i long and desire to satiate this thirst for pleasure in my life and i do this at the cost of hurting others hurting even myself and hurting my relationship with god what is it that comes up to my mind right now let us take stock of our lives dear brothers and sisters maybe there will be many things but let us choose at least one thing one area that we would like to work on during the season of lent maybe it could be my emotions like anger maybe it could be certain bad habits lust greed pride let us choose just one area for now and offer it to the lord you are not made an angry person impatience is not your nature but you are created in the image and likeness of god you are pure holy and therefore we cannot blame our nature but we have a choice and this evening let us choose with god's grace that this is something i will work on concretely in my life and we turn to god in repentance right now she said lord i am sorry because of this i have hurt myself and i've hurt others and even hurt your majesty and let us pray with the psalm of david who calls out to god in repentance in true contrition asking god to pour out his spirit into our life let us pray psalm 51 have mercy on me god in your kindness in your abundant compassion blot out my offense wash away all my guilt from my sin cleanse me for i know my offense my sin is always before me against you alone have i sinned i have done such evil in your sight that you are just in your sentence blameless when you condemn true i was born guilty a sinner even as my mother conceived me still you insist on sincerity of heart in my inmost being teach me wisdom cleanse me that i may be pure wash me make me whiter than snow let me hear sounds of joy and gladness that the bones you have crushed rejoice turn away your face from my sins blot out all my guilt a clean heart create for me oh god renew in me a steadfast spirit do not drive me from your presence not take from me your holy spirit restore my joy in your salvation sustain in me a willing spirit i will teach the wicked your ways that sinners may return to you rescue me from death god my saving god that my tongue may praise your healing power lord open my lips my mouth will proclaim your praise for you do not desire sacrifice a burnt offering you would not accept my sacrifice god it's a broken heart god do not spurn a broken humble heart make signed prosper in your good pleasure rebuild the walls of jerusalem then you will be pleased with proper sacrifice burnt offerings and holocaust then bullocks will be offered on your altar oh let the sun [Music] let him fill your heart and sacrifice oh let him have the things that hold him and his spirits [Music] make you [Music] jesus we thank you of truth [Music] jesus we thought [Music] fly [Music] dear brothers and sisters even now that we know the areas that we need to work on now that we have chosen what is it that i need to work on in my life let us now turn to renewal what is it that i can do in order to renew my relationship with others can i reach out them in kindness can i pick up the phone and once again dialogue with the other let us do something concrete can i show mercy towards them at least in my mind so that i can let go of that hurt and experience the renewal that i seek and desire everyone is created good no one is bad but it is the situations my opinions my judgments that have tainted the image the true image of the other let us bring these people to mind and look at them as pure beings whom god created in love and let us appreciate what god has done in their lives let us not think any more negative about any person so that we can experience renewal and lastly dear brothers and sisters this lent we are called to revive ourselves revive our relationships to once again restart not in our own capacity but with god's grace ask yourself what can i do concretely in order to reach out in love and mercy towards others maybe you have broken ties with the other for years can i once again revive this relationship i will not blame others for my hurt but i have a choice do i choose to be hurt and continue to be hurt or do i choose to restore heal and experience the joy of reconciliation and we ask the lord for his grace the lord says my grace is sufficient for you for in your weakness i will be your strength my grace is sufficient for you for in your weakness i will be your strength in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen [Music] greater love and friendship has no man than this that he died for others gave his life for all [Music] no more i have called you first oh my father told [Music] me without you i am nothing my weakness needs your strength so speak lord to your servant [Music] my weakness needs your strength to speak lord to your servant i'm waiting for your word [Music] you

Channel: Archdiocese of Bombay

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Keywords: archdiocese of bombay, archdiocese of mumbai, mumbai, india, pope francis, cardinal oswald gracias, catholic, church, jesus christ, bombay diocese, journeying together in faith, catechesis, youth, love, holy eucharist, 125 years, I am catholic I am alive

Id: SIGbj1Ge9Qw

Length: 40min 9sec (2409 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 03 2022