Sacra Sindone

The Shroud of  Turin

Astonishing Facts

Here below is an web extract about the facts of  the Shroud, which throws more authenticity to the relic in St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Turin. I will be updating my own personal experiences of the relic, which i am visiting in a fortnight, as God permits.

Shroud Description

The cloth

The Shroud of Turin is a single piece of linen cloth measuring about 14 feet by 3½ feet. The weave is a 3 over 1 herringbone weave. The Shroud is bloodstained and shows faint ventral and dorsal images of a man who, by the wounds that are visible, appears to have been crucified. He seems to be in burial repose.

The bloodstains

The bloodstains on the Shroud of Turin are composed of hemoglobin and give a positive test for serum albumin. Numerous tests confirm this.

The images

The Shroud of Turin’s images are superficial and fully contained within a thin layer of starch fractions and saccharides that coats the outermost fibers of the Shroud. The color is a caramel-like substance, probably the product of an amino/carbonyl reaction. Where there is no image, the carbohydrate coating is clear. There is also a very faint image of the face on the reverse side of the Shroud of Turin which lines up with the image on the front of the cloth. There is no image content between the two superficial image layers indicating that nothing soaked through to form the image on the other side.

Until recently, it was widely believed that the images on the Shroud of Turin were produced by something which resulted in oxidation, dehydration and conjugation of the polysaccharide structure of the linen fibers. This is incorrect. The coating, whether imaged or clear, can be reduced with diimide or removed with adhesive leaving clear cellulose fiber.

The images as they appear on the Shroud of Turin are said to be negative because when photographed the resulting negative is a positive image.

The Turin Shroud was examined with visible and ultraviolet spectrometry, infrared spectrometry, x-ray fluorescence spectrometry, thermography, pyrolysis-mass-spectrometry, laser­microprobe Raman analyses, and microchemical testing. No evidence for pigments (paint, dye or stains) or artist’s media was found anywhere on the Shroud of Turin.

 

Explanation form a skeptic journalist!!!- Ray Rogers

No One Can Explain Shroud of Turin Pictures of Jesus

I must admit, with some embarrassment, that until a few years ago I knew nothing about the Shroud of Turin. And when I first did read about it, while on a flight to Miami, I laughed out loud, something I rarely do alone in the company of strangers.

How ridiculous, I remember thinking. How can anyone think the Shroud of Turin is real: the actual burial shroud of Jesus? The fact that the Shroud of Turin has an image on it, believed to be a picture of Christ, made it seem beyond preposterous.

Essay at: God, Christ: Questions & Faith

I was reading Desire of the Everlasting Hills, Thomas Cahill’s book about the apostolic era. Having enjoyed Cahill’s previous best seller, The Gifts of the Jews, I thought I would enjoy his newest book. And I was enjoying it. Suddenly, with no logical reason that I could see, Cahill introduced the Shroud of Turin. It might have been a treasure of the early church, he thought. That is when I laughed — out loud.

I remember being surprised that I knew so little about the Shroud of Turin. Then in my mid-fifties, I had always been an avid reader of history, particularly early church history. I could not recall ever reading anything about the Shroud of Turin. It was so far from being something I cared about that I never paid it any attention. Thus, when in 1979, Walter McCrone, a world renowned forensic microscopist, claimed that he found paint on a few Shroud fibers, I didn’t notice the story. McCrone, having noted that the shroud had suddenly appeared in 1356 in the hands of a French knight who would not say where it came from and that a local bishop soon thereafter claimed that an artist “cunningly painted” it, declared it a painted fake.  Had I noticed the story in 1979, I would have certainly accepted his conclusion. It would have made sense to me.

A decade later, when three radiocarbon dating laboratories, using carbon 14 dating, supposedly proved the Shroud of Turin was medieval, I didn’t notice. Had I, I would have certainly accepted the conclusion. I trust science. I did then, and more than ever, I do now.

Moreover, I am naturally skeptical about any relic with a historical footprint in medieval Europe. The year 1356 was a time of unbridled superstition in demons, witches, magic, and miracle-working relics. It was a time of frequent famine and the Black Death plague. It was a time of extreme economic and political turbulence and of war. The same year that the Shroud was first displayed publicly in the small French village of Lirey, nearby, at the battle of Poitiers, England’s Black Prince defeated the French and captured King John II. Adding to the political turmoil, the Pope was in Avignon, not Rome. Indicative of the thinking in this age, some believed that the plague was God’s retribution on the whole world because the Pope was not in the eternal city. In this climate of superstition, naiveté and disorder a lucrative market in false relics flourished. And though the Fourth Lateran Council, in 1215, acknowledged the problem, church authorities did little to curb the market in them. Our knowledge of this time in history rightly conditions us to be suspicious of any relic that might appear in Europe at this time. But I had not noticed its history, either. In metaphoric parlance, the Shroud of Turin was never a blip on my radar screen. And it would have likely remained that way were it not for a single enigmatic fact that Cahill mentioned: the picture on the Shroud of Turin was a negative.

I knew something about the subject of negatives. But rather than marveling at this fact, I doubted it. I was so convinced that the Shroud of Turin was a fake that I doubted the images were negatives. I had to see for myself.

I was certain that no artist, no craftsman, no faker of relics, could possibly paint a negative of a human face. To do so is like trying to write your signature upside down and backwards.  Our minds are programmed for the way we see things in the world; a world where black is black and white is white. It is relatively easy, with talent and training, to paint a picture of what we see in the world. And an artist, if he is imaginative, like Picasso, can alter that perception in stylistic ways. But the one thing he cannot easily do is to perfectly reverse black and white and all the darker and lighter shades of grey while painting a face.

But imagine, for just a moment, that he could. How would he know he had done it correctly without technology to test his results? A more profound questions is why? In an age so undemanding as the medieval, when any sliver of wood could pass as a piece of the “true cross” and any bramble as a piece of the “crown of thorns,” why bother?

Photographic film, invented less than 200 years ago, creates good negative images. And because that is so, it was finally discovered that the shroud image was a negative when it was first photographed in 1898. Along with new scientific-quality photographs, taken in 1978 and again in 2002, extraordinary details were noticed: contusions and anatomical detail only a modern pathologist could understand. Our minds don’t easily see details in negatives. It is beyond preposterous to think that the Shroud of Turin was painted.

Because the picture was a negative, some have speculated that the Shroud of Turin might be a medieval proto-photograph; an invention, if you believe it, that was used only once for a single fourteen-foot long fraud, and never mentioned or used again until it was reinvented in an age of science.  Such speculation is moot.  Scientific data conclusively proves that it is not a photograph.

So entrenched was my skepticism, it would take me a year to change my mind about the Shroud of Turin. I learned that McCrone’s identification of paint was a subjective judgment. More sensitive tests, some undertaken at the National Science Foundation Mass Spectrometry Center of Excellence at the University of Nebraska, proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, McCrone was wrong.

Starting in 2003, new evidence began to appear in  secular, peer-reviewed, scientific journals that supported the Shroud of Turin’s authenticity. From these journals we learn that the outermost fibers of the cloth are coated with a layer of starch fractions and various saccharides. In places, the coating has turned into a caramel-like substance, thus forming the images. This suggests a chemical reaction took place. We learn, also, of a faint second image of the face on the backside of the cloth. The second face supports the idea of a chemical reaction and adds more proof that the image is not a work of art or a photograph. And in 2005, we learned that the carbon 14 dating was flawed. In fact we learned that the cloth could very well be 2000 years old.

History and the Shroud of Turin

As science moved forward, new historical information was coming to light. Indeed, there is evidence that the cloth, now called the Shroud of Turin, really was a treasure of the early church; not the Pauline communities with which we are so familiar, but the Church in the East. Edessa, in the Fertile Crescent of the upper Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and the Euphrates, was a major city on the Silk Road and undoubtedly one of the earliest Christian communities. If you traveled from Jerusalem to Antioch, you were two thirds of the way to Edessa. Turn left to go to Tarsus, turn right for Edessa. There is some evidence and a strong tradition that Thomas and Thaddeus Jude (Thaddeus of the 70, Thaddeus of Edessa) went to Edessa as early as 33 CE. There is a legend that they carried with them a cloth bearing an image of Jesus. In 544 CE, a cloth, with an image believed to be Jesus, was found above one of Edessa’s gates in the walls of the city, a cloth that Gregory Referendarius of Constantinople would later describe with a full length image and bloodstains. There is strong evidence that the Edessa cloth is in fact the Shroud of Turin. Numerous writings, drawings, icons, pollen spores and limestone dust attest to this.

How curious these poetic words from the apocryphal Thomasine literature of Edessa seem. They are from the “Hymn of the Pearl,” a poem arguably as old as the first half of the first century. As a figure of speech, Jesus, in the poem, is musing in the first person:

But all in the moment I faced it / This robe seemed to me like a mirror,
And in it I saw my whole self / Moreover I faced myself facing into it.
For we were two together divided / Yet in one we stood in one likeness. 

These words resonate with the two head-to-head images we see seemingly reflected on the Shroud of Turin:  like a mirror . . .  my whole self . . . faced myself facing into it . . . we were two together divided . . . stood in one likeness.

Carbon 14 and the Shroud of Turin

The big issue was always the carbon 14 dating that seemed to show that the Shroud of Turin was medieval. Researchers, who were not experts in radiocarbon dating, but nonetheless convinced the Shroud of Turin was authentic, tried to explain why the scientific dating was incorrect. These explanations – one was that a fire in 1532 changed the age of the Shroud, another was that a bioplastic-polymer growing on the Shroud contaminated the sample – lacked scientific credibility. Scientists, who were experts in radiocarbon dating, rejected these explanations.

Read: Biggest Radiocarbon Dating Mistake Ever

In January, 2005, things changed.  An article appeared in a peer-reviewed scientific journal Thermochimica Acta, which proved that the carbon 14 dating of the Shroud of Turin was flawed because the sample used was invalid. Moreover, this article, by Raymond N. Rogers, a well-published chemist and a Fellow of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, explained why the Shroud of Turin was much older. The Shroud of Turin was at least twice as old as the radiocarbon date, and possibly 2000 years old. 

Peer-reviewed scientific journals are important. It is the way scientists normally report scientific findings and theories. Articles submitted to such journals are carefully reviewed for adherence to scientific methods and the absence of speculation and polemics. Reviews are often anonymous. Facts are checked and formulas are examined. The review procedure sometimes takes months to complete, as it did for Rogers. 

It was Nature, another prestigious peer-reviewed journal, that in 1989, reported that carbon 14 dating ‘proved’ the shroud was a hoax. Rogers found no fault with the article in Nature. Nor did he find fault with the quality of the carbon 14 dating. He defended it. What Rogers found was that the carbon 14 sample was taken from a mended area of the Shroud that contained significant amounts of newer material. This was not the fault of the radiocarbon laboratories. But it did show that the carbon dating was invalid.  

Immediately after the publication of Rogers’ paper, Nature published a commentary by scientist-journalist Philip Ball. “Attempts to date the Turin Shroud are a great game,” he wrote, “but don’t imagine that they will convince anyone . . . The scientific study of the Turin Shroud is like a microcosm of the scientific search for God: it does more to inflame any debate than settle it.”  Later in his commentary Ball added, “And yet, the shroud is a remarkable artifact, one of the few religious relics to have a justifiably mythical status. It is simply not known how the ghostly image of a serene, bearded man was made.” 

Ball, who understood the chemistry of the Shroud of Turin images, rejected a notion popularized by conspiracy theorists that Leonardo da Vinci created the Shroud’s image using primitive photography. He called the idea flaky. He also debunked the sometimes reported speculation that the image was “burned into the cloth by some kind of release of nuclear energy” from Jesus’ body. This he said was wild.  

Almost all serious Shroud of Turin researchers agree with Ball on these points. When flaky and wild ideas appear in newspaper articles or on television, as they often do, scientists cringe. Rogers referred to those who held such views as being part of the “lunatic fringe” of Shroud research. But Rogers was just as critical of those who, without the benefit of solid science, declared the Shroud of Turin a fake. They, too, were part of the lunatic fringe.  

The idea that the Shroud of Turin had been mended in the area from which the carbon 14 samples had been taken had been floating around for some time. But no one paid much attention. In 1998, Turin’s scientific adviser, Piero Savarino, suggested, “extraneous substances found on the samples and the presence of extraneous thread (left over from ‘invisible mending’ routinely carried on in the past on parts of the cloth in poor repair)” might have accounted for an error in the carbon 14 dating. Longtime shroud researchers Sue Benford and Joe Marino independently developed the same idea and explored it with several textile experts and Ronald Hatfield of the radiocarbon dating firm Beta Analytic. The art of invisible reweaving, Benford and Marino discovered, was commonly used in the Middle Ages to repair tapestries. Why not the shroud, they thought? They believed they saw evidence of it. 

But the skeptically minded Rogers did not agree. He had already debunked every other argument so far offered to explain why the carbon 14 dating might be wrong. According to Ball, “Rogers thought that he would be able to ‘disprove [the mending] theory in five minutes’.” Instead he found clear evidence of discreet mending. He also showed, with chemistry, that the shroud was at least thirteen hundred years old. And he proved, beyond any doubt, that the sample used in 1988 was chemically unlike the rest of the shroud. The samples were invalid. The 1988 tests were thus meaningless. 

In words that seem strange in a scientific journal that once had bragging rights to claim that the shroud was not authentic, Ball wrote: “And of course ‘authenticity’ is not really a scientific issue at all here: even if there were compelling evidence that the shroud was made in first-century Palestine, that would not even come close to establishing that the cloth bears the imprint of Christ.”   

Ball, who was familiar with the evidence, had confirmed what all shroud researchers had been saying for years: the images were not painted. Moreover, a 2003 article in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Melanoidins by Rogers and Anna Arnoldi, a chemistry professor at the University of Milan, demonstrated that the images were in fact a chemical caramel-like darkening of an otherwise clear starch and polysaccharide coating on some of the shroud’s fibers. They suggested a natural phenomenon might be the cause. If this could be proven, the images could be explained in non-miraculous, scientific terms.  

Shroud of Turin Second Face

The Shroud of Turin images may not the direct result of a miracle, at least not in a traditional sense of the word. But they are not manmade either. These seem to be the contradictory conclusions from an article in the peer-reviewed, scientific Journal of Optics (April 14, 2004) of the Institute of Physics in London. Using mathematical image enhancement technology, Giulio Fanti and Roberto Maggiolo, researchers at the University of Padua in Italy, discovered a faint image of a second face on the back of the Shroud of Turin. This has since been confirmed with other software. The implications are explosive and exciting.

This supports a hypothesis that the Shroud of Turin’s image is the result of a very natural, complex chemical reaction between amines (ammonia derivatives) emerging from a body and saccharides within a carbohydrate residue that covers the fibers of the Shroud of Turin.  The color producing chemical process is called a Maillard reaction. This is fully discussed in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, Melanoidins, a journal of the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities (EU, Volume 4, 2003).

The proposal, by chemist Raymond E. Rogers and Anna Arnoldi of the University of Milan, is hypothetical. But the chemical and physical nature of the Shroud of Turin’s images is pure scientific fact.

Imagine slicing a human hair lengthwise, from end to end, into 100 long thin slices; each slice one-tenth the width of a single red blood cell. The images on the Shroud of Turin, at their thickest, are this thin. In selective places, an otherwise clear layer of starch fractions and saccharides, a mere 200 to 600 nanometers thick, as thin as the wall of a soap bubble, has undergone a chemical change into a caramel colored substance. Spectral and chemical analysis reveal that the chromophores of the Shroud of Turin’s images are complex, conjugated carbon bonds.

Whatever the Turin Shroud is, it is not a medieval fake relic.

Just as modern Christianity is a tapestry of diverse traditions stretched taut between the polarities of unwavering biblical literalism and unbridled modern revisionism, modern beliefs and arguments about the Shroud of Turin are drawn tight between those who seek from it some proof of the Resurrection and those who are rigidly skeptical. Could it be that the answer is a via media, a middle way, a reasoned embrace of the facts that implies a resurrection but does not prove or define it. For a burial shroud to survive, the tomb had to be open. There is just enough confusion to preserve the freedom to believe short of certainty: meaning faith. 

If the Shroud of Turin is genuine, it presents us with more mystery and paradox than clarity. That, however, is not so perplexing as it is exciting in an age of diverse beliefs and traditions.

 Ray Rogers Shroud of Turin FAQ – 2004

 

The Shroud of Turin images may not be the direct result of a miracle, at least not in a traditional sense of the word. But they are not manmade either. These seem to be the contradictory conclusions from an article in the peer-reviewed, scientific Journal of Optics (April 14, 2004) of the Institute of Physics in London. Using mathematical image enhancement technology, Giulio Fanti and Roberto Maggiolo, researchers at the University of Padua in Italy, discovered a faint image of a second face on the back of the Shroud of Turin. This has since been confirmed with other software. The implications are explosive and exciting.

Frank Tribbe writes: “The scientific, historical, and other technical data that I refer to as supporting authenticity do unequivocally support the probability of a first-century or very early date for this Shroud and its enigmatic images, and as having originated in the Near East (likely Palestine). Science has not proven (and in my opinion will never categorically prove) this to be specifically the Shroud of Jesus of Galilee. Believers will always need a small leap of faith from the pedestal of knowledge Shroud research has provided. But that research has established that the Shroud image cannot have been man-made by any technique of art or science recorded throughout history, nor by any natural process ever observed or deduced. And all alternative theoretical or suspected methods of image-creation suggested by critics have been carefully and totally demolished by Shroud scientists as not possible. As to ‘authenticity,’ we know this Shroud with its images is not a phony, a fake, a fraud, an imitation, a copy, to any degree or in any respect; it was not made in the past thousand years; a fourteenth-century origin is virtually impossible. Science still does not know how the images were ‘imprinted’ on the Shroud.”

New Information New Material: Why an Atheist Thinks the Shroud of Turin is Real

Inscriptions: Barbara Frale, a Vatican researcher claims to have found inscriptions on the Shroud that prove it is authentic. Most Shroud scholars are highly skeptical, with good reason. More/a>

The Garlaschelli Fake: Luigi Garlaschelli should be congratulated on the best fake shroud to date. But it is not very much like the real shroud regardless of what was reported in the media. More

Turin 2010: The Italian Archdiocese of Turin has announced that the Shroud of Turin, which many believe is the burial cloth of Christ, will be on public display April 10-May 23, 2010.

Carbon Dating: A team of nine scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory has confirmed that the carbon dating of the Shroud of Turin is wrong. See the Fact Check and Carbon Dating Tabs at Shroud of Turin Blog. Also see Biggest Mistake in Carbon Dating Truth Meter

• A scientist in Italy has reproduced the shroud.

     MORE ==>
  Simply False. Luigi Garlaschelli should be congratulated on the best fake shroud to date. But it is not chemically, physically or optically like the real shroud. More

• Carbon 14 dating: the shroud is medieval.

     MORE
  Misleading. New, rigorously peer-reviewed scientific findings, demonstrate that the single sample shared by three laboratories was not part of the shroud’s cloth. Conclusion: the carbon dating is not valid.

Key Pages

• Open Letter to Journalists

  The Shroud of Turin: Perspectives on a Multifaceted Enigma Read about the conference at Ohio State University

  The Biggest Mistake in Radiocarbon Dating   A story reported by the New York Times, BBC, AP, Nature, Discovery Channel and National Geographic.

  Shroud of Turin for Journalists Topics include:

  1. The Shroud of Turin described

  2. Unexplained images on the Shroud

  3. Early Shroud of Turin history

  4. The radio-carbon 14 dating was flawed

  5. The 3D mystery of the Shroud images

  6. The optical illusion caused by banding

  7. Christ Pantocrator icon and the Shroud

  8. Voices from the past, what they mean

  9. Forensic pathology and the Shroud

  Acheiropoietos Jesus Images in Constantinople: the Documentary Evidence by Daniel C. Scavone.

  The Shroud of Caiaphas: A forensic science mystery.

  Shroud of Turin for Journalists: How new peer-reviewed science redefines the controversy. 

  New Tests Prove 1988 Carbon 14 Dating Invalid: Shroud of Turin Shown to be Much Older.2005: Thermochimica Acta   (Volume 425 pp. 189-194, by Raymond N. Rogers, Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of California)  –  Available on Elsevier BV’s ScienceDirect® and the American Chemical Society’s ChemPort

  New Analysis Confirms Second Face: Raises Questions About Other Images on the Shroud

  Why No One Can Fully Explain the Pictures on the Shroud of Turin: Why nothing makes sense.

  The Ray Rogers FAQ  Statements of fact that can be proved from the scientific observations.

  Mozarabic Rite What does a 6th century rite from the Visigothic Kingdom of Spain have to do with the Shroud of Turin? A summary of Shroud history.

  Great Links:  New information on many sites and streaming video interviews and the 3rd International Dallas Conference with  11 new papers.

  New Book: The Rape of the Shroud: by archeologist William Meacham. 

  What’s Wrong with the Shadow Shroud?  You can make a glass of nerve toxin look like lemonade. That doesn’t make it lemonade. The Shadow Shroud is that much unlike the real Shroud of Turin.

  Shroud of Turin and the Skeptical Inquirer: “Imagine slicing a human hair lengthwise into 100 long thin slices, each slice one-tenth the width of a single red blood cell. The images on the Shroud of Turin, at their thickest, are this thin.”

  The Second Face  What does an announcement by the Institute of Physics in London mean? 

  Shroud of Turin Facts Gallery Selected facts in pictures. 

  Chemistry  What do we know about the chemical nature of the Shroud of Turin images?

  Carbon 14 Tests More on the carbon 14 testing.

  Image Formation  Were they created by 1) a faker of false relics, 2) a miraculous event, or 3) some perfectly natural phenomenon?

  FAQ  Facts and dubious claims

  Shroud of Turin FAQ  New FAQ resource . . . evolving

  Shroud Science Group WIKI  New resource from about 100 researchers . . . evolving

SERVANT of LOVE continued…

My beloved, let us come out of our foolish thoughts like, “The Lord has anointed me today and this would be enough for me to be saved”. We should realize to live as     St. Paul says, “The Lord comforts us in our sorrows …., so the way we bear our sufferings should give you the same firm heart to strive through your tribulations” (2 Corinthians 13:11).

There is no Christian life without trials. The Lord did not cheat us. He did not say it will all be easy and cosy if you follow me. Instead He said, “you will have a tough hard life, you would be hated in my name…, however if you would stay in me you will be blessed, more so abundantly if you come through your testifying periods”. He had clearly advised us to carry His cross and ours too if we were to follow Him.

If we do not display this qualities, but moan and groan against Him in our difficult times, then please do realise the world is watching us. We are no more witnesses in Him if we grumble. St. Paul says, like him if one would leave behind all worldly stuff then it would be better to serve. It is quite true with marriage too. It is better to serve as a monk. However if one would find this hard and may lead to sin, it is better in his interest to serve the lord as a laity.

g) Miracles/ Signs

Let us not ridicule this! Let us not think this involves healing the sick and working out miracles. Good qualities, blissful thoughts and services, loving caring attitudes are the true signs of God in us. Though the Holy Spirit heals the sick, works out miracles… as the Spirit resides in man, his actions and deeds have a direct bearing on these matters.

There are ministers who do not trust God, His works, Biblical facts, signs and miracles. Some do have the pride they discern all this as they have been masters in theology. As many ministers do not have Divine spiritual experiences all these happens. However they should realise they are here to nurture the faith not to destroy it.

Ministers, who have not seen, felt, experienced, learnt or could not understand the mysteries of spiritual leadings should better remain silent. They should not retreat to criticize acts which they can not explain, but rather admit they do not know these matters. They should not proclaim this is fiction. Instead if one would pray to know these matters, God will truly reveal them.

St. Thomas’ act gives us this wisdom. He wanted to probe Jesus’ wounds, which Jesus obliged and thereafter he never faltered. In fact his faith got very strong, now he can not rebuke the resurrection of Jesus. Like wise those who would like to know the fact and if they would ask Him, He will provide that.

There are ministers who preach about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is quite sad some of them had not cherished these gifts in themselves. Hence it is quite unfortunate few of them start to create divisions, confuse the community and work against the Kingdom of God. Some go on to criticize personally and derogate the whole mission.

It is quite a mystery to know these derogatory ministers who believe in heaven by faith rather than having seen it, do not apply the same rules, when they want to judge the working of the Holy Spirit. They fail to recognize that, they are subjecting themselves to eternal condemnation for hell, when they speak against the Holy Spirit.

Instead if these ministers would try to work with people, who have the gifts, then if they believe they would attain these. If one would gain this, they could act even more powerfully.

h) Being Righteous

This is quite important and is based on living as a witness. Wicked attitudes, with inability to pursue a good ministry, place an axe right at the root of the mission. Preaching’s without practising is unfruitful, so ministers should be careful in what they preach and should practise them. If they can’t do this they should preach only what they practise.

I would like to remind Luke 12:48, which says expectations are based on what you have been blessed. The more blessed or responsible persons are held more accountable with their deeds. All missions’ and ministers works revolve around this, so they are very different from the normal community as they will be held more accountable. The title and aforesaid verses are quotes to St. Peter which we have reflected to meditate deeply.

2) The Laity

The laity has as much responsibility as the ministers. Let us see the qualities in the Early day Churches.

a)      Looking out for God

b)      Praise and Worship

c)       Divine fear

d)      Spiritual experiences

e)      Listening to ministers

f)       Community and Sharing

g)      Helping attitudes…..

a)  Looking out for God

“Come close to God, so He will come closer to you” is a famous verse in the book of James. “I am knocking at your door, whoever chooses to open it, I will come with the Father and so we may dine together,” says Jesus. As we meditate this we know our Father is in search of us. What we need to do now is just to listen to His call. Whoever searches Him at dawn finds Him generously with abundant blessings. Serving children, orphans and the vulnerable will give the same pleasure as serving the God.

b) Praise and Worship

We know how Jericho fort crumbled on praising the Lord. The forces of the demons are crushed too, as we raise our praises, while their empty promises and temptations are revealed. Hence we will be able to avoid these temptations. Praise also gets rid of our tiredness, while it sets ablaze the Holy Spirit in us and others. Praise also makes us to realize the Holy Spirit, as He comes as gentle breeze or as snowstorm.

c) Divine fear

Fear in God starts with wisdom. As God is purer than snow, whoever goes in front of His presence, should purify himself and more so with added responsibilities. This is quite evident from what the God spoke to Moses amidst the burning bush. He said, “You are standing in a Holy place, so remove your footwear as your Lord God is Holy”.

Likewise as our forefathers Adam and Eve committed the first sin, they hid themselves from the presence of God, as they feared to go in front of the Holy Lord.  However before this, they had no hesitation whatsoever, to go in front of Him day after day. So what is clear is the word sin, increases the fear in God. Hence if we would remain sinless, then we could go before Him without fear and guilt, building a stable relationship.

SERVANT OF LOVE

I want to reflect on Luke 12:41-48 verses which has got question and answer in it.

Q: Who’s the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their allowance at the proper time?

A: It will be the servant who the master finds doing so when he returns. He will put him in charge of all his possessions (Luke 12:41-48).

Let the love, protection and peace of our Father, who called me as Christ’s servant, be with you all now and forever. The message of this issue to develop our individual Christian lives as given by God. HE urged me to write this especially for the ones, who are working in the name of Jesus to bring out HIS blessings.

All Christians are called into Christ in some way. How happy it is to know that God knew and has called me, even before he formed me in my mother’s womb. Moreover we should be proud to call ourselves Christians, for Christ himself had said, ‘No one can come to me unless the Father draws him’.

This relationship is the main root for us to know about him and for him to know about us. Our Christian life is being built from this. We are given utmost responsibility to work in this relationship. This applies to whoever’s working for God as ministers, irrespective of being chosen either for priesthood or as laity.

When you analyze deeply as St. Paul has written to Romans, the main duty given for us is to share our faith to one another. Even today we should do the same during masses and prayer meetings. This is what all Christians did in the beginning. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer (The fellowship of the Believers- Acts 2:42-47). When I was reading this, the Spirit of God revealed some truths.

1. To the servants of God.

As servants of God, calling is very important and so our life gets responsible, debatable and accountable and comes into closer scrutiny by everyone. This is because the root of witness and testimony lies with us. This is paramount important which is quite clearly explained in the Bible as the duties of ministers.

a. Being with God.

Relationship with Christ is the cornerstone for the work of a servant. Trying to know more about Christ, spending time on prayers to have conversations with him and reading Bible to meditate his words are very important. You can’t work for God unless you have a special relationship with Christ. If not it leads into negative consequences. You must deeply meditate the words of Christ. Ask yourselves each night, whether you have spent time with him at least once. We could do and plan to do many works, but unless you have a relationship with Christ, nothing will be done according to God’s wish. Without finding out what Christ wants to do with you, don’t imagine that his work is done by building churches, schools, colleges, hospitals, orphanages and elder’s homes. These works aren’t wrong but you must be absolutely sure if this is what HE wants us to do, if not we spoil our own calling.

b. Breaking Bread (Eucharist).

God has left us the Sacrament of Holy Communion to remind the events from Passover and Christ’s sacrifice in Calvary. This is specially done during masses and Eucharistic blessings. All other holy events and activities centers and revolves around this. Jesus gifted the Holy Communion to us in his last supper as the ultimate symbol of fellowship and sharing, which He expects of His people.

Eucharistic service is Holy and so whoever participates and partakes in it should be Holy too. Whoever handles the Eucharist out of holiness will have no chance to escape from God’s fury. They’ll have to face the same fate as it happened to Judas. Bible says that Satan entered into Judas as soon as he took the bread during the last supper. Jesus says to Judas, ‘Woe to you, who chose puts his hand in this vessel with a filthy mind. It would be better for you if you had not been born”.

c. Praying.

Daniel prayed three times a day towards Jerusalem, with his windows opened. Shadrach, Meshach and Abenedoch were saved from the fire because they worshipped God. You should always have a prayer before your eyes. Pray not only for our spiritual growth but also do prayerful intercessions for all the people of God.

d. Religious Teaching.

Let it be the Sunday message or a conversation about God, you should teach all believers more deeply, clearly and easily in the way they could understand and make use of it. At the same time, don’t just blabber thinking that one is a genius. It’s important to accept if you really don’t know the secrets of Bible. Be humble and learn from others as well. Don’t be too proud to be a servant of God and irritate others. Instead recognize and correct your, their mistakes with love and work to attain spiritual growth.

e. Fellowship.

Try not to run out in a hurry after the celebration and if that is what we do now it should be changed. Think other believers are your family members. You should have a good conversation and try to build the Kingdom of God together with them. In this situation, the relationship between the servants of God and believers should be pure and selfless.

It’s important that others don’t find faults in your friendship and other behaviors. Abusing the state of small children and vulnerable people and having bad relationships with them should be totally avoided. Relationship between the blessed ones mustn’t cross the limit.

Control yourselves knowing that drinking habits and having relationship with women are the baits and traits, which Satan tricks to destroy the servants of God. Those who can’t be like this should back off from working for God. It’s better for the believers to avoid these kinds of people, which they should or else sulphur and fire will fall over on them. This is what happened to Loth’s wife and having relationship with them will bring their sins over you .

On Priest and their behaviour

Dear Friends, there is a lot of discussion on priests this year… in this group also (a bit of priest bashing also). There is one important aspect we should keep in mind. Priests don’t descend from the heavens nor are they created in hell. They come from Catholic families. Most of the formation of a priest is over by the time he is 9 or 10 years old and all that happens in a family. We should keep this in mind. Don Bosco’s mother Mamma Margaret told his son on the day of his ordination: “Follow your vocation without regard to anyone. The most important thing is the salvation of your soul. Don’t worry about me. I ask nothing of you and expect nothing from you. Remember this: I was born poor, I have lived poor, and I want to die poor. What is more, I want to make this very clear to you: if you decide to become a secular priest and should unfortunately become rich, I will never pay you a single visit!” And the words of the same mother after the first mass: “You are now a priest, and you celebrate mass. But remember that to begin to say mass is to begin to suffer.”
In how many Catholic families in India will such words be pronounced? The families are the foundation. Even problems like caste are born here… the marriages that take place. How open are we? Let the discussion go on…. Fr. Joe Andrew sdb

Answer:

It is good you brought this to everyone’s attention in the forum and have nailed the preacher to preach only the (good) habits he practises and not vice versa.

Church is a community not a one man job. Priests have a duty to serve the God and to the community, through their faith and commitment.

From what you have quoted it seems the other side is crystal clear in their deeds, if not that has to be addressed too, as none of us have witnessed the whole issue.

Now if this is true, as a member of the church you have the right and duty to bring it up with the parish council, escalate it to the Vicar General in the Diocese and to the Bishop to try resolving issues.

The fact is the body of Christ, which is the church, can not and should not be destroyed for personal prejudices.

Hope this helps and by the way i am not a priest, but a neutral Christian.

Challenge to Evolutionists

Java man:

In 1891, Eugene Dubois, a Dutch man discovered a skull, millions years old and proclaimed after his research, as if it was the skull of a mammal standing between Homo Sapiens (mankind) and the Apes (Monkey) in the family tree of evolution and made it popular. However, just before his death he accepted that the skull he discovered was that of an ape and not a different creation.

In 1907 another Anthropologist, who did excavations in the same place, found that area was in a volcanic plain and so the skull Eugene found could not have been more than 500 years old. The changes highlighted in Eugene Dubois discovery should have been due to volcanic activities over a period of time. This clearly depicted the earlier description by Eugene was a phenomenal lie.

Peking man:

In 1920 a Canadian Anthropologist discovered a teeth and said this is from an ape man and projected a clay portray for him, calling it Peking man. He popularised this concept. Between 1920 & 1930, various Anthropologists from Europe (Germany, Sweden, Austria, France) and Australia, propounded the facts of the Peking man was controversial and probably not true.  During World War II, the collections of the Peking man were lost.

In 1968, an Irish Anthropologist, who resided in China for a very long time, knowing the local language very well, after multitudes of research and cross verifications concluded that the facts of Peking man propounded by the Canadian Anthropologist was a twist of facts and disproved earlier speculations.

He further concluded that the discovery made earlier was in fact not a tooth, but the bone of a monkey. He also quoted, where the excavations were made, the local people had the habit of hunting monkeys, who worked with calcium phosphate in their ancient factories. He also said the tooth discovered earlier had undergone physiological changes from the chemicals used by these people at that time.

Piltdown man:

In 1912, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, found a skull excavation in England and said that was of a creature between, apes and man in evolution. For 40 years different scientists investigated this matter and later concluded that it was a hoax in 1950.

Thus over a period of several decades, evolutionists tried to collect excavations and evidences to prove that humans evolved from monkeys. Until this date there had not been any clear scientific proof to say humans evolved from monkeys, which lucidly portrays this fact of failure.

This is how Anthropologists calculate the evolution of man.

Palaeolithic Age– 30, 00,000 B.C to 8000 B.C

Mesolithic Age– 8000 B.C to 2700 B.C

Neolithic Age– 2700 B.C to 1900 B.C

Bronze Age- 1900 B.C- 500 B.C

Iron Age– 500 B.C – 51 B.C

It was propounded that humans new about the existence of fire 5, 00,000 years before and he knew how to make, control and use fire for at least 12,000 years.

However as in Bible we find the creation of man starts only 6000 years before. It also says Cain, the son of Adam, constructed a city for the dwelling of his household and generations (Genesis 4:17). This means they were the first architects and engineers. It also reveals the think tank of their brain.

If we see genesis 4:20-22, we find, “Jabal, was the father of who live in tents and raised livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and the flute. Zillah had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron.”

 

As per this Biblical quote, within seven generations from Adam, humans were able to make harp and flute, able to separate bronze and iron from their ores, cut and use them  to their requirements, which they used to make musical instruments, vessels, ornaments and many other tools.

They were also making weapons and tools, for which they should have been heating and moulding these metals, mix them up to make alloys to their advantage. How interesting it is to know their brains?

So, it is not they evolved from humans, which scientists failed to stamp the fact, hence we come back to the Biblical fact that their creation was unique and not by evolution, with a definite way of thinking and materialise the same to their benefits, despite the apes.   

We also know even before the time of Noah’s grandfather Methuselah, humans have started using these materials for their existence. They were civilised and had a civilisation going on at that time.

Based on the aforesaid facts, it is hard to understand and accept the scientific fact of humans evolving from monkeys. It is ironic to hear that humans evolved from smaller monkeys to bigger ones before evolving, as humans wagged their tails initially and then they stopped doing it, as they didn’t have one later.

I am sarcastic to say that the hair over the entire body of the apes were shredded with time, their non-specific creak incomprehensible voices were toned, tuned and trained by magicians not only to the comprehensive language patterns of  modern day, but also to the singing opera elements and musical tones.

However what is clear is, that is form the Bible humans were created by God with an inherent thinking, which they made use of it, share their knowledge base and explored and exploited their skills to exist as modern day civilisation.

 Any fact contrary to this can not be accepted. The world tried to propagate Darwin’s theory of evolution very quickly to stray people away form God. What however it failed to do is to propagate the later day facts which were discovered to propound authoritatively that they still lack authoritative evidence for evolution.

This is none other than a trick of the Satan to stray away people from God.

 

When God created man, He not only made him in His image and likeness, but also gave him the potential to make use of his physique and thinking to project himself as unique, by which he was expected to propagate the powers of God and make Him proud.

Adam named all the creations, the calendar they made was descriptive of the seasons and time frame, and nearly accurate to the current ones (Great flood of Noah). Their months had 30 days too! This clearly explains their way of thinking and their potential to improve on it.

The construction of Noah’s ark is a classic example of hw man could use his skills to his benefits, which was effectively honed when the Lord instructed Noah how exactly to build it and to protect it from water seeping into it.

Genesis 1:27 also says God created man and woman as separate creations and so did He with all His creations. If this is true, which is, then evolutionists had put themselves in a very tricky road and narrow way to explain the evolution of two sexes of all creations.

We also know not too long before, humans found a way of identifying the sex of a baby in the womb. It becomes very true and clear now, that humans have honed their skills to current day knowledge. Daniels’ prophecy does confirm the same, as in the later days, humans will have enormous skills and knowledge and they will run around the world from north to south, east to west in tremendous pace, which is happening now.

Last but not least, if humans have evolved from monkeys million years before, why haven’t they evolved to a new creation until this date? If unicellular organisms evolved from atoms to multi-cellular organisms over few billion years, which is a huge transformation, why there not had been any changes in humans to some form of creature until this date.

I leave an open challenge to the evolutionists!

Let us all open our eyes to the facts of the Bible

 

My Salvation

“I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.” – Galatians 1:12

 

What led me into Christian life?

 

I was a born Christian for 23 years practising faith by compulsion. I had my own doubts regarding my faith towards Christ. And I kept myself away from awkward topics about the presence and existence of God. This attitude was nourished very well, when I joined my medical college in Chennai, 1991. We had a group of Christian friends, who were keen to involve in prayers. But I found myself very distant to God. Week after week, I had an excuse for not being there.

During my college days, a friend of mine used to bring Bible to the college. He was so passionate about God and he will not say a word against God despite his sufferings. I looked at him as a fool and have advised him on several occasions that he could say anything about God to get away from the difficulties of ragging. However, I found very impressed by his faith without much change in myself.

When we get to argue about God, I kept myself from much argument regarding his existence and leading, but I was convinced to say

“I was practising Christianity by birth not by faith!!!”

 

Whenever I got down to the prayer meeting, I came back with lot of anxieties, as if I am very distant from God. I used to keep a Bible on my bed side hoping God is close to me, until the anxieties are allayed and the Bible would go back to where it was before.

I was critical about preachers and ministers, so damaging, quoting that there weren’t any more miracles since Christ’s and Apostles’ time.

 

I was so obsessed with worldly pleasures, that I can’t even perceive or think or comprehend the pleasure of walking with God.  If I would hear anyone preaching about this, I would think to myself that they are not telling the truth. I cannot understand how the pleasures they speak walking with God could be real and nothing would match the pleasures of the world.

“I was literally blind”

 

Here comes a twist in Aug 1996. I went on a fortnight holiday to my home, but I was taken aback by a white patch on my Mom’s tongue.  I knew that patch is leading to a cancer in her tongue. I withheld the truth not to panic them, but advised them to do a biopsy. I didn’t offer any further input since I returned back from holidays.

A few months later in Jan 1997, they came up for my convocation to the city of Madras, soon after which, I packed the things, to go back to my own town. It came to my attention again, the precancerous white patch in her tongue has got worse, painless and I knew then that it was definitely cancer.

I managed to slowly convince them to do an appropriate medical test and we found that it was Squamous cell carcinoma of her tongue on biopsy.

 

It was shocking and she underwent 5 weeks of radio therapy, 5 days a week, staying in the hospital on her own at night. The cancer in itself had shown signs of no change or probably increased now. The side effects of radiotherapy were awful.

Thinking back, I find it to be the gloomiest part of my life, when we never used to talk to each other, as we knew she is going to die. There were a lot of well wishers, not to blame them, who were insisting on my marriage before she dies.

However, I found myself awkward whenever this conversation kept coming. She came back finishing her treatment and the side effects of the treatment were far worse than expected, which was a real pity to watch.

In May 1997, God sent one of my Mom’s relative as his messenger with a suggestion to visit Divine Retreat Centre.

 

It is place where there would be a week’s retreat starting on a Sunday, finishing on a Friday, between 6 A.M until 9 P.M, with an hour break for breakfast, lunch & coffee. She took the advice, she went up there, along with my Dad and a week later, on a Saturday morning, she turns out knocking at our doors step, with a lot of cheer in her face to claim the good news of her miraculous cancer healing on her retreat.

When I quizzed here on the reason for happiness, she said,

“Jesus has healed me!!!”

 

I was totally shocked that a miracle would ever happen in my house. And more so for me, miracles don’t happen anymore. I am a doctor. How could I believe this?

 I didn’t say a word, but my lips were saying, if it would be true, I would be the first person to be happy. However, my mind said this cannot happen. I recall the words by prophet Isaiah

“These people praise me on their lips, but their hearts are far away for me”

           

I set a time frame for myself waiting and watching what would happen. I was surprised by June 1997 her cancer had healed completely clinically and she was back to normal. This was proved medically too! I couldn’t believe.

I kept on watching her hoping it would come back!

 

A year later, we found she was as good as before, before this cancer had happened. Now I accepted to myself that she was healed.

It will be 13 years shortly since her healing and I rejoice in Lord to say that she is well in herself had been around Europe on two different occasions for more than 9 months.

 

In May 1998, I decided along with our family to go down to the retreat centre as a thanks giving, to exalt the Lord. Again in May, deep in my heart, there was still doubt how could this happen. So, I did not want to go there myself, and the rest of the family could.

However, Gods plan were different, amidst turmoil, I set apart on the 2^nd of May 1998, when I didn’t know to the remotest of my heart

I am going to meet my saviour Christ, the lord.

           

We reached on the third of May, when I found myself; the environment of retreat centre very unfriendly to my expectations. And the patterns of prayer will not fit my ways since my college days. I desperately needed an afternoon nap, which I have to miss here now.

Soon after the breakfast, I was waiting to tell my Mom that I want to leave this place for good. Now I realise someone speaking into me for first time ever in my life, that I am making a premature comment on matters which I didn’t have a clue about. I had an intuition to wait and see what would happen there.

“I obliged???

 

I chose the last seat to evade questions and try to keep myself as far as possible from God, my Lord. And these verses brought my transformation

My sons, if you have sinned, do so no more, and for your past sins pray to be forgiven. Flee from sin as from a serpent, that will bite you if you go near it; its teeth are lion’s teeth, destroying the souls of men. Every offence is a two-edged sword; when it cuts, there can be no healing. – Sirac 21:1-3

 

As these words were repeated on stage, I felt as if it was meant to me and I felt it was piercing me as a double edged sword, revealing my personality in detail. I felt in myself the need to change.

On the same day, during the Eucharistic adoration, I was seeing an infant, with a single stretch of white garment in the Eucharist, which completely shocked me.  This is one area, which I never convinced myself before, that Christ is there in the Eucharist.

I shut my eyes not to see him. I swerved my chair to different angles to prove to my self and to say to everyone that it was not Christ, but the reflection of light. I looked like a fool as I couldn’t prove what I wanted to. I was caught up in fear or was scared, didn’t utter a word to anyone, but went to bed with lot of uncertainties.

The next day, I was eagerly looking for the adoration time. I was happy on that day to know the Eucharist was plain bread. There was no Christ in it! How good it is for one to say that Lord was not there, revealing our spirituality and relationship to God, despite saying Christians all my life through?

The following day, 5^th of May 1998

 

I went for confession after a long time and looking for my parents and brothers to go away. I did not want them see me confessing. I was looking for a good priest who would be consoling, rather than rebuking.

As I found one and knelt down, I was in tears, scaring the priest. I should admit he consoled me. When I had finished, I felt unburdened. Incidentally, when I returned, I wanted to sit in the middle row on that day.

Soon I realised, the Lord was speaking to me, to get rid of my sandals

as He said to Moses. I obliged!

 

I knew in my heart at that time, it’s going to be a different day for something is waiting to happen to me. As I was praising the Lord, I realised I was speaking in the heavenly tongues.  I had practised hard, days before, to mimic the preachers on the stage. 

On the very evening, proceeding to the Eucharistic adoration, I met the same Infant Jesus on the Eucharist. I shut my eyes and swerved my chair again as before.

In my vision, I found two black birds flying and I was asking myself, how come evil could come out of me, as I was holy!!! Deep in my heart, I had an urge in me to ask for God’s Holy Spirit not knowing exactly what I am asking for.

In my vision, it came again, two white pigeons now. I was happy. This is surely Holy Spirit. I was enthralled.

I opened my eyes to see beam of light in the Eucharist.

It was so radiant and luminescent that I couldn’t see it continuously.

 

At one point, the light started to move and the trajectory was towards me. It was so obvious that it was coming to me, as it did to engulf me completely, when I felt as if I was thrown into a freezer.

 I was trembling and shivering in chillness, couldn’t control my emotions. I started weeping. I didn’t bother about anyone around me.

In my heart, I knew I was making one to one conversation with my saviour and my personality was vanishing.

 

I had extraordinary perceptions about what was happening around me and what my parents, brothers and neighbours perceived about me. I didn’t care!!

My thought at that time was not to miss my God. In my heart, I was born again and I knew what salvation means.

 

The very night, on my way back to my bed, I heard the Lord speaking to me again, to be obedient, modest and truthful to him.

 

I couldn’t sleep that night. I was sweating profusely at the heat of that summer night. I was hitting the toilet every 15 to 20 minutes, without being thirsty. It is an opposite feel to my anointment chillness in a freezer. I was feeling extremely hot as in fire.

I was stopping and praying, laying hands over the heads of people, who were awake in the heat. I didn’t want to do this, but I couldn’t control myself. In my personality, this is something, which I never wanted to do nor would ever encourage me or others doing. I never dreamed that it would ever happen to me, which I couldn’t resist on that day.

I hated myself! I couldn’t sleep!!

 

I heard someone speaking into my ears calling me to follow him. I resisted with my whole heart with full force that I wouldn’t and couldn’t. I made the God aware that it was inappropriate for HIM to call me at that time, when I was entering my post graduation as an orthopaedic surgeon.

I also made him aware if he had ever wanted me, the calling should have happened during my school days. Not when I had set my career ahead with lot of aspirations and ambitions to achieve, which would bring me fame & wealth? The Lord said only one thing to me.

“I need you. Come follow me”

 

He annoyed me saying this again and again, which made me realise, I was wrong to ask for His Holy Spirit. I thought to myself, as being foolish in the first place to come there, obliging to my intuitions and then subduing myself knowingly on the unknown fact about Him.

I felt desperate at one point if HE would stop speaking to me. However, HIS conversation materialised and evolved asking me, what stopped me following Him? I said, the world has so much to offer and with my aspirations ahead, there is plenty to achieve.

He asked me if I thought they were eternal pleasures. I replied, I don’t know. However, I need it as I thought it will make me happy.

He was sad.

He paused for a while and asked me if I trusted him.

I said “NO.”

 

He looked obviously even sadder as HE was reading my mind,

 In which I wanted to say Him “SHUT UP.”

 

Interestingly, the Lord was kind and patient. He didn’t rebuke me but said, “If I make a covenant with you, that if I would fulfil you hearts desires, would it then make you consider following me”.

As I wanted Him to stop talking to me, the answer was yes. He said, “Okay then!! I will see you after”.

It was 4 in the morning when, I went to sleep and two hours later, on my way to the prayers, I felt very happy in my heart which was so awesome, which I never ever cherished ever before or after in my life.

I was slowly getting to the reality of knowing what eternal pleasure means, which I never understood before.

 

That Friday, when I was supposed to leave the place, I didn’t want to. The God asked me, “Why?” I said to Him, “It will be easy for me to practise him inside the retreat centre, as there will be no challenges from the world outside.

He smiled and said, “I was complacent and lazy”. He made clear to me, the reason for my call is not to sit there, but to go and face the challenges outside by living and practising HIS faith to make him proud.

Now, I had a laugh. I told him, if it would be the reason He chose me, He would be disappointed, as you know, who I am and how I was.

He replied, “Go now, wait and see.”

 

Honestly, I didn’t understand what HE meant, but as the days rolled on, I realised that HE started to explore and display my unearthed qualities to my awareness and to HIS advantage.

Now it’s getting to 12 years since this happened and I am standing before you all, narrating not just the events that happened to me, but also making others know who my God is, how He is as a person and a friend looking after us day in and day out.

I will keep you posted with more events.

This is just a

“Start of  the Beginning!!!