Sunday, March 6, 2016

DIVINE LENTEN 2016 WEEKLY VIDEO REFLECTION NO. 4: "CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP BEGINS WITH ME" by Rev. Fr. Michael Payyapilly V.C.




In this Spirit-filled homily - “CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP BEGINS WITH ME”, Rev. Fr. Michael Payyapilly V.C., Director -- Divine Retreat Centre, Somersby NSW, Australia, exhorts every Catholic to remember our faith is based on a community and not of our individual relationship with God only. “Today, if you go to parishes, after the Blessing is over, immediately people have disappeared and the priest will go outside thinking the people will be outside. But forget about the people, even the cars are not around! Everyone has disappeared – no one is talking. That is when we realize how individualistic we have become.”



“That is why even after the Holy Mass, the feeling of oneness is not there because we have become individualistic. We do not have the ‘time to spare; the time to waste’ – we are very time-bound Once we become individualistic, there will never be an experience. We are only praying for our own needs; we are praying only for ourselves. When we come for Mass, we do not even know who is sitting next to us!”

“What we do inside the church is what we do outside.”

“What did the early Christian community do? Why were they so vibrant? ‘They devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of Bread and the prayers. Acts 2:42)’ Fellowship is where the difference is today. In our parish communities, there is no fellowship. If there is n fellowship, the parish community will always be incomplete.”

“Are our parish community increasing? Why?”

“It starts with each of us to make the difference in a parish community. There has to be fellowship. It has to start from you!

Are you able to help build up your parish community?”

This timely message of God share by Fr. Michael shows how critical it is for each of us to make our Catholic Church vibrant as it was in the early Christian community days.


Next Sunday, Rev. Fr. Augustine Vallooran V.C., Director of Divine Retreat Centre, Kerala, India will be sharing the Word of God on “PRAYER - STAY ROOTED AND CONNECTED TO GOD”

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