Servants of Charity

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift and that is why we call it the present.
Indeed I am very delighted to meet all of you through this newsletter at the wake of this New Year 2020 and wish you joy-filled moments of life and pray that your dreams and New Year resolutions may come true.
As we are trying to part with the memories of the past year in order to relish the gifts of the present time, still there are certain instances, episodes and events lingering in our minds and hearts, producing sentiments of gratitude, flicks of happiness along with some disappointment, remorse, despair. Now at times, it may sparkle in our mind that I should have done it the other way around, I could have better handled those situations, I could have worked on myself a little more, I should have gracefully accepted God’s invitation for a closer relationship, there was still room for building relationships with others; but now I cannot go back and repair the damage I did.
People at large began this New Year with fun and folly: fire crackers, moon light dinners, bike rides, dances and reality shows with great shouts of welcome 2020 on the eve of the New Year. Our Catholic tradition has rightly started this New Year with Mother Mary so that we all shall walk on the path she has trodden. At times we get into the same sentiments of the Mother, “How can this happen”, “Will I be able to do so”, “What will happen tomorrow?” Current events and the strength that I think I have do not promise me a great future. The burden of my past failures, the slackening of my will, the real ME today, and waning health do not lead me to a bright tomorrow. To people of this kind at this moment in history where God, human relations, values and family spirit are devoured by the so-called values of money, profit, business and personal enhancement, Mary teaches the virtues of waiting even when everything appears meaningless. She is a woman of silence, not depression, faced with uncertainties of life, especially when nothing seems to be going right as rightly portrayed by Pope Francis. Mary encourages us to say with sure hope, “it is good for me to adhere to my God, to put my hope in the Lord” (Ps 72,28), “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me” (Phil 4,13).
The fiat, the biggest YES is a great example of strength and courage in accepting new life and in sharing the suffering of others. Because she was born and brought up in the culture of Hope amidst people like Elizabeth, Zechariah, Simeon and Anna who were looking for the consolation and redemption in their personal and social life. Let us usher one another into this life of Hope that with God all things are possible. Let us keep in our prayers in a special way our confreres and sisters who are not doing well and who need God’s special intervention and healing.
"Only in the darkness can you see the stars" – Martin Luther King, Jr..

Fr. Ronald J, SdC

Provincial Superior