Happy New Year - 2016

I wish all my friends a Happy and Blessed New Year!! This is a season when many of us evaluate our past, in view of creating a better future. In the midst of adversities, God speaks to the people of Israel through prophet Jeremiah: “For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare, not for woe! plans to give you a future full of hope” (Jer. 29: 11).

 

What ever we are thinking of doing in the coming year should be submitted to God in prayer. We should be renewing our faith life in prayer as we are expected to be growing in Christ. St. Paul in his Second Letter to the Corinthians says: “So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cori. 5: 17).

Enjoy each day as a gift from God and submit us completely to God’s will. We will be blessed: “The favors of the LORD are not exhausted, his mercies are not spent; they are renewed each morning, so great is his faithfulness. My portion is the LORD, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him” (Lamentations 3:22-24).

I share with here my Poem for the New Year which I wrote in 2013 when I was helping out in a parish in Motta Visconti near Milan, Italy.

A Poem for New Year

Another year came to my life and passed away steadily

It had become old and part of history readily

White and cold in winter with gentle sunlight in the spring

Cloudless skies of summer and a few bare branches in autumn

Stayed with me for twelve months – not more, not less

A new dawn of life is unfolding in every opening of my eyes

A new year begins where old one ends

Last year’s oaths have become old, died and ignored

I am still here with new hopes and fears

Oh, it is just a new start for my old habits and passions!

Adding more virtues and vices to the store of my ‘collections’

I am growing and dying in every passing year of my life

I come to this exit to make a new entrance to the highway

Next year’s history is a mystery, revealed only in time

Will I come again to make another beginning?

Will the smell of this rain bring a new leaf or another storm with it?

Not sure, still counting the blessing – be it better than the last!

The map of the world is so big, hard to spot my place in it

The world is bigger than I can travel in my lifetime

I better be a butterfly or a flower with a short and sweet life

Flying around the world spreading the wings of color and joy

Than walking around like a Tasmanian devil or Fire Ants  

Barking and biting in ‘dangerous devilish snare’!

I need depth to my life than length to expand it longer!

Your ammunition could be made of unusual materials

“Reconcile with your brethren, before you die

Bring no tear, but wipe away every tear to make them smile

Time passes quickly; present becomes past soon,

Future becomes the new present today,

With the rhythm of life in this passing world

Be present to the present moment to live it fully

Your greatness be exposed in serving the weak and the lowly

Examine your conscience before embracing the bed at night

Let the sun not set in your anger today – the Bible says”

It is better; I live it fully before telling the world

How to live in this passing world of joy and sorrow! 

Let me muse through the world with amusing thoughts

Drowning in your Spirit should transform my way of living

I wish to open a fresh page in the book of my life

Decorate my book with fragrance and flowers

Let it smell for the rest of my life bringing everyone to Christ

Help me to fill the blank pages with fresh words of life

The book from last year is already gone

With some dots, arrows and red pages in it

“Red pages” as if a pig has been slaughtered in it

 Strange, that we become pious and holy in an instant

As the silent limbo of my past life will come

Waking me up to be ‘weird and happy’ than ‘normal and miserable’

It is never too late to make it straight! 

The stroke of midnight creates many more drunken people

I want to be drunk in my passion to love my brethren

Struggling to be holy until the last breath of my life on earth

I love the radiant light of the candle at the altar of the Lord

Dispelling the darkness of many hearts and minds in worship

Lord, I rest in your shade for my troubles to fade away

You are the alpha, omega and the center of my life

Your love and embrace, all that I care and crave for today.

Rome Guide

There were numerous requests from friends to resume my blog writing. There are many reasons I had to stop my blog sometime mainly because of my travels during summer and the non-accessibility of internet. But now I have decided to write a series of articles on the important attractions of Rome to help all those who wish to visit Rome one day and all those who cannot visit Rome but want to learn more about it. Many times I am embarrassed when the visitors knew more than I on certain historical places and it would be a learning process for me also. It can serve also as a tour guide for some of my friends. Most of the information is available online or in Tour Guide books but I may try to add a personal touch to these explanations. Since I am writing from a religious perspective it is not my intention to provide some historical information but to this is to increase my readers understanding on the great patrimony which we all share. Rome might be filled with tourists who walk through the magnificent churches marveling the architecture and beauty, but for Catholics it is always a pilgrimage to the footsteps of the apostles and the saints who sacrificed their life in transmitting that faith to each one of us. Even though I am tempted to give an account of the city of Rome and the Vatican City State, I postpone it for a later time to start with St. Peter’s Basilica.

St. Peter’s Basilica

St. Peter’s Basilica is situated in the heart of Vatican and is one of the holiest sites not only for Catholics but the whole of Christianity. For us, only the Holy Land, where our Lord lived, is more sacred than Rome. This magnificent Basilica is built on the burial site of St. Peter, the head of the Apostles. After his conversion to Christianity, in 324 AD, Emperor Constantine commissioned the building of this basilica over St. Peter’s tomb. The first structure stood more than thousand years undergoing various modifications. The present basilica was completed mostly in its current form in the 15^th and 16^th centuries and is built in High Renaissance and Baroque style. Inside, the massive scale showcases some of the greatest Italian artists such as: Bramante, Raphael, Michelangelo and Carlo Maderno had made their imprints by creating some of their masterpiece art works here.

The basilica has s a unique position in the Catholic tradition and is referred to as the greatest of all churches of Christianity. Since it is the burial place of St. Peter the first Pope, many subsequent Popes were buried here.

St. Peter's is a famous place of pilgrimage, not only for its historical associations, but also as a masterpiece of architecture. It is one of the largest Christian Churches which covers an area of 5. 7 acres (2.3 hectares), with a capacity to contain 60,000 people. Its dome is a dominant feature of the skyline over the city of Rome. Many Pilgrims make it a point to climb up to the top of St. Peter’s to have a view of the city of Rome from there. In the apse of the basilica there is an impressive monument the ‘Chair of St. Peter’ by Bernini which was originally a gift to the Pope by the French King, Charles the Bald in 875 AD. Opposite, in the first chapel on the right stands one of the Vatican’s finest treasures: the exquisite ‘Pietà’ by Michelangelo, which is one of the best examples of the Renaissance human form. This statue was commissioned as a funeral monument for the French Cardinal Jean de Billheres and the only one Michelangelo ever signed his name.

In the right nave can be found a 13th-century bronze statue of Saint Peter by Arnolfo di Cambio. I have gone through this place several times touching the feet of the statue. It is believed that by kissing or touching the feet of St. Peter you receive special blessing and good luck. Many of the popes are buried inside St. Peter’s. Most recently Blessed John Paul II’s body was placed in the main Church when he was beatified, attracting many visitors and pilgrims.

Holy Week at MSC Melody, Part IV

We had the Holy Thursday Mass in the evening, and more than two hundred people attended. The Captain and the Vice Captain came for the service. The Ship manager arranged to have twelve crewmembers for the washing of the feet. It was a moving ceremony on all accounts. I could see the joy in the faces of those who had been chosen for this; and at the same time a little “embarrassed” that they allowed a priest to wash their feet. I used the occasion to explain to them why Jesus performed this important ceremony before his crucifixion. We take seriously the last wish of a person, and   how much more seriously we need to take Jesus' command to his disciples the day before his death: “If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do” (Jn. 13: 14-15). Jesus did this before celebrating the Last Supper, which also means that serving our brothers and sisters is a precondition for celebrating the Eucharist. After the service, the Captain told the manager to tell all the crewmembers that they could attend the rest of the Holy Week services if there was a possibility for them to adjust their work. Some of the crewmembers also felt comfortable talking to me about their spiritual struggles, looking for my advice and prayers. At the end of the service, I reminded them of the need to attend the Good Friday and Easter services.

The MSC Melody was sailing through the Black Sea towards the north, aiming to reach Odessa, another port city in the Ukraine. We reached Odessa early in the morning and the beauty of the port city was beautifully exposed to our eyes through the rays of the rising sun. Odessa is the fourth largest city in Ukraine. The Lithuanians and then the Ottomans until Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, took over the city. She founded the city in 1794 and it continues to be a prosperous city.

I joined the “Odessa City Tour” group to visit some of the most important city monuments. The statue of the founder of Odessa, Empress Catherine II was one of the attractions there. Her left hand points toward the direction the city was to be founded. Her right hand holds the decree of foundation: “Let there be a port and city…”

The most iconic of all the symbols in Odessa was the 192 Potemkin Steps. These steps created an illusion that those at the top only saw a series of large steps, but at the botttom the steps merged into a pyramid-shaped structure.

We also walked through the attractive pedestrian avenue, the Deribasovskaya Street, which was leading to the Odessa Opera & Ballet Theatre. The grand Renaissance-era Theater built in 1887 is considered one of the world’s finest theatres.

We saw some of the rare collections of Ukrainian and Russian paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts. Since we were not allowed to take pictures, the beauty of those paintings remains oblivious to my readers.

The monument of the “Unknown Marine” near the Shevchenko Park gave an enchanting view over the Black Sea and was a place of much activity. This Obelisk, to mark the fifteenth anniversary of victory over Germany, was unveiled in 1960 and we saw young school volunteers there to stand guard at the memorial.  This was a tradition started from the days of Soviet Union rule where Young Communist League children stood guard at the memorial. It was considered a great honor to be selected for this ceremony and only the loyal members were given the privilege to do that. I left with a high appreciation of the Ukrainian Culture and tradition after my Yalta and Odessa tour.

Holy Week at MSC Melody, Part III

There were no increase in the number of attendees for the daily Mass despite my best attempt to attract more people. Those who did come were very happy and some of them came early to pray in our temporary chapel. On Wednesday, April 20, the ship was sailing through the Mediterranean Sea and we passed by the Dardanelles Straits around 8: 00 a.m. By noon, the ship entered the Marmara Sea sailing towards Bosporus. It was an incredible and unforgettable experience to see  both sides of Istanbul when the ship crossed the straits. This is the meeting point of Asia and Europe, and I understood why Emperor Constantine wanted to make this city the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.  I will talk more about Istanbul later, because we spent five hours in the city on our way back. We entered the Black Sea after crossing the Istanbul strait and spent the whole night at sea.

We reached Yalta, Ukraine, around noon and the port city of Yalta looked amazingly beautiful. This city situated in Crimea, southern Ukraine, on the north cost of the Black Sea. It was an ancient Greek colony and surrounded by wooded mountains. It reminded me of my own state of Kerala because of its greenery with hills and valleys. The beautiful Mediterranean climate makes Yalta a sought after tourist destination in Ukraine. After a long rule of the Ottoman’s, the Russians took over the city in 1783.

In the 19^th century, many of the Russian aristocrats began to use this as a vacation place. Leo Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky and Anton Chekhov had lived in Yalta for some time. Chekhov wrote some of his most famous stories including The Lady with the Dog from here.  The dissolution of Soviet Union in 1991 caused alot of damage to the economy, and the city is still struggling to recover. The Soviet Union's rule seems to have destroyed this beautiful country religiously, culturally and economically.  

I went with the “Royal Yalta” tour group to visit the Livadia Palace (the White Palace) to have a look at the “Swallow’s Nest”. The Livadia Palace became famous because of the Yalta Conference held in 1945. Franklin R. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin met here to discuss Europe’s post-war reorganization. King Nicholas of Russia got the idea of constructing this beautiful palace after he visited and saw the Renaissance places of Italy. Now it is a museum, attracting many tourists who come to see the beauty of Yalta.

Our stop at the “Swallow Nest” offered us a beautiful view of the turreted medieval castle perched on a cliff hanging over the Black Sea. It was built between 1911 and 1912 on the top of a 40-meter cliff and is one of the most popular visitor attractions in Crimea.

There were some beautiful Churches, both  Orthodox and Catholic, but because of time constraint we could not visit many of them, but still enjoyed their beauty from the ship.  The most famous and beautiful of them is the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral constructed by the architect Krasnov, who also constructed the Livadia Palace.