Cracking the Code

I fiddled with my friends’ phone trying to crack his screen lock code. After several attempts at trying to win the ‘crack my screen lock’ challenge I gave up, realising that there were thousands of possible combinations which would probably take me days to crack.

That very evening as I sat in prayer the thought hit me that we have screen locks for our phones, face recognition software for our computers, passwords for our emails and social networking sites, pins for our ATM's, latches and bolts for our doors and windows and much more. Continue Reading

Be opened

Jesus looked up to heaven, sighed and said to the man, " Ephphata" that is "Be opened". And immediately his ears were opened.
Mk7:34


As an ENT surgeon these words of Jesus are one of my favourites.

Not many of us may be deaf in the physical sense. But what about we being deaf to:

• The word of God and the teachings of Jesus.
• The cries of the sick, the suffering, the lonely, the broken hearted.
• The needs of the people around us

It is time to ask the Lord to open up our ears so that we can hear His voice more clearly and experience Him more intimately.

Seek the Lord always

Nowadays we find it difficult to trust our friends even though we meet them frequently
To trust Jesus whom we cannot see is even more difficult.

It gets tougher when we feel that He is deaf to our prayers and pleas. That he allows evil to take place in this world and does apparently nothing.

There may come a point when we start doubting our faith.

But Jesus says, " Blessed are those who do not see and yet believe " (Jn20:29)

Despite all that goes on in your life and around you, can you still cling to Jesus?

Remember that the word of the Lord is right and true. He is faithful in what he does. ( Ps33:4)

While your current situation in life may seem terrible, Jesus asks you to cling to Him through the storm.

He is fully capable of transforming your tragedy into a triumph.

Look to the Lord and His strength. Seek His face always.( 1Chr16:11)

Love till it hurts

We love to be served, to be given first preference always, to be praised, appreciated and thanked.

Have we paused for a moment to do the same to others?
To appreciate and thank others? To compliment others once in a while?

The world has enough of critics. It doesn't need you to be another.

Will we go out of our comfort zone to do something for a friend? Or someone we don't know?

"Forget about yourself. May your ambition be to live for your brothers alone, for souls, for the Church; in one word, for God." (St. Josemaria)

Let us cultivate the habit of thinking about others. About their needs and difficulties. Maybe in our homes first and then in our neighbourhood.

"In the middle of the rejoicing at the feast in Cana, only Mary notices that they are short of wine. A soul will notice even the smallest details of service if, like her, it is alive with a passion for helping its neighbor, for God." (St. Josemaria)

Loving God above all

We love so many things that push us far away from God. And often when God asks us to give them up, we say: Lord anything else but this thing. I love this too much.

It's like saying: Lord I love alcohol, drugs, porn, food, abusive language etc more than I love you.

"What a weakness it is to love Jesus Christ only when He caresses us, and to be cold immediately once He afflicts us. This is not true love. Those who love thus, love themselves too much to love God with all their heart." (St. Margaret Mary Alacoque)

Abraham's loved His son dearly. Yet when God asked Him to sacrifice his son up, he readily agreed.

He agreed because He loved God above everything else.

Do we love God above everything else in our life?

The folly of anger

Ever so often we say and do things that we regret later. We want things our way and get very impatient. We end up hurting people and sometimes spoiling relationships.

Anger is something that can end up destroying us. Getting angry and impatient often is a sign of the sin of pride.

There is no sin or wrong that gives a man a foretaste of hell in this life as anger and impatience. (Saint Catherine of Sienna)

The virtue that we need to pray for is humility and meekness.  We need to pray for grace to be gentle, patient, humble and kind.

This will bring more people closer to Christ than many preachings with no practice of humility.

”Be as gentle always as possible; and remember that you will catch more flies with a spoonful of honey than with a hundred barrels of vinegar. How can anyone be angry with another who fights him with pearls and diamonds?” (Saint Francis of Sales)

No one is good but God alone!

When everything in our life is smooth sailing we often don't even remember about God.

But when something unpleasant happens, we instantly want answers from the same God whom we ignore so often.

But who are we to know the answers to everything? Especially when we are not ready to do what God asks of us.

If the fairy godmother tells Cinderella that she can wear her magic gown until midnight, the question should be not Why not after midnight? But why did I get to wear it at all?

We must remember that all goodness is gift from God.

And we should accept like Job, that God is in control of everything.
"Lord you give and you take away. Blessed be your holy name." ( Job1:21)

Very often it is our pride that makes us believe that we should have all the answers.

Sinners think they are saints, but saints know they are Sinners. The best man who ever lived once said, No one is good but God alone.