Divisions

When divisions arise against my desire, I have to find the courage to live them as lovingly as I tried to prevent them. (Henri Nouwen)

Recognition of Darkness

Nouwen writes in Sabbatical Journey: "I feel lonely, depressed, and unmotivated. The same old pain that has been with me for many years and never seems to go completely away. I realize that my busyness is a way to keep my depression at bay. It doesn't work. I have to pray more. I know that I need to just sit in God's presence and show God all my darkness. But everything in me rebels against that. Still, I know it is the only way out."

A Bullet

The heroine (Alia Bhatt), with a gun in her hand, asks the hero (Randeep Hooda) in the movie Highway, "A bullet can kill only one person, right?" The hero removing the weapon from her hand says, "It kills two persons, the one who is shot at, and the one who shoots."

The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds

The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds, and it will not rest until it reaches its goal; it will not desist until the Most High responds and does justice for the righteous. (Sir 35:21)

Light of Forgiveness

Forgiveness does not change the past, but it enlarges your future. You can't rid darkness by means of darkness. You can't overcome evil with evil. You can't wage a war against war or terror. Violence is not the solution to violence. You can overcome evil only with good. The solution for war is forgiveness, fraternity, compassion, love. To dispel darkness you need to bring light in. "O Lord, in your light, we see light." Let the God in me see the God in the world; let the divine in me meet the divine in the world.

What should I focus on?

The way for us to be in this world is to focus on the spiritual life - our own as well as the spiritual life of each one of the people that we meet. All the rest pales before these "spiritual events," which will become part of our enduring search for the truth of life and the love of God. (Henri Nouwen, Sabbatical Journey.)

“The Solitary Reaper” by William Wordsworth

“The Solitary Reaper” is a short lyrical ballad, composed of thirty-two lines and divided into four stanzas. As the title suggests, the poem is dominated by one main figure, a Highland girl standing alone in a field harvesting grain. The poem is written in the first person and can be classified as a pastoral, or a literary work describing a scene from country life. The eyewitness narration conveys the immediacy of personal experience, giving the reader the impression that the poet did not merely imagine the scene but actually lived it. However, Wordsworth’s sister, Dorothy, writes in her Recollections of a Tour in Scotland that the idea for “The Solitary Reaper” was inspired by an excerpt from Thomas Wilkinson’s manuscript Tours to the British Mountain: "Female who was reaping alone, she sang in Erse as she bended over her sickle, the sweetest human voice I ever heard. Her strains were tenderly melancholy."

“The Solitary Reaper” begins with the speaker (or it could be the author himself perhaps) asking the reader to “behold” the girl as she works in the field. The first stanza is a straightforward description of the scene. The girl is standing alone in the field, cutting grain, and singing a “melancholy strain (tune).” Wordsworth emphasizes the girl’s solitude by using words such as “single,” “solitary,” “by herself,” and “alone.” Solitaries are common figures in Wordsworth’s poetry and are usually surrounded by a natural environment. The act of reaping alone in the field binds the girl intimately to the earth. Also, as the girl sings and the melody fills the lonely valley, she becomes almost completely merged with nature.

The next two stanzas describe the speaker’s reaction to the maiden’s song. The words of the song are in a language unknown to him, but he remains transfixed by the melody, which seems to stretch the limits of time and space. He associates the sweetness of the reaper’s song with the beautiful cries of the nightingale and the cuckoo, both familiar images of transcendence in Romantic poetry. As he allows the song to engulf his consciousness, he envisions far-off places and times of long ago. His imagination transports him from the field in which he stands to the edge of infinity.

In the fourth stanza, the speaker abruptly shifts his attention from his musings to the scene before him. He continues to listen, but the transcendent moment is past. He again calls attention to the reaper, who is unaware of the speaker’s presence or the effect her song has had on him. As the speaker walks away from the field, the song fades from his hearing, but its plaintive (sad) melody echoes in his heart and his imagination.

Taken from: http://www.enotes.com/topics/solitary-reaper/in-depth, slightly edited.

Personal Encounter with the Lord

Life becomes an unbearable burden whenever we lose touch with the presence of a loving Saviour and see only hunger to be alleviated, injustice to be addressed, violence to be overcome, wars to be stopped, [problems to be solved, order to be achieved] and loneliness to be removed. All these are critical issues, and Christians must try to solve them; however, when our concern no longer flows from our personal encounter with the living Christ, we feel oppressive weight. (Nouwen)

Jubilee and Provincial Community Day Celebrations

We had the Jubilee celebration of the Salesians of Guwahati Province, and also of the Provincial Community Day at Provincial House, Guwahati. I thank the Lord for these confreres, and for Fr V.M. Thomas, our Provincial. May God bless them all!

Enhancing Teacher Skills

The four-day course "Enhancing Teacher Skills: Effective Communication and English Language Skills for Better Teaching" began today at Don Bosco College, Tura. There are 31 participants for this course from all over the Garo Hills. It is basically an English improvement course desgined for teachers. We can see a lot of interest and enthusiasm in these teachers who want to learn the language well in order to teach better, and thus inspire their students.

Most worth telling...

I believe what is most worth telling is always what cannot be told.  (Gadamer, "Die Kunst, unrecht haben zu können: Gespräch mit dem Philosophen Hans-Georg Gadamer," Süddeutsche Zeitung 34 [1990] 16; quoted in Jean Grondin, Introduction to Philosophical Hermeneutics 166 n. 37.) What we say always mean more than is actually expressed. "A meaning, an intention always goes above and beyond what is actually captured in language, in words that reach others. An insatiable yearning for the right word – that is what constitutes the genuine life and nature of language." (Gadamer, "Grenzen der Sprache," 99; quoted in Grondin 123.)

Consumerism = Consuming Desires?

The basic problem with consumer society is not that it makes us desire too much, but that it makes us desire too little. We are distracted from our true freedom. (Tony Kelly, Consuming Passions: Christianity and the Consumer Society [Sydney: Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, 1995] 11; quoted in Gallagher, Clashing Symbols: An Introduction to Faith and Culture, new and revised edition [London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2003] 129.)

Youth Ministry

The current challenge in youth ministry is not religious but anthropological: it is about who they are becoming. This question of identity requires a prior critique of the manipulative images in the dominant culture. (Riccardo Tonelli, unpublished paper on youth ministry, European Symposium, Rome, May 1994;  quoted in Michael Paul Gallagher, Clashing Symbols: An Introduction to Faith and Culture, new and revised edition [London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2003] 145.)