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Soolokho: Ascension of Lord
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Sunday before Pentecost
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Fourth Sunday after New Sunday: A Samaritan Village Rejects Jesus
He is being rejected by many in the contemporary world. Who is Jesus to you? The world sees Him as one of many. But He is the Savior and the Liberator. What does that mean to you?
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Third Sunday after New Sunday
Think about how it feels to be hungry- hungry in your stomach and hungry in your soul. Then think of the best bread you have ever tasted. Smell its yeasty aroma. What does it look like? Feel its crust and its soft interior with your fingers. Taste it. Savor the experience. What kinds of things are like bread for you- savory, filling, satisfying? Think of the descriptive words that come to you. But what does it mean for you to “eat” the bread Jesus offers? At your earliest opportunity (or this Sunday) be ready to receive God with a true contrite heart, by either confessing before the priest or partaking…
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New Sunday (1st Sunday after Resurrection)
Jesus Knows What Thomas Need: He Knows What We Need We are sometimes scornful of Thomas, giving him the nickname “doubting Thomas”. But he is not unlike many of us. He needs the data. He needs the visuals. He needs to touch Jesus’ wounds in order for his faith to take root and grow. Jesus accepts that. He knows what we need. What do we need from Jesus in order for our faith to bloom? Tell Jesus. And wait, watch and wonder!
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Kyamtho (Easter Sunday)
The Lord is risen! Indeed He is risen! Resurrection gives hope for the humanity. Despite Christ is risen, our struggle to follow Christ will continue with all our fears and doubts. But the good news is, He is risen! He is risen to give us a new beginning… He is risen to remind us that goodness is more powerful than evil… He is risen to remind us that love is more powerful than hatred… He is risen to remind us that faith is more powerful than doubt and despair…
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Pas’aho/ Maundy Thursday
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K’fiptho Sunday/ healing the crippled woman
The wounds of people’s infirmities rarely escape Jesus’ notice and he was always ready to offer a healing touch. The woman in the story was walking around the church bend over, to see how the world looks from her vantage point. How does it feel to walk that way? What are the burdens that weigh you down and bend you over? Take a deep breath and stand up straight, offering your burdens to God. Stretch out your hands in praise to God, who declares you have been “set free!” Feel the tightness and pain, in your heart and on your body parts. Breathe in and breathe out slowly. Each time…
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Touching the Untouchable! Reflections on Garbo Sunday
The study of the Bible is absolutely necessary for the nourishment of Christian life. The facts which the Scriptures present are the basis of faith in the Trinitarian God. Acquaintance with these prophetic and devotional facts in the light of the contemporary world realities is the only sensible means to imbibe and disseminate a true dynamic Christian faith. The nourishment of the Scriptures is necessary to the spiritual life as that of food to the body. The following Bible study is based on the Gospel reading on the ‘Sunday of the Leper’ from St. Luke 5: 12-16; and St. Luke 4: 40-42. And it happened when He was in a…
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Various Classifications of periods in the Lectionary in Malankara tradition
Reviewing the available literature, there are at least four to five different classifications of the periods in the Church Lectionary in the Malankara tradition. All of them have the same arrangement of Sundays, order, and themes with minor differences in the gospel readings and other readings from Old Testament and New Testament. Over the years, liturgical calendars were published in two forms- the tables of Easter and related movable feasts; and a calendar of saints. The two have separate origins. The former were a matter of controversy in the ancient church. Eventually, a single one of 532 years (taqlab in Syriac sources) was adopted as the norm. They again differed…