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We hear and read the word of God very many times but sometimes quite unexpectedly  something strikes. In today's gospel the soldiers respond to those who sent them to arrest Jesus, "No man has ever spoken like this man," Jn. 7:46.  It is interesting to note that it is not always the learned who are touched by the Lord rather the ones who acknowledge the sinfulness and let the Lord speak to them. The gospel speaks to directly to those of us who claim to be possessing knowledge of religion. I am reminded of the three surprises Bp. Fulton J. Sheen speaks about. He says when we reach heaven that we may meet people whom we never imagined them to be there. That's the first surprise! The second surprise is that we may not meet those whom we expected to meet! The third is that we have reached heaven!  Indeed no one has ever spoken like Jesus! Let us say like the prophet, 'speak Lord, your servant is listening.'

The season of Lent is obviously an opportune time to reflect on the way we live, the motive behind all that we do. I suppose there is something that drives us to do all that we do and be the way we are. Depending on what drives us we either flourish or don't.  Most often - on close self-examination at least I find - we are driven by fear of what others say or feel about us. While it is good to be concerned about the feelings of others, it isn't right to completely subscribe to all that people say and make it our motive for doing or not doing what is good. Life must have a purpose and we need to live for that purpose consciously. Jesus is the best example for this. His disciples were not quite happy when he decided to suffer and die. Peter rebuked Him in fact. But Jesus went ahead keeping the purpose of life in mind.  There could only be one driving force in our lives i.e., the 'love of Christ' as St. Paul candidly puts it. "For the love of Christ urges..,&quo

A friend of mine suggested that I read Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life as part of my Spiritual Exercise. I read the same book a couple of years back. So, with reluctance picked up the same book again. I knew that it was worth reading again but all the same didn't have the interest I once had to read the books of that sort. I must confess that re-reading the book was an experience beyond my wildest expectations. I was truly in touch with myself and found the thirst for prayer that I lost sometime back.  The first title of the exercise is   it all starts with God. Modern world is rather too  focused on the individual self. It has lost the sense of the divine as a consequence. The results of considering the individual self as the agent of happiness are too obvious. Unfortunately, the results are often undesirable than positive. Perfectionism is one of the results of focusing too much on oneself. This happens to us, religious! Perfectionism is nothing but slow death!  W