My Monologues 8
My Monologues with Blessed Mother
Oh! Blessed Mother, Eighth of September is observed as your Birthday, right?
Mother, Wish you a very Happy Birthday!
Usually, when we wish someone a Happy Birthday, we also wish:
"Many, Many Happy Returns of the Day."
But in your case, it's meaningless to wish you so as you have already the Happy Returns of the Day for ever, right, Mother?
Oh! Blessed Mother, like the many many millions of my fellow sisters and brothers I am happily grateful to Our God for bringing you into this world and gifting you to us.
My earliest memories of your Birthday Celebrations are tied up with the festal celebrations of a local church dedicated in your honor. The church was on the banks of the backwaters, the largest water body around our region. The main feast of the local Shrine dedicated in your honor was on the Eighth of September. Thousands of your devotees flocked for the Feast. It was an annual fixture which we kids looked forward to as we used to get some spending money to buy toffees and toys.
After the untimely death of my mother I lived with my Grandparents who took care of me and they had their home on the opposite shores of this backwaters. I lived with them for first ten plus years of my childhood. Every year, almost without fail, my Grandparents took many of us, their grandchildren for your feast.
We used to sail across the backwaters in our wooden, non-mechanised country boat with a covered roof top. It took about an hour or so to reach the church shore.
It so happened once after taking part in the festvities, as we were sailing back home around noon, there was a squall. The sudden strong wind and waves tossed the country boat around. Though our boatman was very experienced and was in control of the boat and our Grandparents tried to calm us down, we kids were real scared. O! boy, we kids were so frightened and we began wailing and weeping and started calling upon you,
Oh, Mother! save us!
And you did!
The squally weather subsided and we safely reached the shores. Mother, even after more than half a century, it still remains a part of the scary memories of my childhood, an unforgettable and traumatic experience on your Birthday!
Thank you, Mother for saving us!
Mother, your parents, Joachim and Ann, must have been very proud of you. Though very little is known about them, they must have been a very righteous couple who were true to their ancestral Jewish faith. Some say you were born and brought up in the Holy City of Jerusalem.They hold that you lived with your parents near to the miraculous Pool of Bethesda.
Some others are of the view that your father, Joachim was from Nazareth and was a rich sheep and goat farmer cum merchant and supplied sacrificial lambs for the Temple in Jerusalem. Later on, he married your mother who was from Bethlehem and eventually they moved to Jerusalem. Your parents, though rather rich and were blessed in many ways, had to wait for many years to be blessed with a baby until you came into their lives and into the world.
Your mother, being a very devout and religious woman, provided you with a very genuine Jewish upbringing. As a baby girl your mother took you to the Temple almost everyday. And they say, you became the darling of the Temple priests and of the elders. Thus you were able to spend your childhood in a very spiritual and religious surrounding.
Mother, you were very privileged to have had a very healthy chidlhood under the loving and caring guidance of your parents. They cared for you with much love and provided you with a happy home.
These days many a children miss a happy home and a healthy childhood. The girl child is the worst hit. As you know well, the child labor and child abuse are very rampant in our midst. The female foeticide are the curse of our culture. In your time it was unheard of. But your time witnessed the heinous crime of child sacrifice, right, Mother?
Looking back at my childhood, though the Lord called back my mother when I was just little over a month old, He gave me in turn the next best person: my Grandmother. She along with my Grandfather gave me lots and lots of love and care and brought me up till the age of twelve or so.
Lord I thank you for entrusting me to their loving care and protection. Now, as they are with You, may they continue to enjoy Your Presence for ever!
As you know, years ago, as a young priest-student I was fortunate to spend a semester in Jerusalem. My memories of the Temple Mount, its surrounding area and Nazareth etc are still very vivid in my mind and in my memories. I do treasure them as consider myself highly privileged.
Oh, Mother, I want let loose my imagination and request your company and to have a Walk a Talk with you around the places you grew up as a little girl, around Jerusalem Temple, around Nazareth etc. I am sure you have reels and reels of memories and much to recall. And I have a lot to ask...
Oh! dear Mother as I wait for you, let me keep humming your, "Magnificat".
"My heart praises the Lord;
My soul is glad because of God my Savior,
for he has remembered me, his lowly servant
From now on all people will call me happy,
because of the great things the Mighty God has done for me.
His name is holy;
from one generation to another
he shows mercy to those who honor him.
He has stretched out his mighty arm
and scattered the proud with all their plans.
He has brought down mighty kings from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away with empty hands.
He has kept the promise he made to our ancestors,
and has come to the help of his servant Israel.
He has remembered to show mercy to Abraham
and to all his descendants for ever!"
Dear Jesus, thank you for giving us your Mother as our Mother.
Amen
JoAchen
Sunday, Seventh of September, 2014
PS.
These Reflections are neither pure scientific exegetical interpretations nor highly theological explanations.
They are devotional meditations mainly meant for my personal renewal and spiritual growth and thereby helping me to come closer to my God and to my fellow humans.
Thank you for reading them.
As i keep holding you in my daily prayers, I request you to include me too in yours.
Thank you,
JoAchen
My Monologues with Blessed Mother
Oh! Blessed Mother, Eighth of September is observed as your Birthday, right?
Mother, Wish you a very Happy Birthday!
Usually, when we wish someone a Happy Birthday, we also wish:
"Many, Many Happy Returns of the Day."
But in your case, it's meaningless to wish you so as you have already the Happy Returns of the Day for ever, right, Mother?
Oh! Blessed Mother, like the many many millions of my fellow sisters and brothers I am happily grateful to Our God for bringing you into this world and gifting you to us.
My earliest memories of your Birthday Celebrations are tied up with the festal celebrations of a local church dedicated in your honor. The church was on the banks of the backwaters, the largest water body around our region. The main feast of the local Shrine dedicated in your honor was on the Eighth of September. Thousands of your devotees flocked for the Feast. It was an annual fixture which we kids looked forward to as we used to get some spending money to buy toffees and toys.
After the untimely death of my mother I lived with my Grandparents who took care of me and they had their home on the opposite shores of this backwaters. I lived with them for first ten plus years of my childhood. Every year, almost without fail, my Grandparents took many of us, their grandchildren for your feast.
We used to sail across the backwaters in our wooden, non-mechanised country boat with a covered roof top. It took about an hour or so to reach the church shore.
It so happened once after taking part in the festvities, as we were sailing back home around noon, there was a squall. The sudden strong wind and waves tossed the country boat around. Though our boatman was very experienced and was in control of the boat and our Grandparents tried to calm us down, we kids were real scared. O! boy, we kids were so frightened and we began wailing and weeping and started calling upon you,
Oh, Mother! save us!
And you did!
The squally weather subsided and we safely reached the shores. Mother, even after more than half a century, it still remains a part of the scary memories of my childhood, an unforgettable and traumatic experience on your Birthday!
Thank you, Mother for saving us!
Mother, your parents, Joachim and Ann, must have been very proud of you. Though very little is known about them, they must have been a very righteous couple who were true to their ancestral Jewish faith. Some say you were born and brought up in the Holy City of Jerusalem.They hold that you lived with your parents near to the miraculous Pool of Bethesda.
Some others are of the view that your father, Joachim was from Nazareth and was a rich sheep and goat farmer cum merchant and supplied sacrificial lambs for the Temple in Jerusalem. Later on, he married your mother who was from Bethlehem and eventually they moved to Jerusalem. Your parents, though rather rich and were blessed in many ways, had to wait for many years to be blessed with a baby until you came into their lives and into the world.
Your mother, being a very devout and religious woman, provided you with a very genuine Jewish upbringing. As a baby girl your mother took you to the Temple almost everyday. And they say, you became the darling of the Temple priests and of the elders. Thus you were able to spend your childhood in a very spiritual and religious surrounding.
Mother, you were very privileged to have had a very healthy chidlhood under the loving and caring guidance of your parents. They cared for you with much love and provided you with a happy home.
These days many a children miss a happy home and a healthy childhood. The girl child is the worst hit. As you know well, the child labor and child abuse are very rampant in our midst. The female foeticide are the curse of our culture. In your time it was unheard of. But your time witnessed the heinous crime of child sacrifice, right, Mother?
Looking back at my childhood, though the Lord called back my mother when I was just little over a month old, He gave me in turn the next best person: my Grandmother. She along with my Grandfather gave me lots and lots of love and care and brought me up till the age of twelve or so.
Lord I thank you for entrusting me to their loving care and protection. Now, as they are with You, may they continue to enjoy Your Presence for ever!
As you know, years ago, as a young priest-student I was fortunate to spend a semester in Jerusalem. My memories of the Temple Mount, its surrounding area and Nazareth etc are still very vivid in my mind and in my memories. I do treasure them as consider myself highly privileged.
Oh, Mother, I want let loose my imagination and request your company and to have a Walk a Talk with you around the places you grew up as a little girl, around Jerusalem Temple, around Nazareth etc. I am sure you have reels and reels of memories and much to recall. And I have a lot to ask...
Oh! dear Mother as I wait for you, let me keep humming your, "Magnificat".
"My heart praises the Lord;
My soul is glad because of God my Savior,
for he has remembered me, his lowly servant
From now on all people will call me happy,
because of the great things the Mighty God has done for me.
His name is holy;
from one generation to another
he shows mercy to those who honor him.
He has stretched out his mighty arm
and scattered the proud with all their plans.
He has brought down mighty kings from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away with empty hands.
He has kept the promise he made to our ancestors,
and has come to the help of his servant Israel.
He has remembered to show mercy to Abraham
and to all his descendants for ever!"
Dear Jesus, thank you for giving us your Mother as our Mother.
Amen
JoAchen
Sunday, Seventh of September, 2014
PS.
These Reflections are neither pure scientific exegetical interpretations nor highly theological explanations.
They are devotional meditations mainly meant for my personal renewal and spiritual growth and thereby helping me to come closer to my God and to my fellow humans.
Thank you for reading them.
As i keep holding you in my daily prayers, I request you to include me too in yours.
Thank you,
JoAchen
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