18th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle B (Jn 6:24-35)
Do you seek the bread that the Father gives,
or do you seek the Father who gives you bread?
A few years ago I was back in India on my biennial home-leave. And I met a gentleman who was a visitor to our home-parish. He had never been to school, he told me. But during the course of our long conversation about Christian faith and life, I discovered that he was indeed a wise man. For instance, he is the one who put this question to me: “Do you seek the bread given by the father, or do you seek the father who gives you bread?” In my mother-tongue (Tamil) it sounded so well. The word for ‘bread’ is “appam”; and the familiar word for ‘father’ is “appa”. So it would sound […]
Month: July 2021
Sermon for 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B Homily
17th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle B
From Emptiness to Abundance (Jn 6:1-15)
Which is the only miracle of Jesus (besides the healing of the blind man – with differences in detail!) that is narrated in all the four gospels with similar details? It is the miracle of feeding the five thousand from five loaves, which we hear in the gospel of this Sunday.
From Mark to John
For Sunday readings of this year, being Cycle B, we follow the Gospel of Mark. In the past two Sundays we have been listening to the first part of chapter 6 of Mark. Following that sequence today we should have listened to the feeding of the five thousand according to Mark (Mk 6:35-44). However, the arrangement of the liturgical readings (the lectionary) makes a jump to the […]
My Contribution to the 1st Uniservitate Global Symposium on Service Learning
This volume dedicated to the I Global Symposium Uniservitate, compiles the reflections and experiences shared in the virtual event held in October 2020. The meeting aimed to facilitate the exchange between specialists, authorities and teachers of Higher Education institutions from different cultural contexts worldwide, around university social commitment and service-learning practices and programs.
My contribution was to:
Reflections on service-learning in the identity and mission of Catholic Higher Education. It was entitled, “Motivation for Social Transformation through Spirituality in Service-Learning”.
In summary, the reflection argued that:
The goal of Catholic Higher Education Institutions is to create competent graduates
who will be agents of social transformation.
This can be achieved through well-accompanied service-learning.
Service-learning becomes a lifestyle when coloured by a deep spirituality.
Spirituality has the potential to generate intrinsic motivation, which will sustain the
graduates in social transformation.
Reference:
Selvam, S.G. (2021). Motivation for […]
Sermon for 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B Homily
16th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle B
“The apostles rejoined Jesus and told him all they had done and taught…” (Mk 6:30)
Ministry to young people forms part of the identity of the religious order I belong to. Much of our formation as Salesians is carried out by means of hands-on experience. For instance, right from the phase of junior seminary up until the final months before our ordination to priesthood, on Sunday afternoons we would be sent out in groups of two or three to various locations situated around the formation house. We call this ministry, “Sunday Oratories”. The “brothers” would go to the location – which would often be a playground or an open field – blow the whistle, gather the young people of […]
Sermon for 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C Homily
Moved with pity… he went up and bandaged his wounds
15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Lk 10:25-37)
After the World Youth Day (WYD) in Cologne in the year 2005, I was at the Frankfurt airport waiting for my flight back to Kenya. After waiting in the long queue, it was really disappointing to be told that I was not on that Egyptian Air flight, because I had not reconfirmed my ticket. The group that I had led had no problem – their ticket was reconfirmed, and mine had been neglected by the host parish because mine was a separate ticket. I was stranded. Next possible flight was only after two days. Was I to stay at the airport for those two days? Going back to the parish in Cologne where we had stayed for the WYD would mean […]