Mill Hill Calling India

Editorial

Dear Mill Hill Family Members,

The Peace of Christ be with you all. It has been almost four months since I communicated with you through the newsletter. You are daily in my prayers.

Pentecost is over, we are again renewed in the Holy Spirit, the love of God, empowered to live our lives not on our own strength but in the divine empowerment of the One who comes to our aid.

During these past four months a number of our Mill Hill Missionary supporters from different parts of India returned to the Lord in faith. I had the great privilege to accompanying them in the last moments of their lives on earth. Some of them I knew very well: though being confined to their homes, they really sacrificed their time and energy to support the work of evangelization - a great example for all of us. When I look back into their lives, I see the manifestation of the Word of God in their life situations. They were proclaiming the Good News of Christ when they offered their life with all its ups and downs for this cause. They were good role models for us, especially in their love and reverence for the Holy Eucharist.

Let us also like them become aware of the power of the Word of God that became flesh in order to share in our sufferings and to sanctify them.

Many Blessings, Fr. Vincent Porathur MHM, The Director, Mill Hill Family India.

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THE ADVANTAGE OF BEING A CHRISTIAN The advantages of being Christians are really limitless, because they open us up to our true God who cannot be contained within any limits.

But even within the span of our lifetime our advantages as Christians are countless. Unfortunately, we pay far too little attention to them. We fail to thank God for them, we draw only little benefit from them and do not share them with others. In this short article, let us reflect on just one of these advantages.

Many years ago, the Catholic Enquiry Centre was established in Hyderabad. As you may know, this is an effort to make Jesus and our Christian faith known to interested enquirers through correspondence. For those who want to know more, a fullfledged correspondence course with questions and answers is worked out.

Once I was talking about this type of apostolate with the director and he said he found it striking how many enquirers ask to tell them how to pray. I had a similar experience myself when I was accompanying a group of nonChristians who wanted to join our community. When introducing them to our way of praying, they were astonished that we could talk with God in such a loving, familiar way without fear. In their worship they had always prayed and offered their offerings out of fear of the punishments they might have incurred through their offenses, whether these were known or not even conscious to them.

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was born in Poland of a large Jewish family and was brought up in the Jewish religion. It is told that once when passing a catholic church she felt interested to go inside; and there she found one lonely person lost in deep

prayer before the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle. This impressed her so much that she wanted to know more what made such prayer possible, and eventually became a catholic and a Benedictine nun whom Pope St. John Paul declared a saint in 1980.

To be able to pray: can we appreciate this advantage of being a Christian as a grace God freely gave us? Of course, prayer can be looked at in various ways: as a mere obligation, or a routine practice, or even as a bargaining with God: “I do this for you but then you should do that for me!”. If done in this way it will not bear much fruit. Prayer is meant to be a personal relationship; then it will lead to personal experiences about which we can talk, both to God and also with others. On God’s part, such intimate relationship is based on our baptism through which the divine life of Christ has been freely communicated to us together with the infused virtues of faith, hope and charity even before we were aware of them if we were baptised in childhood. On our part, these gifts must be cultivated, much like any other relationships such as happens in marriage, in family life, or among friends. If it is not cultivated in good and bad times, it may grow cold and even die.

The tremendous advantage of us as Christians is therefore, that we are allowed and able to speak with God in such an intimate way. But to make it bear fruit in our own life and for others, we must keep it up as the loving relationship that it is meant to be. Mother Mary and St. Joseph can be our models for it and through their intercession can obtain it for us.

Fr. Fritz Neuhauser MHM 2

Thank you for your Prayer & Support Please remember the poor and needy in our Mission Places some day, when you're able to help someone ,please help them with whatever you can. It will surely make a difference to those who need help.

Please Contact

Fr. Vincent Porathur, MHM The Director, Mill Hill Family India # 3-4-97/FQ/2, St. Joseph’s House, Ramanthapur, Amberpet (P.O.), Hyderabad-500 013, T.S., India. Tel: +91 7032351304 E-mail : millhill.familiesindia@gmail.com OUR BANK ACCOUNT DETAILS

THE CATHOLIC SYRIAN BANK A/C Name: “MILL HILL FAMILY INDIA”

A/C No: 027603500833190001, BRANCH: SECUNDERABAD, IFSC/RTGS CODE: CSBK0000276.

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4 holycrossprinters@gmail.com9848145417

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