{"id":47247,"date":"2016-09-15T04:43:56","date_gmt":"2016-09-15T04:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/?p=47247"},"modified":"2016-09-15T04:43:56","modified_gmt":"2016-09-15T04:43:56","slug":"bless-and-be-blessed-kmg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/?p=47247","title":{"rendered":"Bless and\u00a0 be Blessed \/ KMG"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\"kmg_satsang\"<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

As we observe and celebrate the Time of Creation<\/em> we need to reflect further on blessing God\u2019s creation as well as receiving blessing in return from God\u2019s creation. Several of us here are priests and pastors, and\u00a0\u00a0 we know well the routine \u201cjob\u201d of blessing the congregation. In my country, probably as elsewhere, we are required to bless not only people, but cattle andcars, stonesand notebooks, pens and pendants, machines and medicines, trucks and motor bikes, and occasionally elephants too (better to be blessed from a safe distance!). So we heartily bless human beings, plants and animals, vehicles and instruments,both animate beings and\u00a0 inanimate objects. In short we bless the whole creation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let me humbly and gratefully\u00a0 admit that with years of liturgical experience as a priest, my right hand\u00a0 involuntarily rises up in a discreet gesture of blessing whenever I see\u00a0 great mountains, vast oceans, meandering\u00a0 rivers or any amazing scenes of stunning\u00a0 beauty in nature. It is the same with human beings in all humble conditions and animals, birds and plants\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

We, however, are not very much aware of the\u00a0 blessing that we receive from God\u2019s creation in return. In fact, we should consider that everyone or everything that\u00a0 we bless proffers\u00a0 a blessing on us too. The universe is so inter-bonded, and penetrated by the dynamic Creator Spirit that there never happens a one way action. Perhaps, God\u2019s gracious love doesn\u2019t always follow some God-given natural laws as discovered by Newton and set forth in the formula of \u201cequal and opposite reaction\u201d since, according to Jesus, \u2018God makes the sun shine on the\u00a0 both the just and the unjust, and sends the rain on the righteous and the wicked alike\u2019.The law of love transcends infinitely the normal laws of our physical existence.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact , God has endowed the creation with far\u00a0 more generosity and hospitality to us human beings than we ever can imagine. The air and the water, the sun, the soil and the space are the supreme gifts that Nature confers on us and all living beings in order that we simply live.Just contemplate the very breathing that we\u00a0 do uninterruptedly and unconsciously from the very moment of our birth until death. Normally we become aware of it only when there is some obstruction that deprives us of the oxygenated air. The yogic\u00a0 exercises\u00a0 all begin with the deliberate awareness and the eventual\u00a0 control of one\u2019s breathing (pranayama<\/em>). A thankful awareness of it on our part (in a truly Eucharistic sense) can change our whole attitude to God\u2019s creation. \u00a0Our act of blessing the five elements and the whole universe will appear as infinitesimally small, though not insignificant, \u00a0when we consider the magnitude of blessings that we receive every moment.This instills in us a deeper humility in our attitude to thenatural environment. At first we may not be very much aware of the blessingsthat we receive, but we can certainly cultivate the sensitivity by regular exercises.<\/span><\/p>\n

Everyone can\u00a0\u00a0 devise his or her own method of spiritual exercise in order to nourish the sense of beauty and blessing inherent in nature. Slow, meditative and solitary walks in open nature is one of the\u00a0 tested ways. One may, for instance, walk around one\u2019sresidence at the break of the day when everything is deeply quiet. One may touch the trees and plants with a gentle stroke in an act of blessing, and then remain there for some moments feeling the energy of the vegetation flow into us. We may\u00a0 bless particularly the buds and flowers like when we bless the infants and kiss their hands (as \u00a0a priest \u00a0may do in a \u00a0baptismal rite). The tenderness that\u00a0 we experience is the hope of\u00a0 new life , the tender mercy of the Creator that flows into the body of all that is created. Opening fully one\u2019s heart and body to this compassionate love of God that keeps creation in an ordered whole of amazing beauty is to\u00a0 regain partly the blessing\u00a0 of Adam and Eve in Paradise.<\/span><\/p>\n

Practically one doesn\u2019t need to be in comfortable natural surroundings to do this exercise. We may do it anywhere anytime even in the most bare conditions\u00a0 with some sense of the space and time that envelop us. A little blade of grass, a humble lily of the field, a tiny sparrow can help us begin.<\/span><\/p>\n

(Prepared for a meditation at the chapel of the Bossey Institute, Geneva, by Fr\u00a0 K M George on the occasion of the meeting of the Joint Working Group <\/em>between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches, 13 September 2016)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 As we observe and celebrate the Time of Creation we need to reflect further on blessing God\u2019s creation as well as receiving blessing in return from God\u2019s creation. Several … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36756,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,27,21,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-devotional-thoughts","category-fr-dr-k-m-george","category-meditation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47248,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47247\/revisions\/47248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}