My 30th Birthday

I finally get to join the 30 year old club.  Yes, I have turned 30 years old today.  I have lived on this beautiful earth for three decades.  I got to celebrate my birthday today with many people.  It was a special one.  My cousin priest who has been travelling around the US preaching had stopped at our house before he went back to India today.  This cousin priest is very special to me.  It is through his prayers last year that I started to see things in life with a different perspective.  He taught me to embrace sufferings in life and to fall in love with Jesus. I got to celebrate my 29th birthday with him last year and this year again I got the special blessing to be in his presence while I cut the cake.

George's favorite achan (priest)

My day started with a knock at the door from my next door neighbor and she had in her hands a home made birthday cake for me.  Aww....I don't know how to express my gratitude to this family for bringing such joy into my heart.  Sometimes by seeing the kindness and love in others I feel like I have to improve myself so much more in the area of sharing love with others.  I don't know how they found out about my birthday.  We only see each other once in a while.  But this family just shows so much love through their actions by moving the snow from our driveway during heavy snow storms, offering food and now birthday cake.  Thanking God for this family.

My parents, Sony's parents and my cousin priest was with me while I cut the cake and a special prayer and blessing from our cousin achan. I had three cakes to cut, one which my neighbor brought, my dad bought me a nice cake and Sony's parents brought home made cake.  Lord is really telling me how much He loves me through all this.  My dad bought me a gift, a perfume..aww..it was so special.  How thoughtful of him to get me a perfume! :))  My brother, when he got back home from work brought me one of my favorite food, Char Broiled Chicken Sandwich from Portillos YUM... so sweet of my lit brother.

Now last but not the least my wonderful husband made sure to surprise me with a beautiful birthday gift two weeks ago..hahaha  he bought me a nice dress.  My Sonyji...what would I do without you :)

Not to mention all the calls, VMs, emails, FB msgs from family and friends made me feel like I am the most blessed person in the world.

As I write all this I see the mysterious ways in which the Lord works in our lives, how he makes sure we are happy by fulfilling even the smallest desires of our hearts and sometimes not.  This is just the little story of my life but if we really start paying attention to our daily lives we can see how sometimes everything falls in place, like that parking spot which we really needed and we actually got even in the middle of the crazy church feast celebrations, or the closest spot in the busy hospital parking lot, or making it to an appointment by not getting a single red light.  How about the times we didn't have anyone to share our problems with and a friend calls from out of the blue asking how are you, or how you so badly wanted your child to sleep for 30 mins and with no chance of a nap the kid just passes out because they are tired.  Isn't this all the work of our dear Lord??  If we see it with a different eye we discover there are more blessings in our lives than sufferings.  We just need to look at it from a different angle.  So we come to the point that we cannot complain about anything but receive everything with open hands from our God and just enjoy every bit of life knowing that it is a gift from God.

Life is a blessing and and let us make our lives a blessing to others.

St. Thomas the Apostle feast day festivities

Today is the feast of St. Thomas the apostle.  A very special day for us Syro Malabar Catholics.  We also call this day Dukrana being the day of his martyrdom according to tradition.  St. Thomas came to Kerala, India  in 52AD and preached and shared his life experiences with Christ to the Hindu people at that time.  Many were baptized and became Christians.  You could find more information here:  http://www.ewtn.com/library/homelibr/kerala.txt

Now you know why we celebrate it with such festivities.  If it wasn't for St. Thomas we would have never acknowledged Christ.   Our church here in Chicago is named after St. Thomas and the next three days are filled with feast day celebrations. 

We had a special feast day mass at our church today.  We were able to go to mass together as a family since Sony was off from work today.  I wanted to make this feast day special at home so that it is more visual for my very little children who cannot really understand the meaning of celebrating a feast day yet.  We read the passage about the unbelieving Thomas from the Children’s Catholic Bible.

I made some banana fry which is a traditional snack of Kerala (state in India) My mom made Idli (made of powdered rice) which is also a very traditional South Indian food.  I am assuming that St. Thomas might have had these when he was in Kerala.  I can only imagine the many adjustments he had to make in order to live in a completely foreign place all for the sake of Christ. 

You can also see St. Thomas Cross which is at the top of the traditional Kerala lamp.  There are six branches of the cross representing the appearance of God in the burning bush, while the central branch holds the cross, and the dove at the tip of the cross represents the Holy Spirit.  

The two small vessels which you see infront of the lamp are called Kindi and Para.  Kindi is a type of pitcher usually found in old houses in Kerala.  Para is a traditional measuring vessel also found in old hosues.  I just added that to show the kind of vessels used back when St.  Thomas arrived in Kerala.  You can also see a wooden boat in my picture above which resembles a traditional sport of Keralites called Vallam Kali, a traditional boat race in Kerala. 

        

We ended out small feast day celebration with a prayer to St. Thomas.  George couldn't wait to have some of the banana fry. 

"So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, " Let us also go die with him" John 11:16  

I pray that I will be able to grow into a stronger faith like St. Thomas, to be able to go and die for Jesus  in my day to day activities, in taking care of children,  in loving and being submissive to my husband, respecting and caring for parents and in the many other responsibilities God has given. 

Almighty and everliving God, who strengthened your apostle Thomas with sure and certain faith in your Son’s resurrection: Grant us so perfectly and without doubt to believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God, that our faith may never be found wanting in your sight; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

St. Thomas the apostle – Pray for us.