BREAD FOR YOUTH

  18 October 2024 28 th Week Ordinary Time Friday 2 Tim 4:10-17 Do We Harm the Messenger of God The associates of St Paul, Demas, Crescens, and Titus, left him to different destinations. Luke alone was with him. St Paul seeks Mark for he is needed in ministry. It is interesting to note that Luke alone was with him. When someone is with someone for a long time, it would mean the usefulness and faithfulness of the person. Today, we keep the feast of St Luke the Evangelist. Luke must have been a faithful minister with St Paul In the Word of God, we note that St Pual was harmed by Alexander the coppersmith; the person will have his reward. Yet, time and again, knowingly or unknowingly, we block the messengers of God and the message of God. One should take care not to harm the message of God. Let us care for the messengers of God. Are we aware of the times we have been blocking the messengers of God? St Luke the Evangelist Fr Putti Anthaiah   Sdb

  17 October 2024 28 th Week Ordinary Time Thursday Eph 1:1-10 God Made Us in Freedom God predestined us in love. Predestination is a theological standpoint that one is either destined for heaven or hell. If so, what is the use of our effort to live a righteous life? One loses hope and trust in God and oneself. There is a chance for a carefree life or an irresponsible life. St Paul tells the Ephesians that God, in his fullness and riches, has planned to unite everything in the appointed time. There is no automatic salvation or eternal. God has created us in his image and likeness; it would imply that we are made in freedom and responsibility. As long as one is responsible and free in love are expected to live up to the will of God in freedom. This fact places the responsibility on the shoulders of human persons to cooperate with God or not cooperate with God. The choice is with humans to be saved or not be saved. God is love and freedom. Do you know that love gives respon

  16 October 2024 28 th Week Ordinary Time Wednesday Gal 5:18-25   Discern Between Good and Bad Do we know the works of the flesh? They are sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and other ills. Be aware of them and take care not to be slaves of them. The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control and these are even above the law. Know your good qualities of the Spirit and grow in them. Leave behind the evils of life. Can you make a difference between the bad spirit and the good Spirit? Bl Kunjachan Thevarparambil Fr Putti Anthaiah Sdb

  28 th Week Ordinary Time Tuesday Gal 5:1-6 Are We Led by Law or Love? Every religion has good traditions, customs, and practices. Jews practice circumcision. It is a sign of the covenant with God and has health benefits. It has become a good sign of the relationship between God and Jews. At the coming of Jews and the Apostles, society was divided between circumcised and uncircumcised. It is not necessary to be circumcised to follow Jesus. Baptism in the Lord is enough. Above all, one needs faith and love in Jesus to be his followers. Faith and love are the guiding signs of Christianity. Jesus came to proclaim faith in the Father and love of the other. Do we follow the law or the love of God? St Teresa of Avila Fr Putti Anthaiah Sdb

  14 October 2024 28 th Week Ordinary Time Monday Gal 4:22-24, 26-27,31 Meditation Be Sons of Promised Mother Abraham had a son through Hagar, a slave girl. Abraham had another son through Sarah. He had two sons, Ismael and Isaac. Ismael was born of Hagar, and Isaac was born of Sarah. One was born of the flesh, and another was born of the promise of God. One was born of a slave woman, and another was born of a free woman. Both the sons are sons of Abraham. They are of the two covenants—the sons of slavery and Jerusalem. We are sons of God and also slaves of sin and slavery. One has to be the child of God and free and not a slave of sin. There is a choice to be sons of God and be free. Yet time we choose to be sons of slaves. Let us overcome our inclinations of flesh and be sons of the promised mother. Do we live as Sons of promised mothers? Fr Putti Anthaiah Sdb

  12 October 2024 27 th Week Ordinary Time Saturday Gal 3:22-29 Mediation We are Made One in Christ There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Gal 3: 28-29). The child is attached to its parents for care and protection. We are children of God and need to be connected to God. As God's children, we enjoy the privilege of sons and daughters of the Father in heaven. We are united and not divided. There are many forces in the world to divide humans. Let us be united in Christ. Do we look to be united in Christ? Fr Putti Anthaiah Sdb

  11 October 2024 27 th Week Ordinary Time Friday Gal 3:7-14 Meditation Faith Does Wonders in Life Abraham is the father of faith. Faith is a gift. Everyone has to treasure the gift of faith and grow in it. Acts of faith add to one’s faith and the faith of others. Abraham manifested faith and for generations, he is the model of faith. We are saved by the faith. Some believe that we are saved by law. Though law is important faith in God and the Saviour Jesus gives us eternal life. Those who believe that the law is everything are under a curse. Faith in God is above the law. What law cannot cancel and do good but faith in God does. God is the one who gave the laws to humans. The law is subject to the one who gave the law itself. Let us not trust in the laws, or human strength but have faith in the Lord. Faith does wonders in human life. Do give priority to faith than the law? St Pope John   XXIII Fr Putti Anthaiah Sdb

  10 October 2024 27 th Week Ordinary Time Thursday Gal 3:1-5 Meditation May we Stop Moving Spirit to Material At times we need to accept that we are foolish in matters concerning spiritual life. We trust in the world and in ourselves to save ourselves. We know that the world and the law will do the needful. The law will indeed do good. It is not the law alone that is not enough for our salvation. In that sense, St Paul calls the Galatians foolish, but we are clever in the sense of the world. We begin with spiritual things in our lives and end with unspiritual. We begin our life in the Spirit of God and end in flesh. We begin life for God, and we end with evil. This can happen to any of us i.e. moving from spiritual to material. Let us be constant in Spirit in prayer and vigilance. May the Spirit take possession of our lives. Do we allow the Spirit to take control of our lives? Fr Putti Anthaiah Sdb

  9 October 2024 27 th Week Ordinary Time Wednesday Gal 2:1-2, 7-14 Meditation St Paul is the Champion of the Gentiles. St Paul went to Jerusalem after fourteen years of his conversion. He has not rushed to Jerusalem to make his prominence felt. He worked on himself. One has to work on himself/ herself for better service in the Lord. No good happens overnight the growth in the grace and spirit of the Lord is slow and steady. He does not want his purpose to be in vain but to be fruitful in the service of the Lord. We need to take care in the preparation of ourselves with humility and rigour for the ministry of the Lord. St Pual was chosen to be the champion of the Gentiles and the uncircumcised. He loved them and he preached gospel to them. He instructed them in the gospel with patience and kindness. He understood their culture and ethos to bring them to Christ. He stood by them to strengthen them in faith. The church is multicultural, multilingual and multinational becau

  8 October 2024 27 th Week Ordinary Time Tuesday Gal 1:13-24 Meditation True Conversion Takes Time After the conversion of Saul to Paul, he went to the Arabian desert for three years to pray and be instructed. There may not be overnight transformation in persons of different ranks. Every conversion has to be strengthened and sustained by prayer, reflection, and purification and then only taken up into action. Action without thought and inner strength will not bear fruit or such actions will not last long. St Paul after his conversion had spent considerable time in inner transformation. As St Paul began his public ministry the people in Jude were saying that the one who persecuted the church was instructing the people. The believers praised God for him and the marvellous of the Lord. They were happy about his works and preaching. Let us preach Christ despite our hardships and trials. Do we have the patience to grow in the grace of God? Fr Putti Anthaiah Sdb

  7 October 27 th Week Ordinary Time Monday Gal 1:6-12 Meditation God Reveals His Messages to His Servants. St Paul instructs the people of Galatia not to be confused about the teaching of Jesus and the gospel preached. There are always people with different opinions and philosophies of religion and the gospels that are not of Christ. God has given us the grace to preach Christ and Christ alone. Jesus is the Saviour. The one who teaches others that the untrue gospel is under the weight of the curse. Let us teach and preach Christ Crucified and Risen to give eternal life. The preaching and teaching of the gospel is not for approval, name and fame but to please God and not humans. The genuine preacher's origin of instruction is not of the human but of the Divine. In the case of St Paul, it was not his eloquence that was preached but the Christ's grace which used him to build the church. Let us check and take care not to preach of human knowledge but God’s revelatio

  26 th Week Ordinary Time 5 October 2024 Meditation Even the Just Needs to Give a Thought to Repentance Job made up his mind to submit himself to the Lord. The Lord is great and beyond human understanding. Job is a just man but suffered a lot. God allowed the devil to test him.   We learn from that though Job was tested by the devil to suffer; on his part, he feels the need to despise himself and repent in dust and ashes. The attitude of Job is great, and we all feel we are just but let us have the humility to repent and transform ourselves. Everyone needs purification of body, mind and spirit. Job was purified and made his body, mind and spirit just like that of the innocent child. He was given back all the lost property, servants and children. He had a happy and good household after all this suffering. The just will regain all their name and fame for the glory of God. Job lived a hundred and forty years full of life. God’s promises are lasting and transcending the human c

  26 th Week Ordinary Time 4 October 2024 Meditation God’s Ways are Wonderful. God poses many questions about the wonder of the world to Job to make him realise that he is not in control of the world and its ways. Anyone who observes the world and wonders; trusts that there is a force in control of everything. We believers call it God. God has power over nature and human beings. How nice to know that God is there to regulate the world and its movements. On Knowing the power and God’s purpose in this world and for humans; Job submits to God and his ways. God wishes only good for the creation and the humans. Job suffered immensely but knowing the power of God and the purpose of God for him; Job surrenders himself to God. He decides not to express anything against God but accepts God’s plan for him. Do we surrender ourselves to God? St Francis of Assisi Fr Putti Anthaiah Sdb

  26 th Week Ordinary Time 3 October 2024 Thursday Be a Witnesses of God. Job life was a total failure and full of pain and sickness. His skin is affected. He tells us the words of wisdom that are to be written with an iron pen on a rock. “For I know that my Redemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth.   And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!” In his worst situation of the sickness, Job entrusts himself to God. One needs great faith and trust to bear the pain, sickness and evils of life.   Those in sickness and malady have to place one’s trust in the Lord and stand as witnesses. It is a wonderful act of a believer to witness to God in times of crisis and sickness. Job was able to give witness to God’s love and protection in the worst moments of his life. Such people will not be abandoned by God. Are we able to witness to God in

  2 October 2024 Wednesday Ex 23:20-23 Meditation God Sends the Angel The Lord promises to send the angel of the Lord before us to guard and protect us. Our elders always send someone with us or before us for our care and protection to the place we are going. The thoughts of the elders should not be taken as useless and unnecessary. It is their wisdom and love to send someone with or ahead of us. God sends the angel of the Lord with us to protect us. we should listen to him and follow his guidance. Human beings in their freedom could rebel against the God sent angels. God sent angels to many unseen and unnoticed good people in the journey of our lives. We should listen to them and follow their good guidance to be safe. The Lord’s name is the angel of the Lord and the well-wishers of our life. Do we have a tendency to rebel against the good people's guidance? Fr Putti Anthaiah Sdb