Carmel Mar Thoma Church

Greetings to you all in the matchless name of Christ.
Oct 25th Sunday is marked as the family Sunday in our church Calendar.

1. Sociologists define family as a basic unit of the society and it includes the father, the mother and children. But for Christians, families are supposed to be the basic unit of the Kingdom of God on earth. The number of members in the family doesn't matter much. But the relationship between them matters. Family is a relationship grounded in faith expressed in mutual trust.
2. Men and women are alike, yet different. In marriage, the husband and wife commit themselves to live together as one social and economic unit. In Gen: 2 it is mentioned that "he shall leave his father and cleave to his wife and they will become one". At marriage a person's main emotional orientation and commitment changes to the marriage partner. This is known as cleaving. The Second Vatican council speaks of this relationship in "Lumen Gentium" that God wishes to save the human race not as individuals who have no links or bond with others, but as a people who might acknowledge and serve them.
3. Intimacy and becoming one flesh includes the following: expressing positive sentiments to each other, sharing responsibilities at home, fun and leisure, resolving crisis through mutual acceptance, healthy and faithful physical intimacy, open and healthy communication.
4. Marriage is considered as a sacrament in the sense that it is seen as a channel of grace. Sacraments are visible signs through which God's gift is communicated and through which we can relate more intimately to God.

Within the sacramentality of Christian life, married couples and their families are meant to play a distinctive sacramental role. This understanding assists the couple in the life long process of accepting the challenges of this earthly life. Christian marriage is a way in which couples can live out their relationship as a journey throughout life made of countless dying and resurrection. Each must die to selfishness, jealousy and self-centeredness to experience the life of the risen Christ.

The spirituality of marriage is relational. It emphasizes love of neighbor where the role of the proximate neighbor is taken by the spouse. This spirituality encourages not only the equality of shared management of the home and family but also inviting of one's spouse to accompany the other on the journey to God. This is not done in the sense of abandoning one's own individual gifts and dreams but rather to enhance one's own gifts by relating to another's uniqueness.

Wishing you all a meaning full Christmas season

K C Varghese Achen

October 1, 2009

Dearly beloved in Christ,

May you all have a Happy New Year.

As autumn has started, the change is notable around nature through which we can learn about the temporality of this life. When the temperature drops down, the color change on leaves begins to appear. The leaves have completed their task for their very short span of life. As we are entering into the last quarter of this year, let us be mindful about the transitory nature of our life and be convinced about the duties we have been entrusted. In the Bible many metaphors are used to stress the brevity of our life on earth.

We have entered in to the second half of the year. The time flies and the seasons are changing in rotation. This part of the world is enjoying the warmth of the sun and the cool of the summer rain. Greeneries and vegetations are seen everywhere. What a difference the rain makes. When it falls, we can hardly recognize the landscape which was not a blade of grass to be seen. Green grass was carpeting what had previously been bare earth. What a transformation!

April – 2008

Dearly beloved in Christ,

You might have noticed the lilies in the fields and the gardens, a plant which is seasonal and seems having a very transitory life on earth. During the inclement weather, the small plant withers and after few days we even do not know the place where it has been. But after few months, when the weather favours, it begins to sprout from its tuber on the ground and in due course beautiful flower blossoms giving amenity and mirth to others.

March - 2008

Dearly beloved in Christ,

During winter some oak trees retain their crisp, dry leaves long after the maples, the elms and the walnuts have become bare skeletons. Even the strong winter winds and the early spring rains do not completely strip the oak branches of all their old leaves. But as spring time progresses, warmer winds blow and something wonderful begins to happen. Tiny buds start appearing at the tips of the twigs, and the dried remnants of the preceding season fall off. New life replaces the old.

Dearly beloved in Christ,

The Great Lent starts on 3rd of this month and ends on 23rd March. The church observes fasts and feasts in relation to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The church is meditating the salvific ministry of her Lord in these days. It is an occasion for us to prepare ourselves to live in the salvation experience by keeping ourselves more close to our Lord. This should not be seen as an outward expression of renouncing food or abstaining ourselves from worldly passions. Rather this should be treated as a time for us to prepare ourselves to live in or identifying ourselves with the salvation experience of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Dearly beloved in Christ,

Wish you all a blessed and Happy New Year.

Let us thank Almighty God that He has allowed us to see the dawn of another year in our life. When we look back, we cannot but give thanks along with the Psalmist for His care and protection, "I will bless the Lord at all times; his praises shall continually in my mouth". Let us continue our spiritual journey with the Lord of Israel who went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night (Exo:13:21).