“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing.” (Eph 1:3)

During one of our conversations at the dinner table, I asked my fellow priests, “What was your greatest blessing in 2020?” The first one said “you,” another one said, “We were able to stay healthy living together, healthy under one roof.” Yet another priest jokingly said, “Nobody jumped off the Sagamore Bridge.” These were some quick, off-hand responses. Thanks to Rexy and the SMCB Times team for inviting me to write about my blessings this year.

It was a heartwarming and humbling experience to learn about Tony Achan, on his knees praying for hours during Lent for his parishioners and their families naming them one-by-one, interceding with the Lord to protect and keep them safe during the pandemic. In his humility he kept the welfare of families and others ahead of his own.

My hunger for God and his mission increased when I learned the leadership of this parish stepped up to identify and meet the spiritual and material needs of their parish community involving young and old. In their hunger for creative involvement of the community and zeal for the Lord, they left no stones unturned. Tony Achan’s trust in the team members added more impetus to their hunger to be a force for good and led them to ownership and productive outcomes. Because of such ownership, you are willing and able to hold each other accountable and keep the mission of the parish in focus. The effective teamwork with families through creative media is an example of your hunger for being a blessing to each other. I consider this as a blessing.

The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church leadership is always looking for more: more to do; more to learn; more responsibility to take on: self-motivated and diligent; continually thinking about the next step and the next opportunity.

The smart understanding and the impact of Tony Achan’s words and actions showed me what a community can do when a leader knows the needs of the people and the potential of each for meeting the needs of others. I feel the greatest blessing for me this year was learning about the culture of discipline from the leadership and the disciplined parishioners who thought carefully, and took disciplined action to respond boldly in this current pandemic. This smart move was a God-given opportunity for congruence of synergy across the parish.

I would like to end with a blessing prayer by Father Henri JM Nouwen,

“To bless means to say good things. We have to bless one another constantly. Parents need to bless their children, children their parents, husbands their wives, wives their husbands, friends their friends. In our society, so full of curses, we must fill each place we enter with our blessings. We forget so quickly that we are God’s beloved children and allow the many curses of our world to darken our hearts. Therefore we have to be reminded of our belovedness and remind others of theirs. Whether the blessing is given in words or with gestures, in a solemn or an informal way, our lives need to be blessed lives.”

You are a blessing.