Parish Priest Message

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,

Come July-August, it is time of summer vacation. Many of us must have planned something or have something in mind. But a big question that can haunt us due to this pandemic situation: "how shall we go?" "Where can we go?" "Can we go at all?"

A similar question must have come in the minds of the Apostles, after the Bread of Life or Eucharistic discourse in John 6: "many of Jesus’s disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, 'Do you wish to go away as well?' (vv 66-67) Simon Peter replied, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of life eternal' (v 68)

Who Could the Disciples Go To? Peter’s question, “To whom shall we go?” was really a statement. Peter was not asking Jesus to name someone else for the disciples to follow. Peter was saying that there was no one else. Only Jesus. Nobody could replace Jesus as the disciples’ Master.

Who Can We Go To? Two thousand years have passed since Jesus, and there were many thousands of years before him. In all that time, there was not a spiritual teacher, religion leader or philosopher with words as good as the words of the man from Nazareth, Jesus himself.

Many turned away in this larger crowd that was following Jesus, and even one of the twelve in the inner circle would betray Him.

We all face turning point or decisive moments in life where we have to decide between two very different paths to take. Some of those moments as we approach them seem obvious: Marriage, career, where we’re going to live, where we’re going to school… Some are smaller, but can still affect our lives for years. There are also very basic choices that we need to make, especially our spiritual or faith choices.

Why would you turn away from Jesus? There could be several reasons why someone would turn away from Jesus.

One of those reasons given in this context is that Jesus says hard things. “This is a hard saying, who can listen to it?” (v 60) His words were difficult, His words were demanding. In the life of those disciples, Jesus' saying is hard.

If we want a lot of easy statements, nothing ever confusing, nothing ever controversial, then Jesus is not our Master whom we follow. If that’s what we want in religion, all simple, all straightforward, nothing disagreeable, nothing difficult, then Jesus is not the one we are looking for. And conversely, if we

have a Jesus who never says anything hard, then we do not have the Jesus of the Bible. If we never read the Bible and have to sit up straight and say 'that is hard, that is hard', like "Eat my flesh and blood?" That’s hard. "Let the dead bury their dead?" That’s hard. "Hate your father and mother in order to follow Jesus?" That’s hard.” Then we are not following Jesus but we create our own Jesus of our liking. More importantly for us, if we leave Jesus – either because His words are too difficult or too demanding – “to whom shall we go?”

Secondly, the disciples leave and turn away from Jesus because He is offensive (v 61). The text says that Jesus knew their hearts, and He knew that they were grumbling. They were interested in physical realities. They wanted manna, they wanted a military messiah, they most of all wanted more miracles. And so they begin grumbling.

If they left Jesus, where would they go? To answer this question we take Judas as an example.

Who Did Judas Go To? Judas Iscariot did go to someone else! Jesus said to his disciples, "Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil." (John 6:70). Jesus means that Judas became a follower of Satan - "Following Satan." What did Judas achieve by following Satan? Judas betrayed Jesus (John 18). His reward was destruction. Judas apparently made a mess of hanging himself. What a sad and heart-rending story is the death of Judas. It shows us clearly the consequences of following Satan instead of Jesus.

Christians don't follow Jesus because they prefer his words. They follow him because he is unique; he is God; and he alone has the words of eternal life. To whom shall we go, if not to him? Peter said something very enlightening..."to whom shall we go?" What an amazing question or a statement. Peter said there is nowhere else for us to turn. Once we were wondering around on this planet with a million questions in our mind as to why we were here. But now we have met the Messiah, the Christ the Saviour of the World and there is nowhere left for us to turn.

It is the same for you and I. Once we know Jesus, there is nowhere else to go. There is no one else to turn to.

To whom do we go when we are sick? To whom do we go when we have a toothache? To whom do we go when our pet needs care? To whom do we go when we need legal advice? What about when our car breaks down? What if our house is on fire? To whom do we go? We know the answers. These are all familiar people to whom we go when the various needs of life come upon us.

Volume 4 Issue 7 July 2021

But to whom do we go when our soul is down? To whom do we go when guilt overwhelms us? When shame overcomes us? When our sins press upon us? To whom do we go when we are buried by burdens or when someone we love is covered by a casket?

Knowing well that Bible has the right answers for all these questions. It is to God, to Jesus we go. We have planned Vacation Bible Classes for our children during this summer vacation. I wish and hope the parents will encourage the children to join this online classes in order to familiarize with the Bible.

We ought to know that the Bible has a supernatural ability to change people. The more we read the Bible, the more we absorb it, the more the Bible will change us into a better person.

Bible will help us to live a good life, in order to be a good person to those around us. Love is the essential value of the Bible. If you want to be more loving, more caring, more successful, more at peace in what we have and what we are and leave a legacy of goodness behind us, then follow Jesus and his words, which "has eternal life, life in abundance."

Finally, those of you who have planned for holidays, if at all possible, I wish you a pleasant and refreshing holidays.

Wish you and your families abundant God's blessings.

GOD’s love is greater than our lowest days

When troubles occur in my life I try to look to God. When having a bad day at school or in general, you would try to solve these incidences at your degree with all control but sometimes or most of the times it does not work out. Having a family member or a friend to share helps. But they might not always be around for you but there is always Jesus. I think of him as a friend or big brother. Building a bond with God is difficult it will test you and prepare you mentally for the upcoming, but it is worth the effort you put in. Jesus loves you and is eternally waiting for you no matter what. He is patient, loving and providing. As it proclaims in Mathew 7:7 “Ask and you’ll receive. seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened.” It takes time to comprehend his love, but he has given us an entire lifetime in this world. It took me time to understand God and his love. I would try to unravel everything by myself and at times, it worked, and I thought it was all me, but it was God all along. All the stress, anxiety and pressure used to take up my mind. I used to have sleepless nights thinking about how many several ways something can go wrong tomorrow, occasionally I would not even tell my family or friends when something bugs me, when all I needed to do was hand it to Jesus. Trust him, when a test is thrown your way, it is to make you a better person and as an evidence of how profound our beliefs are. Stay strong to your faith and belief. When it gets hard, hand everything that is troubling your mind to God.

As individuals we may face obstacles in day to day lives and worrying about them is not the way out. And in the process of typical human behaviour, we should not overlook God and his love for us. God’s grace is stronger than our worst sins, and his blood deeper than our lowest days. This does not prevent us pursuing holiness — it makes us pursue it even more. We despise the sin he died for, and love to see his grace, his righteousness, and his glory increasingly be reflected in our lives. We do not celebrate or settle for failure, but we do rejoice in a love that is stronger than our worst days. Rick Warren voiced God’s love as “God’s love is like an ocean. You can see the beginning, but not its end.”

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We invite your Spiritual Messages, Testimonies, Articles & Special Activity Photos of Prayer

Groups & Communities Please Contact Editorial Team, Parish Office

OR Email : voiceofstpauls@gmail.com

Fr. Maxim Cardoza, OFM. Cap

Parish Priest

Alixa Johnson

I am so excited to receive Jesus for the first time in my

Life. we have to pray à lot and confess our sins and to

be a child of God. We have to fast at least one hour

before holy communion from any food and drink. I am

very anxious to receive Jesus our Lord in my heart.

Thanks to my parents, teachers and grand parents who

are preparing me to do my first confession and to

receive my first holy communion in reality.

I invite all of them in this event

and bless me on this occasion.

Thank God.

Albin Martin Davis Grade 5

July 3 : St. Thomas, Apostle

July 4 : Fr. Peter - Birthday (Custos)

July 8 : Baptism Seminar (Zoom)

July 22 : St. Mary Magdalene

BIBLE QUIZ JULY-2021 1. Who is the wife of St. Joachim? 2. How many days was Jonah in the belly of the big fish? 3. In which book of the Bible, do you find Lydia of Thyatira's story? 4. When is the feast day of St.Paul? 5. Where did St. Joachim and St. Anne live before they moved to

Jerusalem?

Your answers along with your name, age and contact details shall be submitted at the parish office on or before 1st August 2021.

OR Email: voiceofstpauls@gmail.com

Bible Quiz Winners June-2021 1. Deron Lawrence - Grade 8 2. Tesia Lawrence - Grade 6

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Church Events

Editorial Team: Fr. Maxim Cardoza OFM Cap, Jerry Gomez (Chief Editor), Jean Zibbin, Shibu Thomas, Shital Mohan, Suresh Saldana

St. Paul’s Catholic Church is located in the heart of Musaffah Industrial Area. The foundation for the church was laid on 29 June 2013 by H.E.

Bishop Paul Hinder. The Church was inaugurated on 11 June 2015 by H.H. Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan and solemnly blessed the

following day by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of The Vatican. On 14 June 2015 Bishop Paul established St. Paul’s Catholic

Church, Musaffah as an independent parish and appointed Fr. Ani Xavier OFM Cap., as its first Parish Priest. The Church complex consists of

our Church with a seating capacity of 1,500 people and a three storey building with an auditorium, offices and residences for priests and staff.

18-June St. Anthony of Padua Feast 6-June Feast of Corpus Christi

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