A Message from Fr. Jay
Dear Friends,
Last week, we reflected on one of the vulnerable moments of Jesus – ‘The Temptation of Jesus’, with a specific focus on fasting. This week, we reflect on one of His glorious moments – ‘The Transfiguration’, with a specific focus on prayer.
Lent is a season for change. Prayer leads to change. In the current commercial world, change happens so swiftly and rapidly, we like to keep up with the latest changes, updates and upgrades to new things that are available. In fact, there is a kick in keeping up the speed. Whereas the change of heart never happens fast and rapidly. It happens slowly and in a natural way. The prayer experience on the mountain top brought out an exotic moment the transfiguration of Jesus, but brought them back to normal life and demanded their change of heart. I came across a story on social media titled: Caterpillar into Butterfly!
“The little boy was thrilled to hear about the changes his caterpillar would go through. He watched every day, waiting for the butterfly to emerge. One day it happened, a small hole appeared in the cocoon and the butterfly started to struggle to come out.
At first, the boy was excited, but soon he became concerned. The butterfly was struggling so hard to get out! It looked like it couldn’t break free! It looked like it was making no progress!
The boy was so concerned he decided to help. He snipped the cocoon with scissors to make the hole bigger and the butterfly quickly emerged! As the butterfly came out, the boy was shocked. It had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly expecting that, at any moment, the body would shrink, and the butterfly’s wings would expand. But neither happened! The butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly…
As the boy tried to figure out what had gone wrong, his mother took him to talk to a scientist from a local college. He learned that the butterfly was SUPPOSED to struggle. In fact, the butterfly’s struggle to push its way through the tiny opening of the cocoon pushes the fluid out of its body and into its wings. Without the struggle, the butterfly would never, ever fly. The boy’s impatience to see the butterfly emerge in a few seconds hurt the butterfly.”
Transfiguration is the foretaste of Jesus’ glorious resurrection later to come. Let our prayer life help us the change of heart that we may become worthy of experiencing His transfiguration and resurrection.
Next weekend, we will have information tables in the Narthex regarding these ministries: the Women’s Guild, Community Nursing, Homebound Ministry and Music Ministry. Please consider a ministry that God inspires in you.
Thank You & God Bless,
Fr. Jay Raju
