A Reflective Guide for Church Re-opening

When COVID-19 shuttered church buildings, after a brief period of bewilderment and thoughts on how to reach out pastorally to our flock, we moved Masses online, figured out different communication technology platforms like ZOOM and Google Meet, and then used them to connect to parishioners and have virtual meetings and fellowship. This period saw many…

Faith Formation in Lockdown time

How parents can use available resources to build the faith of their families (especially of their children) in spite of the lockdown.  This article is authored by Adele Pereira, who describes herself as an ordinary Catholic mother from Mumbai, enjoying an extraordinary life following Jesus.   When you stood in front of the altar on…

Ten ways the post-COVID Church will be different

“Household churches” – Post-Easter, we have been listening (to the Acts of the Apostles) about how the earliest groups of Christians came together and worshipped in small gatherings in various homes of the believers. They not only prayed together, but also looked after one another through a common sharing of resources. The lockdown has exposed…

Taking your Parish into Cyberspace

I’ll get straight to the point. The COVID pandemic has ‘disrupted’ how we function as Church. As the lockdown is continuously extended (and no one can honestly say that the lockdown will be lifted by such-and-such date), parishes are beginning to rise from their slumber and realise that they need to do something to reach…

Shazam! is the most Catholic Superhero Movie of 2019

You may roll your eyes when I tell you that every Catholic must go see “Shazam!” this week. “Please stop trying to see religion in every movie, Fr Joshan!” Maybe I overdo it. But if there’s one movie that’s got ‘Catholic’ written all over it in 2019, this has got to be it! Shazam is…

The Least of These

It was late January, 1999. Churches all across Odisha were under severe protection and no Christian in the state was untouched by fear for their own safety. The reason for this was the shocking murder by the burning of Graham Staines and his two sons by a radical religious group. Religious tensions due to missionary…

DUMBO

One of Disney’s all-time favourite animated classics “Dumbo” (1941) comes back to new life with director Tim Burton’s quirky and imaginative live-action remake, which is sure to make the adults feel nostalgic. Disney is on a roll, with remakes of all its old classics in the pipeline, sure to bring in audiences both old and…

THE FIRST STATION: JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATH Have we stood by our friends and family when they have encountered a really difficult situation? When they have really needed our strength and support? Do we condemn others by our indifference to their plight? A parishioner recently told me, “Father, the only positive thing that came…

Captain Marvel

The seeds for the latest film to roll out from Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU) stable were laid post-credits at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. (The post-credits teaser in each film from the MCU studio is proving to be the stuff of legend.) Inspite of their best efforts, the Avengers are unable to stop Thanos…

Why Ekta Kapoor’s new surrogate baby should not be celebrated

The January 31st (2019) edition of the Times of India reported that the ‘Queen of Television’ Ekta Kapoor had become a proud mother of a baby boy on January 27 by opting for surrogacy. Bollywood stars and industry bigwigs lost no time in congratulating the new mother on Twitter. Ekta Kapoor is the latest in…