Farewell

July 27-30

I left Calcutta and arrived back in Kerala. Now I'm on my way back home.

I was able to visit Champakulam, the place where my dad grew up, and visit a special friend of mine from the United States.

He came to pick me up in the bright red car.

If you know the car he drives back in the US, you’ll have no problem guessing who drives this car in Kerala

The backwaters of Champakulam are beautiful.

I also had the opportunity to attend Qurbana at the ancient St. Mary’s church.

There were several videos that I wanted to post throughout my trip, but because problems with internet speed in certain areas of my trip, I wasn’t willing to wait four hours to upload a two minute video.

So below are some videos that I wanted to post earlier.I guess they can be considered the “deleted scenes”

Children at the SOS house singing Why this Kolaveri Di

Seminarian for the Kottayam diocese, Br. Toms, sends his greetings to the members of the Knanaya community in America. If you’re Kna, there’s a twenty-five percent chance he’s your first cousin.

Jesus Youth from Delhi jamming out to the classic contemporary Christian song –Awesome God

One of the girls living at the Home for the Blind at the Children’s Village reads the first reading at mass. She’s blind, so she’s reading in braille. She also has a beautiful voice. Her name is Kavitha.

The last video is a short video of me riding on the back of a motorcycle in Calcutta. Organized chaos.

All the students I’ve met in India have such high regard for American universities. It seems like so many people in India have the dream of coming to America to study, but because of high tuition costs, especially when you convert dollars to rupees, the chances of studying in the states are very low unless your family is rich or if you somehow get funding/scholarships.

Here is a list of top universities in the world that a nearby test-prep center gives its students in India who are hoping to one day study in America

If your school is on the list, congrats. Millions of students in India can only dream about studying where you are.

I’m sorry if my knowledge of Hindi movies, particularly movies of Shahrukh Khan, has creeped you out. There will always be two kings who will forever reign in heart –Christ the King and the King of Bollywood, Shahrukh Khan.

…and you’re probably creeped out even more now. Sorry.

Many people have said nice things about my blog. Thank you for your kind words. If you enjoyed the blog, thank the One who worked through me to write whatever was written.

You wouldn’t attribute the beauty of the Last Supper to da Vinci's paintbrush. Likewise, attribute whatever goodness you experienced in this blog to the One who used me as His paintbrush.

And if you didn’t like the blog, please go ahead and blame the paintbrush for not doing its job properly.

A few people have asked if I will continue to blog when reach back to the US.

I will not be continuing this blog, but in the future, if I do go on some other trip like this, I might start up again and blog about my adventures in another part of the world.

And as a fair warning, if anyone asks me how my trip in India was, I will simply respond with:

It was good

…and then direct you to my blog for further details.

In doing so, I’m only trying to be like Jesus Christ.

Over the past two-thousands years, the Church has been teaching and defining several key elements of the faith. The many ecumenical councils, the arguments of the nature of Christ, the teachings on the Holy Trinity, works compiled on moral theology, treatises published on the seven Sacraments, homilies preached on the duty to help the poor, encyclicals issued to address problems of the time, and dissertations written by Catholic theologians all reflect and explain the command of Christ to:

Love one another as I have loved you (John 13:34)

Who ever knew that people would dedicate their entire lives throughout the centuries to understand the command of Christ to love.

If my blog has challenged you in any way to be a “better-version-of-yourself”, you’re not alone. The one person who my blog has challenged the most is probably me. It’s not so easy to practice what you preach.

And I’ll always remember the words of Fr. Ray during my first winter retreat while I was studying at St. John Neumann seminary in New York:

It’s easy acting holy, but it ain’t easy being holy! 

(said in a heavy Brooklyn accent)

very true.

I thank you for journeying with me during my trip in India and reading about the Catholic Church I know. 

The media often portrays the negative aspects of the Catholic Church, many of which I am thankful to the media in doing so because it functions as a megaphone screech to members of the Church hierarchy to let them know that there are many areas that the Church needs to clean up, such as the priest sex abuse scandals, but very rarely is the Church every portrayed by the media as welcoming of every person, regardless of social status/caste, gender, and sexual-orientation. 

This is the Catholic Church I know. 

More than any pope, Saint, or Church document, the words of Stephen Colbert express most beautifully the reason of why I love my Catholic faith:

The real reason I remain a Catholic is what the Church gives me, which is love

If you enjoyed reading about the life of Blessed Kunjachan --God-willing Saint Kunjachan one day --know that there are thousands of other holy men and women that the Church recognizes and esteems because of their love for Christ and love for neighbor.

They all have some crazy radical story. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be Saints.

I ask you all to please pray for me and all seminarians around the world as we continue in our formation to be holy priests for the Catholic Church.

I have been blessed to have two awesome brother seminarians from the St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Diocese of Chicago, Rajeev Philip and Melvin Paul, who are with me on this journey to priesthood. Please pray for them as well.

Members of the SyroMalabar Catholic Church (but not only the SyroMalabar Church) are blessed to have their roots traced back to the arrival St. Thomas the Apostle to India in the year 52 AD. 

These early St. Thomas Christians identified themselves as followers of the Way of Saint Thomas, also known as Mar Toma Margam.

Fr. Kochappilly CMI speaks about the Way of Saint Thomas saying:

Mar Toma Margam is the chosen title to identity the sum and substance of the Saint Thomas Christians of India, who have shaped a living tradition of Saint Thomas the Apostle, the father in faith on account of his proclamation of the good news of the Lord and his subsequent martyrdom in India during the very first century of Christianity

St. Thomas the Apostle experienced Jesus Christ as the Way and brought that experience to the people of India.

Jesus is the way to life
Jesus is the way to truth
Jesus is the way to peace
Jesus is the way to joy
Jesus is the way to the poor
Jesus is the way to justice
Jesus is the way to love

Jesus is the Way. Jesus is the Margam.

Praise to you, altar of sanctification! Praise to you, the sepulcher of our Lord! May the Holy Qurbana that I have received from You, be for me unto the forgiveness of my debts and the remission of my sins. I know not, whether I shall come again to offer another sacrifice

-Farewell Prayer, SyroMalabar Qurbana