Category: columns2021

By Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ & Director, CREDI

What joy! What an amazing gift! The tomb is empty! Christ is risen! The Scriptures have been fulfilled: “God so loved the world that He gave His Only Son, that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.”

The night before His crucifixion, Jesus said to His disciples: “A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13).  Jesus did just that; He made the ultimate sacrifice. He suffered, was crucified, died, was buried, and rose again from the dead, redeeming us from original sin and opening the doors of Heaven.

By Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ & Director, CREDI

“Palm Sunday tells us that … it is the cross that is the true tree of life.” —Pope Emeritus Benedict

Today, Sunday, March 28, as we begin our observance of Holy Week, we remember the Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem before His Passion and Resurrection.

By Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ & Director, CREDI

Last August, as Vatican News reported, “Pope Francis said that prayers and little gestures silently sow the seed of God’s love in the field of the world, making all things new. These gestures are capable of making the world more beautiful, of illuminating it with a ray of God’s love.”

I thought of these words of wisdom as I watched on TV the funeral in Bedford, UK, of  Captain Sir Tom Moore (in photo) who died of coronavirus on February 2 at the age of 100 years.

By Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ & Director, CREDI

“Open your heart to Jesus’ mercy! Say: ‘Jesus… Come, cleanse. Cleanse with Your mercy, with Your tender words, cleanse with Your caresses’. If we open our heart to Jesus’ mercy, in order to cleanse our heart, our soul, Jesus will trust Himself to us.” (Pope Francis).

I remember as a child during a catechism lesson in Chaguanas in preparation for First Communion, how terrified I was when the catechist read from John 2:13–25, the cleansing of the Temple.