Soul-Friend

-
I have had friends. Loads of them. Yet, the aspect of a 'soul-friend' was not known to me until recently (recently, would mean a few years back). All through history there have been some famous soul-friendships. One of them is that of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare. So, soul-friendships can take place with anybody you are close to; anybody you can trust. They also act as spiritual monitors.

I have a particular soul-friend. Let's just call her SF. I met SF at our own parish church way back from present times. I would consider it a good and healthy friendship as we could just be ourselves when talking to each other. This friendship was strong even as I joined the seminary. It was only two years ago during my novitiate that we became soul-friends. We could share our problems and views on almost anything eventually getting an honest response from the other. Well, they weren't exactly like counselling sessions or psychotherapy appointments. Rather, they were always friendly talks. Talks among two equals rather than a superior and inferior. It helped as it always gave a different perspective - a different point of view. We would either exchange letters or call and talk to each other. However, not all our talks are about problems. We also talk about many other things. Coming back to SF, the friendship we share is one of our many support systems as it is built on trust.

And that is one of the important life-lessons I treasure. Having a soul-friend is quite vital. For married couples, they would be their spouses or a close friend. For others, and in particular religious, it is always a close friend whom we trust. I treasure my soul-friendship an I am sure you will too once you experience it. Give it a try and experience what I'm talking about.

Comments

Post a Comment

What's Trending

Class of Unity

-
Image
Segregating. Pigeon-Holing. Categorizing. Our life has always been surrounded by divisions. While there are some who try to rebel against these divisions we can all agree that we seek some order in life. Some of the ordering points towards an objective way of ordering there are others that are purely subjective. All through history and in ancient tradition, one may observe that divisions and ordering have pervaded in every society. But, this is all human creation. By nature we are called to be people relating with everyone without divisions. I had had an experience like this a few years ago when I was in high school. I would term it as a class of unity. We were a varied mix. Among our classmates, there was an African, some Bangladeshis, Afghanis, Pakistanis and a whole lot of Indians hailing from north and south. But as a class, we never looked at the others as people from different lands. We looked at each other as fellow brothers and sisters. Despite our differences, a great sense...
Read more

Omlettes and Eggs

-
Image
How many times have you made an om e lette ? If you haven’t yet tried it, here is a recipe for you to try it out. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/basic-omelette  In many places, omlettes are a fun, go-to meal that lets you add vegetables to your egg mixture. However, there is an interesting analogy in an omelette, or in particular in eggs that are beaten? Ordinarily, eggs consist of the yoke and the egg white. If you boil the egg, the two become distinctly separate. You can open up the boiled egg and eat either part first. When it comes to the raw egg, the two are distinct yet this distinction is a bit subtle. It is still possible though because we have to do this separation at times, especially when making pastries. However, when you beat a raw egg to make an omelette, the distinction is negligible. If you ask a person to manually separate the two he would find it difficult as the two would have blended into each other. This very blending depicts our oneness of body and soul...
Read more

Love Aaj Kal Hamesha

-
Image
With Valentine’s Day just around the corner and the buzz around the new Sara Ali Khan-Kartik Aaryan starrer, Love Aaj Kal, I began pondering as to what is that one love that has been present yesterday, today and continues. While I have read and heard one too many talks on ‘Jesus the Perfect Valentine’, I believe the more important theme we could look at is Jesus’ never-ending love for us. I have experienced it at times when I have gone through dark phases in my life. To be honest, once you realize the immensity and continuity of this love, there will definitively be a radical change in your life. Despite all the wrong we do and the messes we create in our lives, He continues to provide us with many opportunities to turn back to him (if we are willing to do so). In philosophical terms, one would call these opportunities as shatterable motions. But, keeping philosophy aside, I feel it is important for us to grow in our attention to the never-ending love of God. This February, the seas...
Read more

A Brief History of Theology – Book Review

-
Image
Theology is a process and one never comes to a finished state of theological insight. These are the opening statements of Derek Johnston’s book A Brief History of Theology . At the outset, Johnston says that this book provides a glimpse into what theology is all about. It introduces key ideas of the theologians of various areas and what were the questions that gripped them at their particular times. The book is meant to provide the foundations for the reader to think theologically. As one goes through the book, one comes across the thoughts of great theologians and thinkers like St. Augustine, John Wesley, Karl Rahner, St. Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin to name a few. I have taken the liberty of mentioning, in brief, the thought patterns of a few of these great theologians in accordance with the book. Theologians and their thoughts St. Paul: Paul who began as an active persecutor of the Church becomes the first Christian theologian after his conversion. Being a well-educat...
Read more

The Woman He Loved

-
Image
The Woman He Loved  It wasn’t the beautiful long brown locks that she gently tied into a bun every morning, nor was it the well ironed khaki uniform that she wore to work. Though she put some fairness cream on her face and sprayed some sweet rose scented perfume, Sachin admired the woman he loved because of the intimate relationship he shared with her. The woman was his mother, Radha. Radha was a single parent right from the time she conceived Sachin. During her college days she had a romantic fling with the captain of the basketball team. After many intimate encounters, she finally conceived a child. This is where the problems began as she had to soon drop out of college because of her health condition. She expected her boyfriend to do the same. However, afraid to take up the responsibility of parenthood, Sachin’s father left Radha to fend for herself and the child. Radha was soon left alone as her parents also disowned her after hearing about what had happened in...
Read more

The Night Train at Deoli

-
Image
The Night Train at Deoli  As narrated by the girl with the basket It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime incidents that one experiences over the course of their life. I used to stay at Deoli when this happened. I was an orphan who lost my parents in an attack by some wild animals, and so I lived with my middle-aged aunty. We had acres of bamboo plantation so we decided to use those canes to make baskets as my aunt was a good weaver. But, then the question arose: Who would buy our hand-made baskets? Deoli was a small town where handmade baskets were quite common. So, I decided to sell these baskets at the one-place I knew (or I thought I knew) people would buy: the solitary railway platform! I was a girl who just hit my adolescence phase so it was quite an experience to go daily to the platform to sell baskets. Before I tell you the things I noticed there, let me give you an introduction as to what comprised the Deoli railway station. There was a mango tree, perha...
Read more

Freedom from Violence: PEACE

-
Image
Freedom from Violence: PEACE Shalom-God’s own peace God, humans and the striving for peace :   God is peace itself. The violence around us is a reminder for us that we are still sinners and that we need to seek God. A search for peace without a search for God is a fruitless search. Only God can grant us peace. All those who yearn for peace in the world are silently and maybe even unknowingly yearning for God himself. Jesus was the Messiah destined to be the “Prince of Peace”. By saving us from sin itself, he basically brought peace to us humans. But we humans have the option to accept God’s offer for reconciliation or to reject it. Once we accept it, we need to share this peace to others by spreading the Gospel message of peace. However the striving for peace needs to be sought after by all humans irrespective of whether one is Christian or not. The first step to universal peace is to understand the fact that all of us humans need to work for peace in the world. Peace n...
Read more

Discovering Ourselves through Others

-
Image
Discovering Ourselves through Others  Popular wisdom says that without sufficient self-love, one cannot love others. This is backed by research which suggests that we see ourselves in the other. What it means to say is that our feelings about ourselves affect our feelings about others. Some people may even conclude saying that we love others to the extent that we love ourselves. So, how do we actually make the transition from loving ourselves to loving others? The psychologist, Daniel Goleman, in his book ‘Emotional Intelligence’ hints as to how our emotional health affects the way we relate to others. When we develop our emotional intelligence, we open ourselves to a wide variety of emotions. It is only when we understand these emotions that we can empathise with the people around us. That is the first stage of love – love of others. It helps us become altruistic. Our growth in altruism, according to psychologists, begins when we are infants. This growth is quite natural t...
Read more

My Tussle With a Teacher

-
Image
"There comes a time in our life when we have to have a tussle with someone who threatens the values we stand by. Some of us win it while some of us lose it. This is the story of that tussle.". "Who are you, anyway? I never heard of any tussle you had with a teacher." "What do you mean 'Who are you'. I am Ben Johnson, your friend. Stop acting like you don't know me." "Whatever." And with that my friend just walked out of my room leaving me to narrate my story on paper which I will eventually put up as a digital footprint through a blog. Until then, let me just narrate my story. My tussle was for the value of honesty and fairness. And, it was against a high school teacher. Now, before we get to any conclusion, let me just clear the air. the tussle with this high school teacher of mine was not an argument or a physical brawl. Neither was it a brief one. It was a slow year-long intellectual one. However, before we get into the st...
Read more

A Christmas Love Story: A Dilwale and a Dulhaniye

-
Image
  The Bollywood film ‘Dilwale Dulhaniye Le Jayega’ is known for its iconic scene of the hero on the train waiting for the bride to jump on to the train with him. The scene has been recreated many times to show one’s love for the other. One of the more recent imitations of this scene was in Rohit Shetty’s ‘Chennai Express’ though it was done in a more comic manner. This iconic romantic scene very well depicts God’s relation with us. God is the protagonist on the train waits for us to turn and run to Him. However, most often our run towards God is marred by obstacles and distractions that keep us occupied. But, God’s focus and gaze on us is fixed. His hands remain outstretched to hold us and pull us close to him. It is we who need to maintain our focus on him. In truth, our whole life is a run towards God. Whether we reach him or no is all dependent on how we live our lives. The season of Advent is a time of preparation for the Christmas festivity. It is a time to clear out our o...
Read more