I was on the morning walk with Dulcie in our drive way. While nearing the coconut palm at the gate, the bird calls of aMagpie robin was feebly audible in the air. I stopped to look. The Magpie robin was perched on the palm leaves of the pal tree and tunefully singing.
I noticed a Myna bird on the summit of another tree turned in the direction of the Magpie robin. Even Dulcie stopped to listen!
Often birds continue the bird calls when there is a reciprocal call from another bird. This Magpie robin did not need the reciprocity to continue.
The calls continued even when we returned after the walk. Dulcie turned back a few times as a gesture of response.
The bird calls can be because of various reasons. The Magpie robins have a habit of finding a tall perch nearer to human dwellings where other bird movements are common and engage in their bird calls. This seemed one such occasion! The bird calls of this type are inherent to the nature of Magpie robins.
The Pope Leo xiv, is currently in a reform journey in the Catholic Church. The refrain in his approach is participation of the laity in the life and mission of the church. This creates a departure from the dominance of the ecclesiastical leadership in decision making to an administrative committee involving the lay members of the congregation taking charge of the affairs of a parish. According to the Pope, it might pave the way for many estranged from the church returning to its fold for fellowship and communion. Even those remarried after divorce, are welcome to the fold with full rights as communicant members.
What is evident is the redefinition of the vocation of the church- being loving, merciful and graceful !
I recall the years I spent in a Catholic college for my pre-medical course. The warden of the Hall of Residence where sixty men lived in single rooms turned it into a place of pastoral care. The father in charge of the hostel got to know each student individually. Often the Father would be the first one to knock at the door on the birthday morning of every student to greet. He truly turned the hostel to be a home away from home. His famous words to us when he addressed the assembly of the hostel once a month was: 'You are here at the college for your education. You are at the Hall of Residence for your formation into adulthood' ! For me it was an experience of being initiated into living with a purpose. Fr. Lawrie Fernandes, the warden spoke a language of kindness and exhortation, which was the way he got us thinking about our adult years. I remembered this experience of 1964-1966 yesterday.
The Magpie robin had a song to sing in the morning as its gift to others.
The Pope Leo xiv is calling the church to return to its vocation
'to 'minister and not to be ministered unto' by being in a self-giving role as members of the Church.
The President of the United States of America is causing a global turbulence with the language of war. The Pope Leo xiv is articulating a language of conciliation, co-operation and cordiality!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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