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CALGARY HERALD |
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Priest bridges gap between East and West |
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Graeme Morton, Calgary Herald |
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Published: Saturday, October 06, 2007 |
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When Father Joe Pereira hears about the flap the western media made of the new book Come Be My Light, chronicling the private letters and thoughts of Mother Teresa, he simply shakes his head. Newspaper pundits made front-page news out of the revelations that the beloved nun of Calcutta experienced deep moments of doubt about her faith during her long life of selfless service to the world's poor. "Faith has always been a gift from God," says the Indian Roman Catholic priest and senior yoga practitioner during a recent visit to Calgary. "People get pure faith mixed up with the rituals of the church. Faith is a lifelong journey and it's perfectly normal to go through moments of personal darkness. Anyone who says they have never questioned their faith . . . well, I have some serious doubts about that," says Pereira. A longtime associate and friend of Mother Teresa, whom he simply, reverently calls "Mother," Pereira conducted yoga sessions during retreats held for her Missionaries of Charity sisters. Pereira says he, too, experienced his own "dark night of the soul," when he seriously questioned whether he should remain a Catholic priest. "But Mother had this unique energy which wiped out your doubt and negativity," Pereira recalled. "She sat and prayed with me when I was in this turmoil and said to me, 'Don't quit. Jesus needs you. It may take some time to determine what you are called to do . . . but don't quit.' " Since then, Pereira has become the managing trustee of the Kripa Foundation, where those with alcohol and chemical addictions and HIV/AIDS are being treated with a combination of techniques, including yoga, at more than 30 centers in 11 Indian cities. While such a calling, like that of Mother Teresa, would seem to drain the batteries of caregivers' souls, Pereira says just the opposite plays out in daily life. "The joy and the healing that one sees coming around helps to energize both the receiver and the giver," he notes. Pereira says the western world and its collective Christian church needs to once again acknowledge that the physical human body is "a channel of grace and a pathway to our wholeness and holiness. "We have an infinite potential to love our bodies back to health and life," he adds. As someone who comfortably bridges the western and eastern worlds, Pereira believes spiritual life in the prosperous West is in dire need of revitalization. "The Christian faith seems perfectly at home in an Indian ethos," Pereira says. "There are so many beautiful pathways to God. We need to keep looking at elements of faith in other religions, not just blindly think that ours in the only path." Pereira says the Christian church in the West made a serious blunder when it pushed spiritual meditation and contemplation behind the walls of monasteries and away from the easy reach of the common man. "I think there was a suspicion that experiential spirituality for the masses would be a threat to church dogma and its inner structures," says Pereira. "But if the church is to become relevant again to people, to avoid dying, there is no hope until we revitalize the spirit of all religions." |
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Reg. Office: Mt.Carmel Church, 81/A Chapel Road, Bandra West, Mumbai 400 050, INDIA. Tel:91-22-640 5411/643 3027; Fax:91-22-641 8210; email:kripal@shakti.ncst.ernet.in Kripa Centres at : Bombay, Baroda, Calcutta, Darjeeling, Delhi, Goa, Imphal, Mangalore, Nagaland, Shillong, Vasai, Pune, Germany and Canada. |
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