"The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."  (Matt 13:31)

Thus, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and with courage I took that simple step to sow that seed at a tender age and I had no doubt whatsoever that it was absolutely my responsibility to nurture that seed to make it grow into a fruitful tree. That is my clergy life in a simple sentence.

But it doesn’t end there. Those first seeds were sown into my calling as an altar boy which blossomed into my desire to becoming a Catholic priest. When I was a young seminarian graduating out of theology college, I was researching and reading a lot. Apart from the classics of St Thomas Aquinas, St Augustine and other stalwarts of the faith alike, I encountered further inspiring materials and books of Saint Henry Newman, Frank Sheed, Bishop Fulton Sheen, Bishop Robert Barron to name several, whose practical approaches to defending the Catholic faith in a more contemporary setting stirred my soul deeply. When I finally became a priest, I would not miss an opportunity to engage in polemics and Catholic apologetics to either help doubting-Catholics or fringe-parishioners who were about to leave the faith, but patiently teaching and correcting their misunderstandings and leading them back home to the Catholic church. And this particular interest continued to mature and I would always teach and encourage the laity to read to be well informed of the treasures of Faith deposited in the Catholic Church. Sometimes it bore fruit, other times not.

This journey wasn’t easy by any yard stick. Throughout my priestly life, I would witness hundreds leave the faith and I was hapless at times. During such periods, I would also observe, sadly, many of my catholic friends who lacked adequate knowledge about the teachings of the Catholic Church just leave. This was an unpleasant conscience for me to live with for a pretty long time, despite my sincere efforts to educate, inspire and guide some, many would still fall away from the Catholic faith. I would then have this immense battle between my heart and mind if I was really doing enough on my part to instruct with conviction and make them well versed in the Catholic Faith. After 33 years as a priest in the Archdiocese of Hyderabad I am still dumbfounded and plainly flabbergasted how Catholics switch from Catholicism to Protestantism sometimes they even jumped boats between sunset to sunrise, that’s how fast. To rub salt to the wound regrettably, amongst them are also close relatives and friends. It troubled me. It gave me sleepless nights.

Unable to resist my curiosity, I then sauntered along into these independent churches (mostly new evangelicals mushrooming here and there), to experience for myself what attracted our Catholics flocking there."What is it that they had, and we did not?" what was special about their non-Catholic faith that our Catholic church lacked? It was no surprise, I found no genuine reason to pinpoint a convincing reason for any catholic to leave the Catholic Church at all. Contemplating and praying over the cause of this, the parable of the mustard seed (Matt 13:31) cited at the start of this message hit me and revived my conscience again. That was the answer!

As a Catholic priest, I had to be more committed and extremely possessive to ensure that my sheep and lambs remained in my fold and that I ought to feed them well and help them sow their own seeds too with conviction, just like I did.

And this new realization spurred me to visit, meet, discuss and brainstorm with people who had left the Catholic Church and I had to find innovative strategies to persuade and convince them on the wholeness and richness of the Catholic faith, so that they could return to full communion with the Catholic Church. Soon, I had gathered likeminded people to meet in our parishes and houses those who shared an earnest desire to defend and teach the Catholic faith in all its richness and fullness. I am a firm believer that as a team we work efficiently, only on the lines of “Each for Each other” based on the scripture Mark 10:45 “For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve...” And since no servant can be above the Master Himself, we are here to serve each other. So the Family of Faith (FoF) has been a team of likeminded faithful dedicated to work under this motto of “Each for Each other”.

With a team of dedicated faithful, I formed the Family of Faith (FoF) with an ardent interest to be fully involved in promoting instructions on the Catholic Faith through Seminars, Webinars, courses, handbills etc... We have completed just over 10 years on this journey and we are proud that a significant number of Catholics who had left the church are now back into full communion with the Catholic Church. Praise God. We have grown in leaps and bounds as a full-fledged apologetics group and with encouragement and approval from the Archdiocese of Hyderabad we are a Recognised Lay Apostolate within the Archdiocese of Hyderabad.

As Convenor, yes I am proud of my Family of Faith team who are able to handle courses including the Diploma in Theology in collaboration with the Professors from St. John’s Regional Seminary, Hyderabad. But the deceiver has his role too – soon came along the alarming and eerie pandemic and lockdowns like a bolt from the underworld and slammed the deafening silent sudden brakes on everything in this world. Everything stopped! Well, the repercussions were and still are evident everywhere we look. Drastic changes and mandates hit us like Thor’s hammer. We were like sitting ducks, not knowing what to do and how to proceed. Alternative ways to continue our mission was the need of the hour. We prayed and so with the help of the electronic media and internet we were able to reach out to the faithful who had been most effected by isolation from regular church services due to the lockdown. Family of Faith without much delay jumped into the online bandwagon and began programs through Zoom and Google meet. We conducted so many programs throughout the lockdown. We are now very capable and equipped to continue our instructions online despite the many restrictions imposed due to the pandemic.

So please explore our website here and learn about what we are doing and how you can be part of this great mission and contribute effectively through your time, talent, financial support and in any other ways you think that can add value to our apostolate. We welcome all.

I take this opportunity to invite more likeminded faithful who can join hands with us and become members or partners, so that together we can help in strengthening the body of Christ and building the ‘Kingdom of God’. There will be many programs on the horizon for us to initiate so as to reach all levels of people to come to know the Wholeness of the Truth found only inside the Catholic Church.

As we grow, I am extremely glad to announce our brand-new program -- FAST (Faith Building, Apologetics, Spirituality, Theology) for all levels and all ages. Click here to know more….

Recently, the Holy Father Pope Francis inaugurating the Synodal for two long years (2021-23) for the Catholic Church makes it more challenging for FoF to go with the teachings of the Church for the Faithful to make this Synodal journey more relevant and effective with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Church in India has already begun preparations for the Diocesan phase of the Synod 2021-2023 with the theme: “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission.” It is very appropriate for us to all use our resources and be in line with the mind of the church to make the church more vibrant through the activities of this lay apostolate in our Archdiocese. We pray that there will be many more such upcoming initiatives by his Holiness Pope Francis and we need to give our best.

My gratitude to the Archbishop of Hyderabad for supporting Family of Faith in all its endeavours. Read about our Vision and Mission here.

I am a priest in action, I let my actions speak more than words do. So, do look out for all our interesting Catholic programs that we will be bringing to you and into your parishes soon so that you can discover the real hidden treasures of the Catholic Church. We at Family of Faith surrender ourselves to God Almighty to pour out His Spirit upon us to empower and enlighten us, as we read in John 1:9 “The true Light who enlightens everyone was coming into the world”.

You are called to be the witness to that Light! You are called to Love being a Catholic!

I am praying that I will be meeting many new people joining hands with Family of Faith,

God bless,