My beloved ones, I have mentioned this during the retreat over the past few days, and it deeply pleased me to see how many people are participating in this online Covenant retreat.
Some say that attending the retreat from home feels just like sitting in the church. They bathe, dress properly, wear their holy garments, cast the Covenant retreat from their mobile phones to their televisions, and attend with great devotion, believing that the Lord will speak to them. Each person participates according to the measure of faith within them.
But others attend as if they are watching an ordinary television program. They leave in between, step outside, chat with someone, pick up phone calls, and return whenever they wish. We must always remember this: the way we conduct ourselves in the holy presence of God determines what we receive from Him.
If we set ourselves apart with devotion and passionate love, the Lord responds according to that measure.
Jesus says in Matthew 10:41: "Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and whoever receives a righteous person because he is righteous will receive a righteous person's reward." (Catholic Edition)
This is a standard of measurement we must pay close attention to. The Lord's response is measured according to how we receive Him and how we conduct ourselves in His presence.
Jesus also says in Luke 6:38: "For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you." (Catholic Edition)
This opens a great door for us. Whatever we invest spiritually, we receive proportionate grace in return. If we approach holy things carelessly, the fruit we receive will also be lacking.
Now look at the story of Reshmi Thomas. What did she do? She closed her room door, participated in the online retreat with devotion, wore a veil, and attended reverently. While she was miles away in her own home, watching the retreat on television, she received the message to place her hand on her lower abdomen and pray. The word declared that the Lord was taking away the uterine prolapse, the condition of the descending womb, at that very moment. The bleeding she had suffered from for years stopped at that very second and never returned. It happened with such speed.
Why do we listen to the Word of God? It is not merely to hear moral advice. We listen so that we may know God, understand His ways, and recognize how He responds to different kinds of faith and behavior. If we want to understand how God works in our lives, we must know Him and the spiritual climate in which He works.
Many of you in the Covenant do good works. But some do them only as a ritual: "Since I have taken the Covenant, let me go and see the sick." Others think, "If I do not visit the sick, perhaps my Covenant intention will not be fulfilled." About half the people approach it this way. They visit the hospital, give some money, and leave, but their heart is not truly involved. That kind of forced mercy will not work spiritually.
What does the proclamation of the Word say?
In Matthew 25:36, Jesus says: "I was naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me." (Catholic Edition)
When we do works of mercy, we should not reduce them to a transaction for our Covenant intentions. Visiting the sick is not merely for stopping a foreclosure, getting a job, renewing a visa, or securing a marriage. Jesus connects these works to eternity.
He says in Matthew 25:34: "Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (Catholic Edition)
Therefore, when we do good works, our mind should not be fixed only on the intentions written in the Covenant. Our deeper aim should be eternal life and finding God. Jesus placed the element of eternity inside works of mercy.
That is why Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan. A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Robbers stripped him, beat him, left him half dead, and threw him on the road. Many passed by, but finally a Samaritan came. He poured oil and wine on the wounds, bound them up, took him to an inn, and gave two denarii.
Then Jesus adds a very important word in Luke 10:35: "Take care of him, and if you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back." (Catholic Edition)
Who is the one who says, "I will come back"? Today, it is Jesus who is coming back. He is pointing toward His Second Coming. That is the greatness of good works. The heart of mercy is this: "Take care of him."
This does not apply only to a sick person. Sometimes the person's matter may be a foreclosure, a wedding crisis, a lack of money, or some other urgent struggle. Yesterday, while I was praying here, a person told me, "Our house is facing foreclosure." I know him. He asked, "Father, can you help me?" I told him, "Let us go outside and talk about this." I did not feel annoyed with him, because that is his reality. Their situation is driving them to ask. They may lose their land or property. So the point is: take care of his matter.
The works of mercy cannot be limited only to a fixed list. During the floods, we sent clothes, green gram, rice, and many other items from here to various places. But when we reached the relief camps, what were the women asking for? Sanitary pads. At first, people may not think of that, but the women had been staying in relief camps for months without basic facilities. Their actual need was different from what we assumed. This is what it means to take care of his matter or her matter.
Works of mercy must therefore be guided by a Covenant mind. That is the topic: Covenant mind. When you are in a Covenant, your mind must also enter the Covenant. We may have made the Covenant physically, with our body and hands, but sometimes the mind has not agreed to it. The mind may still be in warfare.
A Covenant mind means knowing deeply, "I am in a sacred Covenant with God, and this Covenant is the most important matter of my life." If the retreat begins at six in the morning, people who truly value it will prepare accordingly. Those who have come for Adoration have prepared for it in advance. In the same way, once a Covenant is made, my children must form a Covenant mind.
The primary discipline of the Covenant may begin with asking God to act quickly over our intentions. But at the next stage, God Himself becomes the intention. If God is your Covenant intention, then His promise becomes your life: "I will be with you wherever you go." This happens by doing exactly as He says, not merely by reciting prayers.
The time of mere recitation is over for those who are able to act. A person who has no other way may only be able to pray. But the one who has the ability to act must express love for God by working for God. Through deeds, God understands our sincerity.
A Covenant mind is an inner transformation that enables us to live the Covenant faithfully, with spiritual discipline, sincerity, and a higher standard of life. Jesus says that the flesh is of no avail; it is the spirit that gives life. Therefore, the Covenant must be made not only outwardly, but with the mind and spirit.
In the past few days, when looking again at Reshmi Thomas's testimony, we see something profound. Her current job and her Covenant life were not aligning. If she focused only on the job, she could not keep the Covenant properly. So she sat and discussed it with the Blessed Mother: "If I continue this job like this, I cannot live the Covenant life; but if I live the Covenant, I may lose my job."
Because she had a deep anointing of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit immediately taught her: "The Covenant is not for the job; the job is for the Covenant." She then made a firm decision: "Even if I lose my job, I will continue my Covenant." That is the heart of the matter.
The cart will move only when the horse is tied in front of it. If the horse is tied behind the cart, it will not move. In the same way, if a person takes the Covenant only to obtain an intention, then when the intention is fulfilled, he will simply unload the Covenant like a burden. If the Covenant feels like a burden to you, it means you took it only for that intention.
Truthfully, the Covenant should not feel like a burden. Everything related to Jesus becomes light when love for Him increases.
Jesus says in Matthew 11:30: "For my yoke is easy, and my burden light." (Catholic Edition)
Look at celibate life as an example. We live celibate lives twenty-four hours a day. To the world, remaining unmarried may seem like a terrible burden. Many young people today, intoxicated by reels and the sexual world, think, "If I become a priest, I cannot get married," and they do not come. But for those who have received the vocation, it feels light because there is a divine calling inside. If your Covenant is burdening you, then you have not yet recognized the God of the Covenant as your own.
Many people in the Covenant are only waiting to finish it somehow and put the burden down. It is like those who go for festival business only to finish the festival, collect the money, and go home. They treat the Lord in a business-like manner. But everything related to Jesus should become lighter when love is present.
If you are asked to visit the sick in a hospital, you may begin asking, "Will anyone come with me? What are the visiting hours? How can I go alone? Is it four o'clock or six o'clock?" You may find excuses, saying you have a fever or cold. But if your own child were lying in the hospital, you would stop the first auto-rickshaw and rush there. When it is your own child, the burden is light. As long as you do not see God as your own, the Covenant will feel heavy.
You may attend conventions, retreats, and church programs, but you should not listen to the Covenant with the same ear. In the Covenant, we are teaching how to do it: the mechanism, the spiritual engineering, the way to yield greater fruit. Jesus Himself speaks of this greater yielding when He teaches about pruning.
John 15:2 says: "He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit." (Catholic Edition)
Covenant engineering means creating greater output and greater fruit. The fruit is not only the six intentions we write in the Covenant. If we carry it forward with discipline, love for God, and the mindset that the Lord Himself is our Covenant goal, then Jesus says we will do greater works.
John 14:12: "Whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father." (Catholic Edition)
Jesus is now with the Father. Therefore, when we are truly faithful to God in the Covenant, it is not merely the six intentions that should happen. Newer doors will open.
The other day, a man named Vishnu shared a testimony. He was a soldier. The debts at his home and the salary he received from the army were not matching. He had worked in the army for fourteen years, yet he could not clear his debts. He thought of going to another country for work, but he did not know where to go or how to proceed.
He accidentally came here through a friend. When he met a friend in Kothamangalam, the friend said, "Tomorrow I am going to the Alappuzha church." People outside often call Kreupasanam the Alappuzha church. The friend was going because he had an exam and wanted to see the Blessed Mother. Vishnu said, "Then I will come too," and came along. He prayed like everyone else and returned to Kashmir to his army posting.
Later, he saw a testimony on YouTube and realized, "My God, I went to that place." The desire to come again arose in him. He prayed to Mother, "If I am to come here again, I need leave. I just returned from leave, so there is no chance I will get leave again. If I am to come to You, Mother, You must grant me leave this month." To his amazement, leave was allotted that very month.
When a person comes into the Covenant, we must remember this: the very moment he steps out of his house, God knows whether he is sincere or whether he is coming only to get things done. It is as though God marks the name in green or red. The Covenant is a bilateral agreement. You are one party, and God is the other party. It is not an agreement with your property, your stomach, or your intentions. It is an agreement with God.
Some people do not attend the retreat, do not go for confession, do not do works of mercy, and do everything only in name's sake. If there is no space for the Holy Spirit, the Covenant becomes a deception. Such people waste money and gain no fruit.
Acts 10:47 says: "Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit even as we have?" (Catholic Edition)
While Peter was still preaching, the Holy Spirit fell upon the people. In the same way, as we listen to the Word of God and sincerely decide to take the Covenant, we can be filled with the Holy Spirit at that very moment. Covenant life is one of the most excellent ways to receive the Holy Spirit.
In Vishnu's case, the Blessed Mother tested and confirmed his sincerity. What did he do? He walked all the way from Kothamangalam, about eighty kilometers, to take the Covenant. Until then, no one had walked here with the intention of taking the Covenant. Many who come keep checking their watches and asking, "When can I leave? How many hours will it take?" They are often coming only to use God and leave quickly. But Vishnu came with a different spirit.
From the beginning, we must make a good investment in prayer. Our intention must be to convince God that He is the most important part of the Covenant. Even if we began with worldly motives, we must work hard, pray, and allow God to change His view of us. The Covenant is made through God, not with the intention itself.
Those who make a Covenant with God will be ready to do anything for Him. For that readiness, the core element must be love for God. But many people do not have love for God; they have love for their intention. That is why their Covenant flickers out like a lamp without oil.
My dear ones, there is another recent testimony that amazed me. It concerns a brother named Suresh who worked in Oman. He was around forty-five years old and suffered a stroke. There were blocks in five places in his brain. He collapsed and could not get up or walk; he lay there like a lump of flesh. There was no blood circulation in those five places, and his hands and legs became stiff. Because his heartbeat was failing, he was left completely bedridden and was sent back from Oman.
He arrived at Nedumbassery in a wheelchair and was taken to several super-specialty hospitals across Kerala. One hospital after another refused to take up his case because there was not just one block, but five severe blocks. Attempting to clear even two could result in immediate death. Finally, one hospital said they could only give painkillers and sleeping tablets.
This reminds us that no matter how advanced medical degrees and titles may be, when a fatal condition comes, human ability has limits. Kerala has excellent medical facilities, and many foreigners and Arabs come here for treatment. Even those who go to Germany or America often return to Kerala for treatment because care is more affordable here. We often fail to realize the value of our own land.
We must pray for Kerala too. Neighboring states have grown rapidly while industries here have collapsed, fields have become barren, and production has been blocked in many sectors. Many of our people survive by working night shifts according to foreign time zones, doing the work of the white man. Kerala is richly blessed, but we need a stable environment where our people can live and work. Let us surrender Kerala's economic system and production sectors into God's hands.
We are approaching the sacred feast of Pentecost. That is why we reflect on how the Covenant helps the Holy Spirit fill our lives and grow within us. Now return to Suresh. After being rejected by the hospitals, he remained bedridden in severe pain. His wife saw that he was helpless, stole the money he had brought, had an affair with someone else, and ran away. In that suffering, the person who should have stood by him betrayed him.
Then his father feared that if a legal case were filed against the wife, they might lose the remaining land. To protect the property, he went to his bedridden son and asked him to transfer the property that was in his name. Since Suresh could not even sign, they took his thumbprint and transferred the land to the father's name. His father and siblings took his property, leaving him with nothing. Can you imagine how tragically a man's life can end up?
It was then that his daughter showed him a powerful Kreupasanam testimony on YouTube. My children, when I ask you to share these testimonies, it means you are sharing God Himself with those who are broken and think their lives are over. God is performing mighty works here to establish the apparition of our Blessed Mother. When you receive blessings, it should not be treated as routine praise; you are chosen to become a witness to the apparition of the Blessed Mother.
If a person renews the Covenant three times and still has no possibility of sharing a testimony, he should examine himself before God. Something may be seriously wrong: perhaps negligence in the Covenant, lack of love for God, love for material things, or a temporary show put on only to get something done. One must reflect sincerely and live the Covenant properly in God's holy presence.
Suresh was brought here in a wheelchair. After seeing the testimony, he said, "It is true. If I go to this place, maybe I will be saved. But how can I go? I am lying here like a dead body, taking sleeping pills and painkillers three times a day." Two or three friends came, lifted this eighty-five-kilo man into a wheelchair, carried him here, took him upstairs for the Covenant class, brought him back down, and helped him take the Covenant.
Later, when his candle was not yet finished, he decided on his own, "I can go see the Blessed Mother and buy a candle." This time nobody brought him. He came on his own to renew the Covenant, bought the candle, and returned home to pray alone with it. His life had collapsed: his wife had left him, his money was gone, his property was gone, and he had to stretch out his hand even for bus fare. Yet he held onto the Lord's hand.
When we see the wounded right hand of the Lord, we must bow down and adore Him. Those who stood with Him rejected Him. They betrayed Him, stripped Him, divided His clothes, nailed Him naked to the Cross, and placed Him in a tomb. But God the Father raised Him up. The Lord's hands are the hands of a Victor.
Isaiah 41:10 says: "Do not fear: I am with you; do not be anxious: I am your God." (Catholic Edition)
On the day Suresh renewed the Covenant, he was sitting alone in the morning after lighting the candle. While sitting on the bed, his leg twitched. That meant Mother had come. Mother spoke in his mind, telling him to try pressing his foot down. He pressed it down. Then she told him to try standing up. He stood on one leg. Then she told him to press the other foot down. He did that too. Then she told him to walk inside the room. He walked. Then she told him to walk out to the road. He walked along the road.
Look at this man. His life was over. He was on sleeping tablets and painkillers, his wife had left him, his property was gone, and everything seemed finished. Yet when everything is finished, God says nothing is finished. Why? Because He says, "I am with you."
The core of Suresh's testimony is his second coming. Nobody told him to come. Nobody brought him. He came because he desired to come on his own. We too must desire to come to God on our own. That is where honesty enters.
As long as the Covenant is tied only to a worldly intention, it will feel like a burden. But if you see the Covenant as an opportunity to love God, then the burden becomes light.
Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest... For my yoke is easy, and my burden light." (Catholic Edition)
All the burdens of life should become opportunities to love God, live for God, and become a witness for His love. The moment you take the Covenant, you should pray, "Lord, make me a witness as soon as possible. I will share my testimony and make Your name known." That is true prayer.
But some people stubbornly decide, "I will not give a testimony. I will not testify. Why should I give the newspaper? To whom should I give it?" Such a person is not ready for the Covenant. He is trying to use God only for survival and livelihood.
A testimony from a woman in Kannur was watched by 2.5 million people. She said that when she was drowning in debt and her family was being driven out of their home, she went to a deserted field to end her life. In that darkness, someone gave her a Kreupasanam newspaper. That newspaper became the hand that saved her. She entered the same vehicle she intended to use for suicide and came here. See how many lives can be saved when a testimony is shared.
When you come to such a place, you need a clean heart. A clean heart asks: "How can I love God? Why am I taking this Covenant? To love God, to live for God, and to be a witness to the Gospel." If you reformat your mind like this, God will see your sincerity. But if you come trying to trick God, calculating how little you can do, this is not the place for you. This place is for those ready to live for God with a backbone, just as the Lord loved us without reserve, even unto the Cross.
One of the items we use in the Covenant is salt. What is salt a symbol of? Salt represents the right of God. According to Leviticus 2:13, salt signifies that everything belongs to God and is offered in covenant. It means: not by my merit, but by grace.
Ephesians 2:8 says: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God." (Catholic Edition)
When we place salt in a place facing foreclosure, a property that will not sell, or a job situation that seems impossible, we are proclaiming: "This is not my skill. This is God's right. I have no claim by my own merit; I receive only by Your grace."
But even to place salt with authority, God must see that you belong to Him. For that, you must do good works, works of mercy, and missionary work. Otherwise, simply coming here and placing salt will not work. Only those who have salt within themselves should place salt.
Mark 9:50 says: "Salt is good, but if salt becomes insipid, with what will you restore its flavor? Keep salt in yourselves and you will have peace with one another." (Catholic Edition)
To understand this, link it with Matthew 5:13: "You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?"
And Matthew 5:16: "Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father." (Catholic Edition)
So when Jesus says, "Have salt in yourselves," it means: let there be good works in you. Good works are works of grace, every act done with Christ at the center.
This can be understood through a simple example. In a laboratory, if you fill a glass vessel with water and pass electricity through it, the current affects mainly the area near the wires. But when salt is added to the water, the salt separates into ions and allows the electric current to spread more powerfully through the whole vessel. The effect reaches even the far edges.
The same principle applies spiritually to the Covenant. Making a Covenant and then doing works of mercy is like adding salt to electrified water. When we perform acts of mercy, the Holy Spirit receives freedom to act powerfully within us. The grace of the Covenant begins to radiate through all our intentions.
There is no use in making a Covenant and sitting idly at home. Good works of mercy ignite and activate the Covenant. As we prepare for Pentecost, we must understand that these good works carry the fruits of the Covenant into all our intentions. Without good works, grace may stop at only one or two areas. With works of mercy, the power of the Covenant spreads more fully.
My beloved ones, this is the lesson: attend the Word with reverence, form a Covenant mind, love God more than your intentions, do works of mercy with Christ at the center, and live as witnesses to the Gospel. Then the Covenant will not be a burden. It will become light, powerful, fruitful, and filled with the Holy Spirit.
Disclaimer: All content in this post is credited to Dr. Fr. V.P. Joseph Valiyaveettil of Kreupasanam Marian Shrine, Kerala, India. I have simply served as a translator and editor in gratitude for the opportunity to assist. If Fr. V.P. Joseph believes any content here infringes upon his rights, I will remove it immediately upon request.
Father’s Malayalam sharings contain profound insights on covenant living and growing closer to God. As language barriers may prevent many from fully receiving these teachings, I have translated and highlighted key points from his YouTube sharings into English as a humble effort to help others in their covenant journey, just as I myself have been inspired.
I warmly encourage everyone to share this website with others who may benefit from these reflections. May all who visit this page be blessed and drawn closer to God.
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