Every day, through testimonies, we hear about the many ways people experience Covenant life. This week, several beautiful testimonies were shared, and one of them came from Ramya Varghese of Nilambur.
There are two things we must always remember. If our Covenant life is genuine, the blessing is certain. It is not a matter of saying, “Perhaps it will happen, or perhaps it will not.” The Covenant is a bilateral agreement. We make it with God through the intercession of the Blessed Mother. It is a two-sided bond, and that is what makes it different.
People naturally ask what benefit comes from waking up in the middle of the night and travelling all the way to Alappuzha. During the rainy season, some rise at two or three o’clock in the morning simply to reach here. Such effort is not small. When people sacrifice sleep, travel long distances, and endure inconvenience, they naturally think first about the benefit they will receive.
But there are two kinds of benefit in the Covenant. One is blessing. The other is anointing. A blessing changes a circumstance. An anointing changes the person who must pass through that circumstance.
There is also a special grace connected with making the Covenant at Kreupasanam. I do not say this to promote a place, but because of what the Lord placed deeply in my heart during prayer. In this Covenant, our becoming witnesses is not merely our need. It is God’s need. Why is it God’s need?
On December 7, 2004, when the Blessed Mother appeared, she said, “A disaster is coming. You must pray.” At that time, we did not know how to respond. We blessed and distributed half-kilogram green candles to the 120 prayer groups that existed then. I instructed the coastal prayer groups from Punnapra to Kochi, “Take these candles and pray by the seashore.” I did not fully understand why I asked them to pray there. Years later, when I visited Chellanam, elderly women took me to the shore and said, “Father, this is where we lit the candles. You told us to pray here in 2004.” When I saw the place, I knelt and prayed. They had simply obeyed.
The tsunami came soon afterward, and at first I assumed that the disaster the Blessed Mother had warned about had already passed. Only later did we understand that we had entered an age in which disasters would continue.
A few years later came Chikungunya. Many recovered, but some still carry its effects. Then came Nipah. Families in Kerala lost loved ones, and only those families fully understand the depth of that pain. Floods followed. COVID came. One calamity ended and another began. For nearly a quarter of a century, disasters have come one after another, along with the personal disasters people carry in their own lives.
This is why some people are inspired to make the Covenant even during prosperous times, when they have no pressing petition. The Blessed Mother makes them understand that it is better to stand firmly with God before the storm arrives. If we truly believe in God, we must live truthfully with Him. A lukewarm and compromised life wastes time, money, prayer, and spiritual opportunity.
The great failure of many believers is that faith is reduced to ritual. On one side, they live a worldly and carnal life filled with deceit, hidden dealings, immorality, resentment, and personal agendas. On the other side, they perform religious rituals to support that worldly life.
The ritualistic life becomes an accessory to the materialistic life. When this happens, our value diminishes in the presence of God, because God is not an active party in our life. We do not allow Him to enter the areas where His intervention is most needed. The man possessed by Legion revealed this attitude clearly.
Luke 8:28 says, “When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before Him, shouting at the top of his voice, ‘Jesus, Son of the Most High God, what have You to do with me? I beg You, do not torment me!’”
The devil acknowledged Jesus correctly. He called Him “Son of the Most High God.” He did not deny God’s glory. His problem was different. He was saying, “Do not interfere with me. Leave me in my comfort zone.” This same attitude can appear in human spirituality. A person may say, “You are God. I will praise You, honor You, and adore You. But do not disturb my gossip, deceit, secret life, unjust business, resentment, or selfish interests.”
For example, a brother’s inherited property may lie inside our boundary. He may need to sell it to educate his children, build a house, or meet some urgent need. Yet we refuse either to buy it at a fair price or to allow him to sell it to someone else. At the same time, we continue all our Covenant practices. This is precisely where we refuse to let God intervene.
We may attend the retreat, write down teachings, renew the Covenant, and return home, but the Covenant becomes only a routine. Because of such vested interests and unyielding thoughts, we never become competent partners with God. There are invalid Covenants, just as there are invalid votes. A person may have a voter identification card, enter the booth, receive the ballot, and cast the vote, yet the vote may still be invalid.
In the same way, a person may travel to Alappuzha, carry the Covenant paper, attend a short class, have the book signed, and return home happily. Yet the Covenant itself may never have been established in the mind of God.
After three renewals, I sometimes ask, “Have you received any testimony yet?” They answer casually, “Nothing has happened, Father.” The Blessed Mother said from the beginning, “The Covenant is an immediate solution.” Thousands receive immediate help. Therefore, if nothing has moved even after repeated renewals, we must honestly examine the way the Covenant is being lived.
If a person refuses to forgive, continues to nurture enmity, or will not speak to someone even after renewing the Covenant three times, that person is not merely unfit for the Covenant. They are unfit for any living relationship with God.
Matthew 15:32 says, “Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, ‘I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with Me now three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.’”
This is the heart of Jesus. Why did He respond in this way? Because they had remained with Him. This is the examination we must make in Covenant life: “Am I truly with the Lord?” If your heart can say without deception, “I am with Jesus,” that is the time of anointing.
The content of the Covenant is extremely rich. It was not born from my own intellect. After the Blessed Mother gave the Covenant, I was asked to write it down. At that time, I was at Thycattussery church. I would sit alone on the upper-floor veranda, with the gates closed, holding the Rosary in one hand and a pen in the other.
Although the writing extended over three months, the actual words came within only a few days. During that time came the revelation of the Covenant salt, the Covenant oil, and the Covenant medal. I asked Sr. Jomol to find the corresponding teachings of Scripture and the Church. I said, “What does the Catholic Church teach about this? What does the Word of God say? What does the Second Vatican Council say?”
Any new prayer practice must remain in harmony with the teaching of the Church. Otherwise, it can become a source of division. The Covenant has continued without contradiction from the bishops because it stands within the teaching of the Church. In the beginning, we did not yet have thousands of testimonies. There were criticisms and attacks. Yet we continued without changing what had been given, because we had a deep interior conviction that the Blessed Mother’s revelation was true.
The danger is this: a person may take the Covenant while having no desire to live with God. They want only the blessing. They continue deceitful ways and use God for selfish needs. Sometimes the person with the need does not even make the Covenant. He sends his wife instead. But if the need is yours and the Covenant is only hers, the whole family is not automatically living the Covenant.
Others say, “It is only for three months. After that, what?” They intend to live carefully for ninety days and then return to a reckless life. No Covenant with the eternal God can be limited to three months. The ninety days recall the Blessed Mother’s stay in the house of Elizabeth and the Ark of the Covenant remaining in the house of Obed-Edom. The period is a biblical first step, not an expiry date for faithfulness.
The Covenant teaches a person to face every struggle of life and move toward victory. It is the Covenant of Our Lady of Victory.
This brings us to the testimony of Ramya Varghese from Nilambur. Ramya first came because her husband was gravely ill. She and her husband met me at the altar. After I prayed over him, I gently tapped her shoulder. She later said, “I understood what it meant. I understood that I had to accept God’s will.” She prepared her heart. Soon afterward, her husband went to be with the Lord.
For many people, an event like that would end their Covenant life. Ramya, however, continued with three small children and two elderly parents. They lived near the edge of a forest, in an area vulnerable to floods and wild animals, in a small tiled house.
Yet she testified, “The Lord did not allow me to bear the heat and smoke of that tragedy.” This is the other realm of the Covenant. Ramya gave greater importance to the Covenant itself than to the benefits she might receive from it. Many people give most of their attention to the benefits. They constantly ask, “Did the offer letter come? Was the visa renewed? Did the foreclosure stop?”
I am not blaming them. The problem is a lack of spiritual understanding. When we give excessive importance to the benefit, our relationship with God does not become peaceful or fruitful. Ramya lost her husband, but the Lord began giving her the Word.
Isaiah 54:5 says, “For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is His name.”
She and the Lord began to understand one another deeply. God gave her an interior anointing. If the blessing is withheld, God may fill that space with an anointing far more powerful than the blessing itself. Jesus took over Ramya’s family.
When people asked, “Do you not have a husband?” she calmly answered, “My husband passed away.” Her face did not collapse. She did not present herself as a defeated person. There was an anointing upon that place of loss. For a Christian, death is not the final negative reality. It is a journey toward the Lord. Ramya understood this clearly. She said, “I am now in my sixth year of renewal. In all these renewals, I have never written a single worldly petition.”
She simply writes one word: “Eternity.” It is not that she has no needs. She had been included in two Public Service Commission (PSC) rank lists for government employment, and both were cancelled. She could easily have filled every petition slot with employment requests. Yet her Covenant remained focused on eternity. When love for eternity grows within us, our spirituality turns toward the Father. Jesus said: “In that day you will ask nothing of Me.”
Ramya gave God first place. She followed the Covenant with seriousness. She and her children walked as far as twenty-five kilometers to distribute Kreupasanam newsletters. If they saw a newsletter lying on the ground and being trampled upon, they picked it up, cleaned it, and dried it because they regarded it as belonging to the Blessed Mother. This is the difference between living the Covenant and merely completing an obligation. Some people abandon newsletters carelessly, forcing them on others or leaving them somewhere simply to say the task is finished. But the Covenant is a way of life, not a mechanical assignment.
Ramya and her children lived for God. Then she spoke to the Lord privately: “Lord, do I not need to raise my children?” That was not a bargaining condition. It was the honest conversation of a daughter with her Father. That very week, she received two PSC appointment letters. She chose the better position and began working. Her job was far away in Kozhikode. She had three children and elderly parents, and the family remained in a forested area where she could not leave them peacefully.
She prayed, “Lord, how can I live here with my children? When I go to work, they are left alone.”
The following week, a good house in town became available. Within two weeks, the home was fully arranged and they moved there.
The Covenant moved quickly.
Why is it not quick for everyone? Because many keep their eyes fixed on the benefits. If you fix your eyes on the Lord, the benefits will follow. If you fix your eyes only on the benefits, you may lose both the Lord and the benefits. For this understanding, we need the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives moment-by-moment correction and guidance.
Romans 8:14 says, “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.”
When we walk in Gospel holiness, we become receptive to the Spirit. Then, whether we turn to the right or the left, we hear the voice saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” At the Annunciation, the Blessed Mother asked, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” The Holy Spirit is the power that works where human possibility ends.
We may ask, “How can this foreclosure stop? I have no money and nowhere to borrow.” Yet even there, God has an answer. Sometimes, when I pray over a person, the Lord shows that a property will be lost. I tell them, “Let it go. Do not be afraid. God will give you another place.” Some things are better lost, especially when they were obtained through deceit, theft, or injustice. When a snake bites, the poison must be prevented from spreading. In the same way, property acquired through wrongdoing can become poison within a family.
Holiness may initially look like loss. A price must be paid. This is why some prefer a mixture of a little holiness and a little unholiness.
But when God made the Covenant with Abraham, He said in Genesis 17:1, “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before Me faithfully and be blameless.’”
To be blameless is a practical form of holiness.
Romans 4:8 says, “Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”
It does not matter merely whether society, the government, or a court acquits us. What matters is whether we stand free in the court of the Lord. The Gospel calls us to a high standard of holiness. Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” He asks us to turn the other cheek.
Human strength alone cannot live this teaching. We need grace, and more specifically, we need anointing. When resentment forms after someone hurts us, it reveals that the love of God has diminished within us. The binding force of the Covenant is the love of God. If that adhesive weakens, the whole structure begins to fall apart.
Do not distribute newsletters or visit the sick merely as a technical duty. Say, “I am doing this so that I may grow in the love of the Lord.” Apostolic work and works of mercy are meant to increase the love of God within us.
Genesis 29:20 says, “So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.”
This is the phenomenon of anointing. Love changes the felt weight of a burden. Ramya travels ninety kilometers to work and another ninety kilometers home. The journey takes about two and a half hours each way. Yet she says, “These ninety kilometers feel like only twenty kilometers to me.” That is anointing.
Jesus says, “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” He is describing an anointed weight. When the love of God increases, heavy responsibilities become lighter. Ramya raises three children, cares for two elderly parents, and travels this distance for work. Many others refuse even to care for one elderly parent. For long and heavy responsibilities, what we need is not merely blessing. We need anointing. If you face a long-standing cross, do not pray only for it to disappear. Ask for the anointing to carry it.
A family caring for a child with autism, a severe disability, or a lifelong condition needs this corresponding anointing. Sometimes the illness remains for years, but God gives the parents a grace that makes them capable of carrying what others could never bear.
Once, while I was sitting on a bus, a child with a disability spat directly on my face. I wiped it away. The mother apologized, but the child did not understand what had happened. That mother carried the child on her lap and continued the journey. That is anointing. In another home, a mother brought two bedridden children and laid them on a plastic sheet before me. They could only drag themselves along the floor. Yet she remained there, caring for them without abandoning her family. That is anointing.
Matthew 5:40-41 says, “If anyone would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.”
At first, this sounds like an impossible burden. But Jesus is inviting us into the anointing that makes the second mile possible. Ramya also said that she receives strength through the Covenant blessed articles. This is because a special prayer of deliverance is offered over them after Holy Mass. They are not magical objects. They are used as an application of faith. When she found the house in town, she did not inspect fifty houses with fear and confusion. She saw one house, applied the Covenant oil and salt in faith, and prayed, “Jesus, establish Your inheritance here. This is not my house. I am going to dwell in Your house.”
She understood that the house meant for her family was already present in the mind of God. When we are led by the Spirit, God guides us to the right place. We do not need to wander endlessly, asking everyone for direction and living in anxiety.
My children, through the preaching of the Gospel and through Covenant formation, consciously seek not only blessings, but also anointing. A blessing may remove the burden. An anointing may leave the burden in place, yet make it light. The greatest grace is not always that the road becomes shorter. Sometimes it is that ninety kilometers begins to feel like twenty.
Fix your eyes on the Lord. Grow in the love of God. Walk in holiness. Remain open to the Holy Spirit. Then, whether God gives the blessing or the anointing, you will not be sent away empty-handed.
Disclaimer: All content in this article is credited to Dr. Fr. V.P. Joseph Valiyaveettil of Kreupasanam Marian Shrine, Kerala, India. This English adaptation has been prepared as a humble effort to make Father’s Malayalam YouTube sharings more accessible to a wider audience, with the assistance of translation and editorial resources.
Many of Father’s teachings were originally shared within the context of the Kreupasanam Covenant and may therefore include references or practices specific to that spiritual journey. Nevertheless, this blog is intended for everyone. Whether or not you are a Covenant member, it is my hope that these reflections, biblical teachings, and testimonies will encourage you in your own walk with God.
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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