A CHOCOLATE BAR OF GOD'S LOVE | KAIROS GLOBAL | FEBRUARY 2022

Author: Prashanth Kumar

Intro{ When faith was a source of dilemma, an overheard Rosary and a chocolate bar drew Prashanth Kumar to the love of God in the Catholic Church.

Born to a Catholic father and a Hindu mother, my faith was always a dilemma; but God in his infinite wisdom had planned everything out for me even before I was conceived! It all began 23 years ago, in 1998,

when the Lord decided that it was high time I came to taste his love and know more about him. 

Being a part of a huge joint family, all of us, including the families of my father’s siblings used to stay together. One evening, a voice coming from my aunt’s house caught my attention. On checking it out, I could see a group of people kneeling down and reciting the Holy Rosary. Even that brief glance showed me the immense joy and fellowship they shared. This wave of joy enticed me to join them the following day onwards.

In the initial period, all I could do was to follow whatever the others were doing – when they knelt, my knees also met the floor, whenever they lifted their arms, mine went up as well, and slowly, I started reciting the Lord’s Prayer and Hail Mary, referring to a prayer book. Even though I could not understand what I did or what I said, the peace and serenity it brought drew me more to it. Since I was not used to kneeling and praying, when pain got the better of my knees, I would stop after reciting one decade. After the prayer, my aunt would distribute chocolates to all of us. And even though I was happy to get one, I later realised that I was given only one, while others got more! When I once asked my aunt about this, she said that I was given only one chocolate because I had prayed only one decade; the more I prayed, the more I would get. As I returned home, I would have it – tasting God’s love through that chocolate bar! 

Soon I began to help my aunt with the daily family prayer arrangements, participated and enjoyed the love of God very closely. My aunt started to take me to church and afterwards, I decided to go to church daily. 

My enthusiasm to grow more close to God continued with catechism and serving God as an altar boy. The Holy Eucharist became a huge part of my life, I began to be active in all church activities and was also encouraged to take up the parish youth responsibility. Being active in various roles in the parish, His Excellency Bishop Paul Maipan encouraged us to attend a Jesus Youth cultural exchange programme in 2004.  It was a joy to witness the faith in such a multicultural setting and having closely seen the commitment of JYs, I decided to commit myself for one year to God through full-timership.

I became part of the 14th batch full-timers (2005) and served my one year commitment in Assam among the tribal youth. This helped build me up very strongly in faith and I decided on a lifelong commitment.

The Catholic Church itself is a missionary call and through Jesus Youth it has helped me to continue to live as a missionary.

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Prashanth Kumar is an elder for the Telugu region Jesus Youth. He currently works in TCS, Telangana, India.