.- A Mississippi priest has recently finished writing his first book, “His Instruments: If God Can Use Them, He Can Use Us.” The book, written by Father Sebastian Myladiyil, examines the lives of both good and bad biblical characters.
“I thought about this particular phrase, ‘If you see a good person, imitate him. If you see a bad person, examine your conscience.’ My effort is to look at a number of people in the Bible, both good and some questionable characters and how they can help us form those qualities in such a way that we can imitate their virtues and their faith or to look at some of those characters who led questionable lives to see how they can make us examine our own conscience,” Fr. Myladiyil said.
The book examines the lives of such biblical characters as Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel and John the Baptist, just to name a few.
“It examines 19 characters in the Old Testament and five characters in the New Testament,” he added.
“It looks at these 24 characters and how are they leading us to the new Adam, Jesus.”
Originally, Father Sebastian intended for the book to be released as an Advent reflection focusing on 25 people for the 25 days of Advent.
He noted that as he began to write it, he realized “that these characters can speak to us daily.”
“At the end, I compare the characters to one another. For example, how is Adam connected to Jesus or Eve to Jesus?”
The foreword for the book is written by none other than Bishop of Biloxi, Most Rev. Roger Morin.
The bishop writes, “Father Sebastian, through his thoughtful creative writing, is able to enliven individual biblical personalities as he casts them in roles of daily conversations with God as they ponder the mystery of the divine plan for them. By God’s plan, each person is challenged to be faithful and loving in order to be redeemed. The mechanism and the content of the dialogical construct beckons the reader to reflect on the ways in which he or she may have talked to God about personal triumphs and tragedies, successes and failures, experienced in daily living.”
Fr. Myladiyil’s book is $12.95. For more information, call 228-467-7347.
Printed with permission from the Gulf Pine Catholic, newspaper for the Diocese of Biloxi, Miss.
