Beyond the Clouds by Fr. Jacob Nampudakam, S.A.C. | Page 7

AUTHOR'S NOTE Airplanes have fascinated me since childhood. As a young boy, I dreamed of flying one day; so many fantasies provoked from that white machine soaring several kilometers above the ground! As God is far more generous in giving than we are in asking, I have had the opportunity to fly around the world, covering as many as 50 countries until today. That little boy has become a frequent flyer! For quite some time, I have had the desire to write a book of my own, as my office demands so much of writing conferences, homilies, and articles. I also have to give many talks on numerous occasions, all to diverse audiences. Such frequent communications- verbal and written- form certain common themes, convictions, and values in us. I have wished to share them in a systematic way with others, especially with those who will come after me. In other words, I would like to leave behind my footprints so the future generations will come to know what I believed in and cared for. Certain factors have decisively influenced my life, be they the sciences I studied, or personal experiences of my own. I studied mathematics, and I love this exact science. The concept of infinity is an important one in this field. The human mind will find it hard to visualize infinity; the universe is infinite, how can we conceptualize it? Our Founder, St. Vincent Pallotti, experienced God as infinite love and mercy. That, perhaps, is easier to understand. It is a love “greater than anything we can imagine; it reaches beyond any sin with which our conscience may charge us. His is an infinite love, one that knows no bounds” (Pope Francis). This is the nature of God Himself. Another discipline that I have studied is the Philosophy of Science. So interesting are the questions of scientific progresses, technological developments, and their impacts on the human person and his environment. Science and technology: proud innovations of the human mind. If left 7