Life embraces different types of preparations. Preparation to get an education, acquire a skill, begin a business, become a celibate, get married, have children, build a house, buy a car, occupy a prestige position, rise to fame, make a meaningful journey of destiny… are well accommodated in life’s room of preparations. We often here people say they are preparing for any of the afore shortlisted preparations above. It is a beautiful thing to prepare well as failure to plan or poor preparation is often a pre-planned failure. However, there is…
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CONFESSIONAL SECRECY III
Back to our Priest who received the knowledge of his Lunch being poisoned by the same cook who came to confession with him. Though he granted absolution to the penitent; instructing him to dispose the poisoned food as penance, the penitent (cook) refused to dispose the food. Has the priest the right not to eat the food? He may not eat the food SINCE GOD HAS HELPED HIM TO KNOW THAT IT WAS POISONED. The priest in question threw the food away by himself. In the evening of the same…
Read MoreCONFESSIONAL SECRECY II
The Sacrament of Reconciliation is day by day facing different attacks not only from other Christian denominations but more so from this present world of secularism. The different sexual abuses committed by some ministers only fuelled the attack. Confessional is now being viewed by some as a hide out for perpetrators where the sin is confessed with no public penalty or punishment. I once witnessed a City Council Representative addressing the Presbyters of a particular Diocese in the United States of America – stating that if anyone confesses sexual abuse…
Read MoreHEART OF HEARTS: A Reflection on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.
No other organ of the body tells more of us than the heart. The heart is the central organ of life. Life is in the blood and it is the heart that pumps blood to all parts of the body through the blood vessels to make existence possible. When the Word took flesh and dwelt among us, the Heart of hearts was born to die that other hearts might live. As hearts encountered the Heart while with us; hearts experienced true love, forgiveness, joy and peace which brought about spiritual…
Read MoreCONFESSIONAL SECRECY I
JESUS BREATHED ON THEM AND SAID TO THEM, “RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT. “IF YOU FORGIVE THE SINS OF ANY, THEIR SINS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN THEM; IF YOU RETAIN THE SINS OF ANY, THEY HAVE BEEN RETAINED” (JN. 20:22-23; CF. MATT 16:19) As the priest was about to go for his lunch, someone called him and said someone is desperately in need of confession in the church. He went to the confessional in the church waiting for the penitent. The person came and knelt at the other side saying in a…
Read MoreCONFESSION
I know I am a sinner (Rom 3:23), but I can’t understand why I keep sinning; even when I don’t want to, even after going for confession I still fall into sin. Now, I no longer go for confession. Why confessing to the priest and not God? Being a Christian is an on-going process. No Biblical hero (except Jesus who was also tempted – Heb. 4.15) or Saint who did not struggle with sin and sometimes fell. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I…
Read MoreLOOK BEYOND THE BREAD AND WINE: A reflection on Corpus Christi.
We celebrate “Corpus Christi” God’s gift of Himself to us in the Person of His Son our Lord Jesus Christ, the centre and summit of our worship and the life in us. The Eucharist has always been with us. In the Old Testament as a figure and in the New Testament as an event. After the institution of the Eucharist by Jesus at the Last Supper, the Eucharist became a sacrament unto us; a prolongation of the event. We are often deceived by the senses not to completely acknowledge the…
Read MoreI CONFESS…
I CONFESS… Pride is a thorn on the flesh of any relationship. It ruins relationship to a zero point if not checked. Pride turned a light bearer into an angel of darkness. We human beings are in a vertical and horizontal relationship. While our relationship with God is vertical; our relationship with fellow mortals is horizontal. Relationship sometimes grow cold or become sour. In the vertical and horizontal relationship, it is the human person who removes the fire of love and gives room for the coldness of hate. To err…
Read MoreTHE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD: OUR ASSURANCE OF HEAVEN.
THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD: OUR ASSURANCE OF HEAVEN. In the Church’s celebration of the Life of Christ, today is Ascension Thursday; exactly 40 days after the glorious resurrection of Christ from the dead. Reflecting on the beauty of today’s solemnity, the assurance of heaven occupied my thought and so I humbly share the fruit of my reflection. Imagine that the members of the senior national football team of a country travelled for a world cup tournament and won the cup but did return to their country with the joy…
Read MoreMARRIAGE OF PAIN: WHY? ( A must read for married couples).
MARRIAGE OF PAIN: WHY? ( A must read for married couples). Marriage is not by force! Why should a man and a woman agree to enter into a matrimonial covenant for a period of a lifetime only to live a marriage of hell? Today, alot of married women and men live in regret and tears of ever getting married to their better halves (husbands or wives). Why should a married man do nothing but make his wife live below the human level? No kind words but insults. No gifts but…
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