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THE SACRILEGE OF COMMUNION IN THE HAND
This is where you and I are called to give the Greatest honour, respect and reverence to the Blessed Sacrament ~ the Sacrament of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We should never be part of the "unbelieving" Roman Catholics who feel they could do what they want, how they want with the Body and Blood of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.
20210403
The Holy Eucharist ~ Our Sure Route to Heaven
When you watch the Beatification recording of the Italian teenager, Carlo Acutis, who said that the Holy Eucharistic is his "Highway To Heaven", you come to believe, without doubt, that he was perfectly right.
You and I have must have read several times, heard it preached on and probably studied commentaries on the entire 6th chapter of St John's Gospel: the whole discourse about the Institution of the Holy Eucharist. Jesus is True God and True Man. Being Our God made visible, He knows we should not stop at having a relationship with Him, but an INTIMACY with Him. In our human parlance, every relationship should end in an intimacy that involves the body - the whole body. This is what Catechists and Pastors should teach while preparing couples for the Sacrament of Matrimony; we don't leave them in the dark, guessing about their mutual rights and responsibilities to live and mature together as members of the Mystical Body of Christ. Husband and wife give themselves totally and completely to each other in their relationship in such an intimate way that one is really willing to die for the other. This is the Holy Will of God from all eternity - not for the "pleasure" but for the will of the Creator, an act that is open to NEW LIFE and in fulfillment of the Divine plan of procreation and populating of the City of God.
So, Christ following His eternal design of the Human Person He created from the beginning, before He suffered as He ever knew all that would happen in its time, gave us HIS BODY AND BLOOD to fulfil His Holy Will to remain with us till the end of Time. As it is known, St John's Gospel got the Mind and Will of Jesus Christ in the Institution of the Holy Eucharist and its narrative. If you and I truly love Jesus Christ, we should likewise love His Will and Intent that we feed on His Body and Blood so to have life in us and be candidates for Heaven. Let us revisit the entire chapter 6 of St John's Gospel.
20210328
BEING EUCHARISTIC 24/7
Every Roman Catholic Priest is aware of his vocation to be Eucharistic, every day of his life. Celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass should be uppermost in his mind, nothing should ever stop him from celebrating this Sacrament of God's love to humanity. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we all know the benefits of the Mass, for whom and why they are offered.
It is not about you, the Priest; it is about the Holy Will and Plan of God, our Creator. Like every child of God, your guardian Angel and hosts of Angels surround you, particularly being the Alter-Christus, these Spiritual Beings accompany you, everywhere. As St Pio of Pietrelcina {Padre Pio} once said: "feel free to send your guardian Angels on errands..." They are there to 'serve' us as they serve God. Personally I have often tried to do this: ask my guardian Angel to keep Jesus company after I begin my holy hour, before the Blessed Sacrament, and suddenly have need to step out of the Chapel. I simply genuflect on two knees before the Blessed Sacrament, turn and bow towards the kneeler I feel my Guardian Angel is staying and say: "please, keep the Lord company while I step out.... thank you" I have always had the feeling that I have not left Jesus - the Prisoner of Love, alone. My guardian Angel kept Him company in my brief absence.
Our awareness of this ever-presence and company of our Guardian Angels, should help keep the Priest, by God's grace, conscious of the avoidance of mortal sin.
You Are On Your Own
It is evident that today you hear this loud and clear: people make comments that portend to say: "YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN". You and I have to take care of our body and most importantly our soul, more than anything else. The choice remains yours and mine - to care or neglect our body and soul or not. And since we have only ONE LIFE TO LIVE, AND ONE DEATH TO DIE, it becomes imperative that we make the best of the few seconds/hours at our disposal to take care of things that really matter. The next moment may be too late; we have no one to blame but ourselves. Blaming others will not help, rather may increase our pain of loss.
Take care not to expect anyone to take care of you - not the government, not your family or community and unfortunately not even the Church. The responsibility is all yours; except maybe for the very young and infants. In this case, the responsibility is ours, the adults (parents/guardians) to give early guidance and direction to these young minds. Engage them in family devotions, the Holy Rosary, night prayers, family reading of the Holy Bible and quiet time, etc. We see this exemplified by construction companies re-doing a highway, tethering young plants to avoid omnidirectional winds from deforming the young plants, yet to dip its roots into the soil. The tethers are professionally removed when the roots are sunk deep into the soil. And now, they can stand the winds, from wherever side they come. This is what happens with grooming a young man/lady in the faith, for instance; you do not allow the child to grow up and make up its mind on what to believe in; such a soul may end up being mal-formed, rudderless. Eventually, this 'boat', 'canoe' or 'ship' will end in utter disaster.
But after you and I have done our duty/homework, laying a solid foundation of faith and practice for this young fellow; if in later life, this young man/lady allows the external world and peer pressure to obliterate all that he/she had from the family, then he/she has the full blame. ONLY WE DO NOT STOP LOVING AND PRAYING FOR THEM, giving good examples of care, love and patience towards them. Such good friends as Saints Monica and Augustine come immediately to mind - have recourse to their intercession. Finally, entrust everything to God and Our Blessed Mother Mary.
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IGBO
~~ Dreaming, Eating, Living, Talking, THINKING, Sleeping ~~ IGBO
Igbo is my Culture, Igbo is my Language, Igbo is my Tradition,
Igbo is my Tribe.
In sum, my quintessence is IGBO.
Ironically or sarcastically IGBO is the acronym of a reality in se: “I Go Before Others”.
We want to
believe in this factual statement, which does not, by any stroke of the
imagination, imply SELFISHNESS OR SELF-CENTREDNESS. NO !!!; nothing could be farther from the truth. This appears most natural, human and indeed 'reasonable'.
The Latin
adage is: “Nemo dat quod non habet”
– You cannot give what you don’t have.
One evening I was visiting a family friend, their little girl was just beginning to crawl and make some 'verbal' sound; she could hear when mom or dad calls her. She will turn, giggle, increase her speed and pretend to go away from their direction. My close observation was that whatever little Ada-mma picked from the floor - bread crumbs, cookies, groundnuts (peanuts), etc. goes into her mouth. Certainly she loves the mother and father, but she will not pick a piece of cookie or peanuts and take it to her mother, NO; she puts it into her mouth. Is this little girl, yet crawling, selfish? NO. When she grows up to reason, she will begin to know what it is to give/share. In the meantime, she is acting and responding to that which is natural and human: The saying goes thus: "Charity begins at home", but does not end there. Later this little girl will grow up to learn to love others, outside of herself.
A few months ago we had a symposium shortly before the pandemic: one of the presenters had a power-point presentation and one of the slides says: "you cannot pour from an empty cup" showing an empty cup tilted, really empty. Basically if you have nothing, you cannot give anything. Like the Latin adage: "ex nihilo, nihil fit"~ from nothing, nothing comes.
I G B O
Igbo is my Culture, Language, Tribe and Tradition. The Igbo is a unique tribe in the West Coast of Africa. Their uniqueness stems from so many attributes, including but not limited to their ways of expressing their life and culture, their expressions, relationships with self, fellow Igbo and strangers/foreigners, etc. The Igbo language has within it what one could call "dialects" whereby certain sections of Igboland speak a version of the language peculiar and unique to them ~ Abriba, Afikpo, Anambra, Ikwere, Ngwa, Owerre and other major sections of Igboland have their dialects. Despite these 'apparent differences', we understand each other when we speak. The Igbo are very warm and welcoming people; from our ancestral wise sayings, we love and respect the stranger, conscious of our being a stranger somewhere and to some people, quite soon. They are everywhere; every city/town is their home. A former Nigerian President, comparing the different tribes said that while some see their big cities as their village, the Igbo sees the world as his village. The Hausa have a proverb that says: "any city you visit and do not find an Igbo man, either the city does not exist or the inhabitants are demons" The Igbo express themselves by their Culture, Religion and Tradition. Food, dance, festivities, learning, etc. are part of the culture. ////////
BEING IGBO - A MORAL LESSON
IGBO is my Culture, Language, Tradition and my Tribe. Two points to be stressed and/or wrong ideas corrected, before we delve into the reason for this brief essay. First; the Spelling is IGBO and not IBO as the white man would want us to accept, for the simple reason they found it difficult to pronounce "GB" in IGBO. Secondly; the word has no English plural. It is basically anachronistic to say IGBOS: such a word, to say the least, has no place in the history of the Igbo. If there is need for a 'plural' form, it is Ndi-Igbo or better still Ndigbo (dropping one vowel 'i'). Igbo bu Igbo, Oha Igbo are other options to express plurality when talking or writing of the Igbo. So "Igbos" is unacceptable. Period.
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