Posts by Fr. Christian Amah
Having Your Prayers Answered!
The readings of today present insights into answered prayers. First, we see from Esther’s prayer that a powerful secret of an answered prayer is to not have God as one of many alternatives. Esther prayed: “Now help me, who am alone and have no one but you, O LORD, my God.” The second spiritual principle…
Read MoreTo Find God, Search the Temple
We rejoice in today’s feast of the presentation of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple. In some places, it is still part of Catholic culture to “present” a newborn child in church. The priest receives the child from their parents and blesses the child. As with several things we do to reminisce about biblical…
Read MoreWho is the Liar?
Imagine for a moment that all you have been taught and believe are not true. How would you react to the realization that you have been lied to for years? It is not easy or comfortable to imagine. But we have all experienced being lied to. What lie or lies have you been told? How…
Read MoreAccording To Your Faith
One of the amazing things I read in Scripture is how Jesus heals people not according to God’s might but according to one’s faith. Isn’t that amazing? We know God can do anything. God has the ability: He made the world out of nothing; holds the world in being, controls the changing of times and…
Read MoreAll Souls
“…I will reject no one who comes to me. Rather, I will raise him on the last day” (John 6:37, 40). Today is somber because we remember and particularly pray for the dead. Traditionally, one of the Masses today is celebrated at the cemetery. That is how intensely other-worldly today is — a day for…
Read MoreThe Faith That Moves Mountains
The apostles prayed to God, “Increase our faith.” Our Lord’s response to their request shows they already have what they were asking for. They weren’t asking Jesus to grant them some bit of the gift of faith. They asked for an “Increase”! Does anyone feel a need for an “increase” in some aspects of their…
Read MoreStewards of the Mysteries
Stewardship is related to responsibility. And it is sometimes used interchangeably with servanthood. The root meaning of “steward” as used in the New Testament Greek means literarily, a “house-distributor”; that is, a manager of a house (and or the resources being housed) in which sense, an overseer, in a sense of an employee. The striking…
Read MoreTouch Only the Tassel on His Cloak
When I read the Gospel of today, I continue to wonder why the people at Gennesaret wanted to touch only the tassel of Jesus’ clothing. I read a commentary that referred to such desire as a “pious humility.” Indeed, the people were humble to have asked for only a “touch” just like the hemorrhaging woman…
Read MoreWhy We Fast
We fast to enable a good atmosphere of prayer. Of course, we are talking about spiritual fasting. Some people fast for physical health reasons. Whatever be the reason, fasting as giving up a certain satisfaction for a higher good has great benefits. It is almost impossible to have a healthy spiritual life without fasting. Jesus’…
Read More“We find nothing wrong with this man…”
St. Paul was arrested, we are told, in the first reading of today and was questioned. His examiners found his supposed crime to be that he believed in the supernatural realities—the Resurrection, angels and saints. He faithfully preached Christ the risen Lord. It happens that belief in the Resurrection aligns with some tenets of the…
Read More