God Calls Us to Our Mission: As Jesus prepares to begin His final journey to Jerusalem, He instructs His disciples what this will entail. Not the triumphant crowning of a new King that some of them are expecting. Instead, Jesus will encounter great suffering and death at the hands of…
The Decapitation of Saint John the Baptist, 1607 by Caravaggio[1] Once again, the Church presents to us the liturgical memorial of the Passion of St John the Baptist. Once again, I face the same main thought that comes to my mind when I read this gospel. It is a display…
“Amen I say to you, I know you not. Watch ye therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour.” Today’s Gospel is a warning to all of us that we must be preparing ourselves to meet our Lord, either through our death or His second coming. This meeting…
On the feast of Saint Monica, the Church presents to us the story of a woman whose life speaks quietly but powerfully about faith, perseverance, and hope. Her story connects beautifully with Saint Paul’s words to the Corinthians: “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the…
In today’s Gospel reading from Matthew Chapter 23, Jesus continues addressing the multitudes and his disciples. The graphic language should give us all pause for serious reflection, he pronounces an extremely stern rebuke of the Pharisees and scribes focused on their hypocrisy. In so doing, he leads us to a…
Sometimes one wonders why God decided to come down to us a human person when He could have simply decreed our salvation from heaven. One of the common answers is that He wanted to show us how much He loved us by being like us in all things. But another…
Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of Saint Bartholomew. For me, this day carries a double weight of grace: it marks exactly 13 years since my ordination to the Catholic priesthood on August 24, 2013, in Nigeria. Reflecting on more than a decade of priestly ministry, my soul finds its…
Today’s Gospel signifies the historic stone-laying of the church. It testifies to its establishment and enthronement of its authority by Christ himself. He was careful in testing the waters before setting up the church community and putting her leadership in a firm foundation that would stand the test of time.…
The Glory of God has been a recurring theme in the Bible. The very first time the people of Israel were exposed to the Glory of God was on Mount Sinai. We see this in Exodus 24:16: “The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered…
One of them, a lawyer: I had sought to walk in the way of perfection for all of my life. At the beginning of that day, I was certain of what righteousness consisted. My years of prayer and study, studying both the Law and traditions of our people, had produced…