Fr Ogundipe Sdv

My Lord Bishop, Deans, Very Rev Fathers, the parents of the couples, invited guests, Seun and Ayo, Oni Lojope Edumare……..  Yes oluwa ti seun Ayo ti wole, what a divine plan,  last year Seun called me she said uncle please tell my mumy to allow me get married, am no longer a baby please I know she listen to you safe me uncle. And I said wait for the appointed time. Today and I repeat today the prophesy of Jerimiah 11:10 have come to pass For thus says the Lord: Only when Babylon's seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. Listen now in vs 6 of chapter 11 he says: “you will take wives and have sons and daughters; to the parents he says: you will take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.” What we have gathered to celebrate today is in the plan of God. A union between a man and a woman not man and man noooo!! N...

Rev Fr Lawrence Ogundipe SDV  INTRODUCTION Pentecostals emphasize the corporate elements in worship and lay special stress on the practice of gifts listed in 1Cor 12 -14 especially prophecy, healing, speaking in tongues, exorcism and miracles among others. In South-West of Nigeria, possession of gifts is required for members as a sign of true faith, as such, there is spontaneity and freedom in worship and life of Pentecostals since everyone has gifts and must manifest them anytime and everywhere. This is completely different from the Catholic Church belief and teaching which did not allow spontaneity in her liturgy; rather the rubrics must be followed. The Pentecostal church constitute a challenge because of their influence in building an attitude that sees every interpreted human experience as essentially religion, and every speech as speech about God.This is a distortion of religion that borders on superstition. Hence our youth drift into their ways and neglect the orthodox tea...

WHAT MAKES A SIN MORTAL? Mortal sin is the most serious sin and its effect is to be understood by its very name: mortal.  Mortal means deadly and, therefore, mortal sin completely kills the grace of God in our heart.  It leaves us spiritually dead and lacking in charity and hope. In fact it is deadly than a killer virus because it affects the Soul that was created Immortal. Interestingly, mortal sin does not necessarily destroy faith in our lives.  It certainly attacks our faith and confuses it, but faith is still possible while in mortal sin.  In fact, it is that enduring ability to have faith that can have the effect of enabling one to repent of mortal sin and return to God. However, even though faith is not necessarily completely destroyed by mortal sin, hope and charity are.  The soul in unrepentant mortal sin is not able to hope in God in any way and is not capable of offering the charity which results from sanctifying grace. To be restored one needs ...

PRAY FOR SEMINARIANS AND ALWAYS ENCOURAGE THEM. A seminarian is a man who is discerning the Lord’s call to the Roman Catholic priesthood. By virtue of his baptism, he is a member of the priesthood of all believers. The seminarian hears the Lord speaking to him and calling him to a fuller participation in the priesthood by becoming a priest of Jesus Christ. While the priesthood has many elements that make it like a job, it is primarily a vocation: a calling from the Lord. The seminarian then needs to be open to hearing the Lord’s call in his life and be eager to respond to it. The seminary is an environment that strives to form Christian men characterized by a life of holiness, human virtue, and generous service. Such a life is nurtured by a deep interior life of prayer and sound piety, filial devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and a profound love for the universal and local Church. It is further nourished through a rigorous intellectual formation in a faithful and loving obedie...

I am writing this work not as a professional, not as a theologian, nor a scholar but as a concerned youth who over ten years have experienced declination in the flock of Christ. I may not even be the best person to write this work but I am inspired through the instrumentality of my Lord Bishop, AlbertFashina; the Catholic Bishop of the Catholic diocese of Ijebu-ode. I was privileged to visit him with my superior when Baba Fashina lamented over the way our separated brethren are attracting Catholics; the flock of Christ entrusted to our care. To buttress his point; he read a passage of the scripture, from the Gospel of Matt: 16, 1-4, it reads Some Pharisees and Sadducees who came to Jesus wanted to trap him, so they asked him to perform a miracle for them, to show that God approved him. But Jesus answered , When the sun is setting ,you say,  We are going to have fine weather, because the sky is red, And early in the morning you say, It is going to rain, because the cloud is red and...

INTRODUCTION The word myth has an alarming effect on many people of faith. They see no relationship at all between the bible and myth. Some take myth to mean “something” once believed to be true but now know to be false. Some say it is human beings attempts to come to grips with his or her place in the universe. Still others say that myth is a story in which gods and goddesses play a role as characters in action. Samson. A. Fatokun in a book titled African traditional Religion and belief system argues that Africans have a great pantheon of gods, which is as diverse as the gods of the Greeks or Hindus, yet the belief in a supreme being is common and very strong in all African communities. Often times this Supreme Being is responsible for the creation of all that exist, for example the Ngewo of Mende people of Sierra Leone   lived in a cave and he was responsible for feeding and naming all animals. Prominent among the understanding of God in Africa is the conception of God as the A...

INTRODUCTION Often I see people alternating between Joy and sadness, euphoria and mistrust, optimism and pessimism, at times even vacillating in your faith and self-esteem. Looking around also I discovered that we are not alone in this state of mind. The more you see people sad the more you may be tempted to say that happiness is a white elephant project, only a dream. Even more discouraging is the realization that many Christian families are unhappy. What then is the problem? What happened to the freedom of children of God? I know for sure that you want to be happy indeed! Let us try to see together what happiness really is and how we can really be happy as a family. So I put it across to you what is happiness? WHAT IS HAPPINESS What I have gathered from your contributions so far is that the world seeks happiness. Everyone; politicians, cardinals, bishops, priest, male, female children even criminals. Philosophers and psychologists agree that the search for happiness is what makes ...

INTRODUCTION The Three persons in the Most Holy Trinity are Inseparable,  hence to say that there was a time the Holy Spirit is not active is heretical and not biblical.   It is an indisputable fact that the knowledge of many faithful on the work or role of the Holy spirit in the economy of salvation is now beclouded with the recent drive of Pentecost experience such that whenever the Holy Spirit is mentioned today what comes to mind of many is the common saying “Holy Ghost!!! Fire”  The work of salvation is one operation of the Trinity. Hence, the angelic doctor on the doctrine of the most Holy Trinity in the Pars Prima of summa theologiae teaches that “Therefore, as the Father and the Son are one God, by reason of the unity of the form that is signified by this word "God"; so they are one principle of the Holy Spirit by reason of the unity of the property that is signified in this word "principle." However, it is noteworthy that recent times have witnessed a re...

This kept me thinking. "Frankly, even the poor have something they can share with others. Let one lend feet to the lame, another become the eyes of the blind, another visit the sick, and another bury the dead. These are the things that everyone can do. Lastly, bear one another's burdens, and so you shall fulfill the law of Christ." St Augustine "The devil dreads fasting, prayer, humility, and good works: He is not able even to stop my mouth who speak against him. The illusions of the devil soon vanish, especially if a man arms himself with the Sign of the Cross. The devils tremble at the Sign of the Cross of our Lord, by which He triumphed over and disarmed them. --Saint Antony Abbot

Feast days of saints in the Catholic Church  are ranked in accordance with their importance. In the current ordinary form of the Roman Rite, feast days are ranked (in descending order of importance) as solemnities, feasts or memorials.  Pope Paul VI in 1969 divided feast days into "solemnities", "feasts" and "memorials". Commemorations were abolished both as a rank of liturgical day and as the addition of a second presidential prayers after the day's Collect,  Prayer over the Offerings,  and Prayer after Communion  at Mass.  While some of the memorials are considered obligatory, others are optional, permitting a choice on some days between two or three memorials, or between one or more memorials and the celebration of the feria. On a day to which no obligatory celebration is assigned, the Mass may be of any saint mentioned in the Roman Martyrology for that day.  This allows priests more flexibility in their celebration of mass, since they are now per...