Fr Ogundipe Sdv

LOOKING BACK IN THANKSGIVING! Thanksgiving is a public acknowledgement or celebration of divine goodness. One of the great commandments is to give thanks to God, for all He has done for us. The Psalmist in Psalm 100:4 says: we are to “enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his Courts with praise; be thankful unto him, and bless his name”. Christ, himself, was the perfect example of obeying this commandment. It is also giving thanks to God for the many blessings which however should not be limited to only good times but also bad times thereby giving us the opportunity to demonstrate our faith in God. Thanksgiving will draw our hearts out to God and keep us engaged with him; it will take our attention from ourselves and give the Holy Spirit room in our hearts. WHY THIS THANKSGIVING? Without a deep sense of humility, of sincerity and of accountability in one’s relationship with His Maker, he or she cannot and will never see reason or reasons why he must thank the Lord. ...

INTRODUCTION The Catholic Church committed herself to ecumenical dialogue during the Second Vatican council with the aim of fulfilling the prayer of Jesus Christ “That they may be one” (John 17:21) hence Pope John Paul II says it is his earnest desires to renew this call to unity with this Encyclical “UT UNUM SINT” Of May 25th 1995. Like many encyclicals, he derives its title from the first few words, which was taken from the prayer of Jesus. Christians cannot underestimate the burden of long-standing misgiving inherited from the past, and of mutual misunderstanding and prejudices. Complacency, indifference and insufficient knowledge of one another often make this situation worst. As such the ecumenical dialogue must be based on conversion of heart and prayer, which will lead to purification of memories. The ultimate goal of the ecumenical movement is to re-establish full visible unity among all the baptized, basically the encyclical deals with the Roman Catholic Church’s relatio...

The abuse of the Holy Ghost fire has become a dangerous trend in Christianity, stemming from the influx of Pentecostalism. Christians all over the world want the fire of the Holy Ghost to destroy their imaginary enemy. But I must warn you that the Third person of the Most Holy Trinity is not an assassin Stop sending him to kill your enemy by Fire. First of all, the Holy Spirit as the third person of the Trinity is God, second of all, He is Known and called Holy Ghost, comforter among many other titles. He is the Paraclete promised by Christ. What is Paraclete? The word came from two Greek words; ‘Para’ meaning side by side and kalew. Meaning whispering; put together, whispering by the side. Hence the paraclete is to whisper to us what God want us to know. The Holy Spirit is symbolized as Fire, wind, dove, water, etc. so that we can concretely feel his divine work in our day-to-day life. My dearest friends the fire of the Holy Spirit purifies not destroy, contrary to what we see tod...