Fr Ogundipe Sdv

Talk on Human Dignity - Delivered on 18th of July, 2020.  Audience: St. Vincent De Paul Society Members (Divine Mercy Catholic Church, Lekki. Lagos) Dignity is the right of a person to be valued and respected for their own sake, and to be treated ethically. It is of significance in morality, ethics, law, politics and religion. What is "Human Dignity?" The English word dignity comes from the Latin word dignitas, which means "worthiness." Dignity implies that each person is worthy of honour and respect for who they are, not just for what they can do. In other words, human dignity cannot be earned and cannot be taken. No wonder Late Fela Anikulapo Kuti in his song "Beast of no Nation" says "Human right na my property, you can't dash me my property." Human dignity is a sense of self-worth. Therefore, dignity is a sense of pride in oneself that a human being has with them. This conscious sense makes human being feel that they deserve respect and h...

Young Catholic Students are called to resist evil and promote good in their motto "See, Judge and act" because when you nip evil in the bud, you truncate its capacity to full growth. For anyone to allow evil to stay is to have access to full subscription, remember too, whatever you feed will grow. Sin grows, evil grows, and evil people grow from mild sins to severe distortions just as King David started with pornography, developed in adultery, and ended in murder. However, the gospel today seems to have toed a countercultural line of thought that does not support evil to be uprooted as soon as it spotted which cast shadows on moral judgement. While It is striking in the gospel to think weed and wheat must grow together until the harvest; we need to look closely at the profound teachings of Jesus to determine why?  The gospel reading cast Jesus in the role of wisdom teacher using metaphorical techniques to make his points. He presents the farmer as one who demonstrates patienc...

My child  God will make a way where there seems to be no way God knows all about your inner pain Tell Him you do not know how to pray Your cry for help will not be in vain A heavy heart He can heal today. God will give you strength when weary And everything seems to go wrong Lift your hand and reach out to Him He will make a heavy heart strong. Let go and ask God to be your guide Release all doubts and foolish pride Trust Him to dry your eyes of tears And free a heavy heart from all fears. Look up to God, He holds the key And knows what is best for you and me Only He can make heartaches cease And fill a heavy heart with peace. Fr law cares

   Fr Victor Akinwale IBIYEMI  Pentecostalism is thriving in our times. The reasons are obvious; a faulty understanding of religion, the desire for false freedom, the hunger for contemporary innovations, profane novelties and dissentions from canonised authorities, the dictatorship of relativism, the enthronement of individualism, the craze for emotionalism, distaste for truth, an increasing demand for falsehood, an overwhelming gullibility of contemporary folks and many more.   Pentecostalism is the lure of the new age. By Pentecostalism, I refer to a new and defective movement in Christianity that places emphasis on peripheral-religiosity, spiritualism, emotionalism and syncretism. Pentecostalism is a mixture of many things. The movement is marked by an overwhelming emphasis on externalities such as speaking in tongues, healing, prophesying, deliverance, visions, dreams and revelatory interpretations. While these religious experiences might not be the problem,...

Some years ago, reading the award-winning epic novel "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe; I was petrified literally at the scene where Okonkwo insists on taking part in the execution of Ikemefuna despite the fact that the boy calls him "Father". That irony runs deep as no sane Father goes about killing or maiming his children. Naturally, when a child is in danger, he runs to the protective hands of his Father, but events and realities teach us the hard lessons that some children are developing adaptive mechanism from fathers who see child-support as a burden that nature has placed on them.  Though children may be heady and difficult, the fathers don’t save and them by pushing them on the side-lines, they redeem them with good counsel and affection. Realistically, there are some burdens that the earthly Fathers can't bear but they can share with great concerns. Thus,  children, who have been failed by their biological Fathers, spiritual fathers or poster fathers...

In any race, especially in the race of life, winners don't quit. Even if they pass through thick and thin or go through a heated furnace; they become better and more elegant like gold. The stories of Peter and Paul, who had not-so-good past in 'themselves' but got a great future with God summarise the story of grace at its peak. The red vestment for this solemnity is indicative of the kind of death the two icons passed through signifying the shape of witnessing to Christ; they denied before bouncing back to defend. In the 4th century sermon of  Augustine of Hippo, he expressed "both apostles share the same feast, for these two were one, even though they died separately, Peter went first, and Paul followed but this day is made holy for us by the apostles' blood". Thus, who are these men? St Peter was an impetuous man. Though called the rock, he was more like fickle sand with his quick temper and changing mood. So eager to be near the Lord that he would walk on ...

Reflection for  12th Sunday A in Ordinary Time.   Neuroscientists say its normal to be afraid and the capacity to fear is part of the brain function while a lack of fear may be a sign of serious brain damage. Sometimes, you don’t need to be in danger to be scared. The fear of writing exams, public speaking, a new job, a dark and confined place, the fear of the unknown and the fear of fear can be scary and troubling. However, your fear response is amplified if you are already in a state of fear because it limits the number of things you can do and disrupts the coordination response.  If you are afraid of flight and height, you might not travel very far, and if you are fearful of speaking the truth because people will feel uncomfortable, you will be neutral to the gospel values. Christianity has a history of fearless martyrs whose heads rolled because they didn't worship on conventional altar nor aligned to the diluted interpretation of doctrine while they deviated fro...

Prayer is the direct communication with God who is always close to us . If God is so close to us why are you shouting as if he is far away? Why are you repeating the words as if he did not hear you the first time? Do you know that NO is a valid answer? Why then are you compelling God to answer yes always.  Always remember these when you pray: 1. Prayer nourishes the soul just as food nourishes the body 2. Prayer brings out the best of all virtues in a person whose life is a prayer to others 3. Prayer is a way of life, just as communication is a way of life 4. Prayer bridges the gap between God and man; between man and man 5. Prayer gives consolation, relieves burden, builds up faith and trust in God 6. Prayer makes one humble, because humility is the first attribute of spirituality; a person who lacks humility can never be spiritual.  7. God is humility and humility is God. So, to be like God, is to be humble, and prayer helps to attain such a stage. 8. Prayer builds up confid...

                                        The Ascension of Jesus is often presented as a slow lifting of Jesus from the ground, like a rocket rising up and getting lost in the clouds.  This is the imagination one gets from the gospel accounts.  But then we must careful not to read these accounts as if they were a report of a concrete event.  The author is not interested in describing an historical event.  He makes use of expressions and images taken from the culture of his time to teach us some very important points about the person of Jesus and about the life of the Church.             Where is Heaven? :     According to the Jewish belief there are three regions in the universe: the upper one, above the sky, supposed to be the abode of God:  the earth, the abode of human beings; then the region inside the earth, t...

The story of the ascension is told in Acts 1:9, following the Gospels. It tells us that “He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight”. In verse 11 it adds, “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” The story of our salvation began with the Incarnation of Jesus who became man by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Blessed Virgin Mary. He lived with us , loved us, but On Good Friday he was crucified and he died for the sins of humanity. On Easter Sunday, God raised him triumphantly from the dead. And now, forty days after his resurrection,  we celebrate his ascension into heaven. The solemnity of the Ascension celebrates the glorified and victorious return of the word of God – the risen Jesus – to heaven {Reynolds Ekstrom, "Ascension” in The New Concise Catholic Dictionary}. This solemnity ooccurson a Thursday, forty days after Easter or the following Sunday...