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Category: Easter Season

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Easter Season

“RISE AND GO… AND HE ROSE AND WENT” (Acts 8:26-27)

⏰Thursday of the Third Week of Easter (14 April 2016) ?Acts 8:26-40; Ps 66:8-9, 16-17, 20 (R.v.1); John 6:44-51 ✍Rev. Fr. JohnBosco Chimaobi Ezeonwumelu (Issele-Uku Diocese) ?”RISE AND GO… AND HE ROSE AND WENT” (Acts 8:26-27) My dear, by virtue of our baptism, we are made co-redeemers with Christ. In the concluding part of the Stations of the Cross, he addresses us, “My job as man is done. What is left is you…” How well have we been doing that which is left for us?? In John 6:44-51, Jesus presents himself as the only channel to eternal life. Many people...

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Easter Season / Third Week

“THIS ILLNESS WILL NOT END IN DEATH; RATHER IT IS FOR GOD’S GLORY” (John 11:4)

⏰Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter (18 April 2018) 📕Acts 8:1b-8; Ps 66:1-3a, 4-5, 6-7a (R.v.1); John 6:35-40   My dear, sometimes, God allows us to face some challenges because through them, a greater good would come up for us. It was through the persecution of Christians that the Good News was able to leave Jerusalem to the ends of the earth (see Acts 8:1-8), so that others might also believe in Jesus, the Bread of life and be saved (cf. John 6:35-40). Don’t get this point wrongly! Some people might now begin to argue that if God allows...

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Easter Season / Third Week

“LORD JESUS, RECEIVE MY SPIRIT” (Acts 7:59)

⏰Tuesday of the Third Week of Easter (17 April 2018) 📕Acts 7:51 – 8:1a; Ps 31:3bc-4, 6 and 7b-8a, 17 and 21ab (R.v.6a); John 6:30-35 Can you be brave enough to also make the last option for God? Remember always that heaven is our goal. All our struggles and way of life must be directed toward helping us achieve that goal. Otherwise, we shall be running off the track. When Stephen was about to die, he cried out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59). That kind of declaration can only be made by one who is not attached to...

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Easter Season / Third Week

“DO NOT LABOUR FOR THE FOOD WHICH PERISHES, BUT FOR THE FOOD WHICH ENDURES TO ETERNAL LIFE” (John 6:27)

⏰Monday of the Third Week of Easter (11 April 2016) 📕Acts 6:8-15; Ps 119:23-24, 26-27, 29-30 (R.v.1b); John 6:22-29 My dear, at the beginning of this new week, we are all invited to reflect on the content of or the basis for our faith. Is our faith built upon Christ the cornerstone or based on our selfish interests? In the Gospel, Jesus accused the people of seeking him not because they believe in him but because they had enough bread to eat. It was that same kind of selfish approach that initiated the jealousy and plot against Stephen in Acts...

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Easter Season / Sunday / Third Week

CHOOSE TODAY WHO YOU WILL FOLLOW – GOD OR THE WORLD

⏰Third Sunday of Easter (Year C) 📕Acts 5:27b-32, 40b-41; Psalm 30:2 and 4, 5-6, 11-12 and 13b (R.v.2a); Rev 5:11-14; John 21:1-19 🎤CHOOSE TODAY WHO YOU WILL FOLLOW – GOD OR THE WORLD Last Sunday, we celebrated the Divine Mercy Sunday, in which we recounted the enormous love which God has for us and wants to spread through us. Next Sunday, we shall be celebrating the Good Shepherd Sunday, in which we shall be recounting God’s tender care which does not fade away despite our obvious weaknesses. In between these two celebrations, we are invited to reflect on the crises...

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Easter Season / Second Week

LET JESUS COME IN TO HELP YOU

⏰Saturday of the Second Week of Easter (14 April 2018) 📕Acts 6:1-7; Ps 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19 (R.v.22); John 6:16-21 If you have observed closely, you would notice how we have been discussing the different challenges that the disciples had to face due to their temporary separation from Jesus, and Jesus often stepped in to help them manage the challenging situation. What that continues to tell us is that Jesus makes the difference. Consider the experience of the disciples in crossing over to Capernaum through the sea (John 6:16-21). The Gospel began by telling us of the impending night. Night introduces...

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Easter Season / Second Week

THE THEOLOGY OF OUR CONTRIBUTIONS

⏰Friday of the Second Week of Easter (13 April 2018) 📕Acts 5:34-42; Ps 27:1, 4, 13-14 (R.v.4ac); John 6:1-15 How do you look at the miracle of the multiplication of loaves in John 6:1-15? Maybe you see Jesus as a magician who doubled each particle of the bread and so the multiple. Well, given the character of the gospel of John that allows for dual interpretation, that assertion could be true because Jesus, as God, could do anything he wants. However, that miracle can otherwise be seen as the miracle of generosity instead of loaves. Do you not think that...

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Easter Season / Second Week

“WE MUST OBEY GOD RATHER THAN MEN” (Acts 5:29)

⏰Thursday of the Second Week of Easter (12 April 2018) 📕Acts 5:27-33; Ps 34:2 and 9, 17-18, 19-20 (R.v.7a); John 3:31-36 When you are threatened by a force which seems to be beyond your strength especially at the exercise of your faith, what do you do? 👉At the office when the only option for appointment or promotion is to pay in cash or in kind; 👉When premarital sex is the only condition to get married; 👉When you are falsely accused of an evil act and the only way to prove your innocence is to swear before an oracle; 👉When speaking...

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Easter Season / Second Week

“LOOK, I HAVE OPENED A DOOR BEFORE YOU WHICH NOBODY CAN SHUT” (Rev 3:8)

⏰Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter (11 April 2018) 📕Acts 5:17-26; Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9 (R.v.7a); John 3:16-21 My dear, the word of God cannot be caged nor stopped from fulfilling its purpose; no opposition can stop its fearless and raging force (read Acts 5:17-26). The high priest and the Sadducees tried to cage this word as the Apostles went about proclaiming it but the angel of the Lord would not allow them to succeed. Nobody can hinder the word from achieving its purpose (cf. Isa 55:10-11). This same word of God says that there is no condemnation...

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Easter Season

“THEY WERE OF ONE HEART AND SOUL” (Acts 4:32)

⏰Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter (05 April 2016) ?Acts 4:32-37; Ps 93:1abc, 1c-2, 5 (R.v.1a); John 3:7b-15 ✍Rev. Fr. JohnBosco Chimaobi Ezeonwumelu (Issele-Uku Diocese) ?”THEY WERE OF ONE HEART AND SOUL” (Acts 4:32) The Catholic Catechism defines Baptism as a Sacrament which cleanses us from original sin, makes us Christians, children of God and members of the Church. This Sacrament compels us to come out of our old selves and imposes on us the responsibility to live, no longer for ourselves alone, but for Christ and others. That is an implication of what Jesus says to Nicodemus that...