Holy Spirit Corner

Forgiveness: When we become like God  Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14; 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-32 or Luke 15:1-10 Our television screens are inundated with scenes of violence and strife. Nations are at war against nations: Russia against Ukraine, the two Sudans against each other; intra-national wars in Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Colombia, etc; those nations not at war are preparing for war or aggression, like Turkey and Iran. To this list, one should add American gun-violence and racial tensions, global family disunities and divorces, genocides. We live in a world that needs healing and reconciliation with itself. What happened to the reconciliationRead More →

“You are not far from the kingdom of God”: Love creates this Kingdom of God! Deuteronomy 6:2-16; Hebrews 7:23-28; Mark 12:28b-34 For those who are allergic to laws, and feel overwhelmed by legislations, know that you’re not alone. The fact that a scribe complains about the law in today’s gospel shows how acute the problem is. In fact, a famous biblical lawyer and pharisee, St. Paul, saw the law as a threat to salvation. St. Paul spent all his Christian life making sense of the law. He comes up with the concept of justification by faith. Today, justification by faith is not our preoccupation butRead More →

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11): All is Grace! “All is grace” goes to the heart of the message of Luke 2:11 as a reading for Christmas, and explains its meaning and relevance to Spiritans today. “All is grace” accepts everything as a “gift,” this includes the Holy Spirit’s indwell in every Christian. “All is grace” commends itself for reflection at Christmas, 2017, given the ubiquity of sin and the general doubt about the possibility of a holiness of life required of every Christian. “All is grace” suggests the unbreakableRead More →

                                                       Step out of your Fears – Dare the Holy Spirit! To take a walk down any major Nigerian street, on a Sunday, is to experience a cacophony, all in the name of the worship of God, the Christian God. Amidst the ensuing noises, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are purportedly made manifest through healing, exorcisms and speaking-in-tongues. Yet, the Nigerian politico-economic landscape is in shambles, not to mention the decay of its ethico-social fabric. But by popularRead More →

Provincial Superior’s Easter Message, 2017 “He is not Here . . . He is Risen”: Are we Risen with Him? Fellow confreres in the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, under the Patronage of the Pure Heart of Mary. We, the witnesses to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in the whole-wide-world, must take seriously every single act and action of the Holy Spirit in the world, and relate it to our existential reality in every age and generation. It is Easter again, it is the celebration of the Resurrection. The question is: “Are we risen with Christ”? “He is not Here” One ofRead More →

Provincial Superior’s Christmas Message, December, 2016 Merry Christmas as We Celebrate the Gift that Each one of us Is to the Spiritan Family! Not only in the Christian world, but also in the secular one, Christmas is a time to give gifts to family and friends. I remember, as a child, looking forward earnestly to Christmas for the gifts of new clothes, shoes, belt, and especially the monetary gifts our uncles, aunties, in-laws, grand parents, etc. will give my siblings and me. Of course, all these gifts are incomplete without an abundance of white rice and stew, with an unusually big sizes of meat, onRead More →

Personal Reflections, Biblical, Ecclesiological and Liturgical First Reflection: Biblical The debate rages on, among biblical scholars, whether the Spirit of Jesus, as described by Luke and put in the mouth of Jesus, in Luke 4:18-19, is prophetic or not. This is to say that, if it is prophetic, then Jesus identified himself as a prophet and played the role of a prophet as a human being, after his Incarnation. The two reasons for considering Jesus as a prophet are, 1) the fact of Jesus reading from the prophecy of Isaiah 61:1-2 (even though Luke 4:18-19 omits “a year of vengeance for our God,” which isRead More →

After my baptism in 1985, I was admitted to St. Clement’s Minor Seminary, Lokoja. In those days, we used to read the lives of saints prior to night-prep (evening studies). The very first one we read was read out to us, in the chapel, by the rector, Fr. Michael Sunday Sasa. It was the life of St. Archibald. My life changing story came with the reading of the life of St. Mungo, who had a special devotion to the Holy Spirit. The long and short of the story is that Mungo was raised by a monk in a monastery as an orphan. He was lovedRead More →