Feast of the conversion of St. Paul
My turning point
"I asked, ‘What shall I do, sir?"
(Acts 22:3-16)
Beloved, there is a significant question in responding to God's call, one that no longer seeks your plans, your dreams and aspiration, but God's.
That question is,
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‘Lord, what do you want me to do?.’ It was Paul's turning point, St. Francis of Assisi's too, and yours it shall be if you let Him.
Good morning and happy feast
-Gerald Nwogueze, OFM Cap.
Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi, Priest and monk, Patron of Nigerian Priests (born in Aguleri, Anambra State, Nigeria in September 1903 died in Leicester, England, January 24, 1964) was an Igbo Nigerian ordained a Roman Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Onitsha, Nigeria on December 19, 1937. He worked in the parishes of Nnewi, Dunukofia, Akpu/Ajalli and Aguleri.
Tansi did not only live a contemplative life, he also engaged in active ministry. As a pastor and Father, he did the normal day to day function of a shepherd, but with extraordinary love and dedication.
We Nigerian parish priests or brothers and sisters engaged in pastoral works can emulate his love for his flocks, evangelize the youths, teach them faith and morals, counsel couples preparing for marriage, visit the poor, sick, be a good confessor and promote vocation to the Priesthood and religious life by our examplary life of charming purity, simplicity and prayer, when necessary as St. Francis of Assisi would say, use words.
As we celebrate his feast day today, we ask for his intercession and guidance while we pray that his canonization process may be hastened for the greater glory of God. Amen.
-Gerald Nwogueze, OFM Cap.
Sites consulted:
Google, Blessed Iwene Tansi: The patron saint of Nigeria's democracy @20 www.thecable.ng
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5 Important lessons from St. Teresa of Avila, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
INTRODUCTIONHappy Feast day to all attached to the name and devotion of St. Teresa, especially the Discalced Carmelite nuns and friars. The period of the birth of St. Terese in 1515, was when Columbus opened up to European colonization. Interestingly, it was within this period, Luther started the Protestant Reformation. From this background of turmoil she shed the light of Christ and interior peaceOut of all of this change came Teresa pointing the way from outer turmoil to inner peace and way of perfection.
HER LIFE
In her failed attempt to be martyred (just like St. Francis of Assisi) thus fulfulling her eagerness to be with Christ forever, St. Teresa built a hermitage with her brother where they lived and prayed. Later on, she became a Carmelite nun. She was called on to reform her order with St. John of the Cross; Order of Discalced Carmelite. She hated delusion and to the last obeyed her confessor. She died on October 4, 1582. She was canonized in 1622 and in 1970 she was declared doctor of the church. She is the patron saint of Headache sufferers. Her symbol is a heart, an arrow, and a book.
HER WORKS
Autobiography
The Way of Perfection (1583),
The Interior Castle (1588),
Spiritual Relations, Exclamations of the Soul to God (1588),
and Conceptions on the Love of God.
Of her poems, 31 are extant; of her letters, 458 are extant.
Lenten Journey 30/40
Sacrament and the Sacramental
Whoever looks at the bronze serpent, shall live. (Nm 21:4-9)
Beloved, wow it's our 30th day and today just as the bronze serpent was lifted as a sign for healing, Jesus reveals the sign of our redemption.
Catechism teaches, "Sacramentals are sacred signs. They prepare men to receive the fruit of the sacrament and sanctify different circumstances of life... they always include prayer, often accompanied by a special sign, such as laying of hands, the sign of the cross, or sprinkling of holy water" (CCC 1668,1677) Apart from sacramental liturgy and sacramentals, other forms of popular pieties sorrounding sacramental life include veneration of relics, stations of the cross, making the sign of the cross, genuflection, rosary, medals and other private devotions. (CCC 1675)
Sacraments too are outward sign of inward grace but they were directly instituted by Jesus. Sacramentals don't confer grace as sacraments do, but by the church's prayer they dispose and prepare us to cooperate with it (CCC 1670) they are the extention of the sacraments, they orient or lead us to them.
What's in Sacrament and sacramental 🤔 its actually the form and matter. Moses provided the bronze snake and mounted it and as far the people looked at it, it effects healing. So also, the words/formula of blessing/consecration is uttered by the priest/minister, and the effect follows necessarily. Dearly beloved, to whom much is given much is expected. What a treasure we have in the sacraments and sacramentals, unfortunately some deny themselves of this grace.
Good morning and have a nice day.
-Gerald Nwogueze, OFM Cap.
The story and history of SAINT AGATHA. Agatha was born in Sicily, of rich and noble parents—a child of blessing from the first, for she was promised to her parents before her birth, and consecrated from her earliest infancy to God. In the midst of dangers and temptations she served Christ in purity of body and soul, and she died for the love of chastity. Quintanus, who governed Sicily under the Emperor Decius, had heard the rumor of her beauty and wealth, and he made the laws against the Christians a pretext for summoning her from Palermo to Catania, where he was at the time. “O Jesus Christ!” she cried, as she set out on this dreaded journey, “all that I am is yours; preserve me against the tyrant.”
The story and history of SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS. Thomas Aquina was born of noble parents at Aquino in Italy, in 1226. At the age of nineteen he received the Dominican habit at Naples, where he was studying. Seized by his brothers on his way to Paris, he suffered a two years’ captivity in their castle of Rocca-Secca; but neither the caresses of his mother and sisters, nor the threats and stratagems of his brothers, could shake him in his vocation. While Thomas was in confinement at Rocca-Secca, his brothers endeavored to entrap him into sin, but the attempt only ended in the triumph of his purity. Snatching from the hearth a burning brand, the Saint drove from his chamber the wretched creature whom they had there concealed. Then marking a cross upon the wall, he knelt down to pray, and forthwith, being rapt in ecstasy, an angel girded him with a cord, in token of the gift of perpetual chastity which God had given him. The pain caused by the girdle was so sharp that Thomas uttered a piercing cry, which brought his guards into the room. But he never told this grace to any one save only to Father Raynald, his confessor, a little while before his death. Hence originated the Confraternity of the “Angelic Warfare,” for the preservation of the virtue of chastity.
Having at length escaped, Saint Thomas went to Cologne to study under Blessed Albert the Great, and after that to Paris, where for many years he taught philosophy and theology. The Church has ever venerated his numerous writings as a treasure-house of sacred doctrine; while in naming him the Angelic Doctor she has indicated that his science is more divine than human. The rarest gifts of intellect were combined in him with the tenderest piety. Prayer, he said, had taught him more than study. His singular devotion to the Blessed Sacrament shines forth in the Office and hymns for Corpus Christi, which he composed. To the words miraculously uttered by a crucifix at Naples, “Well have you written concerning mme, Thomas. What shall I give you as a reward?” He replied, “Nothing save yourself, O Lord.” He died at Fossa-Nuova, 1274, on his way to the General Council of Lyons, to which Pope Gregory X had summoned him. His tomb is located in Tolouse.
©Ibreviary
The story and history of SAINT AGNES. Agnes was only twelve years old when she was led to the altar of Minerva at Rome and commanded to obey the persecuting laws of Diocletian by offering incense. In the midst of the idolatrous rites she raised her hands to Christ, her spouse, and made the sign of the life-giving cross. She did not shrink when she was bound hand and foot, though the bonds slipped from her young hands, and the heathens who stood around were moved to tears. The bonds were not needed for her, and she hastened gladly to the place of her torture.
Feast of the conversion of St. Paul My turning point "I asked, ‘What shall I do, sir?" (Acts 22:3-16) Beloved, there is a signif...
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