I'mnotashamedofthegospel

07/12/2023

In his book, Macbeth, Shakespeare asserts through the character of Duncan that, “there is no art to find the mind’s construction on the face” (Act 1, Scene 5). One cannot read someone else’s mind by merely looking at their face. A man’s sincerity is proven by his deeds and not his words or facial expression.

More often than not, what we profess as Christians contradicts what we practice. We confess God with our lips and deny Him with our lives. We follow strictly all church rituals but come back home and live in hatred with one another.

Mahatma Ghandi observed Christians and was so worried about the dichotomy that lies between what they profess and how they live and concluded that, “I love your Christ but I hate your Christians.”

Jesus admonishes us today in the gospel, that “not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” Jesus is telling us that it is not too much about what we profess but what we practice.

It is alright to profess our believe in God and it is equally ok to express our love to God with our lips. But true worship does not end there. It ends with deeds. Faith without practice is a contradiction in terms and love without obedience is an impossibility.

In this advent, as we prepare for his coming, May He sustain us with his grace that when he comes he will find us living our faith in the the works that we do (Mt. 7:21, 24-27).

God is enough. Peace.
*ImNotAshamedOfTheGospel* Maxy

24/08/2021

Today we celebrate the feast of st Bartholomew who was also called Nathaniel. He was one of the twelve who were called to the apostolate by our blessed Lord himself. He is mentioned among the disciples who were met together in prayer after Christ’s ascension, and he received the Holy Spirit with the rest.

One of the most encouraging deeds of the Apostles was the emphasis they continually placed in the power of the Risen Lord. They never regarded themselves as the sources of power but only as instruments of power. They were well aware of their limitations, but they were also well aware that there was no limitation to what the Risen Lord could do through them and with them.

Folk, this is the secret of the Christian life. It is not us who do something but Christ who lives in us. It is not some pastor we claim is powerful that does something but the power of the Holy Spirit that works strongly in us.

So long as the Christian thinks only of what he can do and be, there can be nothing but failure, frustration and fear. But when one thinks of not I, but Christ in me, there can be nothing but peace and power. Remember, victory is only ours through Christ who loved us.

When you are tempted to think you are too weak, be reminded that “Great things happen when God mixes with us. Great and beautiful, wonderful things, great things happen when God mixes with us.”

Have a very good morning. God is enough. Peace. *ImNotAshamedOfTheGospel* Maxy

06/06/2021

Hello Catholics, today is another Sunday and we celebrate Corpus Christi and so let us have a little teachings on the Eucharist.

1. The Eucharist, first and foremost, is the source and summit of our Christian life. This means that our Christian life has its origin in the Eucharist and it is oriented towards the Eucharist too.

2. The Eucharist was instituted by Jesus himself at the last supper, on the night he was betrayed. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until the end of time. This means that the Eucharist is the extension of Christ’s work of redemption (passion, death and resurrection) in time and space.

3. The Eucharist is the body and blood of Christ.

4. The church teaches, as scripture affirms, that “by the consecration of the bread and wine, there takes place the change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood.” This is what the church calls transubstantiation.

5. This means that, when we receive the Eucharist, although we will see it as bread, as the accidents remain, it is no longer bread but the body of Christ and likewise the wine.

6. This can be understood when we try to enter the upper room at the last supper. Jesus took bread, he showed it to the apostles, they all saw him holding bread and then he blessed it and told them this is my body, he took wine and did likewise and said this is my blood. It was bread and wine they all saw, but Jesus made them understand that, after the blessing (consecration) it was no longer bread and wine but his body and blood ( Lk. 22:14-20).

7. And so to us Catholics, the Eucharist is not a representation or a resemblance of the body and blood of Christ. It is, as Christ himself make us believe, the body and blood of Christ itself. It is Christ himself giving himself to us as food for the journey.

8. Also, the presence of Christ does not leave the Eucharist after the mass so that the consecrated host can be treated anyhow like some of our other Christian brothers and sisters believe. Christ remains in the Eucharist even after the mass. That is why we keep the consecrated host (which is the presence of Christ) in a tabernacle.

9. This is of great importance, the Eucharist, no matter how small or big you take, contains the whole Christ which is his body and blood, soul and divinity. This means that if you take the consecrated host alone at mass without drinking from the chalice, like we usually do you have still taken the full presence of Christ I.e his body and blood, soul and divinity.

10. This means that, we don’t have to allow others to make us think that because we don’t take communion from both species sometimes because of pastorals reasons, we don’t fully participate in the Eucharist. Our faith in the Eucharist defies that assumption. We believe, as Christ make us understand, that even if they break the small consecrated host and give you half, it is still the full presence of Christ, his body, blood, soul and divinity, that you have taken.

11. The Catholic Church does not allow other Christian denominations to participate in our Eucharist because of the differences in faith on the Eucharist. Most of them do not have the reverence we have to the Eucharist because they don’t believe it is the presence of Christ himself. Most of them believe it is representation, a symbol or a resemblance of the presence of Christ that is not faith Jesus gave us at the last supper.

12. The Eucharist is Christ himself and it is established by Christ himself. We all should endeavor to participate in it for Christ himself in his teachings on it said “you will have no life in you if you do not eat my body and drink my blood” (Jn. 6:53).

13. The invitation to the Eucharist is an invitation to all. None of us is to be exempted. That is why Jesus himself instituted the sacrament of penance and reconciliation so that when we commit a mortal sin we can confess and be restored to a life of grace to worthily participate in the Eucharist.

14. Since the church is interested in guiding her members towards a life of holiness it is in her great interest that none of us refuse the invitation to the Eucharist. That is why she enjoins on her priest to avail themselves to listen to confession anytime, any day, anywhere so that all may be able to receive the Eucharist.

16. Therefore you should not be shy of going for confession. A priest will always listen. And you should not let the number of times you confess worry you. Most of the saints confessed 5 times a day.

17. Anytime you sit in church and reflect on the Eucharist, if you forget everything, please remember this popular statement: “it was bread, it is now Christ. It was wine, it is now Christ.” Just like the apostles at the first Eucharistic celebration, we too will see bread and wine but we believe with them, as Christ asked us to, that by the words of consecration it is no longer bread and wine. It is the whole Christ: the body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ our Lord.

Thank you. Kindly share your contributions, doubts, question and other issues you will like us to have teachings on to me and I will contact the right sources to give response.
Maxy-0506480349

09/04/2021

In todays gospel, (Jn. 21: 1-14) the Apostles, without Jesus laboured long- a whole night- without taking any fish; their toil was pleasing to the Lord but He wished to show them that He alone can give anything.

He asks only an act of Humility. "Children, have you any fish" (Jn 21:5) and Peter confesses his helplessness: “Lord we have laboured all night and have taken nothing.”

The heart of Jesus is touched by the answer. Perhaps if the Apostles had taken a few little fishes, Jesus would not have worked a miracle; but he had nothing and so through God's power and goodness his nets were soon filled with great fishes.

This is just our Lord's way. He gives us what we need, but we have to accept that we can not do it on our own no matter how skillful we are.

I wish you a happy Friday. May the God who is enough bless you today and always. Peace. *ImNotAshamedOfTheGospel* Maxy

04/04/2021

When God created human beings, he gave then everything they needed to make them happy. Humans were made of matter and soul, and just like every other matter, man was meant to decompose or die. But God never intended that man should die. So he gave man the preternatural gift of immortality that man will forever live and never die.

In addition, he gave man the preternatural gifts of impossibility (immunity to suffering), integrity (a perfect harmony between the affective and the rational part of man) and an infused knowledge of right and wrong.

When Adam sinned, his sinned affected the whole of humanity. All the gifts Adam received, was received by the whole of the human race. When he lost them, he lost them for the whole of the human race. And so it is through this one man that sin came into the world. After that sin of disobedience in the garden, man lost all the preternatural gifts. As a result, man dies, man suffers, and the rest. That is why Paul says “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin. Therefore death spread through the world because all have sinned” (Rom. 5:12).

And so theologically speaking, no man dies naturally. Any man who dies, whatever being the cause, dies because of sin. Not that he himself has committed a particular sin and is being punished but that sin has entered the world, as Paul said, through one man.

As a result of this sin, the relationship we had with God was broken. Heaven was closed to us. Worst of all, by his victory over Adam in the garden, the devil had secured some kind of dominion or Princedom over humanity. There was the need to repair this broken relationship between man and God and to destroy the dominion of Satan over man. That is why Christ came, and went the way of the cross.

The primary effect of his sacrifice was the undoing of Adam’s sin. The dominion of the devil was destroyed and the damaged relationship between man and God was healed so that heaven was opened, once again, to humanity. Whatever cost man owed as a result of sin was paid in full by Christ on the cross. That is why St. Paul said once again in Gal. 5:1 “For freedom, Christ has set has free. So stand firm and do not submit to the yoke of slavery.”

This is what redemption means. This is what Easter is all about. On the cross, when he said τετελεσται (Tetelestai) he meant, our redemption is completed. He paid the price, all of it, that we might be free.

I wish you a happy Easter. God is enough. Peace. *ImNotAshamedOfTheGospel* Maxy

04/04/2021

18/05/2020

In a difficult world before Covid, - God protected us!

In this Covid-World, God is protecting you!

In whatever that is to come, God will definitely keep protecting you!
Be cheerful!

Psalm 91
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.[a]
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

3 Surely he will save you
from the fowler’s snare
and from the deadly pestilence.

18/05/2020

It is a Monday, the beginning of a new week. We are up and still living in a turbulent world. I do not know in which situation or circumstance you find yourself at this moment. I just want to let you know that God is with you. No matter what, just keep believing. Be happy!
The team is here to chat with anyone who wants to share their challenges with us.

06/04/2020

There come a time in our lives, as humans, when we become desperate for attachment; but unaware of how difficult it can be. The emptiness we feel often drives us to dream up an elaborated fantasy life in that even before we meet someone, we would have already knighted the person, who in our judgement, would arrive and make sense to our lives. [ 317 more words ]

Many of us enter into relationships without constructing a real life for ourselves when we were single because we have come to live increasingly in a fantasy world, one over which, though, we could…

23/03/2020

I hear the voice of the world in cries; In tears that waste the eyes, By faith, so vainly fed; With a tyrant so cruel to put earth to death. "Ah, helpless world!" said I; "Ah, wretched world!" twice did I sadly cry; "Ah, helpless world!" the north and south reply. When thoughts of the power nations contain, And yet ever too vain; [ 169 more words ]

I hear the voice of the world in cries; In tears that waste the eyes, By faith, so vainly fed; With a tyrant so cruel to put earth to death. “Ah, helpless world!” said I; “Ah, wre…

13/02/2020

On life's busy road are a lot of downward spirals of events and turnovers. We are met with different kinds of people where memories are created and lives turned around either for the best or otherwise the unspeakable with their little actions and inactions. Some happen to be our superheroes who carry us on pedestals to make us well known. [ 148 more words ]

However at the end, our ability to wrestle through these challenging moments make us deserving of the greatest title of all – Heroes.

08/01/2020

The year seemed very promising even when the previous year had not yet loomed into its grave with its woes. There were clear indications that the new year was going to be one of the best ever. It was a new year which started a new decade and happens to be a leap year too. With no doubts, the new year already started for me on the Christmas Eve when things I was expectant of had started manifesting themselves. [ 250 more words ]

The year seemed very promising even when the previous year had not yet loomed into its grave with its woes. There were clear indications that the new year was going to be one of the best ever. It w…