Fr. Lawence Abanobi

Fr. Lawence Abanobi A faith clinic

23/05/2026

SEND FORTH YOUR SPIRIT, O LORD, AND RENEW THE FACE OF THE EARTH!
Sunday 24th May 2026
Pentecost Sunday!
Acts 2:1-11,
Psalm 103(104):1,24,29-31,34,
1 Corinthians 12:3-7,12-13,
John 20:19-23.

The doors that hid the company of Jesus for the fear of the unknown were closed, but the first Paraclete, without the aid of open doors, walked into this congregation of frightened people and said to them, ‘Peace be with you,’ and even again He said, ‘Peace be with you. Peace is the gift of the resurrection that those who lived in the shadows of death may see the light and stumble no more, and those who were at the brink of despair and death may breathe the new life that flows from the glorified body of Christ.

As the father caused his son to be raised from the dead, the son would cause us, the now adopted children of God, to rise too from our deaths to new life in him. For as the Father sent him, Jesus is commissioning us all the elect into ministry! To empower us for the work ahead, Jesus breathed on his Apostles and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Their work was cut out for them! As He instituted them ministers of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday, today he institutes them ministers of reconciliation: ‘For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven.’

Without the breath of God, religion lacks spirituality! All cults are mere rituals! Saint Paul’s writing to the Corinthians tells us that ‘No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ unless he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit.’ This spirit of God manifests in the church and the world in different gifts: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and the fear of the Lord. Worthy of note is that though many are these gifts like the parts of the human body, they are always from the same Spirit.

The day we have been waiting for has come! Today we live the Pentecost, that day when the Apostles and our mother Mary whom we celebrate at the end of May devotion today heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house in which they were sitting; and something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire, resting on the head of each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

According to the Acts of the Apostles, because of Pentecost, timid men became orators, hideouts became launch pads, and one tongue became understood in multiple languages. For us today who live the memorial of Pentecost, may that same spirit teach us not to be ashamed of the good news, that we may turn the universe by our words and deeds into pulpits of divine revelation. May in all our different languages: English, Igbo, Italian, Hausa, Idoma, Tiv, Igala, Idoma, German, Spanish, Fulani, Yoruba, etc., may we all hear today that voice that we all can understand, irrespective of our tongues: the voice that asks us to love God above all things and to love our neighbor as ourselves. (Mark 12:30)

We pray in this Holy Mass for the Lord to send forth his spirit anew upon us and renew the face of the earth. May the Holy Spirit come on us with treasures that endure, and with refreshing peace on us bestow. May He, the third person of the blessed Trinity, be for us solace amid our woe and our inmost being fill with light. May He heal our wounds and renew our strength, and may He pour His dew on our dryness and wash the stains of our guilt away. May He bend our stubborn hearts and will, melt the frozen and warm the chill, and guide the steps that go astray. May the consoler give us comfort when we die, may He give us life with God on high, and give us joys that never end, Amen!

HAPPY PENTECOST!

16/05/2026

GLORIFY US, LORD!
Sunday 17th May 2026
7th Sunday of Easter
Acts 1:12-14
Psalm 26(27):1,4,7-8
1 Peter 4:13-16
John 17:1-11

Prefiguring that moment, Jesus would declare on Calvary, ‘It’s accomplished.’ He raised his eyes to heaven to his father and our father, His God, and our God, and declared, ‘The hour has come.’ In the old order, time ruled (kronos), but now in the reign of Jesus, grace (kairos) rules. The time has come for the Son of God to be glorified, that the sons of men may become sons of God! This time of grace is meant for glorification, and as such, Jesus implores his father to glorify him, for he has run the race, has finished the fight, and awaits the crown of glory! For us, therefore, still in battle “church militant,” if we persevere, there will be time for our glorification!

Through obedience, Jesus won all creation back to the Father: “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4). By this, Jesus teaches us that the only way to glorify God is to carry out whatever work God assigns us on earth. Jesus today asks the Father to glorify him that he may return all glory to the Father: ‘Glorify your son that your son may glorify you.’ to teach us that glory not returned to God is wasted; for to God belongs all glory, dominion, honor, and power. Jesus seeks this glory that all creation, the Father has placed in his hands, may be inundated with the glory of eternal life that consists in knowing the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.

But to live in this atmosphere of glory, we need the strength of the Pentecost that enables us to be in the world but not to be of the world, because we belong to a different system, not government by mere time but by grace: a time that glorifies God! To live in this world and not of the world, we must die to our flesh that we may live no longer for ourselves but for God! As such, the first letter of Saint Peter encourages us to endure the pain of the contrast of being in the world and not of the world, for if we can have some share in the sufferings of Christ, we should be glad, because we will enjoy a much greater gladness when the glory of God is revealed. For glory, therefore, a man can bear insults not because of his wrongdoings but nobly in the name of God.

We all need this glory, and as such we are united with the Apostles and Mary who saw Jesus a few days ago ascend into heaven, waiting in the upper room in Jerusalem for the promise of the ‘other paraclete’ who is the author of glory! Inspired by the prayer of Jesus today, the whole creation looks up to the Father and beckons that God may send on us afresh that glory: the advocate, the consoler, and the giver of life (the vivifier).

We pray in this Holy Mass that our eyes would be opened to see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living. May we so hunger for the glory of Pentecost that we may all remain in the upper room of prayer till the advocate comes, Amen!

HAPPY SUNDAY!

13/05/2026

THE LORD GOES UP WITH SHOUTS OF JOY; HE WOULD COME BACK WITH TRUMPET BLAST!
14th May 2026
The Ascension of the Lord
Acts 1:1-11
Psalm 46(47):2-3,6-9
Ephesians 1:17-23
Matthew 28:16-20

In mystery He came, and in mystery He left! He ascends today that He may be the firstborn of the new creation, for all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him! To his elect, Jesus commands that they make of all peoples a new creation, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to keep God’s commands.

These elect kept gazing into heaven as Jesus ascended. This ascent gives all of us who are co-elects by virtue of our baptism hope that we too would rise, for where our Lord is, we must also be! We were united with him in death, and so we would be united with Him one day in the clouds! Saint Paul, writing to the Ephesians, prays that God should enlighten the eyes of our mind by this mystery so that we can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit, and how infinitely great is the power that he has exercised for us believers.

By raising His Son Jesus from the dead, God the Father has put all things under His feet and made him, as the ruler of everything, the head of the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation. Jesus desires to share this power with us his elect and as such according to the acts of the apostles he had told his elect not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for what the Father had promised: that they will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on them, and then they will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth.

We pray in this Holy Mass that as we stand today staring into the sky as the Lord goes up with shouts of joy, may we hunger the more for the ‘other paraclete’ He promised us in Pentecost! We pray for a deeper awareness of the fact that Jesus, who has been taken up from us into heaven today, will come back in judgment in the same way as we have seen him go to ask us an account of our stewardship here on earth, hoping we would be found worthy to ascend with him on that day, Amen!

HAPPY SOLEMNITY OF THE ASCENSION!

09/05/2026

IF YOU LOVE ME, KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS!
10th May 2026
6th Sunday of Easter
Acts 8:5-8,14-17
Psalm 65(66):1-7,16,20
1 Peter 3:15-18
John 14:15-21

In today’s Gospel, Jesus commands his Apostles to make their love for him concrete by keeping his commandments. It is not enough, therefore, to profess but to practice! But to do so, we need to be in union with the font of love. Love brews in the heart and pumps the limbs with the desire to sacrifice!

Because He loves us, Jesus made promises he would keep; never to leave us orphans but asks the Father for help for us: the Spirit of truth who would be with us always. Jesus promised, “I will come back to you.” The world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live, you will live. In the Eucharist, the highest expression of God’s love for us, Jesus fulfills this promise: even though some may not acknowledge God’s loving presence in our midst, Jesus lives in us always!

The holy Eucharist is our school of love: a participation in the supreme love of Christ if we ourselves resemble what we have received.

How do we love? Those who love Jesus are those who receives his commandments and keeps them, and the greatest of these commandments is to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Who should we love? From the first letter of Saint Peter, Christ himself, innocent though he was, died for the guilty, to lead us to God. Our love, therefore, cannot be exclusive to those who love us but especially to those who need our love.

Where love and charity abound, there God is. When the Apostles in Jerusalem, reaching out to the church in Samaria by sending them Peter and John, they received the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the seal of any loving community, and where there is love, there God is, for God is love!

We pray in this holy Mass for the grace to love as Jesus taught us. May our religion not be mere ritual formality but a spiritual pilgrimage towards God, the font of love. May we give God glorious praise for His love is eternal, Amen!

HAPPY SUNDAY!

01/05/2026

JESUS IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE!
Sunday, 3rd May 2026
5th Sunday of Easter!
Acts 6:1-7
Psalm 32(33):1-2,4-5,18-19
1 Peter 2:4-9
John 14:1-12

The promise of eternal life is the jewel of the resurrection! Jesus wants us to live the resurrection mode, and as such, his sacrifice on Calvary merited our participation in that mode, with the assurance that there are many rooms in his Father’s house. To achieve this home, though, there would be a going and a coming: Jesus said, " I am going now to prepare a place for you, and after I shall return to take you with me. In this promise, Jesus connects his resurrection to his second coming (parousia). All of us then who rejoiced that Jesus rose from the dead should be aware that he would come back the same way he went from us.

The same Jesus who goes to prepare a place and would come back to take us there is the way himself: ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life says Jesus. No one can come to the father except through me. Both the resurrection and the second coming must be in the optics of Christ, because Jesus is the way to that home, the truth of that search, and the life we hope for! But many a time, like Philip, we have been with the master and have not gained mastery of divine things! Jesus laments thus: ‘Have I been with you all this time and you still do not know me? ‘To have seen me is to have seen the father. It is the father, living in me.

Jesus is the way to the Father and the living stone that constructs our home with the Father, a stone often rejected by us but chosen by God and precious to him. Many stumble over it because they do not believe, but for us who believe, we have been created the chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people set apart to sing the praises of God who called us out of the darkness into the priesthood that offers the spiritual sacrifices which Jesus Christ has made acceptable to God.

This eternal home, prefigured in the apostolic family, needed to be reinforced as the spiritual edifice of our families and communities, often with the help of more dynamic ministries. To achieve this, the apostles relied on the help of that cornerstone, invoking the spirit of God, and the whole assembly approved of this proposal and chose seven men full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.

We pray in this Holy Mass that God may keep our eyes steady on the view of our eternal homeland! May our joy in the resurrection of the Lord motivate us to be armed with good works to be worthy to rise with the Lord when He comes on the last day, for the Lord looks on those who revere him, on those who hope in his love, to rescue their souls from death. May we unite ourselves to Jesus, the only access to the Father, the truth in our search for God, and the new life of those who find God, that we may become for our suffering world radiations of the way, the truth, and the life, Amen!

HAPPY SUNDAY!

25/04/2026

SERVANT LEADERSHIP!
Sunday, April 26, 2026
4th Sunday of Easter (Year A) Good Shepherd Sunday!
Acts 2:14,36-41
Psalm 22(23)
1 Peter 2:20-25
John 10:1-10

Today, Jesus describes this Church as a sheepfold! Flowing from the unity of the Blessed Trinity, the Church is “one-fold!” Despite our many differences, we recognize our shared origin and destiny from and to the same God. In today’s Gospel, Jesus talks about a gate through which He accesses His flock: a service point that, if not used, makes anyone wishing to enter, a thief aiming to steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus, the suffering servant of Yahweh, is that gate through which our communion stays safe! When we allow other forces—such as prejudice, intolerance, unhealthy competition, and greed—to enter our union—of course not through the door—we have planted the seed of our own plunder and destruction.

The good shepherd leads by love. He came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many (Matt 20:28). He goes before us with the light of His example, guiding our way with His word. As a testament to His love, as our second reading tells us, He suffered for us and left us an example to follow. Though he was insulted, he did not retaliate in kind. Though He was tortured, He made no threats, bearing our faults in His own body on the cross, so that through His wounds we may be healed and become agents of healing to others.

How often has that small flock of Jesus allowed infiltrators to sneak into her fold through the fence, not through the gate of the sheepfold, and accepted other standards, instead of those shaped after the heart of Jesus, the Good Shepherd! How often has this little flock of Jesus welcomed the sweet invitation of agents from this corrupt generation to distract her with promises of prosperity without hard work and sacrifice, misleading her completely away from the path of righteousness!

Challenged by the faithfulness of the Good Shepherd, we, the flock, must be deeply moved by our many infidelities and ask, ‘What must we do?’ Saint Peter answered: " We must repent, be reborn, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, which would enable us to return to the state of grace. Jesus said: My sheep never follow strangers but run away from them because my sheep do not recognize the voice of strangers.

We pray during this Holy Mass for a revival of our divine senses so we can hear the voice of the good shepherd, our source of unity. May we be reassured that the Lord is our shepherd and that we shall not want if we stay within his sheepfold. May God, in His infinite kindness, guide the world in encouraging the rise of good leaders, who would lead by the force of their example, and may God free His people from all those who came just to steal, kill, and destroy. Amen.

HAPPY GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY!

18/04/2026

YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE!
Sunday, 19th April 2023
3rd Sunday of Easter (Year A)
Acts 2:14,22-33
Psalm 15(16):1-2,5,7-11
1 Peter 1:17-21
Luke 24:13-35

Despite Jesus' multiple post-resurrection appearances, many of His disciples still see their call to discipleship as a wasted effort. Similarly, despite the abundant signs of God’s presence in our world—both physical and mystical—many people are close to giving up on God because of His seeming absence to them and to the world.

Today, on this journey: seven miles from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus, two of Jesus’s disciples—Cleopas and an unnamed companion—represent all of us, capturing the frustration of anyone who hopes in God but feels disappointed today. The familiar question often arises on their journey away from faith: Where was the good God when I suffered? Where was God when Pilate condemned Jesus to die: the one we hoped would be the one to set Israel free?

We find an answer today in Jesus, who walks beside us through times of confusion, pain, and doubt, even though our circumstances often prevent us from recognizing Him. As in today’s Gospel, right in the middle of our doubts, Jesus wishes a conversation with us: He said to them, ‘What matters are you discussing as you walk along?’ This divine intervention is a challenge: to accept an invitation to experience a divine manifestation. Jesus was prepared to keep going, but they urged Him to stay with them. ‘It is nearly evening,’ they said, ‘and the day is almost over.’ So, he went in to stay with them, broke the bread, and they now recognized Jesus. After you lament your pain, do you also invite Jesus, who was in dialogue with you on the way home?

The best way to understand God’s plan amid doubt and pain is through the Holy Eucharist, for in the breaking of the word and the bread, Jesus opens our eyes to the inner life where the cross is transforms into a crown! When we worthily receive the Eucharist, don’t we also feel like the disciples did— ‘did not our hearts burn within us as He talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?’

With the Eucharistic Jesus with and in you, all fear is gone! Just imagine the formerly fearful Peter standing up with the eleven and addressing the crowd loudly after meeting the risen Lord: Indeed, one with God is the majority! We need Jesus now more than ever, who alone can explain the hidden mystery of pain and sacrifice. You will never walk alone! Know that God is always walking with you and remain calm no matter the turbulence, for as Peter quotes King David today: I saw the Lord before me always, for with Him at my right hand, nothing can shake me.

We pray during this Holy Mass in thanksgiving because Jesus paid our ransom with far greater than silver or gold. We also ask for the grace never to fall for the devil’s tricks, knowing that the Lamb who redeemed us with His precious blood will never abandon us to walk alone. May we experience through this Eucharist the strength to join voices with the psalmist, even in our doubts, pains, and fears, to say to the Lord: “I will keep you ever in my sight: for with You are at my right hand, I shall stand firm.” Amen!

HAPPY SUNDAY!

11/04/2026

NO MERCY, NO FORGIVENESS; NO FORGIVENESS, NO PEACE!
Sunday, April 12, 2026
Second Sunday of Easter (Year A)
Divine Mercy Sunday!
Acts 2:42-47, Psalm 117(118):2-4, 13-15, 22-24, 1 Peter 1:3-9, Jn 20:19-31

The entire company of Jesus locked themselves in a room out of fear that their Master’s seeming misfortune might happen to them. Having given up the fight and accepted defeat, Jesus stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" What does peace have to do with fear? Remember, it was the same Jesus whose command calmed the winds, the waves, and the sea, which knew peace. Mark 4:41. In a way more powerful than words, Jesus showed them His hands and His side; a reminder that He has defeated the mother of fear: death, to restore our peace with God. Because he now lives, all fear is gone!

Jesus breathed His spirit onto His Apostles: a sign of the outpouring of that spirit, which is the seal of reconciliation between man and God and the mandate for reconciliation between man and his neighbor: those whose sins you forgive are forgiven. Without forgiveness, there can be no peace, and without the peace only God can give through the outpouring of His Spirit, no one can forgive.

The gift of the resurrection is our reconciliation with God. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we are now a blessed people, at peace with God! Anyone who claims Jesus as Lord and is not under the authority of the Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of peace and reconciliation, is a liar! That Spirit enables us to do the things Jesus Himself does, for the Spirit of Him who rose from the dead is the force behind the church and its mission.

Thomas, who was not present when the resurrected Jesus first breathed His Spirit on His Apostles and, as a result, doubted the revelation, represents all of us who have not experienced the historical Jesus in the flesh, who hear about Him through the testimony of others and read about Him in Scripture but may want to verify for ourselves what we have heard and read. To us, Jesus says, ‘Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe and love me,’ for even to those who lived with the historical Jesus, “Without faith no man can see God.”

Where there is mercy, forgiveness, and reconciliation, remove the stench of greed, hurt, and revenge. Where forgiveness exists, peace thrives, because what we fight for is never to satisfy our needs but an often futile attempt to satisfy our greed. The Christian community in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles made the Lord their only inheritance and shared their gains and pains as one body. Day after day, by the grace of God and the power of their testimony, the Lord added to their community those who were destined to be saved.

We pray during this Holy Mass, giving thanks to God for the gift of Jesus' resurrection! May our encounter with this infinite ocean of God’s mercy motivate us to seek God's forgiveness, forgive ourselves, and reconcile with others. Inspired by the prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi, let us strive to be instruments of peace: where there is hatred, may we bring love; where there is wrong, may we offer forgiveness; where there is discord, may we foster harmony; where there is error, may we promote truth; where there is doubt, may we deepen faith; where there is despair, may we cultivate hope; where there is shadow, may we bring light; and where there is sadness, may we share joy. Amen!

HAPPY DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY!

05/04/2026

GOD’S RIGHT HAND HAS TRIUMPHED!
Easter Sunday! Celebrating the Lord’s Resurrection!
April 5, 2026.
Acts 10:34, 37-43
Psalm 117(118):1-2,16-17,22-23
Colossians 3:1-4
John 20:1-9

The bright light shining this morning from the empty tomb has humbled the fear of death! Peter and John, hearing the impossible—“He is risen”—ran to the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there and the napkin that had been on His head, not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a separate place, and they believed.

As Jesus was raised from the dead, the entire creation was lifted to a new dignity, and all believers received a new calling! For as Saint Peter tells us, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, enabling Him to go about doing good and healing all whom the devil oppressed. Concerning everything that happened in Jerusalem, including that Jesus was crucified on a tree and that God raised Him on the third day, we must become witnesses to all these events with our very lives!

The resurrection of Christ is significant, as Saint Paul states in his letter to the Colossians: “if then we have been raised with Christ, we must seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” We are responsible for demonstrating through our words and actions that Jesus has risen and that He is the one chosen by God to judge the living and the dead. To Him, all the prophets testify that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.

To everyone waiting for Him, Jesus desires to share His victory over sin and death with us! Today, our adoption is finalized: we are children of the resurrection and of God, called to be instruments of salvation for the entire world! Let God's people declare, “God’s steadfast love endures forever.”

We pray during this Holy Mass of the Lord’s Resurrection for all those whose lives feel as if they are behind a sealed tomb, with no visible hope for a better tomorrow: victims of political systems, those condemned to death, people in abusive relationships, those living in extreme poverty and struggling, individuals with terminal illnesses, and all whose pain is known only to God. May the victory of Jesus over the impossible restore our trust in God, who is greater than even death! As Christ, our hope, has risen, may we also be raised with Him to new life, Alleluia!

HAPPY EASTER!

04/04/2026

DEATH CANNOT KEEP ITS PREY!
HOLY SATURDAY: Vigil for the Lord’s Resurrection!
April 4th, 2026.
Genesis 1:1-2:2 - Matthew 28:1-10

We were hoping He would be the Redeemer of Israel! (Luke 24: 21) It makes no sense that the God of life is now in the grave! The silence that ended yesterday's passion service speaks loudly about the darkness humanity felt after witnessing God die! Even those who crucified Jesus are shocked that they truly succeeded. Mary, the mother of Jesus, officially became the mother of sorrows! The company of Jesus has all scattered! Friends and enemies have run away, leaving Jesus in that dark cave! Darkness has indeed covered the earth!

Can anyone plead His cause? Yes! Behold, a great earthquake occurred: an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled away the stone, and sat upon it. Jesus left the tomb, leaving death behind: the sacrifice is finished! This mother of all sacrifices fulfills all the sacrifices that foreshadowed it: Abraham told his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go yonder and worship.” Moses stretched out his hand over the sea in defiance of reason, but on God's command, making a sacrifice of faith. Noah offered God a sacrifice of faith, and God promised that the waters would no longer cover the earth.

On this night above all others, the acts of creation and redemption are completed! On this most sacred night, heaven touches earth, and the ransom is paid! On this most sacred night, God, who became man, has made humans sons and daughters of God! On this seventh day, God finished the work He had begun and rested from all His labor. On this night of greatest light, we give thanks to the Lord and call upon His name, for He reveals His deeds among the nations: He bore our pains upon Himself and defeated death itself so that we may never die eternally!

We pray during this most Holy Mass of the vigil of the Lord’s resurrection that we may learn to seek the Lord while He may be found and to call upon Him while He is near. May all creation be united with Christ in His death, so that we may rise with Him to new life! We pray that, through the mystery of Jesus' resurrection, the wicked may abandon their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. May we all return to the Lord so that He may have mercy on us, and to our God so that He will abundantly forgive us, ensuring we are protected from the wrath of death by the promise of the resurrection. Amen!

HALLELUJAH! CHRIST IS RISEN! HAPPY EASTER!

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