Msgr. Anselm Nwaorgu

READINGS: FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME In the Gospel of this 5 th  Sunday in Ordinary Times, Year C, (Luke 5:1-11), Peter was awestruck when Christ turned from preaching to the people to asking him to cast his net into deep sea for a huge catch. He was amazed that Jesus would care about his daily struggle and understand his needs as a fisherman. Christ knew that Peter and his colleagues had fished all night without catching anything and knew the disappointment they felt in t

READINGS: PRESENTATION OF THE LORD The gospel of this 4th Sunday in Ordinary Times, Year C, tells the story about the rejection of Jesus by His own people; a rejection that deprived the whole town from experiencing the healing powers of Jesus Christ. The reason for this rejection was simply because of prejudice and bias. While in town, He taught them with power, insight, and authority, using stories from everyday life to engage the heart and minds of His listeners. One would

READINGS: THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME In the first reading of this 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, Nehemiah told the people, “Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the LORD must be your strength!” because “This day is holy to our Lord” (Nehemiah 8:9-10). Yes, every day, every hour, every minute, every second of our lives is holy to our God and so we must rejoice in the Lord.  Sad to say, many a time, we tend to separate joy and gladness from holiness, religion,

READINGS: SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME The first reading on this 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Times, Year C, begins with this statement: “For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her vindication shines forth like the dawn and her victory like a burning torch” (Isaiah 61:1). Here, the prophet said that he will not give up and that nothing will stop him from achieving his determined goal—the vindication of Jerusalem. My friends, this is

READINGS: BAPTISM OF THE LORD On this first Sunday in Ordinary Times, Year C, we celebrate the Baptism of our Lord. With the birth of Christ, God had to find a way to help us identify Him as the Lamb of God, the Savior, because anyone could rise and claim that he is the Messiah. The baptism of the Lord served this purpose, and we can, actually, call it the Epiphany of the Lamb. In the gospel of John, John the Baptist said, “So that He might be manifested to Israel, I came bap

READINGS THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD On this first Sunday in Ordinary Times, Year C, we celebrate the Baptism of our Lord. With the birth of Christ, God had to find a way to help us identify Him as the Lamb of God, the Savior, because anyone could rise and claim that he is the Messiah. The baptism of the Lord served this purpose, and we can, actually, call it the Epiphany of the Lamb. In the gospel of John, John the Baptist said, “So that He might be manifested to Israel, I came

READINGS: THE HOLY FAMILY This first Sunday of the year is the celebration of the Holy Family, and both the first reading (Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14) and the second reading (Colossians 3:12-21) paint a picture of how families need to function. In Colossians 3:18-21, St. Paul writes, “Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord” It is important to note that submission, in this context, is a voluntary choice that the wife makes for the greater good of the fam

READINGS: FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT The first reading on this 4th Sunday of Advent, Year C, begins with this statement: “You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah too small to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel” (Micah 5:2).” For the Israelites, Bethlehem was a town too small to be counted among the cities of Judah, but for God, it was the town that would produce a king. This recalls the story of when God sent Samuel to go and anoint o

READINGS: THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT In many traditional settings, names are powerful, and, many a time, have an embedded meaning; a meaning that tell a story, describes a situation, makes a statement, states an intention, or even declares a wish. One of my friends, his name is “Akujobi”, which means, “The reconciler, the one who softened the heart to peace. He was named “Akujobi” because his parents experienced great opposition to their marriage from both families. But being in

READINGS: SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT The readings of this Second Sunday of Advent, Year C, call us to something serious by these words “Do not ignore this one fact, the day of the Lord will come like a thief” (2 Peter 3:8-10). “Be constantly on the watch! Stay awake! You do not know when the appointed time will come.” Many a time, we see Advent as the commemoration of the birth of Christ, but, in its truest meaning, it is more so the preparation for the second coming of Christ—J

READINGS: FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT This past Thursday, we celebrated Thanksgiving Day. Amazingly, when President George Washington recommended and assigned Thursday the 26th of November, in 1789 as Thanksgiving Day, and when President Abraham Lincoln declared the final Thursday of November as a national Thanksgiving Day, in 1863, both presidents saw the act of thanksgiving as not just limited to giving thanks but also as a time to seek God’s forgiveness for our communal sins, a