Msgr. Anselm Nwaorgu

READINGS In the Gospel of this 5th Sunday in Ordinary Times (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, for He knew that Peter and his colleagues had fished all night in futility. Peter knew that Jesus had healed the sick and driven out demons, but he was amazed that Jesus would care about his day-to-day routine and understand his needs as a fisherman. Yes, God is interested

READINGS The gospel of this 4th Sunday in Ordinary Times, tells the story about the rejection of Jesus by His own home people; a rejection that deprived the whole town of the wonderful works of God’s mercy and the power of Jesus to heal and to restore. The reason for this rejection was nothing else but prejudice and bias; He was “Guilty by Association”. While in town, He taught with insight and authority; presenting old truths in new lights, using stories from everyday life t

READINGS: 3RD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME In the first reading of this 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, 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 disassociate joy and gladness from holiness; from religion

READINGS : 2ND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME The first reading on this 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Times 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 is saying that he will not give up and that nothing will stop him from achieving a determined result—the vindication of Jerusalem. This is what I call commit

READINGS: The promise of a Messiah was based on the premise that a virgin will bear a son and his name shall be called Immanuel. Having made this promise, God also had to find a way to help us identify the Messiah when He came, because anyone could rise up and make the claim the he is the Messiah. So, among other things, the Baptism of the Lord served to identity Jesus as the Messiah, the Lamb of God, the one who will take away the sins of the world; it was the Epiphany of th

READINGS As we celebrate the Epiphany of our Lord, one question keeps coming to my mind: “Why did the Magi, these rich and non-Jewish merchants, leave Persia to travel hundreds of miles to Bethlehem in search of a new born king? They apparently had more than enough to live on and so why make this travel? Many a time, in life, we may have enough to live on but not enough to live for. Probably the Magi were in search of someone that could give meaning to their lives. In the Old

READINGS THE HOLY FAMILY , JESUS, MARY & JOSEPH Today is the Solemnity of the Holy Family, the first Sunday of the New Year. The 1st reading, taken from the book of Sirach, and the 2nd reading, taken from St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians, come together to paint a picture of how a Christ-centered family should function, by outlining how each member of the family ought to behave in their various roles. In Colossians 3:18-21, St. Paul writes, “Wives, submit yourselves to your

READINGS FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT The 1st reading on this 4th Sunday of Advent 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). Bethlehem, an unknown town, a town too small to be counted among the towns of Judah, a town not to border with, is the town to produce a king. Remember when God sent Samuel to go and anoint one of the sons of Jesse, all his b

READINGS THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT Nigerian names, and especially Ibo names, generally have a meaning; meanings that tell a story, describe a situation, make a statement, state an intention, or even declare a wish. The name of my friend is “Akujobi” (the one who has taken the anger away). He was named “Akujobi” because his parents experienced great opposition to their marriage from both of their families. They were, by all intents and purposes, forbidden to marry. But, because

READINGS SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT How do we understand Advent? What are we looking forward to? Is it the preparation for the birth of Christ? We know that Christ was born 2,021 years ago, but yes, we celebrate the memory of that birth. But more importantly, Advent is focused not on the birth of Christ but on the second coming of Christ. The readings of both the 1st and this 2 nd Sunday of Advent clearly speak to this: “Do not ignore this one fact, the day of the Lord will come

READINGS FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT When President George Washington, in 1789, recommended and assigned Thursday the 26th of November as Thanksgiving Day, and when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November 1863, both presidents, in their declaration, 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, and a call to the respon

READINGS "OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, KING OF THE UNIVERSE" As we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King, on this 33rd Sunday in Ordinary times, the gospel confronts us with the encounter between Pilate and Jesus, where Pilate asks Jesus a very straightforward question: "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.

THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME THE READINGS Deep down inside, we all like to be in control and to take charge of our own circumstances. Unfortunately, the control that we so desperately long for can be a very elusive and frustrating quest. Many a time, circumstances can leave us at the mercy of things we can’t control; things that remind us that we are not really in-charge—sickness, accidents, natural disasters, pandemics, even death—creating anxiety, desperation, and

THIRTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/103121.cfm In the gospel reading of this 31st Sunday in ordinary times (Mark 12:28b-34), Christ, after listening to a Pharisee’s reasoning about what Scriptures says about the commandments, told him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of Heaven”. The problem here is that not being far from the kingdom of heaven is not the same thing as being in it. What we need is to be inside the kingdom, n

THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102421.cfm The gospel of this 30th Sunday in Ordinary times, tells of the story of a blind man, called Bartimaeus, who, although was physically blind, could see perfectly, on the inside. He could see what the crowd, who had eyes, could not see; that the Jesus of Nazareth (a reference to the humanity of Jesus, the son of Joseph) was truly Jesus, the son of David (an appeal to His divinity and d

TWENTY NINE SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101721.cfm “Been there done that” is a phrase that is commonly used when we believe that we have experience about something and therefore, can speak to and about it. But all our experiences are on the human level and that is all we can speak to. We cannot say, we’ve been there done that in reference to God because, as Jesus declared: “No one has seen the Father except the one whom He sent”. T

TWENTY EIGHT SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101021.cfm One activity that is common to humanity is the pursuit of happiness and, for the God-oriented, the quest for eternal life. In this pursuit, many may believe that happiness comes from having things. Yet, how many times have we heard, in the News, that a person, who had everything—holidays overseas, large houses, garages full of expensive cars, fine clothes, the best food—committed

TWENTY SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100321.cfm The first reading of this 27th Sunday in ordinary times makes the case for what marriage is all about, and how God intended it to be. “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him”, says the Lord. Notice that Eve was not taken from Adam’s feet, and so she was not created to be his slave. She was not taken from Adam’s head, and so she was not cre

TWENTY SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092621.cfm In the first reading of this 26th Sunday in ordinary times, we read about God bestowing His spirit on 70 elders who were appointed to help Moses in the governance of His people. Two of these elders did not come out to the temple area, where the rest were gathered, but remained in the camp. The spirit of the Lord still came upon them and they prophesied. Someone went and reported

TWENTY FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091821.cfm In the Gospel reading of this 25th Sunday in Ordinary times, we read: “Whoever wants to be first must be the last and the servant of all.” (Mark 9:35-36). Now, let’s be honest, being last and the servant of all is not the greatness we are groomed to strive for nor is it the greatness we aspire to. Greatness, for most of us, means to be number one, a winner, a success. It’s about p

TWENTY FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091121.cfm The 2nd reading of this 24th Sunday in ordinary times brings to our mind a very important question: Are all spiritual attributes invisible? Can faith stand alone without good works and still save us? This reading, from James, tells us that faith without compassion, forgiveness, and help towards others is dead and cannot save. This is because, while the purpose of faith is salvati