Msgr. Anselm Nwaorgu

READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022821.cfm This past year has been a year of rude awakening—the uncertainty of life,...

READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/010321.cfm Epiphany Strategies: A light unto my path. The narrative about the journey of...

THE HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS, MARY & JOSEPH READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122720.cfm As I was thinking about what this coming year will look like in my life, I came upon this verse from the Bible : “You search out my path…and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether” (Psalm 139:3-4). I truly believe that the reason why God searches out our path and is acquainted with all our ways is because He c

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122020.cfm I am reminded of a story a friend of mine once told me. It was rush hour on a hot -summer Friday afternoon, on a local road that fed into a major federal highway. Commuters were rushing hoping to beat the traffic headed down the shore. On a cross lane stood a blind man, who because he slept off in the bus, passed his usual stop. Now he was in an unfamiliar territory. He stood there and repetit

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121320.cfm My dear friends, welcome to Advent 2020; a time we are called to become fully present and fully awake to the crucial questions about life: “Who am I? “Who is God for me”? “What does life on earth mean”? “Am I happy with where I am in life today”? “Am I happy with where I am with my God”? Am I happy with where I am with others?” With so many things competing for time in our lives, it is very eas

SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120620.cfm My dear friends, welcome to Advent 2020; a time we are called to become fully present and fully awake to the crucial questions about life: “Who am I? “Who is God for me”? “What does life on earth mean”? “Am I happy with where I am in life today”? “Am I happy with where I am with my God”? Am I happy with where I am with others?” With so many things competing for time in our lives, it is very ea

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112920.cfm In my reflection last week, I indicated that the Solemnity of Christ the King was instituted in defense of religious freedom in the face of a cultural revolution that was and is still intent on deposing religion from public and social life. The truth is that Christianity has done so much for the world because true religion is transformative. What the world needs is not to throw religion out of

SOLEMNITY OF CHRIST THE KING READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112220.cfm On the last Sunday of each liturgical year, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Christ the King. This solemnity was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925, in response to the then growing nationalism and secularism that sought to thrust Jesus Christ and religious spirituality out of public life. The Pope was alarmed by this trend, and saw in it, a big threat to human civilization and relig

THIRTY THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111520.cfm The gospel of this Sunday speaks about the inevitability of suffering in the life of a Christian. So, I would like to turn my radar on the role of suffering and adversity in our lives. Sir Edmund Hillary made several unsuccessful attempts to climb Mount Everest and failed. After one of those failed attempts, he stood at the base of the mountain, shook his fist at it, and shouted:

TWENTY EIGHT SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101120.cfm This week, my attention is drawn to the Responsorial Psalm on this 28th Sunday in Ordinary Times because it is such a powerful prayer of confidence and trust in our God. It is taken from Psalm 23; a psalm that states that we should not be shaken by adversities in this life because we worship a God who is the Lord of deliverance; a God who can save, no matter how desperate the situ

TWENTY FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092020.cfm The gospel reading for this 25th Sunday in ordinary time is about a master who went out to the market place, at different hours of the day, to hire laborers for his vineyard. What struck me, in that story, is the fact that when the master went out around 5:00pm, an hour before the end of the workday, he saw some laborers still standing and waiting to be hired. Guess what? They wer

TWENTY FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091320.cfm As we celebrate the 24th Sunday in ordinary times, the readings return to a critical issue Christ often spoke about—Forgiveness. In the book of Sirach 27:30 and 28:1-5 we read: “Anger and unforgiveness are abominations, yet the sinner hugs them tight. The vengeful will face the Lord’s vengeance; for He will remember all their sins in detail. Forgive your neighbor the wrong done to you

TWENTY THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090620.cfm In the second reading of this Sunday, the Bible enjoins us to owe nothing to anyone except love—the duty of care (Ref Roman 13:8). That is to say, no matter the nature of the relationship we have with people, there are certain things we owe them as a matter of divine obligation. One such debt that we owe is the duty to pray for others. You see, where we are today in life is not ju

TWENTY SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/083020.cfm Over time, I have come to realize that if you don’t climb a mountain, it is very difficult for you to view the plains. Yet climbing a mountain is never easy. There will be challenges to deal with, obstacles to overcome, and stones thrown from left, right and center that must be dodged. In the past few months, Coronavirus has tried to stop us from our ways of life. It has brought so ma

In reading the lives of some very famous people, I am amazed at how so many of them were told, in their childhood, that they would amount...

TWENTY FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082320.cfm In reading the lives of some very famous people, I am amazed at how so many of them were told, in their childhood, that they would amount to nothing, simply because they showed no promises earlier in their lives. Take a look at Winston Churchill, who in his junior years seemed so dull that his father thought he might be incapable of earning a living in life. How about Charles Dar

EIGTHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME READINGS: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/080220.cfm “Five loaves and two fish are all we have here,” said the apostles, that is to say, how far can that go in feeding these five thousand people? What the apostles forgot was that the bread was going to be put in the hands of Jesus; the only things needed to have over 12 basket-full of bread crumbs leftover after the people had eaten to their fill. We so often underestimate what God

READINGS SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME A manager went out to lunch with his sales rep and store manager. On their way to the restaurant, they saw an antique oil lamp by the roadside. They picked it up and as they rubbed at it, a Genie jumped out and, looking at the trio, said: “I’ll give each of you just one wish, so ask for anything you want”. The store manager shouted, “Me first! Me first!” and went on to make his wish. “I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedbo

READINGS FOUTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME As we celebrate the fourth of July this year, let us remember the important role that “Prayer” played in the American struggle for independence. On that first day, when The First Continental Congress gathered on September 5th 1774, the suggestion to start the Congress with prayer was met with opposition because (as John Adams reports in his letter to his wife) “we were so divided in religious sentiments—some Episcopalians, some Quake

READINGS Our Responsorial Psalm, for this Sunday, the 13th Sunday in ordinary times, is: “Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord”. What a beautiful acclamation, and yet, what a difficult time to appreciate it, living, as we are, in this pandemic environment that is marked with racial tensions, sickness and pain, loss of loved ones, anguish, bigotry, desperation, poverty, unemployment, and sorrow. It is fairly easy to trust in God's love, to rejoice in his salvation, and

READINGS: Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ This Sunday, we celebrate “Corpus Christi”, the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ; the One Bread and the One Cup that we share, even though we are so many—“Gentile or Jew, servant or free, woman or man”—all in the one Lord, Jesus Christ. This is the will of God for humanity. But just as in the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve followed the counsel of Satan, not to worry about what God has said but to be their own g