Read­ing Time: 2 minutes Intro­duc­tion Since Monday of the Sev­enth Sunday of Paschal, Chris­ti­ans espe­cially, Cath­ol­ics have been pre­par­ing for the com­mem­or­a­tion of the des­cent or gift of the Holy Spir­it on the Apostles, on all believ­ers and what gen­er­ally, is termed the offi­cial birth of the Church. The feast of the des­cent of the Holy Spir­it con­cludes the paschal peri­od. What a won­der­ful way of mark­ing the end of the feast of the resur­rec­tion of Jesus! Finally, Jesus ful­fills his prom­ise of anoth­er Paraclete, the spir­it of truth,…

Read More »

Read­ing Time: 2 minutes Intro­duc­tion Depend­ing on their litur­gic­al arrange­ment and agree­ment too, for some Cath­ol­ics, this Sunday is the Ascen­sion Sunday, while for oth­ers, it is the Sev­enth Sunday of the Paschal cel­eb­ra­tion. Since Niger­ia observed the ascen­sion on Thursday, our reflec­tion is on the read­ings of the sev­enth Sunday of East­er. For the past three Sundays, John has presen­ted to us dif­fer­ent aspects of Jesus. “As a good shep­herd, Jesus lays down his life for the sheep because he sin­cerely cares for them and loves them too;…

Read More »

Read­ing Time: 3 minutes Intro­duc­tion This Sunday is a con­tinu­ation of the Gos­pel of the last Sunday. If Jesus is the good shep­herd and the true vine, then, Chris­ti­ans have no option than to remain in him. In this Sunday Gos­pel read­ing, Jesus explains to believ­ers that the effect of remain­ing in him, the true vine, is to keep his com­mand­ment, which, invari­ably, is the com­mand­ment of God. By defin­i­tion, a com­mand­ment is an order or injunc­tion giv­en by author­ity. As a good shep­herd, Jesus lays down his life…

Read More »

Read­ing Time: 3 minutes Intro­duc­tion    Last Sunday, John presen­ted to us the image of Jesus the good shep­herd. A good shep­herd who lays down his life for the sheep because he sin­cerely cares for them and loves them too; who knows the sheep one after the oth­er. That is, he knows them indi­vidu­ally and can always identi­fy them any­where, every­where; a good shep­herd care­fully and con­tinu­ously leads the sheep, calls the sheep to order; pro­tects them from danger and if injured, dresses the wound. A good, caring and…

Read More »