BE CAREFUL OF WHAT YOU PLANT

An emperor in the Far East was growing old and knew it was time to choose his successor. Instead of choosing one of his assistants or his children, he decided something different.

He called young people in the kingdom together one day. He said, 'It is time for me to step down and choose the next emperor. I have decided to choose one of you.'

The kids were shocked! But the emperor continued. 'I am going to give each one of you a seed today. One very special seed…. I want you to plant the seed, water it and come back here after one year from today with what you have grown from this one seed. I will then judge the plants that you bring and the one I choose will be the next emperor!'

One boy named Ling was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly told his mother the story. She helped him get a pot and planting soil and he planted the seed and watered it carefully. Every day he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other youths began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow.

Ling kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. 3 weeks, 4 weeks, 5 weeks went by. Still nothing. By now, others were talking about their plants but Ling didn't have a plant, and he felt like a failure. Six months went by, still nothing in Ling's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed.

Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Ling didn't say anything to his friends. However he just kept waiting for his seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all the youths of the kingdom brought their plants to the emperor for inspection. Ling told his mother that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But honest about what happened. Ling felt sick to his stomach, but he knew his mother was right. He took his empty pot to the palace, when Ling arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other youths.

They were beautiful in all shapes and sizes. Ling put his empty pot on the floor and many of the other kinds laughed at him. A few felt sorry for him and just said, "Hey nice try."

When the emperor arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted the young people. Ling just tried to hide in the back. "What great plants, trees and flowers you have grown,' said the emperor. Today, one of you will be appointed the next emperor:' All of a sudden, the emperor spotted Ling at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered his guards to bring him to the front. Ling was terrified…"The emperor knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me killed!"

When Ling got to the front, the Emperor asked his name. ’My name is Ling,' he replied.

All the kids were laughing and making fun of him. The emperor asked everyone to quiet down. He looked at Ling and then announced to the crowd, 'Behold your new emperor… His name is Ling!"

Ling couldn't believe it. Ling couldn't even grow his seed. How could he be the new emperor?

Then the emperor said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone here a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds which would not grow. All of you, except Ling, have brought me trees and plants and flowers, when you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Ling was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new emperor."

If you plant honesty, you will reap trust.

If you plant goodness, you will reap friends.

If you plant humility, you will reap greatness.

If you plant perseverance, you will reap victory.

If you plant consideration, you will reap harmony.

If you plant hard work, you will reap success.

If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation.

If you plant openness, you will reap intimacy.

If you plant patience, you will reap improvements.

If you plant faith, you will reap miracles.

But

If you plant dishonesty, you will reap distrust.

If you plant selfishness, you will reap loneliness.

If you plant pride, you will reap destruction.

If you plant envy, you will reap trouble.

If you plant laziness, you will reap stagnation.

If you plant bitterness, you will reap isolation.

If you plant greed, you will reap loss.

If you plant gossip, you will reap enemies.

If you plant worries, you will reap wrinkles.

If you plant sin, you will reap guilt.

Remember your graves because your way passes over it. You will be dealt with as you deal with others, you will reap what you sow and what you send today will meet you tomorrow.

So be careful what you plant now, it will determine what you will reap tomorrow, The seeds you now scatter, will make life worse or better, your life or the ones who will come after. Yes, someday, you will enjoy the fruits or you will pay for the choices you plant today.

God and His creation

 

 When *GOD* wanted to create fish, *HE* spoke to the sea...Genesis 1:20-21 God said, 'Let the waters be alive with a swarm of living creatures, and let birds wing their way above the earth across the vault of heaven.' And so it was. God created great sea-monsters and all the creatures that glide and teem in the waters in their own species, and winged birds in their own species. God saw that it was good.

When *GOD* wanted to create trees, *HE* spoke to the earth.

Genesis 1:24 God said, 'Let the earth produce every kind of living creature in its own species

But when *GOD* wanted to create man, *HE* turned to Himself.

 Then *GOD* said: "Let us make man in our image and in our likeness".

Genesis 1:26 God said, 'Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild animals and all the creatures that creep along the ground.'

 Note:

If you take a *fish* out of *the water* it will die; and when you remove a *tree* from *soil*, it will also die.

 Likewise, when man is disconnected from *GOD*, he dies.

  *GOD* is our natural environment. We were created to live in *His* presence. Cut off from Him we are doomed.Man  loses it's essence when he takes God away from his life..Humanity is destined to doom without God.The earth is the lord's and its fullness..Our life on earth is meaningless without God and infact man is simply a beast without God.And most importantly without God nothing would exist .

Therefore,we have to be connected to *Him* because it is only in *Him* that life exists.

 Let's stay connected to *GOD*.

  We recall that *water* without *fish* is still *water* but *fish* without *water* is nothing.

The *soil* without *tree* is still *soil* but *the tree* without *soil* is nothing ...

  *GOD* without man is still *GOD* but man without *GOD* is nothing.

 REMIND YOUR   FAMILY  ...for the soul of man cannot rest until it rests in the Lord...Oh man let your soul thirst for His creator..

Evangelization!!! 👍🏽😁

Fr.Alexander U Okere

Confessional and the priest in a generation of cafeteria catholic

CONFESSIONAL  SEAL AND THE PRIEST IN A GENERATION OF CAFETERIA OR “ANYTHING CAN GO” CATHOLICS..

A man suspected to be the brain behind many heinous crimes(rape,stealing,abuse of minors) committed in a city was arrested and arraigned in a court for prosecution…..However,few days before he was arraigned,he sincerely repented,had contrition and went to the parish priest for  a confession….After hearing  his confession,the priest absolved him of his sins,using the following formula:

     “ God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Spirit”.

At the courtroom,the suspect was questioned severally by a lawyer…..unfortunately,every effort made to get him say the truth ended in vain…..The priest who heard his confession was summoned the  next day as a witness...to reveal what he heard from the suspect...He was persuaded to disclose what he heard from the suspect at the confessional  but he blatantly refused.He made it categorically clear that he cannot divulge what he heard at the confessional…...He choose to die than divulge the suspect’s confession…...the priest was tortured severally but he stood by his decision….he became a victim,...just like Christ suffered and died for us sinners….He made Himself a sinner that we may be reconciled with God…… the priest received a punishment only meant for the guilty ….

In the formula of absolution stated above,it is wise to note these;...the formula  started with the invocation of the  mercy of  God the father….a Father who” desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth”(1 timothy 2:4)....a Father who dearly loves even the most notorious  sinner….one who never wish the death of a wicked man rather that he may repent and live (Ezekiel 18:22)...A Father who at the fullness of time sent His only begotten Son to suffer,die and resurrect to redeem those who have offended Him..….He came to save us while we were still sinners….His love over us sinners is unimaginable and beyond human comprehension ….His ways are different from ours:

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD”.(Isaiah 55:8)....God the Father sent the Holy one(Christ) among us for the forgiveness of every sin except the sin against the Holy Spirit(Mark 3:29).

The formula continued…..”Through the ministry of the Church” ….a ministry instituted and established by Christ Himself…..when he said…”Whose soever sins you remit, they are remitted to them; and whose soever sins you retain, they are retained”.(John 20:23)...a ministry built on a solid foundation..”I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it”(Matthew 16:18)......

The formula continues...May God give you pardon and peace and I,...........(the priest who has been anointed to be a mediator between men and God and empowered through the sacred ordination to the ministerial priesthood  and who is  nothing but an instrument God uses to dispense His grace of mercy,peace and pardon).... absolve you from your sins
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Spirit”......Not in the name of the priest...not in the name of any saint...not in the name of the Church...but all in the name of the Divine Trinity…..FATHER,SON AND HOLY SPIRIT…

The priest acts in the person of Christ,mediating between men and God..He is an alter Christus(another Christ)...He has no power to forgive sins outside the one granted him by Christ the perfect mediator…..He is privileged to hear only what God alone is supposed to hear...And this is because God willed that he does that….As such,he is bound in conscience never to reveal nor divulge whatever he heard at the confessional…...At the confessional,he does the work of Christ and just like Christ will always show mercy and forgiveness to a sinner...and will never divulge his or her sins to anybody,... ...The priest in the name of Christ grants pardon and peace and will never divulge what he heard at the confessional …..

At mass celebration  and precisely during consecration,the priest often raise the Eucharist saying :       

 ”Take this, all of you, and eat of it,for THIS IS MY BODY,which will be given up for you…..and Take this, all of you, and drink from it,for THIS IS THE  CHALICE  OF MY BLOOD,the Blood of the new and eternal covenant,which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.Do this in memory of me”........

In this words of consecration, and as an alter Christus the priest gives himself as a victim of sacrifice and truly he is ...…..for, he could as well say:...this the body of Christ or this is the blood of Christ….but he said:...”This is my body”,”This is my blood”......Here , the priest acts in the person of Christ in the Eucharistic sacrifice so also he acts as Christ in the Sacrament of penance or reconciliation...he stands in the person of Christ to offer pardon and peace to those  who sincerely approach God for forgiveness and mercy  at the confessional…….and because the Priest is human,(full of frailties) yet does the work only  meant for Christ,...the Church in her wisdom enacted a law that guides a priest in carrying out this Divine function…”The sacramental seal”or what is often referred to as  the Seal of Confession (or Seal of the Confessional) …..this is the absolute duty of priests not to disclose anything that they learn from penitents during the course of the Sacrament of Penance (confession)....If a Priest violates this law,he is subject to Excommunication…

Lately,many Christians and catholics who are one way or another a victim of one crime or another seem to question the rationale behind the Priest inability to divulge what was muted to him at the confessional…..I humbly advice such Christians to desist from such act….Recently I read the insults reigned on  a cardinal who vowed never to divulge what a suspect ( Pedophile Priest)  muted  to him at the confessional…..No amount of pressure can ever persuade any priest to divulge a confessional secret….Those sins confessed die with the priest who heard them …..And nobody can force the Church to change this Sacred,Holy and Divine act…..The earlier Cafeteria Catholics know this,the better for them….. You don't give out what is not yours….Sin of a Christian confessed to a priest is only meant for God and it's never the right of a priest to divulge….so if you want to know what he or she confessed to a priest….go to God…..Go and ask Christ to tell you ….Priests are nothing  but instruments, ball pens in the hand of God

Oh how great is the priest! . . . If he realized what he is, he would die . . . God obeys him: he utters a few words and the Lord descends from Heaven at his voice, to be contained within a small host. Without the sacrament of Holy Orders, we would not have the Lord. Who put him there in that tabernacle? The priest. Who welcomed your soul at the beginning of life? The priest. Who feeds your soul and gives it strength for the journey? The priest. Who will prepare it to appear before God, bathing it one last time in the blood of Jesus Christ? The priest -- always the priest. And if the soul should happen to die (as a result of sin) who will raise it up, who will restore its calm and peace? Again the priest. After God, the priest is everything! Only in heaven will he fully realize what he is (St. John Vianney). TP...wish you you a Gracefield Lenton season

Rev Fr. Alexander U Okere

Love that moves the heart

"An eight-year-old child heard her parents talking about her little brother. All she knew was that he was very sick and they had no money left. They were moving to a smaller house because they could not afford to stay in the present house after paying the doctor's bills. Only a very costly surgery could save him now and there was no one to loan them the money. 
When she heard her daddy say to her tearful mother with whispered desperation, 'Only a miracle can save him now', the little girl went to her bedroom and pulled her piggy bank from its hiding place in the closet. She poured all the change out on the floor and counted it

carefully. 
Clutching the precious piggy bank tightly, she slipped out the back door and made her way six blocks to the local drugstore. She took a quarter from her bank and placed it on the glass counter. 
"And what do you want?" asked the pharmacist. 
"It's for my little brother," the girl answered back. "He's really very sick and I want to buy a miracle." 
"I beg your pardon?" said the pharmacist. 
"His name is Andrew and he has something bad growing inside his head and my daddy says only a miracle can save him. So how much does a miracle cost?" 
"We don't sell miracles here, child. I'm sorry," the pharmacist said, smiling sadly at the little girl. 
"Listen, I have the money to pay for it. If it isn't enough, I can try and get some more. Just tell me how much it costs."
In the shop was a well-dressed customer. He stooped down and asked the little girl, "What kind of a miracle does you brother need?" 
"I don't know," she replied with her eyes welling up. "He's really sick and mommy says he needs an operation. But my daddy can't pay for it, so I have brought my savings". 
"How much do you have?" asked the man. 
"One dollar and eleven cents; but I can try and get some more", she answered barely audibly. 
"Well, what a coincidence," smiled the man, "A dollar and eleven cents - the exact price of a miracle for little brothers." 
He took her money in one hand and held her hand with the other. He said, "Take me to where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let's see if I have the kind of miracle you need." 
That well-dressed man was Dr Carlton Armstrong, a neurosurgeon. The operation was completed without charge and it wasn't long before Andrew was home again and doing well. 
"That surgery," her mom whispered, "was a real miracle. I wonder how much it would have cost." 
The little girl smiled. She knew exactly how much the miracle cost ... one dollar and eleven cents ... plus the faith of a little child. 
Perseverance can make miracles happen! Miracle can come in various forms - as a doctor, as a lawyer, as a teacher, as a police and many others..
A river cuts the rock not because of its power, but because of its consistency.
Never lose your hope; keep walking towards your vision."‎
If this blesses you, please share too to bless others..

FIVE RULES FOR NEW CATHOLICS

You think you know what’s going on. You’ve done all the prep, made the big decision to enter the Church, and now you’re a Catholic. But — haha! — you don’t know squat.

It’s what pretty much all converts do, especially the bookish ones who read themselves into the Church. Some of us, the bookish ones, always think we know more than we do. I know, because I was one of them.

The tricky thing is that even the humbler among us can’t possibly know what we don’t know. I think we imagine Catholic knowledge as like the times tables. You know what you don’t know and how to find out. You know the elevens but not the twelves, so you memorize the twelves. All very simple. The new Catholic tends to think very question has a propositional answer, probably found in the Catechism or some encyclical.

Living the Catholic life is much more like a marriage. The most important knowledge can’t be put into propositions.

You bind yourself to someone very complicated and more different from you than you realize, someone you can’t read like a book even if you think you can. You know in a general way two or three or four of the thousand reasons she’ll respond the way she does. Those two or three or four reasons may lead you to expect a very different response from the one you get. You’re perfectly logical, but ignorant. You reason beyond your data.

You’ll never get all the data, even as you get to know each other better. This is important: Notice how you learn what you do know. You learn by being there, by making a life together, by patience and self-sacrifice, by forgiveness (asked for and received) and gratitude. You gather a thousand facts daily without knowing it because you’re looking closely. You learn, in other words, by loving.

Five rules

Let me offer five tips for new Catholics. My family and I entered the Church 16 years ago and I know something now about what I didn’t know then.

First, accept that you’re a newbie with lots to learn. Think of yourself as a bright 4th grader who’s heard of calculus but has years of study before he takes it.

Don’t think you know more than you do because you’ve studied so much, and for heaven’s sake don’t lecture your new fellow Catholics. You’ll keep yourself from learning what you can and you’ll annoy them. A lose-lose. Don’t worry that you can’t make any sense of so many things Catholics take for granted. You’ll get it eventually. It’s calculus and you’re the 4th grader.

Second, use the tools the Church gives you. Many converts configure their Catholic life along the lines of their previous life. That’s what they know. The formerly religious ones go to Mass the same way they went to church on Sundays. They avoid anything that looks Italian.

Stay after Mass to light a candle and pray. Pray to Our Lady or St. Joseph at their altars or to the saints at their statues. Drop by the church when you’re in town to sit with Jesus in the Tabernacle. Sign up for a slot at Adoration. Go to confession on the spur of the moment. Put up crucifixes and holy pictures at home (even if that looks Italian). Collect holy cards and say the prayers on the back. Carry a rosary. Wear a crucifix or a Miraculous Medal or a scapular, or what the heck, all three.

Read more: It takes practice to be a practicing Catholic

Do it even if it feels weird. (Or Italian.) Soon it won’t and you’ll have tools for holiness you didn’t have before. The tools themselves will teach you something about the reality to which they point. You’ll wonder how you got along without them.

Third, jump into the extracurricular life of your parish. For example, if you’re a man, join the Knights of Columbus. Don’t just do the comfortable things, the things you did in your old life, like join the parish pro-life group or the finance committee. Join the distinctively Catholic things and get to know the cradle Catholics who aren’t like you or maybe anyone you knew in your former life. They’ll teach you a lot by speaking a different kind of religious language. We didn’t do this — no one ever suggested it — and I regret that a lot.

Fourth, don’t tell Catholics what to do. Remember you’re a 4th grader. Even the people who’ve never read the Catechism or a single encyclical know more than you do. Their instincts are better trained than yours, they see many things more clearly, even if they can’t articulate things the way you can. And any great new plan you can think of has almost been thought of and tried hundreds of times over the years.

Finally, remember that you know because you love and you learn by loving, and that loving well takes commitment and time. Live the life the Church gives you. Think of her as a spouse you do not want to hurt or disappoint. Just keep at it. You’ll learn, lots.

DID GOD EVER LIE TO YOU?

Did God ever lie to you?” How would you answer that question? That question was asked recently by a brokenhearted child to her father, whom I know well. I have been wrestling with that question ever since.

My philosophical training can offer arguments explaining why God cannot lie. That’s pertinent and true, but it wasn’t what she needed in that moment. She’s struggling with crushing disappointment, seeing that what she’s been waiting for and has set her heart upon hasn’t arrived, and appears unlikely to do so. The truths of philosophy might bring her clarity later, but she wouldn’t now be able to see them through her tears.

Her father might have succumbed to the temptation to blunt the sharp point of her question with the flat end of a platitude: “Everything is going to be OK! After all, the Bible says, ‘Nothing is impossible with God!’” True—nothing is impossible with God—but that assertion wouldn’t help her if it were offered merely to silence her. That’s the trouble with platitudes: they can be a disservice to the truths they contain and to those who ask, because they can be used to stifle the voices and pains of those who raise uncomfortable and unwelcome questions. The father didn’t resort to platitudes because he has too much respect for his daughter’s intelligence and God’s majesty to do so.

And still we’re faced with her difficult situation: “I sought God’s will and acted accordingly. I waited to receive what God told me to wait for. And nothing’s happened. Worse than nothing’s happened—because the window of opportunity for me to receive what God directed me to wait for is starting to close. Has God lied to me?”

Here we can see the limitations of the consolation of philosophy and the truths of pious platitudes. Neither leads a confused and brokenhearted person to the cross of Christ. It is to that terrifying place, where evil tried to crush and erase faithful love that the wounded must go. It is there that we must behold the cost of absolute trust in God’s goodness. And it is only from there that we can find the power of the resurrected Christ.

At the foot of the cross, let’s echo the haunting words of long-suffering Job: “Though he slay me, I will hope in him.” (Job 13:15) Job will not settle for pat answers or platitudes. He seeks an audience with God. We should do the same—but we must know, in a way that Job could not—that confronting God means confronting the crucified and resurrected Christ. We go to the Suffering Servant of God who surrendered everything, was plundered by evil, and was, after a time of darkness, vindicated by God. We must understand that if we brokenhearted turn to Christ, we mustn’t expect “Chicken Soup for the Soul.” No! Turning to Christ in our pain is to step on a dark road of blood and glory.

We can begin our embrace of Christ crucified-and-risen by echoing Job: “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:2) God’s ultimate purpose is to unite us to Himself for eternity. Our temporary pains and joys in this life must be measured in light of the eternal glory God offers us.

We earthly pilgrims on the way to Heaven inevitably suffer, and finally die. Some of us may be martyred. Some of us may die while looking back on a pleasant life—most of us won’t. Along the way, none of us have the wisdom to understand fully how God’s grace and providence work with human free will, disappointment and dumb luck.

We have, however, the Church teaching us that if our hope in God rests upon what we may grasp in this passing world, we will be disappointed. Our hope in God can only rest upon the obedience of Christ crucified and the fidelity of Our Heavenly Father Who raised Christ to sovereignty and glory.

Poet John Keats spoke of this world as “The Vale of Soulmaking.” This finite, fallen and passing world, with its real and temporary joys and sorrows, can be used by God and the docile disciple of Christ to prepare a soul ready for eternal union with God. Grief and disappointments, though agonizing at the time, needn’t be thought of as “wasted” but can be redemptively used in purifying a soul for the happiness of Heaven.

So, how might that father have answered his daughter’s question? He might say, “No, God has never lied to me. And I know that He is faithful and loving, because what He has done for Christ, He wants to do for you and me.”

When I write next, I will speak of optimism, wishful thinking, and hope. Until then, let’s keep each other in prayer.

IN THE WOMB TWO BABIES DEBATE MATTERS OF FAITH AND LIFE

In a mother’s womb were two babies. The first baby asked the other: “Do you believe in life after delivery?”

The second baby replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.”

“Nonsense,” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What would that life be?”

“I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths.”

The doubting baby laughed. “This is absurd! Walking is impossible. And eat with our mouths? Ridiculous. The umbilical cord supplies nutrition. Life after delivery is to be excluded. The umbilical cord is too short.”

The second baby held his ground. “I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here.”

The first baby replied, “No one has ever come back from there. Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery it is nothing but darkness and anxiety and it takes us nowhere.”

“Well, I don’t know,” said the twin, “but certainly we will see mother and she will take care of us.”

“Mother?” The first baby guffawed. “You believe in mother? Where is she now?”

The second baby calmly and patiently tried to explain. “She is all around us. It is in her that we live. Without her there would not be this world.”

“Ha. I don’t see her, so it’s only logical that she doesn’t exist.”

To which the other replied, “Sometimes when you’re in silence you can hear her, you can perceive her. I believe there is a reality after delivery and we are here to prepare ourselves for that reality when it comes….”