Prayer is one of the three pillars of Lent. The other two being Fasting and Almsgiving. Prayer is essential to the Christian life, and Lent offers us the opportunity to deepen our prayer. I have heard it said, “show me a Christian who does not pray and I will show you a powerless Christian.” We cannot be in relationship with God if we do not speak with God. This is why prayer is important.

Our 40 days of Lent have begun with our public act of penance symbolized by the imposition of ashes on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday. This journey is one we make with Jesus as he goes through his temptation in the wilderness, his passion and death, so that we might rejoice with him in his resurrection at Easter.

Although treatable today by modern medicine, leprosy is still considered a serious skin condition. People with leprosy were excluded from the community and were treated as outcasts. One can only imagine what painful existence would be for the many people who had the misfortune of contracting this disease. If they did not die as a result of the disease, they would have died due to loneliness.

The healing power of Jesus is available to everyone. Although sickness and suffering could be opportunities to glorify God, as was the case with Job in the First reading, God does not take delight in our suffering. This is why Jesus healed those who were sick and possessed by demons, to demonstrate his concern for their bodily integrity as he was of their spiritual health.

Last week I invited you all to reflect with me on a theme from the readings/responses for the weekend. I asked that you share your reflections, and what the Lord lays on your heart as you prayed with the readings for the weekend’s liturgy. I once again extend this invitation: Please send me a short email of your reflection, what you heard the Lord speaking to you through the readings.

I hope you are making steady progress, by God’s grace, in your faith walk with the Lord. I feel the call to do something new for this segment of the New Year. Whenever there is not much to update about happenings at the parish I will take a theme from the weekend's readings and give a brief reflection. Whenever there is not much to update about happenings at the parish I will take a theme from the weekend's readings and give a brief reflection. I request that you spend some time reflecting and praying with this theme throughout the week, in the same way as I am.

Greetings dear parishioners! We are grateful to God for leading us through our parish stewardship month. I want to thank you all for praying for our parish and for supporting our mission and ministries by freely committing your time and resources to the growth of our parish. Nothing we do for the Lord goes unrewarded... [Click to read more]

We take this opportunity to once again thank God for his enduring mercies and goodness to us as a parish community, and as individuals. I am grateful to you for yielding yourselves to the Holy Spirit and allowing him use you to expand the Kingdom through your service to God in our parish... Our parish month of stewardship is in its fourth and last week.... [Click to read more]

We are happy to announce that, thanks to our partnership with Notre Dame Federal Credit Union, all parishioners, staff, and families are also eligible for membership. [Click to read more]

Thank you for your generosity of heart and openness of spirit as we are now two weeks into our parish stewardship month. Last Sunday I called each one of us to examine our attitude to giving to our parish as giving to the Lord. I also asked you to pray about it and make your donations to the parish. This was not intended to be a one-time act, but a mindset shift - a change in our attitude to money that would then translate to our continued support for the parish and her mission... [Click to read more]

I write you this short note as I prepare to celebrate the funeral Mass for my beloved grandmother, Theresa, in her native home of Ekekhen in lgueben (ask me how to pronounce these when I return) Local Government Area of Nigeria. I thank you for all the prayers for me and my family during these days...While I have been busy with preparation for the funeral, I am also praying for you and thinking about you. October 1 is the feast of our patron, St. Thérèse. We ask her heavenly intercession for our parish, that we may own our littleness, and walk in our Belovedness as sons and daughters of God. [Click to read more]

“Who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand” (1 Chronicles 29:14).    Toddlers learn to delineate their territories very quickly. They declare emphatically, “Mine!” Somehow this is one of the first words they learn. But this is more than just a word, it is an attitude, the attitude that what another has belongs to them. We learn at a very early age to grasp for things and to claim them as our own. This lesson then continues through life as we chase stuff. Sometimes it seems as though our whole existence is about the pursuit of more...

In Deuteronomy chapter 16, God admonished the people of Israel concerning freewill offering. This was to be freely determined, but proportionate to the blessing they had received from God. They were to bring their offerings into the place of worship with rejoicing. In verse 16 God says, “No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed.” God did not want anyone to be left out in this act of giving on the pretext that they possessed nothing to give. Everyone was to bring in their offerings that were commensurate with what they had first received.

Last week I posed a question for our collective reflection: “Is St. Therese, Little Flower my parish or a parish I go to?” I am aware that the majority of those who read my letters are registered parishioners at our parish, but there are some who are not registered yet or still on the fence about committing to our parish. We also have people from other parishes who participate at our parish events and mostly worship with us but are still discerning whether to become members at Little Flower. We would love to have you all register. But whatever your status, I think we can all pray about this question and ask what the Lord is calling us to, or asking of us, in relation to the parish. [Click to read more]

When you hear the word “stewardship” what readily comes to your mind? Let me guess: money? You are correct. Like many of you, I strongly believe the church has not done a great job in explaining the biblical concept of stewardship. And because people often learn by association, and we only talk about stewardship when there is a capital campaign, people tend to understand stewardship as only having to do with money. Whereas stewardship includes money, it is more than that. It is where the concepts of faith, work and economics intersect. There is therefore the need for a proper understanding of stewardship as a biblical concept - one that God commands, one that God expects from all of us, and one that God rewards.

On August 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I marked the 14th anniversary of my ordination to the sacred priesthood. I cannot sufficiently express in words my gratitude to God for calling me to share in the priesthood, which is rightfully Christ’s, despite my obvious unworthiness. I am also grateful for the many good people the Lord has put in my life, who have truly been a blessing to me and help me be a better human and a good priest. The occasion offered me the opportunity to once again reflect on how I am stewarding the ministry that has been entrusted to me. I took time to repent for past sins and wrongs and to rededicate myself to the service of God and of his people. [Click to continue reading]

Dear parishioners,  Thank you for your patience with me and for your understanding as I exercised my teaching ministry on the subject of music in our liturgy. I took the time to address some of the major issues because I thought it was a subject too important to be rushed. As everything that has a beginning must come to an end, I would like to bring this series to an end. This does not suggest that I exhausted all the Church teaches on the subject matter. Our parish will continue to apply the learnings from the richness of the Church’s repertoire to our practice here at St. Thérèse, Little Flower, taking into account our context and circumstances. This week I want to address the question of musical instruments for the liturgy. [Click to read more]

It is the vision of the church, from her history, to have the major parts of the Mass sung. The Second Vatican Council assigns a position of pride to the Gregorian chant as the normative form of singing in the Roman liturgy. Traditionally, masses derived their names from the words of the entrance antiphons chants. [Click to read more]

Since I began addressing the subject of music in our liturgy, I have received some feedback from parishioners and staff. As I mentioned in a previous letter, my intention at the moment is to instruct. Decisions on the future course of our music will be a product of prayer, consultation and thorough discernment. And it would largely be determined by what the Church teaches and what is pastorally feasible, given our context. I appreciate your comments, they tell me you are reading my letter and are interested in the subject matter as I am. This week I want to address the reason we sing the Mass. [Click to read more]

One stereotype in thinking is that the younger generation of Catholics tend to prefer more contemporary and modern music, while older generations would rather have the more traditional and old music. From my experience, this is not the case; at least, not everywhere. Father Jan Michael Joncas writes, "Age by itself does not seem to determine one’s ability to appreciate a particular musical style: senior citizens may enjoy a Beatles tune while twenty-somethings may powerfully respond to chant" (From Sacred Song to Ritual Music, 1997). [Click to read more]