The War We Are In.

What is generally downplayed at baptism and at the beginning of the decision to be a Christian is the war aspect of the journey, but, as a Christian grows he sees more and more the inconsistency of everything, he sees from his society a world structure ,order and ideology entirely bereft of truth and real freedom;he sees from his friends,families,work and church, beliefs and actions that are more or less militating against freedom and with this culture into which he was born and raised, he becomes insatiable. Worse of all he sees within himself a being widely incoherent with his ideals and he notices that he is even the primal enemy of himself. The more he aims at correcting these anomalies , the more he sees himself rather engrossed into them and the more he feels this exasperation and helplessness, because evil is deadly and aggressive. Many give up on the way, you cannot master evil with aggression , nor can you do so with complacency,but by love,patience and humility does truth come into light,bringing an advent of freedom & peace, for evil is an adept at aggressiveness, he would get you locked into itself with that strategy.Virtue lies in the middle.
Everything is moving towards goodness and freedom, no power on earth and in the heavens could halt that, but this freedom happens only through work, hardship and sufferings . If we have not sincerely been able to muster these words : ' for me,to live is Christ (cross) and to die is gain', then we must somehow still be among the principalities militating against freedom. The Lord surely would take us to the next level of freedom, where we would feel reborn, even on earth; but no sooner shall we attain this level of freedom that we shall get down to work and war, for through this shall another level and freedom come. And this movement along the Way happens till eternity, forever.So, if you would rather not move, work or suffer, you may not enjoy the Christian's heaven, for God is love and love is a verb. The beatitude is the heavenly life for those destined for eternity.

On Our Lady of Sorrows

Happy feast day my brethren, those who belong to Christ in Mary and those who look forward to His coming through her.
I still wonder why this great feast is still classed as a Memorial; if at all not a Solemnity, I feel it should at least be a Feast. It's the feast of Mary's motherhood of humanity.
As Annunciation is our feast of motherhood of Mary by grace, Our Lady of Sorrows is the feast of her motherhood on us by nature, now and here!
Mary is more than a saint, Mary is our coredemptrix, the Tree which brought up the fruit of salvation and offered It is Mary. Look at the crucifix ( yesterday's feast) and the Pieta( today's feast ) and see what all progress consist of!
We naturally would recoil from cross as we would sorrow. But by His cross we are redeemed and through her sorrow we are free!
The creation that is still in pangs, in this pain of childbirth is Mary, this great 'Holy Saturday' upon which the hope and salvation of the world depends is Our Lady of Sorrows!
I was told this in the past , but I also felt it was some over excessive devotion to Mary that made them say so, now I dont think so anymore, for I have experienced it: Mary is the hope of mankind, in her nothingness and sorrow she holds the future, if you don't comprehend her mission , forget the notion of comprehending Christ or what history and the redemption of Israel and the world consist of .
This is advanced Christianity: comprehending The Sorrowful and Immaculate of Mary!

Christ, Memory, Life and Death (Extract from Julian Carron)

What does the memory of Christ mean? Using reason again according to its nature! That is, not reducing my reality, my "I" to my mood. If i reduce everything to my mood, after a few days, i wouldnt be able to go on. Someone could say, "She's really suffering from X's death"...I assure you, instead, that if you stayed at this level, in very little time you wouldnt be able to go on. You would need to forget in order to continue living. Only a person who does not need to forget (rather remembering, urges him to the memory of Christ) can stay in front of death and can remain X's friend in another modality. The others, wether they want to or not, would erase him from their lives. Not out of spite, but because they would not be able to stay in front of him, and would have to forget. And instead of staying before the eternal, they would have to return to the usual life and reduce reality to appearances.
Instead , every time it hurts, every time i feel the wound, if it is an ocassion of memory, we see how X remains our friend. He is more a friend than ever, because nothing has made us live before the truth, that is, before the eternal, the way Xs death has. And this judges all our friendship, which, many times, rather than helping us to live before the eternal, make us forget it, distract us from the eternal.
What kind of friendship is ours? It is as if the death of a friend puts our back to the wall: What kind of friendship is ours, if not for being able to look at this? If we are not friends in death, then we are not even friends in life- even if it does not wound us as much as death.
Lets finish by saying this: we cannot fill the void left by death with our imagination. What is of X now? What do you think? To think about it, from where do you start? Jesus said, " Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent , Jesus Christ". For this reason, the only modality for not filling this unknown with our imagination and then attributing it to the Mystery (which is almost inevitably the risk we fall prey to if we are not careful)consists in helping each other look at X starting from the experience we have had with Christ. Because X, now, is living the fulfillment of that experience, is living that experience more intensely, is living the whole of that experience, of that beginning. But it is the fulfillment of what he was already living here! It is not something else; it is the fulfillment of that. So then , eternal life is not eternal boredom, such that in the end we could think, " Poor fellow, what a shame!" Perhaps X is more fortunate than we. Rather, not perhaps: he is more fortunate than we, because today he is telling us, " Look, life is this!" With his living this fulness now, he is saying to all of us, " Look, friends, life is this! Life is Christ, and death is gain".

The Heart

The Heart (2013)

The heart is an internal organ of the body.

The heart’s functions in the body are not usually visible; we are always almost unaware of the enormity of its work.

Heart serves as a pump for blood to the whole body.

Heart also sends blood supply to the head, without which there is no reasoning.

Without blood circulation, it is impossible for the body to survive, thus , without,  the continuous working of the heart ,which pumps blood, it is impossible for the body to survive.

The heart removes waste blood, sends it to the lungs to be reoxygenated.

Inasmuch as grace perfects nature:

The Sacred Heart works in an ‘as gentle as silence’ manner.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart keep devotees humble and simple, which enables them get virtually everything they ask of the Lord.

It is the Blood of Christ that saves, but without devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the effect of the Precious Blood would not be felt by man, and humanity would die in their sins.

The heads and leaders of the church receive their strengths from simple souls who are devoted to the Sacred Heart.

Love is a verb, the Sacred Heart is the source of love, and qualities such as reverence, kindness, compassion, wisdom, conciliation and forgiveness are products of devotions to the Sacred Heart.

Those devoted to the Sacred Heart do not suffer for their sins, for they bathe their sins in the Precious Blood and reoxygenate their vigours in the Holy Spirit.

And inasmuch as glory perfects grace:

Christ suffered a ’heart attack’ on the cross, and this was a source of grace and mercy for the whole world, and this also becomes the source of  perpetual pumping of precious blood and water for the human race, and for the glorification of Christ.

Any attack on a devotee of the Sacred Heart can only foster his glory and herald grace and mercy for posterity.

Happy feast of the Sacred Heart!

The Sacred Heart of Jesus ( Being Presentation Given During the 2015 MArIA Program )

Physiological perspectives of the Sacred Heart.

St Theresa of Jesus advised the necessity of approaching Christ through His humanity.

The Body of Christ is the physical dynamic of all that is seen and unseen of the entire cosmos.

The Sun is considered the centre of the universe; the heart is considered the centre of the body.

Scientifically, the heart is the centre of our circulatory system; it is solely responsible for pumping blood into the entire system.

It’s malfunctioning is the no 1 cause of death in the world.

My Sacred Heart Devotion History

This started at St Christopher's Sango where the group is nothing but a strong unchallenged political force in the church.

It is solely a societal arena for parties, meetings, food and booze.

Getting to St Mary’s Ayetoro, things was a bit different, the party factor was on a lower scale, and the political genius in church was challenged by other parties.

I got to realise the Sacred Heart Society was also about adoration, about solemn admission, about enthronement.

I started observing the First Friday devotion in Oshogbo.

Our race as a family into the actuality of the Sacred Heart did commence with the enthronement of Sacred Heart in 1994 at the home in Oke-Onitea.

And I shall never forget the personal comforting presence I felt of Christ when Akinkunmi died in the year 1996.

The full blast – for me – of my devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was when I enthroned Him into my home in September 2011, just after Daddy had departed and few days after my son was baptised.

For many reasons and testimonies, I consider this devotion as Daddy’s legacy for us and his gift to us about what has saved him.

This is summed up in the statement we all know Daddy lived and died for “Love, don’t hate”

The Theology of the Sacred Heart.

What was in the mystery of the blood and water that made John swear he was speaking the truth?

What was in his side that Thomas touched that made him cry ‘My Lord and my God’?

In this heart lies the depth of the mystery of creation.

In this heart begins the birth of creation.

From this heart are the sacraments born.

On this heart is borne the Divine Mercy which is the ultimate covenant of God on us .

The Church and the Sacred Heart

Sacred Heart is Christ Himself.

No true devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus that does not translate to the love of the Eucharist.

From the Sacred Heart of Jesus is borne the Divine Mercy devotion. None can be separated from the other.

An extraordinary jubilee of Divine Mercy is promulgated by the Pope , to start later in the year.

Christ calls us to win heaven at little cost.

What is in It for us?

I believe very strongly and I am convinced that:

Upon this devotion is the unity of both our individual families and our joint family depends.

Upon this devotion depends Daddy, Mummy and Kunmi’s positive influence.

Upon this devotion lies our joint shield and protection from all evils, principalities and harms.

On this devotion do our spiritual and material blessings depend.

Take not the providence of our individual family’s enthronement for granted, it is an act of Daddy from heaven.

 I write the above in spite of the guarantee 12 promises directly from Our Lord. The following are based on my direct experience.

Our part is to start simply by being devoted to the First Fridays and family consecration.

I can bet my life on its positive impact if we all join hands to do this. It works.

The Risk of Education

Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created...'. Unlike "the Jews who seek after signs,and the Greeks who seek after 'wisdom', we preach a crucified Christ....". I hate poverty, and my greatest passion is to destroy it, and- like one Nobel laureate puts it-to send it to the museum. But in place of 'Jews' we have in the majority today, Capitalistic Religions which exalt money, and go by 'The customer is always right', preaching what members would like to hear. On the other hand , the 'Greeks' today are Dogmatic and Presumptuous Scientism which does not see a truth outside that which is reasoned and tested around its sphere; from these hails the source of all incarnated technologies which stifle our minds. A 'crucified Christ' is not easily come by.A crucified Christ is Eductainment. It is where creativity begins, and only a mind that is not crippled by the powers that be, as dictated by Capitalistic Religions or Dogmatic Scientism could arrive at lasting creativity, such that we can only reach by passing through 'The Road Less Traveled'. I don't like suffering,but there is no other way to arrive at education, only through discipline, dedication, integrity and hard work can a man be truly taught. That is what I believe stifles our society: corruption, lies,lawlessness,mediocrity and sin abide too much, and actual education, which is a journey of experience is just not deep enough, the powers that be, sooner or later, take over. When poverty abounds, few have the maturity to take the opportunity to arrive at truth. Yoruba says:'Eni ebi npa, kii gbo iwaasu', meanwhile, Yoruba also says again' Iya o je o , o loo gbon, ta ni teacher e?'.
 We nee to Re-imagine. Like Starcomms would say : 'We speak your language'. We just need to reinvent new ways to communicate to the present day youths, workers and leaders, in the language of this age. Everybody knows that, you'll say. But are we all not just powerless now? Who has succeeded in communicating the whole truth in the language of our times? While we confess our weakness and powerlessness,we should not stop trying and praying to the Holy Spirit, who alone can truly create and recreate. Recreation simply means, working and catching fun at the same time; but to arrive at this, we must be educated, and to be truly educated, we must pass through the sufferings of life.

lessons to learn from the Chelsea saga:

1) Go ahead no matter what. God has not finished with you yet. When the chips are down and everyone says you are useless & worthless, it is then time to know that glory is not by power or by might!
2)Without a followership dt is ready to support a leader, it is much more difficult to progress. ( AVB)
3)Emotional intelligence is a greater leadership trait than analytical skills ( Matteo & AVB)
4) It is d right mix of old & new with appropriate leadership dt brings out champions.( Chelsea FC)
5)It is a great opportunity for progress wn all eyes are off you & you are written off.
6)The more entrenched habits are d more difficult dy are to change, it is much easier to manage positively our bad habits than to seek to cut them radically .( AVB & Dmatteo)
7)Don't give up on your ambition, it is when you least think of it that your star shines d more ( Champions league title)
8) Do not be quick to change your winning strategy( Dmatteo & defensive game)
9)There is something called destiny, no matter what, wn u are marked for success, you are marked!
10)Humility pays, it is when Chelsea fans stopped d bragging dt dy won 2 big braces .
11)Do not be afraid to profess your beliefs in public, it assures your victory( Drogba & sign of d cross)
12) God is everywhere & in everything, don't just watch sports for its fun only . See God!

Between The Good Shepherd and Corporate Leadership

The study of MBA is the most desirous in the corporate and business world today and concepts like 'corporate vision','change','emotional intelligence', 'social responsibility',' ethics' are some of the 'ABC's' of MBA.These teachings are nothing short of christian messages in a secular language. The study of MBA has gradually developed into an even more important branch of study called Leadership. Proponents of the study of Leadership have unanimously analyzed that without deep spiritual development it would be difficult to develop strategic vision and achieve organizational growth.

 At this juncture, the corporate leadership seem to be 'confused' about which spirituality to actually adopt. Eastern spirituality has been of particular interest for these leaders while western monastic spirituality is also on the rise, but a great lot of these business leaders have gone deep into diabolic occultic spiritualities. It is in this  that the corporate leadership have not come to terms about the decision to adopt any spirituality, and this is how it affects me and you, who work directly or indirectly with this secular organizations and her leaderships.

 The challenge of our Christianity is to supply for the leadership that is often very lacking, delusive and confusing in the corporate world, and this task is not an easy one because the church herself suffers from the scars bequeathed on her from the confusion borne out of corporate leadership.This responsibility of leadership is so great that very few would like to look the challenge in the face and the contentment of the parallelism between church and state seem to be on the rise, even though it is just very apparent, from  faith's perspective, that the model is not working

 Leadership entails great responsibility, and it is this responsibility that we shy away from and a confused secular world, in spite of her delusions are leading growth, a growth that is ephemeral. The great Recession is an example of how very weak and fragile the model we build our existence on are.

 One of my national heroes is Umar Yaradua. He looked the challenge in the face, and he, a Moslem, adopted one of the often neglected slogans of the corporate world, which incidentally was that which was assumed by the prophets for Christ: Servant Leadership. Umar's government was lacklustered and entrenched in controversies, but i really and actually believe Yaradua lived a fulfilled life and gave his life for the progress of the nation.

In Yoruba land there is a title called 'Aare Ona Kakanfo', a kind of war generalisimo. There has been 14 of them in Yoruba history,it was said that the Aare has been created to eventually be a victim for the preservation of the Yoruba nation. All the 14 have died in war and crisis and outside their lands. The last was MKO Abiola, and since he died noone has had the audacity to accept such a title anymore. Scary ,hm?

The Good Shepherd sunday is a call to leadership, and even though these 2 examples are not Christians, they are such that live in our living history, and the issue of their death seem to be so disconnected with its actual purpose.Leadership has to be less and less bureaucratic and autocratic.Leadership has its source in spirituality,and the highest form of leadership assumes a great responsibility ,not of power, but in the face of extreme responsibility,of being the victim - alive or dead- of that which you really care about. This applies in the family, in corporate organizations, in our nations and in our lives.Of this sort of life does growth springs from, not from any skill, strategy or dialogue.

Happy good Shepherd Sunday!