My Input for the Synodal Process in Osogbo Diocese

 

1. Get Priests into studying Sciences, especially Physics. The more time proceeds, the more the relevance of science and faith shall confluence.

 

2. Get Catechumen preparing for Confirmation to do the Life in the Spirit Seminar as a preparation for the Sacrament of Confirmation. No sane person can deny the experience of the Life in the Spirit Seminar.

 

3. Added to Philosophy and Theology, the formal study of Leadership and Management should be incorporated into the syllabus for those preparing for Priesthood.

 

4. As the traditional churches give way to modern English-speaking Pentecostalism, the Catholic Church shall with time remain the only Christian champion of Yoruba tradition in our land. And as the world delves openly deeper into hidden knowledge, specialists should be raised among Priests in the study of our culture, especially the deeper ‘forbidden’ aspects of it in order to properly inculturate, guide and guard the numerous who flock to these esoteric dangers irrespective of what is being taught on the pulpit.

 

5. The culture of the individual celebration of Baptismal days should be proactively championed by the Church.

 

6. In-depth research to be made on the spirituality behind Black Maria. Mary is Black.  Not as a matter of sentiment but as a fact of reality. Without transcending physiology and entering into consciousness, this will sound all pure nonsense, but we cannot properly resolve the human concern without addressing the primordial ‘blackness’ of Mary. This should begin by having the audacity to create a Black Maria grotto in all our parishes.

 

7. At least 25% of our Diocesan budget should be invested in the religious, cultural and scientific education of the youths. This is the real Sustainability that should be practiced. Catholic children, young and youths should be nurtured and cultured just as one carefully puts rare gardening species in the nursery and cultivate. Young people are the strength of Africa and the most potent force of the Church and the world. They should be prepared for the leadership position awaiting them in the Church and in the world.

 

8. I don’t know how it’ll work but I know this present condemnatory attitude of Pentecostalism will not serve the Catholic Church in our land well. Courageous Collaboration must be fostered with other faiths and especially with Pentecostals. Picking what is good of them and condemning lovingly what is bad. The attitude of closed condemnation which is presently the norm will not help us to grow and face the draconian ideologies that are imminent.

 

9. Our Graveyards should be accorded proper proactive material and spiritual dedication. Physical maintenance of our gravesites must be a constant norm. Our problems generally as a nation have been compounded because of the neglect of our dead.

 

10. We should be more radical about the Eucharist. Few people believe and yet the Eucharist is everything. Its sacrificial significance should be pointed out more (Mass) since we are sacrifice obsessed in our land. The Eucharist should not be preached only when Jn:6 is read, it should be the focus of everyday preaching at Mass. A Eucharistic culture should be the breath of every Parish, that is where our Renaissance would be found.

 

11. A cultural dialogue and encounter with people of other faiths such as Islam and Traditionalist should be initiated.  The dualistic rationale for action in my opinion may be untenable in the long run. A true survivor is one who can thread in Grey, and from there be able to discern Black and White. This is tough in our culture because we’ve built an environment of winner takes all, but without the intelligence or stooping in Grey in order to win the White, we run the risk of losing all to Black. It is work, but it is necessary to work!

 

12. The concept of welfare support should be a parish affair and not be narrowed down to St Vincent de Paul. ‘Egbe alaanu to ni’lo aanu’. There should be a real structural initiative to address individual needs in the Parish. This may cause rancour but it was also a problem in the early church, and in my opinion, it should be the starting point for faith. Priests should cultivate enough detachment to let the deacons champion this. And where are the deacons? The church should have the humility to ordain spiritually-minded professionals as deacons to manage the Church’s temporal affairs. Priests should only stay as general overseers and devote more time to the Word. That was what the early church did.

 

Fr Madewa’s Thanksgiving/Itunu Mi baptism day

 

PFL

First of all, thank him for holding the fort for me. Yobo did not even raise any eye eyebrow when I returned and he said Fraser came on site, he asked for me yet all went smoothly. Mo dupe o Oluwa. Oramonisefayati  

coincidence? watch the happening of today o ni meaning

even when we've got no clue what or how to do, He takes over the initiative

Nigeria pilgrimage. The necessary journey back

During the COVID period, as I saw the necessity of motherhood as biology, land, and school, Fr Madewa’s acceptance to give us communion became a sign of the land of my birth coming to our aid and rescue during the great ordeal.

When we were invited to Father Madewa’s Mass. I saw it as a beckon from my land, (touching from the past sign) and considering all that Fr Madewa has done for us. We owe him that respect. So I wanted that we all attend, even though I would be working

The idea was that Dear and the kids come with Uber while I drive down to meet them. But then events at St. Peter’s coincided: Dear's baptism day, Mass booking for 3 pm and her scheduled to be reading same time.

I saw this as a call for her to do this task to hold on to the journey forth (St Peter’s)  while I go on the journey back( Nigeria chaplaincy) since she is me, and I am her. We will both be riding the journey forth and back.

The coincidence of today being her baptism day is also very significant considering it is all about motherhood. And this is projected even more when the ceremony of the consecration to Our Lady and the renewal of our baptism vow was conducted by Fr Madewa at the chaplaincy. Coincidence?

I saw these as an induction into the consecration of our trip to the motherhood of Mary. During the Great baptism day of my wife who represents biological motherhood and as we make plans to plight our motherland of Nigeria, today represented by the chaplaincy. Still coincidence?  

Itakun to s’ogba, lo s’agbe, lo s’elegede. Watch this space.

just saw today is the feast of Jacinta and Francisco and we made a consecration to Our Lady of Fatima in the church too.  Reminiscence of our memorable pilgrimage to Fatima.

The only way is through. The Lord made us survive with Eucharistic communion. At the heart of the lockdown, he made us survive no vaccination, even with the VCOD coercion. I’m assured he will make us survive the journey back to Nigeria.

2022: Before Naija Travel 

 

Mom

 So, I was pondering today, what is it about 40?

40 days, 40 years, 40 hours…

Presentation, Exodus, after Baptism ….

40, seems to me, to be the period of the completion of a process, an era, a phase….

This 40, in my opinion, is both subjective and objective

I experienced this ‘subjective’ phase years back with the domino accumulation of blessings

which resulted in marriages, travels, children, etc for us

Now, here is an objective experience, as in, actual 40 years after her passing

I don’t know… but I know this:

‘Se l’ayo wa sese bere….’

Mercy Titilayo Akinola is living her glory

and it is an accumulation of glory unto glory!

Keep resting in the bosom of the Lord Mum

That is another thing: 'Oku olomo ki’i sun'

Rest is really not about sleep

It is about gusto, about vibrancy, about Mercy

23/01/23

Deacons and Welfare Supports in Church

 

Introduction

 

The concept of welfare support should be a parish affair and not to be narrowed down to just specific groups. There should be a real structural initiative to address individual needs in the Parish. This may cause rancour but it was also a problem in the early church, and in my opinion, it should be the starting point for faith.

Priests should cultivate enough detachment to let the deacons champion this. And where are the deacons? The church should ordain more spiritually minded workers and professionals as deacons to manage the Church’s temporal affairs. Priests should only stay as general overseers and devote more time to the Word. That was what the early church did.

 

1.    What are Deacons doing and what should they be doing in the church?

I do believe there has to be a new or rather broadened job role for deacons in the Church, which should be coordination and meeting the temporal needs of parishioners.

There is a heavy burden on Parish priests in the overall work of meeting the spiritual, mental, and material needs of the parish. These needs are increasingly difficult to detach from each other.

When these practical issues are not properly approached priests are either overburdened or parishioners are alienated when they feel no one does care for their ordeals.

Come to think of it, lots of parishioners’ prayers still stop on the temporal end, and as such the practicability of a pragmatic need of localized meeting of temporal need could be where the diaconate can find its reform.

The deacon can start by coordinating the workers in the parish in order to integrate the contribution of their expertise into the mission of the parish with continual feedback to the priest so that as souls are being fed spiritually, there are practical initiatives in place toward meeting their temporal need even on the parish level. 

I am aware that the Catholic Church is one of the largest charities in the world but this impact seems not to be felt by those in most need on the Parish level.

These workers when properly coordinated can meet the diverse needs of the parish. For instance, properly coordinated legal assistance, urgent building fixing at home, or medical attention.

I am aware that there are legal implications and risk management issues that have to be put in place, but the entire salvation decision itself comes as a risk decision. To close our eyes to these practical needs of parishioners means we are more interested in preserving honour than in saving souls. 

The new deacon in my opinion should be able to be the link between the Clergy and the Laity. Many laities are absorbed with real practical temporal concerns and surviving the pressures of each day, which are increasingly difficult for priests to manage in postmodern times.

These are not far-fetched from what the deacons were doing in the early church.

Without a proper contemporary structure that is practical enough in meeting the concerns of parishioners, we may continue to have issues with the engagements of parishioners on the parish level.

 

2.    Parish Welfare Call Centre

With the vast array of communication methods available nowadays, it is necessary that parishes have means and processes of continual and personalized engagements with parishioners in order to give them a sense of belonging.

This could be through the use of text messages, WhatsApp messages, or through the individualizing of email postings like Mailchimp or Convert Kit. Whatever method is preferred, it is necessary that church workers, probably coordinated by deacons and reported to Parish priests, have a proper system of welfare calls, logging, and reporting system in place so that individual parishioners can be engaged with and issues followed up.

I am aware that there are regulations like GDPR et al, but this should not be a hindrance to ensuring that parishioners feel cared for and that the parish stays abreast of what is happening to each of them.

This sort of idea requires proper professional coordination and it may be difficult to put in place initially, but once it becomes a culture, like the daily booking of Masses, it is something that would immensely assist the life and well-being of each parish and parishioner.

There is a close link with the first and second points mentioned in this writeup so that during calls if there are issues with parishioners, this can be logged and if it were spiritual issues, signposted to necessary prayer groups, or if they were temporal matters, signposted to the needed worker group as explained in point 1 above.

O Queen and Mother

 

O Queen and Mother who promised at Fatima to convert Russia and bring peace to all mankind, in reparation to your Immaculate Heart, I solemnly promise to offer up every sacrifice demanded by my daily duty, so say part of the holy rosary daily, and to where the brown scapular of our lady of Mount Carmel as a form of consecration to thee. I promise to renew this promise often, especially in moments of temptation_

 

I have prayed the above (which I got from a Fatima book given me by Kotoye in those days) every day for close to 30 years, and as I was doing so today, almost by rote I saw how close to home this has now become and how it is all now making more sense. What is more important during these days, is not the prayer, but fulfilling the personal requirements from Our Lady:

 

1.      *Offer up your everyday as a Sacrifice to the Lord through our Mother*

2.      *Pray the holy rosary daily, especially as a family*

3.      *Wear the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel*

 

Strange and extraordinary times we are living.

 

_In the end, my Immaculate heart will triumph_- Our Lady of Fatima

 

Keep Faith

Keep Hope

Keep Love

Baptism: What a Potency!

 

Baptism leads us to the very origin of things which breaks off the yoke created by original sin and opens forth life according to its original purpose thus revealing to us, what I call the Grand Positivity Of Existence: life amidst its journey back and forth is moving forward and forward only. Experience is positive within its forward and expansive mode. This is mercy.

So, what about justice? Justice is the ability to live and balance the journey back and forth within the right perspective. And it takes wisdom to do this, as this is the arena of the head.

But what really creates drive and gives a positive motion to life experience is the ‘entropic’ force of the heart. The heart is what introduces mercy, and mercy is what moves experiences from the personal actions of the Journey Forth onto the impersonal experience of the Grand Positivity of Existence.

Christ has not come to abolish the law but to complete it. That is, He continually reduces the goriness out of the Journey Back and introduces and expands the blissfulness from the Journey Forth, from which arises transitendedness, which contributes to the cumulative experience of the Grand Positivity of Existence.

Christ brought justice to the domain of mercy on the cross as he captures the origin of the source of baptism and the remnant of justice, all onto the domain of mercy in his heart.  Mercy consumes justice at that point when blood and water gushed forth from his heart, the abode of mercy. Not from his head, which satisfies divine justice.

The factor of the origin is important. That is the attempt of John the Baptist to return humanity to water, which is the source of land and every organism. This water is what finds a new source and dimension from the heart of Christ after it has been renewed and purified. through his passion.

Natural water is dualistic. It is mercy and justice, life and death, Journey Forth, and Journey Back. But the blood and water which gushes from the heart of Christ is the source of the new life because it has satisfied divine justice and has introduced the Grand Positivity of Experience, which is life.  His heart is the source of life, and vitality, the source of the real water, which has a primordial marriage with the Holy Spirit, and births positivity into being.

I do not believe anyone who is baptized can be eternally condemned, in the strictest term of the word. The baptized person has already been set on a positive trajectory that is indelible. The real entropy is mercy, and no sin can blot out this experience. Mercy is the ultimate power of existence, which forces everything into subjection, once we enter through the source, which is baptism.

The Eucharist regulates this journey and orientates it toward this Grand Positivity, while we are in this realm of existence. And this can be a struggle, while on earth but it is a positive struggle that is far easier, than when we depart. This is why the last viaticum does help in facing this final epic, which succumbs us permanently to the force of entropy, which ultimately is love and mercy, and positive.

What then happens to the baptized person who is not on the right positive trajectory of mercy? He is condemned. But the real force of the cosmos, this mercy input through grace in baptism, will say no. You can't fight entropy. And for a Christian, mercy is the Grand Positivity Of Existence, the continuous giving of being towards movement.

The struggle henceforth may be a million times more than what is experienced on earth, because of a wilful non-alignment to reality. An experience that may lead into the abyss of the rabbit hole of gravity, but that which has been input from the inception, at baptism, born from the heart of Christ the source, is indelible and it always wins.

If you are accustomed to the gaze of entropy as death out of a reluctance to give and let go in this realm, then this creates intense suffering in the next. The individual will become utterly helpless, and only if you have the love of those from this realm, who are ready to love, Let go and be merciful to act on your behalf, would you be able to escape.

But how could a baptized Christian be condemned eternally? Even when the suffering is great and the person is helpless?  What happens to the baptized? The Christ in him is indelible and does not die. It ultimately comes to the rescue of the soul, albeit through intense suffering.

I believe purgatory, perhaps long periods of purgatory, Intense and stressful, may be a lot of an unrepented baptized Christian, but ultimately, mercy from baptism will say no. Mercy wins.

Faith is the ultimate virtue and faith even as tiny as a mustard seed can thrive beyond proportion. If it is the faith of your Father that has brought you to baptism, still, it doesn't die. Because it is an indelible mark and the faith of our fathers still lives still.

What we should work for, and strive for, with every being of our soul, then, is to get the entire world baptized. Faith and morals are needed. But a single desire to be baptized, either by the person or any of his household, is enough reason to plant the seed of baptism, which lasts to the very last, and beyond, because it doesn't die.

Let us go then, in the midst of our present-day secularism and religious pluralism to get everyone to believe and be baptized. Don't look for an extensive belief, a simple gesture is enough.

The barriers to baptism are overly complicated in our age. Let us break this barrier and baptize the entire world

 

On The Assumption and our Contemporaneous Experience

In a generation where grand narratives are denied, proposing a dogma becomes next to impossible. But, to those who believe, no explanation is necessary and to those who do not, no explanation is possible!

A massive paradigm has shifted since Covid-19 and we have crossed a great threshold where we do not have to wait till ‘the end of ages’ to experience the eschatological description in the scripture, because it is taking place now, even in our age!

I do not think there is any human generation that has ever played as pivotal a role as the one we play now. We are each the fulcrum upon which primordial generational struggles play and unto which ancestral destinies depend. The war is ultimately about us and we better not mess it up. 

The world may not perish (and who knows, with climate change), but the pedestal upon which life, as we know it today, is built, has already shifted, and it would continue to shift as genealogy becomes predominant, and AI matches with it and psychedelics moves us into realms we do not know until we encounter the reality of the Sacraments ….

Eschatology is here, see:  how many that you know have already been taken? How many have gone suddenly and mysteriously? (Mt: 24: 40) How many ages past ideologies are now springing up?

  

Somebody asked me when the prophecy of Fatima will take place? and I replied, now! We are in the very midst of these Revelations. We can call on St Michael, not only to defend us ‘in the day of battle’, but to defend us ‘this day of battle’ (Rev 12: 7). A battle which is even made more manifest with the Covid pandemic. A grave mistake we would make is to presume we can still continue to live life as normal. 

It is no coincidence that the virus started in China (Rev 12:3) and the Church cowed and congregational sacrifice was globally halted as the woman fled (Rev 12: 6) and the son is already born, even more! (Rev 12: 5). 

Don’t you see we are in the age of the Eucharist?! The Eucharist will openly become more than a sign to many. That Bread will determine the next civilization, but not without persecution. And there are people who are already seeing this new age, of Christ! (Mt16:28). This is not a metaphor!

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is the glory of humankind and it is intimately about you and me, and it has never been as relevant as it is in our age. Mary is the Church birthing Christ in the Eucharist, and you are the ‘god’ waiting to be made manifest through this birth. Devil does not want you to realize this and there is war. It is ongoing!

As the intersection between the Church, Mary,

and the Eucharist becomes more apparent. This Solemnity which is all about you and the struggle for your soul will be more critical. Heaven is here, and you don’t have to die to see it! That is the meaning of Assumption!

Happy Solemnity of the Assumption!

15/08/21

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