“Moses spoke to the people, saying, “See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you . . . . . . . . . . . .”
Excerpt, First Reading, Thursday 6th March 2025 – DEUTERONOMY 30:15-20.
So, the choice has always been ours, to either do good and live or follow the ways of the world and perish.
The instructions given by the Prophet Moses above were simple, “ Love God and love your neighbour as yourself.” Simple!
If we are going to do something not good to someone else, and on a second thought we feel that if that were done to us, we will be hurt, that is our conscience speaking to us. That, my dear friend is the voice of God speaking reason to us.
At this rate and at this point, we have the option of making the choice of heeding the voice of reason or going it our way.
However, Christ Jesus in today’s teaching says, what will become of our soul if and when we keep going it our way by taking other people’s lands and other properties, grabbing monies budgeted for public good and syphoning them into private accounts, importing and distributing fake and substandard products, sleeping around . . . . . .?
When we have gained all the riches and pleasures of this world, what then will become of our soul when we pass on?
It is not as if we are geared not to be prosperous. Recall that Moses said above that, once we follow the commandments of the Lord God, we shall prosper and multiply and God will bless us.
What could most likely be getting us to go the way of the world could be our greed.
My dear friend, even if we have gone so deep into having it our way by going the way of the world, this Lenten season provides us yet another opportunity to have a redress.
The doors of the Church are always and ever open, we may begin by first going for confession.
Christ says, what will it profit us if we gain the whole world and lose our soul?
My dear friend, eternity is way too long a period of time to be lost in just for the temporal gains of our impatience that we pressure to enjoy here.
Have a fantastic day folks.
#Blessed_Carlo_Acutis! #Pray_for_us!
– Akase F. Agabo
6th March 2025.
Giving Discretely.
“Jesus said to his disciples, “Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Excerpt, Gospel Reading, Wednesday 5th March 2025 – MATTHEW 6:1-6,16-18.
So, today is Ash Wednesday and it signifies the beginning of the season of Lent for the year 2025.
Today, we present ourselves to be marked with ashes on our forehead.
The receiving of ash on the forehead is a practice that is available to all.
This implies that both Catholic faithful and non-Catholics alike are permitted to be marked with ashes on their forehead.
This practice is also available to even those who are of other religions as well as atheists.
The significance of receiving ashes on our forehead is an indication of our sinfulness and mortality.
That is why at the point of receiving the ashes, the administering minister says, “You are dust and on to dust you shall return.”
Simply put, the above statement implies that, as a sinful man, remember that one day you will die.
Then, I add for emphasis sake, “That day we do not know. We must prepare for it now.”
The Lenten season stands on a tripod of fasting and abstinence, almsgiving and prayer. Note that, fasting and abstinence are one.
It is not really that we haven’t been living these out in our everyday life, however, this is the season we should and must improve on it without waning.
Finally, while being charitable in almsgiving, Christ Jesus enjoins us in today’s teaching that we should and must be discrete about it.
Christ says further that, those times we deplore the cameras while giving and subsequently display the images of us giving on social media platforms, those uuhs and aahs as well as the likes that we get tend to be the only reward that accrues to us.
E no suppose be like that!
Have a fantastic day folks.
#Blessed_Carlo_Acutis! #Pray_for_us!
– Akase F. Agabo
5th March 2025.
Excerpt, Gospel Reading, Wednesday 5th March 2025 – MATTHEW 6:1-6,16-18.
So, today is Ash Wednesday and it signifies the beginning of the season of Lent for the year 2025.
Today, we present ourselves to be marked with ashes on our forehead.
The receiving of ash on the forehead is a practice that is available to all.
This implies that both Catholic faithful and non-Catholics alike are permitted to be marked with ashes on their forehead.
This practice is also available to even those who are of other religions as well as atheists.
The significance of receiving ashes on our forehead is an indication of our sinfulness and mortality.
That is why at the point of receiving the ashes, the administering minister says, “You are dust and on to dust you shall return.”
Simply put, the above statement implies that, as a sinful man, remember that one day you will die.
Then, I add for emphasis sake, “That day we do not know. We must prepare for it now.”
The Lenten season stands on a tripod of fasting and abstinence, almsgiving and prayer. Note that, fasting and abstinence are one.
It is not really that we haven’t been living these out in our everyday life, however, this is the season we should and must improve on it without waning.
Finally, while being charitable in almsgiving, Christ Jesus enjoins us in today’s teaching that we should and must be discrete about it.
Christ says further that, those times we deplore the cameras while giving and subsequently display the images of us giving on social media platforms, those uuhs and aahs as well as the likes that we get tend to be the only reward that accrues to us.
E no suppose be like that!
Have a fantastic day folks.
#Blessed_Carlo_Acutis! #Pray_for_us!
– Akase F. Agabo
5th March 2025.
Life Happens.
“Peter began to say to Jesus, “Behold, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you; there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.”
Excerpt, Gospel Reading Tuesday 4th March 2025 – MARK 10:28-31.
So, we all must be aware of the street talk that says, “Life no balance.”
The above explains that, although, life may not be a bed of roses, it is yet not just a crown of thorns. As e dey sweet, e dey also dey pain.
And that is why a couple with stupendous wealth will be going from the north to the south pole seeking to have even a single child. Whereas, a pauper barely able to feed himself and his wife, in just one trial may end up having multiple births like triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets or even more.
Truly, this life no balance. And it is for this reason that the emphasis on today’s teaching will be, “With persecutions.”
Christ Jesus, he who is also God made a promise to his disciples that they would get a double fold of whatever they may have left to follow him. Then, he added, persecutions also.
You see, my dear friend, that is why life happen in phases.
Sometimes, we get so blessed and some of us start attributing it to our smartness. Then, we also get very broke. We fall sick. We find love, then sometimes some of us get heart broken. The lucky ones may end up finding love again.
We find a companion. Then we get lonely. Sometimes, even in the companionship we still get or feel lonely.
We labour and toil and build and furnish a house. Then that house is engulfed by fire. Some of us may get to have another house again, some never again. Life happens!
We build a house filled with people and with love. However, as time passes, death comes to take some of these people away, leaving us with just their memories.
Dear friend, that is the ways of life. Life happens. All of us, rich, middle class and the indigent alike, we get to experience the good end of life, then we also get the vagaries of life as well.
Notwithstanding life happening, we are enjoined to hold on fast and never give up. For at the end, we are promised eternal life. These are Divine promises, they will come to pass.
Have a fantastic day folks and happy Mardigras Tuesday.
#Blessed_Carlo_Acutis! #Pray_for_us!
– Akase F. Agabo
4th March 2025.
Excerpt, Gospel Reading Tuesday 4th March 2025 – MARK 10:28-31.
So, we all must be aware of the street talk that says, “Life no balance.”
The above explains that, although, life may not be a bed of roses, it is yet not just a crown of thorns. As e dey sweet, e dey also dey pain.
And that is why a couple with stupendous wealth will be going from the north to the south pole seeking to have even a single child. Whereas, a pauper barely able to feed himself and his wife, in just one trial may end up having multiple births like triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets or even more.
Truly, this life no balance. And it is for this reason that the emphasis on today’s teaching will be, “With persecutions.”
Christ Jesus, he who is also God made a promise to his disciples that they would get a double fold of whatever they may have left to follow him. Then, he added, persecutions also.
You see, my dear friend, that is why life happen in phases.
Sometimes, we get so blessed and some of us start attributing it to our smartness. Then, we also get very broke. We fall sick. We find love, then sometimes some of us get heart broken. The lucky ones may end up finding love again.
We find a companion. Then we get lonely. Sometimes, even in the companionship we still get or feel lonely.
We labour and toil and build and furnish a house. Then that house is engulfed by fire. Some of us may get to have another house again, some never again. Life happens!
We build a house filled with people and with love. However, as time passes, death comes to take some of these people away, leaving us with just their memories.
Dear friend, that is the ways of life. Life happens. All of us, rich, middle class and the indigent alike, we get to experience the good end of life, then we also get the vagaries of life as well.
Notwithstanding life happening, we are enjoined to hold on fast and never give up. For at the end, we are promised eternal life. These are Divine promises, they will come to pass.
Have a fantastic day folks and happy Mardigras Tuesday.
#Blessed_Carlo_Acutis! #Pray_for_us!
– Akase F. Agabo
4th March 2025.
Check Our Ways
“But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
Excerpt, Gospel Reading, Monday 3rd March 2025 – MARK 10:17-27.
So, we are already acquainted with this street talk – “Money talks, bullshit walks.”
The above is an idiom that means money has a strong influence on people’s actions and decisions, while empty words have no impact.
My dear friend, the issue about money is the same all over the world. This cuts across the developed, developing and the underdeveloped countries of the world.
A student who frontally challenges their lecturer, hauls insults at him and even dares to slap him may do so, trusting in the extricating powers of their parent’s riches.
A man of means, trusting in their wealth, if they want to take someone else’s wife, it will be a piece of cake, safe for when the woman is not materialistic. Just like King Herod took Herodias his brother Philip’s wife.
A rich person with so many properties as well as undeveloped lands will still muscle out a pauper’s only piece of land on which he and his family depend on for their livelihood.
In the Bible, Jezebel the wife of King Ahab manipulated and seized the vineyard belonging to Naboth. And such things are still happening.
Vile people who are in possession of wealth do a lot of terrible things with their money.
The situations that calls for the most attention and are quite disturbing are from those who were hitherto indigent and eventually came into riches. It is appalling how abysmally they tend to treat others whom they were in the trenches together.
Now, to those of us so guilty, we do all of these because we trust that when we throw some money around, it can get us out of any situation.
We believe that what money cannot do, more will do it.
Therefore, when we get bored, we go about inflicting such pains on fellow humans just for game. After all, we and our children can always get out of any mess, since money talks, bullshit walks.
Those of us with such notoriety, we tend to even feel we can equally use our money to bulldoze our way into heaven when our time is up.
We all must pay very close attention as Christ Jesus in today’s teaching says, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for those of us so guilty to make heaven.
Dear friend, we shouldn’t do the mistake of thinking such about only the likes Aliko Dangote, Bill Gates, Ted Turner, Elon Musk, etc of this world. Even we, in our little way, that little change we have may have started getting into our head and making us do things. We must check it.
Folks, have a fantastic day, a fulfilled week and a matching forward month of March 2025.
#Blessed_Carlo_Acutis! #Pray_for_us!
– Akase F. Agabo
3rd March 2025.
Excerpt, Gospel Reading, Monday 3rd March 2025 – MARK 10:17-27.
So, we are already acquainted with this street talk – “Money talks, bullshit walks.”
The above is an idiom that means money has a strong influence on people’s actions and decisions, while empty words have no impact.
My dear friend, the issue about money is the same all over the world. This cuts across the developed, developing and the underdeveloped countries of the world.
A student who frontally challenges their lecturer, hauls insults at him and even dares to slap him may do so, trusting in the extricating powers of their parent’s riches.
A man of means, trusting in their wealth, if they want to take someone else’s wife, it will be a piece of cake, safe for when the woman is not materialistic. Just like King Herod took Herodias his brother Philip’s wife.
A rich person with so many properties as well as undeveloped lands will still muscle out a pauper’s only piece of land on which he and his family depend on for their livelihood.
In the Bible, Jezebel the wife of King Ahab manipulated and seized the vineyard belonging to Naboth. And such things are still happening.
Vile people who are in possession of wealth do a lot of terrible things with their money.
The situations that calls for the most attention and are quite disturbing are from those who were hitherto indigent and eventually came into riches. It is appalling how abysmally they tend to treat others whom they were in the trenches together.
Now, to those of us so guilty, we do all of these because we trust that when we throw some money around, it can get us out of any situation.
We believe that what money cannot do, more will do it.
Therefore, when we get bored, we go about inflicting such pains on fellow humans just for game. After all, we and our children can always get out of any mess, since money talks, bullshit walks.
Those of us with such notoriety, we tend to even feel we can equally use our money to bulldoze our way into heaven when our time is up.
We all must pay very close attention as Christ Jesus in today’s teaching says, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for those of us so guilty to make heaven.
Dear friend, we shouldn’t do the mistake of thinking such about only the likes Aliko Dangote, Bill Gates, Ted Turner, Elon Musk, etc of this world. Even we, in our little way, that little change we have may have started getting into our head and making us do things. We must check it.
Folks, have a fantastic day, a fulfilled week and a matching forward month of March 2025.
#Blessed_Carlo_Acutis! #Pray_for_us!
– Akase F. Agabo
3rd March 2025.