My Prayer for Imo State

All Powerful and Merciful God,

We your people in Imo State thank you for the numerous blessings and favours we have received from you both individually and collectively. We ask for pardon for the several ways we have fallen short of your glory. Today we are held captives by the agents of bad governance involving both leaders and followers. As a result of this, we are suffering from spiritual, political, economic, social and intellectual blindness.

God our Father, our people have been impoverished by non-payment of workers’ salaries, neglect of pensioners, the dilapidation of social infrastructure, selfishness by our leaders, lack of befitting employment for our youths and reckless spending of public resources among others. Our roads have become death traps, our educational, medical and even political structures among several others have been rendered useless by false promises, deceit and bad will. Parents are no longer able to cater for their children and our youths cannot achieve their goals.

Compassionate Father, we beg you, touch the hearts of our leaders and all those responsible for our collective well-being, that they may have a sense of love, justice and good will. Since they are blind to our predicaments, grant that they may see again, so as to be sensitive to the plights of the suffering masses. Bless us with responsible governance and God-fearing leaders who will restore our lost glory and lead us into the Promised Land. We make this prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen.

-    Uwakwe Chibuike MFC

Reflection/Homily: Twenty-Ninth (29th) Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C (Mission Sunday, October 20 2013)

Reflection/Homily: Twenty-Ninth (29^th) Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C (Mission Sunday, October 20 2013)

Theme: Prayer and Authentic Missionary Activity

On this 29^th Sunday in the Ordinary Time of the Year C which is also the World Mission Sunday, we are reminded of our missionary roles in the world. A missionary is one chosen and sent by God to a people and a land to do His will. As Christians we are all missionaries of God in the world trying to do the will of God. In the first reading (Exodus 17:8-13), we encounter Moses as a missionary leading the people of Israel to the Promised Land. When they were attacked by the Amalekites at Rephidim, Moses instructed Joshua on what to do while he went up to pray. He augmented the physical efforts of the Israelites with the power of prayer. As long as his hands remained lifted up, the Israelites took advantage over their opponents until they defeated them.

It is not uncommon as missionaries in our own way that we live in an environment where several challenges confront us in the course of doing the will of God. The action of Moses is for us an example to follow. When we encounter difficulties in our missionary activities, whether religious or secular, we have to resort to prayer despite the human strategies we might put in place. Only God can guarantee us victory though sometimes, through the strategies we put in place. Prayer augments our human efforts in the quest for victory. It is not a mere communication with God, it is a relationship with God. Though God is not bound to obey our voices in prayer, He has bound Himself to listen to our voices in prayer by commanding that we pray in and out of season.

Reflection/Homily: Seventeenth (17th) Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C (July 27 2013)

Reflection/Homily: Seventeenth (17^th) Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C (July 27 2013)

Theme: Praying with the Holy Spirit

In the first Reading of Last Sunday we saw how Abraham welcomed some strangers who happened to be angelic beings and how they blessed Abraham with the promise of a Son. In today’s first reading (Genesis 18:20-32), we continue from where we stopped last Sunday. Abraham was already immersed in an atmosphere of prayer because he was already communicating with God. In verse 17 of Chapter 18, God said to Himself “I will not hide from Abraham what I am going to do”. God quickly communicated his plan of destroying Sodom and Gomorrah to Abraham. Immediately, Abraham intervened by interceding on behalf of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah who were so engrossed in immorality. Abraham’s intention was to change the mind of God if a certain number of righteous men were found in these cities even though not even ten were found.

Abraham’s encounter with God has a number of lessons to teach us. We have to learn that prayer exposes us to Divine secrets. Each time we come to God in prayer, we learn from the wisdom of God and discover new secrets. Prayer is like a school where we learn the will of God. In this school, God avails us the opportunity to make our own input to the body of divine knowledge. That is why He gave Abraham the opportunity to keep interceding for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah until he was exhausted. Even today, in our encounter with God, God still allows us to learn more from Him. That is why each time we encounter God in prayer, we learn something new about God, about ourselves or even about our problems. For this reason, when we pray, we have to listen to God first so that we know how to make our requests and adjust them when need be.