Morning Voice

July 3, 2022. Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – C. Readings: Is 66:10-14c; Ps 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20; Gal6:14-18; Lk 10:1-12, 17-20. “Do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” Lk 10:20 A Ghanaian proverb says: “The orphan does not rejoice after a heavy breakfast.” And a Danish proverb adds: “He who would enjoy the fire must bear its smoke.” Christian life we said last Sunday, is a journey in the footsteps of Christ. This journey leads to perfection of joy. Therefore, the Christian life is itself a joyous life. Our joy, however, is not a synonym for trial-free life. The real joy spring from accepting everything with faith and firmness in the Lord. Humanly speaking, everyone wants to be always happy. And we often draw our happiness or joy from our achievements. When you succeed in doing something, it fills your heart with indescribable joy. The joy in the Lord goes further than that which comes from huma...

June 29, 2022. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles. Readings: Acts 12:1-11; Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9; 2 Tm4:6-8, 17-18; Mt 16:13-19. “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18 A Latin proverb says: “A weak foundation destroys the work.” And a British proverb adds: “No good building without a good foundation.” If we accept faith and the following of Christ as a building, this edifice is erected on Pillars. The Apostles are the foundations of our faith in Jesus Christ. We even profess it in our Credo when we say, “I believe in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.” Through this article of our Creed, we say the nature of the Church. For, the words One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic are its four identity marks. The Church is ONE. This means that it is a single, united and global Church that has its basis in Christ Jesus. The Church is HOLY because it is the Body of Christ wi...

June 26, 2022. Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – C. Readings: 1 Kgs 19:16b, 19-21; Ps 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11; Gal5:1, 13-18; Lk 9:51-62. An Ivorian proverb says: “When a tortoise embarks on a journey he does not ask for directions, because he does not want his enemies to know where he is going.” And a Japanese proverb adds: “Life is a long journey with a heavy bag on its back.” Vocation is a journey. The specificity of this journey is that it is undertaken after a call and it leads to one's fate. We all have a singular call that changes the course of our lives and determines our future. Someone said, when God calls, nobody can say no. The Holy Bible, in that sense, is filled with vocation stories. Many of them are quite very explicit, while some others are suspicious and mysterious. The readings, on this thirteenth Sunday in the Ordinary time, bring us on to journey in some vocation stories with their specificities and their aims. In the first reading, we have the callin...

June 24, 2022. Solemnity of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus – C. Readings: Ez 34:11-16; Ps 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6; Rom 5:5b-11; Lk15:3-7. “The love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Rom 5:5b A Togolese proverb says: “The heart rules without rules.” And an Albanian proverb adds: “That which comes from the heart is always sincere.” The heart of Jesus is the fountain of love. It is also the spring of human purification, sanctification, and salvation. The heart of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ speaks of the Heart of God himself. The Psalm 33 that we sing as the entrance antiphon of today's Eucharistic celebration says: “The designs of his Heart are from age to age, to rescue their souls from death, and keep them alive in famine.” God has only one plan, the salvation of mankind. And for that mystery of salvation to be accomplished, he sent his only Begotten Son who out of love died on the Cross for us. While dying on th...

June 23, 2022. Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. Readings: Is 49:1-6; Ps 139:1b-3, 13-14ab, 14c-15; Acts13:22-26; Lk 1:57-66, 80. “What, then, will this child be?” Luke 1:66 A Spanish proverb says: “He that is born to be hanged shall never be drowned. You can't escape your destiny.” And an Albanian proverb adds: “What a man can be is born with him; what he becomes is a result of his environment.” God has a plan for each of us. In that sense, everyone in this world is born for a purpose. The point is to know why God created us, and pursue that purpose. For some people, the reason for their birth may be clear and already revealed to them. Others have to search for it. We are celebrating today one who is actually born for a greater purpose, to be Prophet and Spokesman of the Lord. Born six months before the Lord, John's vocation was already revealed before his birth to his parents. He was to be the last and the greatest of all the Prophets; the forerun...

June 19, 2022. The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ – C. Readings: Gn 14:18-20; Ps 110:1, 2, 3, 4; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Lk9:11b-17. “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.” 1 Cor 11:26 A Sicilian proverb says: “Bread and wine strengthen the back.” And a Corsican proverb adds: “He who eats holy bread has to deserve it.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1324-1327), states that the Eucharist is "the source and summit" of the Christian life. The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch. When we come to the Eucharistic banquet, we come to receive the one who for our salvation handed over his life on the Altar of the Cross. In the Eucharist, we revive Christ's sacr...

June 12, 2022. The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity – C. Readings: Prv 8:22-31; Ps 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9; Rom 5:1-5; Jn16:12-15. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” (2 Cor 13:13) A Romanian proverb says: “A threefold cord is not quickly broken.” And an Afghan proverb adds: “Two are better than one, and three than two.” The Church, in her teaching, speaks of the Divine works and the Trinitarian missions. She says, “The whole divine economy is the common work of the three divine persons. For as the Trinity has only one and the same natures so too does it have only one and the same operation: "The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three principles of creation but one principle." However, each divine person performs the common work according to his unique personal property. Thus the Church confesses, following the New Testament, "one God and Father from whom all things are, and one...

June 6, 2022 Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church. Readings: Gn 3:9-15, 20 or Acts 1:12-14; Ps 87:1-2, 3 and 5,6-7; Jn 19:25-34. “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother”.” John 19:26 A Namibian proverb says: “A mother is always a mother.” And an Eritrean proverb adds: “A home without a mother is a desert.” There is no other beautiful image that matches better with the Virgin Mary than that of the mother. The Magisterium of the Church emphasizes the most this image. On January 1, while starting our journey in a new year, the Blessed Virgin is celebrated as Mother of God, the greatest and most solemn of all the Marian titles. After the Holy Spirit came on the disciples and made them a community of believers or a Church, Mary is presented to us as the mother of this community. For, on the day of the first Pentecost, when the Apostles and ...

June 5, 2022. Solemnity of the Pentecost Sunday – C. Readings: Acts 2:1-11; Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34; 1 Cor12:3b-7, 12-13 or Rom 8:8-17; Jn 20:19-23 or Jn 14:15-16, 23b-26. “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.” A Hebrew proverb says: “Join the community: the wolf snatches only the stray sheep that wanders off from the flock.” And a Traditional proverb adds: “The community of living is the carriage of the Lord.” The Christian community is a community in the spirit and a community of the Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit of God that breaks our barriers and differences and brings us together as one body to proclaim our faith in Christ. The Christian life and the following of Christ do not annihilate our diversities, differences, oppositions, and fears. But through the work of the Spirit, all these are put together and they give us a reason to become a place of common unity and communication, different from a place of unifo...