Author: Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke

Human, son, brother, friend, Igbo, Christian, Catholic, priest, theologian and citizen.
Uncategorized2 Comments

Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis (Pentecost, 31 May 2020)

Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke

“There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit” (1 Cor 12:4), as the Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians. He continues: “There are different forms of service, but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone” (vv. 5-6). Diversity and unity: Saint Paul puts together two words that seem contradictory. He wants to tell us that the Holy Spirit is the one who brings together the many; and that the Church was born this way: we are all different, yet united by the same Holy Spirit. Let us go back to … Continue reading Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis (Pentecost, 31 May 2020)

UncategorizedLeave a comment

#SV – Love-filled

Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke

The Pentecost feast reminds us once again that for us Christians, it is a ‘new’ version of Pentecost; one in which love is made accessible to us to live and share in a very radical way. This radicality of love has already been exemplified in the life of Jesus himself, who readily gave his life for the sake of love. In that sense the ultimate consequence of love is death – death to selfishness, to clannishness, to parochialism, to ethnicity, to racism, to extremisms that exclude, injure, hate, hurt, main, kill, destroy, and impoverish others. It is only when we … Continue reading #SV – Love-filled

Uncategorized2 Comments

#RS – There’s More

Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke

Listen, to the world that’s filled with noise. Listen, to the inner voice that won’t just cease. Listen, to the broken heart that pours all out. Listen, beyond the words and the laughter; beyond the anger and the angry; beyond the facts and the pretense; beyond the beauty and the glamour; beyond the drama and the comedy; beyond power and its exercise. Just listen, for the unsaid and the unsayable. ‘Cos there’s always more. Continue reading #RS – There’s More

Uncategorized12 Comments

Five Things COVID-19 Can Teach the Churches

Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke

In response to the pandemic, there have been many write-ups concerning the appropriate precautions to be taken, the activities to be explored during lockdowns, ways to take care of the body and mind, as well as the existential lessons that we ought to learn from the COVID-19 experience. In an earlier post on this site, I explored how the pandemic has succeeded in exposing our collective vulnerability, not only in the fragility of life, the illusion of what we had thought we can control and the grave inherent depravity that we never knew was there all along. In that piece, I also … Continue reading Five Things COVID-19 Can Teach the Churches