Sunday VibesLeave a comment

#SV – Take, and Stay Off!

Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke

Sir 3:17-18, 20, 28-29 My child, conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts. Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God. What is too sublime for you, seek not, into things beyond your strength search not. The mind of a sage appreciates proverbs, and an attentive ear is the joy of the wise. Water quenches a flaming fire, and alms atone for sins. Lk 14:1, 7-14On a sabbath Jesus went to dineat the home of one of the leading Pharisees,and the people there were observing him carefully. He told a parable to those … Continue reading #SV – Take, and Stay Off!

Sunday VibesLeave a comment

#SV – Kingdom Discipline

Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke

Brothers and sisters,You have forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as children:“My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lordor lose heart when reproved by him;for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines;he scourges every son he acknowledges.”Endure your trials as “discipline”;God treats you as sons. For what “son” is there whom his father does not discipline?At the time,all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain,yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousnessto those who are trained by it. So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet,that what is lame may … Continue reading #SV – Kingdom Discipline

Sunday VibesLeave a comment

#SV – Faith as Obedience

Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke

Brothers and sisters:Faith is the realization of what is hoped forand evidence of things not seen. Because of it the ancients were well attested. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a placethat he was to receive as an inheritance;he went out, not knowing where he was to go. By faith he sojourned in the promised land as in a foreign country,dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs of the same promise;for he was looking forward to the city with foundations,whose architect and maker is God. By faith he received power to generate,even though he was past … Continue reading #SV – Faith as Obedience

Sunday VibesLeave a comment

#SV – There’s More

Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke

The gospel of vanity is the one that builds castles upon sands. It is the one that rolls in primitive acquisition. It is the life that has no space for suffering humanity. It is marked by a superlative selfishness that centers everything on the self. For vanity lifestyle, it’s only about glitz and glamour. Money-making is for money sake. Power and wealth are for status sake. Nothing else matters. The common good project can go to blazes. The idea of collective prosperity is unwelcome. God is unnecessary. And the poor does not exist. The signpost of existential meaning is shifted, … Continue reading #SV – There’s More

Sunday VibesLeave a comment

#SV – Intercession

Ikenna Paschal Okpaleke

The second reading presents us with an example of the ultimate intercession which Christ wrought for us sinners. If we have received so much love, kindness, and life from God, why then are we always too quick to condemn others. We are too quick to divide between the righteous and sinners, between the conservatives and the liberals, between the holy and the damned that we fail to see any good in one another. “Brothers and sisters:You were buried with him in baptism,in which you were also raised with himthrough faith in the power of God,who raised him from the dead. And … Continue reading #SV – Intercession