The Feast of the Nativity of Blessed Virgin Mary
Monday,8th September, 2025.
Theme: Mary, the Promised Mother of our Lord, from a Humble State
(Micah 5:2-5, Ps 13, Matt 1: 1-16, 18-23)
The people of Israel were promised a Messiah by the prophets, with a virgin to be the mother. Just like Jesus, Mary also came from an unexpected origin which was not the expectations of the Israelites. Their expectation was to see the mother of the Messiah coming from a recognized family or a royal one.
The first reading indicates to us that, Bethlehem was among the smallest of the clans of Judah. It was called the city of David because that was his birth place, and where Samuel anointed him king of Israel (1Sam 16:4-13).Among the towns in Judea, it did not deserve to have the Messiah been born there, but it was the place that God chose for the Saviour to be born. God will not have the Saviour come from a great city like Jerusalem, but from a small village, Bethlehem. He will not be from a rich powerful family, but from a poor one, just like David at the beginning of his kingdom.
The prophecy of Micah was fulfilled in the gospel through Jesus, the son of Mary. Mary too is among the poor once who is unknown during her time. She does not deserve to be called the “ Mother of God or God- bearer (theotokos – Greek expression of God- bearer)” or the one to bring forth the Saviour of the world. She acknowledges this in her Magnificat (Lk 1:48-53). She did not deserve this favour from God, because she was not the best of women or young ladies at her time to be chosen for this salvific mission for humanity.
God can make any person who is nobody to become somebody. If Bethlehem and Nazareth were chosen to be the birth place and the origin of the Messiah, and if Mary who was nobody was chosen to be the bearer of the Saviour, then he can change your story.
It does not matter where you are coming from and your beginnings. Sometimes we feel too inferior to others because of where we are coming from and our current status. My brother, my sister you do not know whom you would become one day. Great people mostly have humble beginnings.
When Kwame Nkrumah was born, if someone should have told the parents that their son would one day become president, am sure it would have been difficult for them to accept it. That is what God is able to do. To make the impossibilities to become possible. To put hope into hopeless situations. To put life into dead situations.
May God grant us the grace to always trust His promises in our lives and the fact that he can change our story. Amen .
Have a Blessed Day. Shalom.
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
Memorial of St. Peter Claver
Tuesday, 9th September, 2025.
Theme: Involve God in your Decision Taking
( Col 2:6-15, Ps 145, Lk 6:12-19)
Jesus spent a whole night in prayer before choosing the twelve apostles from his disciples. He knew that he needed the guidance of his father and the Holy Spirit to make the right decision about his apostles. And of course, this was a major decision in his life.
Beloved, Jesus is giving us an example to follow. We are supposed to spend sometime in prayer concerning decision taking in life, especially when they are major decisions in our lives. We always need the direction of God in our lives. Our decisions make us what we become, hence there is the need to involve God in these decisions. It is only God who can help us to make the right decisions in life. Without consulting him , we will fail.
Most of us have failed in life because we didn’t consult God when we were making certain major steps in our lives. The vocation you want to choose, is it inline with the will of God? The business you want to embark on, is it according to his will? The journey you want to embark on, does God support it? The course you want to do, is that what God wants for you? This question should always be on our lips; God is it your will?
In any situation and moments of our lives, we need to discern for God’s direction. His direction will always lead to success.
Don’t allow your fleshy desires to mislead you and influence your decisions. Put everything to prayer. Spend sometime and reflect deeply about it. Some decisions need some time to arrive at the best ones, which are usually the God-informed decisions. When you rush to take such decisions, you will fail. Aside the prayer, there is always the need to do broad consultations in such moments.
We become what we decide, therefore we need to be careful with our processes of decision making.
May the spirit of God touch us today so that we can always invite God in our decision taking process. Amen .
Have a Blessed Day.
Shalom. 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
Wednesday, 10th September, 2025.
Theme: Be Poor in Spirit
(Col 3:1-11, Ps 145, Lk 6:20-26)
The gospel reading which is popularly known as the Beatitudes and also referred to as the Sermon on the Mount, teaches about the virtues of Christianity. But more importantly being poor in spirit. To be poor here does not mean to possess nothing, but rather to put God first in everything we do. We must learn to renounce all worldly materials for the sake of the kingdom of God. Poverty here doesn’t mean material poverty but rather the spiritual one. The poor in the Lord always seek to do His will in their life. They do not allow worldly possessions to blind them. Their joy is to do the will of their father. They put their trust and hope in the Lord. The Beatitudes could all be summed up in the first “ Happy the poor in spirit”. It takes people with great humility to put behind them the world and always walk in the statutes of the Lord.
Again the poor in spirit are those who humble themselves, obey His commands, and seek his righteousness. These are people who are humble and lowly in heart. They always seek to do the will of God in their lives. Those who humble themselves in the Lord, are the very people who accept their nothingness before the Lord. They know that without God they are nothing. They do not exalt themselves before men, but accept the fact that it is God who has made them who they are. Hence, they strive all the time to put God first in their lives.
Those who are poor in spirit are not selfish with their capabilities and qualities in life. And they place their possessions at the service of others. They know that these are gifts from God, hence they must be used to serve Him and humanity. They do not boast of them. But the opposite is the order of the day.
Some of us behave as if we have become who we are because of our own making. Or we have what we have because of our efforts alone. God has been taken out of the equation. My brother, my sister it is not by your own strength, but by the grace of God. Be humble to accept this fact in life. But for God, you would have been nobody in life. Your name wouldn’t have been remembered anywhere as it is the case today. Some of us boast too much of our achievements in life. Please remember that if the Lord doesn’t build the house, the builder labours in vain. The warning is if we continue to boast and leave Him out, one day He will humble us. This is a reality that we cannot run away.
May the Holy Spirit help us to put the world behind and the cross before us. Amen .
Have a Blessed Day. Shalom.
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
Thursday, 11th September, 2025.
Theme: Love your Enemies
(Col 3:12-17,Ps150, Lk 6: 27-38)
In the Lukan version of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is still giving the original intention of the laws given them. He preaches against loving those who love us and hating those who hate us. This again was a command from Moses, given to the people in order to reduce the pressure the people were putting on him. If you love me then I will also love you, but if you hate me then I will also hate you.
But Jesus is telling them and by extension us, that it is not Christian to do that. It is the worldly people who live such life styles. He invites us to continue to love and care for those who continually hate us and look for our downfall. This seems a difficult task, because humanly speaking it is not easy. But with Christ it is simple to do. It takes a forgiving heart to embrace this calling. He showed us example when even on the cross he asked for forgiveness for those who crucified and were mocking at him. He continually cared for the Pharisees and the Scribes who were always working against him.
The human tendency is to be opened and do good to those who appreciate us, who care about us, who wish us well. But we are called to go the extra mile to extend this love to even people who wish you dead. It sounds weird right. Some people have asked me over and over again that why and how should they show love to those who are always looking for their downfall? Are they not rather giving such people opportunity to still pursue evil against them? But that is what we are called to do.
Remember don’t expect everyone to like you. Definitely some people will like you but some will also hate you. There are some people who naturally will never like us no matter what. You have not done anything to them but naturally they don’t want to see you exist. It is normal, don’t hate them back but love them. Leave vengeance to the Lord.
May the Holy Spirit help us to always show love to those who always hate us. Amen.
Have a Blessed Day.
Shalom🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
Friday,12th September,2025.
Theme: Stop Judging Others and Focus on Yourself
( 1Timo 1:1-2,12-14, Ps 16, Lk 6:39-42)
Beloved in Christ, the Parable of the Blind man teaches us a lot about our Christian faith. Most of us easily points fingers at others, declaring them as the most sinful people on this earth. This was the character of the Pharisees and the Scribes. They classified some people as the most sinful people, whiles in actual fact they are in that category. The evil things that we do which is in secret is worst than those whom we are judging and condemning. Sometimes we are only projecting what we are on others. Stop parading your self-righteousness before others and accept that you are a sinner who needs God’s mercy.
Beloved,no one is righteous before God. Our righteousness is like a filthy rag before God. When we are talking about the sins of others we should ask ourselves, what about me? We are not better than those we are broadcasting as public sinners. May be your bad life has not come to light. That is why I always say we are not better than those in prison. It is just that we have not been caught.
You are also a sinner,so sit down and reflect on your life to detect the areas which you need to work on. It is only by doing this that we can mature as Christians.
Jesus is not by this saying that we can’t correct people when they go wrong. Not at all. We have a duty to remain the conscience of our societies. But we have to always do so without leaving our self out. Even as I share the word of God with you, I shouldn’t think that I am left out of the message. It is equally also my message. In fact, the message must first of all speak to me as the preacher before thinking about the others. Unfortunately, we mostly leave ourselves out as if we are above the message.
Very often some of the things we say about people are false accusations.
Hence we condemn them innocently, leaving some people with bitterness in life. God will definitely hear the cry of such people and we must be careful not to face the wrath of God. Stop spreading false news about people. What you have not seen, don’t say you have seen it. Some of us our lies have killed people, have put people in prison, have made people to be mad, and you think you will go free like that?
We better change from these bad characters. Always verify information about people before you comment on it. Most of us don’t do that, we depend too much on hearsay which mostly is not true.
We have used our mouths to kill people in so many ways. God will ask us one day. Yes, you have a duty to correct others to make them better people, but this must be done with love and care.
Remember that there some people, no matter how you correct them they will have issues with you. Sometimes just pray for them, but don’t give up on them. Jesus never gave up on the Pharisees and the Scribes, because he wanted them to be saved.
May God help us to acknowledge our sinful nature and work on them.Amen.
Have a Blessed day.
Shalom.🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr Akakpo Matthew.
Memorial of St. John Chrysostom
Saturday,13th September, 2025.
Theme: We shall know them by their Fruits
( 1Tim 1:15-17,Ps 113, Lk 6: 43-49)
Jesus today in the gospel is teaching us to bear good fruits. In other words, the kind of life we live will determine whether we are his followers or not. When we listen to Him and obey his laws, then we can live good Christian virtues. Otherwise we will only become bad examples in the society.
Beloved, a mango fruit cannot claim to be an orange fruit. Therefore, we can’t claim to be what we are not. We can’t claim to be followers of Christ and still be swimming in sin. You are either for the Lord or against him. In this case, most of us including myself have become hypocrites, deceiving ourselves.
The kind of lives we are living betray totally what we tend to preach. What we preach and what we do are not the same. What you and I do define who we are and where we belong. This means that a number of us qualify to be called followers of the devil. Because our lifestyles are rather promoting the kingdom of Satan. Our lives are are driving people away from God instead of bringing them closer.
The truth is that, we have become counter- witnesses to the very gospel we are preaching to others. Our lives are discouraging others from getting to know Christ. In fact, we have become stumbling -blocks to the very people we are to lead to Christ as salt and light to the world. It is time we reflect on our lives and change for the better. If not we will struggle claiming we are Christians but we wouldn’t get a place in God’s kingdom when we die. Because we didn’t live good lives which qualify us for heaven.
I want you to reflect on these questions. Are you bearing good fruits or bad ones? Is your life the conscience of your people or the opposite?
May God grant us the grace to always bear lasting fruits as faithful children of God. Amen .
Have a Blessed weekend. Shalom.
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
