WORDS OF LIVING WATERS DAILY INSPIRATION

Monday, 17th November, 2025
Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Hungary
Theme: Be Healed of Your Blindness
(1Mac 1:10-15,41-43,54-57,62-64,Ps 119, Lk 18:35-43)

Beloved in Christ, the Lord Jesus healed the blind Bartimaeus and he restored his sight ones more. Of course, Luke didn’t mention his name in the narrative but Mark( Mk 10:46-52) did .You and I are also blind both physically and spiritually, and we need the touch of Jesus to be healed.

Sin has blinded us so we are not able to perceive things clearly according to the ways of God. Some of us our conscience are either dead or so weak that sinful acts are now normal for us. It is also true that some of us are also suffering from all forms of physical sight problems. In all these situations, we need the touch of Jesus to be healed.

It was Bartimaeus who called on the Lord for help in his distress. The Lord also responded and answered him. In moments of difficulties let’s look up unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Again, the blind man Bartimaeus didn’t allow himself to be discouraged. People tried to stop him from reaching out to Jesus. Don’t allow people to frustrate and discourage you in your situation. As if to say that there is no hope for us. When Jesus is in the boat, then we shouldn’t give up , because he will act at the right time. It is a matter of time, Jesus will act in your favour.

I pray this day that Jesus will heal all our blindness and restore us to full sight again.Amen.
Have a blessed Week.
Shalom 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew

Tuesday, 18th November, 2025.
Theme: Stand by the Truth Always
( 2 Mac 6:18-31,Ps 3, Lk 19:1-10)

The first readings from yesterday begin the narrative of the heroic acts by the Maccabean brothers, and the other Jews who stood by their faith even in fierce persecutions. Antiochus Epiphanes was a Greek king who perpetrated a lot of atrocities against Jews. He brought a lot of evils upon the land of Israel. He forced them to worship foreign gods. Surprisely, many Jews rather played safe by conniving with the king to mislead the people. One would say that it was these unfaithful Jews who invited the practices of the king into the Jewish land. They did this to win the king’s favor.

In the first reading of today, one of the respected elders, Eleazer was killed because he stood for the truth. The people wanted to use him to mislead the Israelites. They asked him to eat the meat of pig. They even tried to favour him by allowing him to bring his own meat and pretend it was the sacrificial meal which has been commanded by the king. They believe that as a respected man among the people, if they persuade him to do it then most of the people will follow him. Eleazer never traded his religious beliefs and his dignity for sin and unfaithfulness to God. He preferred to die and truly they murdered him. He became the conscience of his people. He died for the truth and the gospel values.

The people of our age don’t like to be told the truth to their face. They hate people who are truthful and live authentic Christian lives.When you allow truthfulness to lead you, you challenge them in the society. Something they don’t like to see and hear.

Some of us have allowed lies and sin to control our lives. There is no integrity in us anymore. Don’t allow the spirit of lies to become your daily bread. It is dangerous to grow and mature in lies. We become children of the devil, because Jesus said that he is the father of all liars. Don’t compromise with the truth at your work place, in the church, at your neighborhood, and in the society in general. People will give you all sorts of names because of your integrity of truthfulness. But never give up and join the masses because of the frustrations that people will put you through. It is better to be hated by people to have your integrity than to compromise and lose your integrity. Some of us still cherish people who are truthful in life. Some of these people who want you to compromise the truth deep within their hearts cherish truthful people. Mostly you will hear some of them saying ” as for this man or woman, he or she is very truthful, he hate lies”. They will always let people know the kind of person you are.

As Jesus said ” we should say the truth and the truth shall set us free “. Let truthfulness be your hallmark no matter the opposition you will face from people. It is better to have only God on your side because of your truthfulness than having the whole world behind you because of lies and corrupt practices. Let us be the Eleazer of our time, without compromising the truth for anything. Let’s continue to live our gospel values always.

May the holy spirit burn every spirit of lies in us and make us instruments of truthfulness all the time. Amen.
Have a Blessed Day.
Shalom.🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew.

Wednesday, 19th November, 2025.
Theme: Bear Fruits with your Talents
(2 Macc 7:1,20-31, Ps 17, Lk 19: 11-28)

The gospel of today is Luke’s version of the Parable of the Talents.
Jesus draws our attention to the fact that, the Word of God must be allowed to bear fruits in us as children of God. We are called as children of God to bear fruits, the ones that will last forever. The tree that doesn’t bear fruits will be destroyed. And of course, we are expected to bear good fruits and not bad ones.

There will be a day of reckoning for all of us based on how we lived our lives on this earth. We shall give account of how we used the gifts that God gave to us. They are supposed to be used to promote the kingdom of God. But the question is are we doing that or not? Our way of life will answer the question for us. The servant who didn’t invest the talents of his master are those of us who are living sinful lives. It means we are wasting the resources that God has given to us. We should remember that we are only caretakers of God’s gifts. Nothing belongs to us, we don’t owe anything in this world. One day the owner will come for account. Make sure your account is ready, don’t ask for second chance because you will not get it.

The very heart which is supposed to be receptive to the word of God and bear fruits has become full with worldly concerns. We have not created any space for His Word to get a place in us. Man has occupied himself with so much worries about the world. God has been neglected to the background. All is about money and riches, but unfortunately these things will all pass away. When we die, we are not carrying along any of these things. Remember heaven and earth will pass away, but His Word remains forever.

My dear friends, the truth is that unless we are connected to Christ who is the true vine, we cannot bear any fruit on our own. As the gospel of John indicates, we have no power on our own to bear fruits if we are not connected to Christ (Jn 15:4-6). We can truly do nothing on our own if we are not in union with Christ.
Our way of life will truly show whether we are bearing good fruits or not. It is our good deeds that will testify to the world that we are bearing good fruits. It is not about being eloquent about the word of God, but living what we preach. As Pope St. Paul VI ones said and I quote “ the world need credible witnesses not eloquent preachers”. The life of hypocrisy has become too much among Christians. As a result, our lives are not transforming the societies we find ourselves. We are failing to become the conscience of the people. We are also following the crowd to promote the wrongs in society. We have become what I call “ Compromising Christians” . How can we bring positive change in society with such attitudes?

May the Holy Spirit help us to always bear fruits with our God given talents . Amen .

Have a Blessed Day. Shalom.
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew

Thursday,20th November, 2025.
Theme: Fight evil Always
(1Macc 2:15-29, Ps 50, Lk 19: 41-44)

In the first reading, the messengers of King Antiochus Epiphanes continued to enforce apostasy among the Israelites. They forced them to deny their faith in God by performing rituals which are against their Jewish faith. Earlier on we heard of Eleazer and the seven sons of a woman who were killed because of their faith. Today the messengers faced the wrath of a leading member of the Jews called Mattathias. He killed the messengers who were forcing them to act against their faith. He didn’t end it there, he also killed a Jew who wanted to obey the messengers by offering sacrifices according to the king’s command. In fact, he couldn’t withstand evil to be perpetrated. The bible says he was burnt with zeal and his heart was stirred to fight evil. He couldn’t imagine witnessing such an abomination on the altar of God.

Beloved, a lot of evils are happening in our societies in our time. But what do we see? Men like darkness to light. As Jesus said in Jn 3:19, that light has come into the world but men prefer darkness to light because our deeds are evil. We are so comfortable with sin and evil. Evil has become normal to all of us. No one seems to care about doing the right thing.We must live in light by obeying the laws of Christ. We must detest evil in it’s slightest moment. We must speak and act against evil deeds among us. Unfortunately, we are rather promoting evil in our societies. The person who try to fight evil becomes the greatest enemy to everyone. Such a person will never know peace so far as he wants the right thing to be than.

But I would like to encourage you if you are among the few who are fighting to promote righteousness on this earth. I want you to know that men are evil, hence don’t expect anyone to treat you well because you are standing for the truth. Jesus suffered the same fate in the hands of the Jewish leaders. They fabricated all kinds of lies against him, and finally they succeeded by crucifying him with lies. Men will try to eliminate you because of your life of truthfulness and righteousness.But the fact is that evil can never triumph over good. One day the evil will be overcome by good.

I know some of us are suffering today because we are fighting for a good course in the work place, the church, your neighborhood and so forth. But don’t give up on your fight, because one day you will overcome them just like Jesus. People hate you because of your nature of truthfulness. You have lost certain privileges because you don’t want to compromise evil. There is a glorious prize for you if you are able to endure to the end. Some people have persevered in fighting evil, and today they have won the battle. It is not easy to fight evil in our days, and it will never be easy. Please don’t compromise your faith and dignity for anything worldly, because you worth more than that.

Unfortunately, most of us have fallen to it, hence we don’t have any value anymore. Everybody is doing it so I will also do it. You should be the only person who is not doing it. You and I wouldn’t have called ourselves Christians today if the early Christians did what we are doing. They stood for the gospel values with their lives. They fought against evil and some of them lost their lives because of that. Today you and I are afraid to stand and fight evil in our societies because of the ordeal that we would go through. We are compromising Christians. But the truth is that what is evil is evil. Evil can never change to become good. What is wrong is wrong.

The best way to fight evil is living authentic Christian lives. We can say it but if we don’t live it, it doesn’t make any impact on the society. We must have the zeal like Mattathias to transform society with our challenging lives. Let your life be the conscience of society.

May the Holy Spirit help us to always fight evil without any form of compromise. Amen .

Have a Blessed Day. Shalom.
Rev Fr. Akakpo Matthew

Friday, 21st November, 2025.
Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Theme: Give Deep Reverence to God’s House
( 1 Macc 4: 36-37,52-59,Ps (1Chr 29), Lk 19:45-48)

In the first reading, we are told Judas Maccabeus led the Israelites to reconsecrate the temple and the altar to the Lord. This was done because the place was defiled by the gentiles. And in the gospel, Jesus drove out people from the temple, because they had turned the place into a market place. In both situations, there is a call of giving the needed respect and deep reverence to God’s house. God’s house is his dwelling place, hence it must be treated differently from other structures and places. It is a place dedicated to God, hence a holy place. If we fail to recognize his house as such, then we are not going to also have a divine encounter with him. We won’t be able to encounter the Lord as we wish.

The temple is a house of prayer. But some of us have lost that essence of his house. We have easily forgotten it as God’s dwelling place. Christians are increasingly turning the church into a social ground. We have lost that sacred meaning of his house. We must know that the temple is not an ordinary place. It is not the market place, not the classroom, not the stadium, not conference hall, not a bedroom, and so on.

The church should not become a place of noise making. We should learn to observe sacred silence in the church. The environment should be one where we can encounter God. Some of us have lost the essence of the house of God in terms of silence. We don’t know the difference between the church, the market, the work place,our house and so on. The church is not a social ground but a religious and a spiritual one of course. Stop discussing unnecessary things in the church and turn those moments into moments of prayer.

Some of us can’t also put our phones aside and spend some time with God. We are using all our time on social media even in the church. What time will we get for God again if not in the church? Make quality use of your time in church because that’s an opportunity for you to encounter your creator. Don’t waste it again. You will not die if you put that phone aside. Don’t become a slave to your phone. Remember your phone can lead you to hell. Your life and your joy and happiness doesn’t depend on your phone.

We are called to protect the dignity of the house of God. We should fight strongly against the abuse of God’s house. It will not be easy because people will hate us for doing this. You will become eternal enemy to some people because of this.Remember they did the same to Jesus.

Today, I want you to reflect on how you treat the house of God. Do you really give the necessary reverence to his house? Maybe you are not doing enough. Don’t join the masses to defile his dwelling place.

May the Holy Spirit help us to make his house a place of prayer to encounter him. Amen.
Have a blessed day.
Shalom 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew

Saturday, 22nd November, 2025.
Memorial of St Cecilia
Theme: Believe in life After Death.
( 1Macc 6: 1-13,Ps 9, Lk 20:27-40)

The issue of life after death was a serious debate between the Pharisees and Sadducees. Whiles the Pharisees believe in life after death, the Sadducees do not. For them when we die everything ends. There is no need to bother about judgement after death, because there is nothing happening after our death. You can imagine how such people will be living their lives on this earth.

Some of us are just like the Sadducees, who do not believe in the resurrection of the dead. Our thinking is that life ends with our death. In other words, everything ends on this earth. People with such mentality lives their lives anyhow, as if there is no judgement any where. But for us believers, we know that there is another world beyond this physical world. Therefore, we live our lives as people who look forward to that world with our maker. Life in that world is something different from what we have here on earth. Over there , there is nothing like this is my husband, my wife , my family members or whatsoever.We are all going to see ourselves as one big family, without any distinctions whatsoever.

We should therefore not allow people to deceive us so that we live a loose life in this world. It is after our death before we will now realize it, and that will be too late to make amends. By then your fate has already been determined. If you have anything to do about your life, then it is now. Tomorrow or the next second is not for you. You might not have the opportunity to make things right before God. Like I know is always too late. And they say it is the philosophy of the fools.

Heaven and hell are real, don’t be deceived. If there is no hope of the resurrection of the dead then we are the most hopeless people ever, according St. Paul. Because that’s why you and I are struggling to achieve in our lives everyday. That’s the foundation of our faith. The hope of being with God one day when our lives expire on this earth.

May the Holy Spirit grant us the strength to always live lives as people of the resurrection . Amen. Have a blessed Weekend.
Shalom 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew