Our Lady of Seven Sorrows
Monday,15th September, 2025.
Theme: Don’t Despise People in Their Moments of Tribulations
( 1Tim 2:1-8,Ps 28, Jn 19: 25-27)
The bible admonishes us to rejoice with those rejoicing and mourn with those who mourn ( Romans 12:15). The Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of our Savior did exactly that. She didn’t only journey with her son in joyful moments, but also in the son’s sorrowful moments. She stayed with him from the beginning of his suffering till his death on the cross. She stood at the foot of the cross with some of Jesus’ disciples, who also journeyed with him till the end. Peter and some of the key followers of Christ couldn’t journey with him to Calvary because of fear of the Jewish leaders and the Roman soldiers.Mary had her own version of the passion. As a mother, it wasn’t an easy thing to witness the unjust treatment of her own son. It should be a very traumatizing experience for her.
Some of us identify with people in moments of their joy, but we despise them when misfortunes befall them. We are not different from Peter and the others who couldn’t stand by their master till the end. When it is time for enjoyment we are quick to be all around the person, but easily run away to avoid sharing in the pain and suffering of the person.
The saying that ” A friend in need is a friend indeed” is a very true statement. If you want to know people who really care about you, then check those who are able to stay with you till the end of your difficult moments. Some are only interested in your material possessions and the other benefits they get from you. Once those things cease to come, then your friendship also ends. Please these are not true friends whom you should entertain around you.
Some of our friends, brothers and sisters, co-workers, church members, and others can equally find themselves in traumatizing situations, through false accusations, misfortunes in life and other unfortunate situations. Sometimes it can be true that they are guilty of the offenses levelled against them. But in such moments, we need to still journey with them till the end. This is the moment that such people need our support most. Some of us easily dissociate ourselves from people in such situations, but we want others to do the opposite for us when we are facing it. What comes around goes around . As Jesus said, we should do unto others what we want done to us. That’s the golden rule.
Ask yourself when was the last time you checked on that friend of yours or that person who has been going through trauma for sometime now? Have you ever visited that friend or person in prison to check on him or her? That church member or co-worker who has been sick for sometime now, have you thought of him or her? Or because you are strong and active so you careless about the welfare of others. Make time for people because life is full of surprises. Today it is me , but tomorrow it can be you. So care for people.
May God grant us the grace to always journey with people in difficulties till the end. Amen .
Have a Blessed week. Shalom.
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
Memorial of Sts. Cornelius and Cyprian
Tuesday, 16th September, 2025.
Theme: Jesus, the hope of the Hopeless
( 1Tim 3: 1-13, Ps 101, Lk 7:11-17)
The raising of the young man in the city of Nain by Jesus is a message of hope to all of us. The fact that Jesus has the power to bring hope into our hopeless situations. This was a widow who had lost her only son and most probably her only child. Indeed it was a pathetic situation for everybody to hear. No wonder Jesus had compassion on the woman and consoled her.
The fact that he raised up the young man implies, Jesus is able to bring hope into all dead situations in our lives. All hopeless situations are kind of dead situations in our lives. We have become powerless and hopeless in the face of such situations. But when Jesus come to the scene, he is able to put life into such situations.
Strong faith in Christ can move mountains. You might be facing difficulties and challenges which seem to have overcomed you. Remain focus and determine until you achieve a positive result. I Know some people are discouraging you in the midst of your difficulties in life. They are telling you things can never turn around. They are discouraging you that your hopeless situation is over so give up. But am telling you that never give up.
Continue to wait on the Lord in prayer. Your right moment will come. It is a matter of time and your story will change. Let them say all what they want to say, let them mock you because of your situation. It is painful to find yourself in such moments, but your God is with you. You are not alone, I assure you.
It is my prayer that the Lord will have compassion on you in your situation, and bring a positive transformation in your life. I want you to also encourage someone who has given up or about to give up never to give up. God will change that story one day. Remember what God can’t do doesn’t exist.
May Jesus be your source of hope in your difficult situations. Make someone hopeful today by encouraging him or her. Amen
Have a blessed day.
Shalom 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
Wednesday, 17th September, 2025.
Theme: Don’t allow Negative Comments to Distract You
( 1Tim 3: 14-16, Ps 111, Lk 7:31-35)
In the gospel of today, Jesus complained about the behavior of the Pharisees and the Scribes. These were people who were full of negativity. They never saw anything good about Jesus and others who were not in their camp but were performing good deeds among the people. They will find all means to destroy your name and project you as a bad person to the people.
But Jesus didn’t allow these negative comments to distract him from his mission. He understood their behavior and knew that there was no way he will succeed in pleasing them. He remained focused and never allowed their negative comments to prevent him from performing the mighty deeds among the people.
Beloved, don’t try to live your life to please people. When you do so you would become a hypocrite and will never be true to yourself. St. Paul encourages us to continue doing the good, once we know we are doing the right thing. In life, you can never please everybody. If you have the mentality to please everybody or you want everybody to like you or what you do, then you will become frustrated. Because you will never get it that way.
There are some people who will never like you and everything about you. No matter the good you do, they will find something negative about it. Which sometimes is borne out of jealousy. Such people even wish that they should wake up and hear of your death. Why do you then waste time on the comments of these people? Because they would never be objective about you. Please ignore their comments, because mostly it will not do you any good. The more you focused on their negativity, the more you lose focused in life and become confuse.
We need to appreciate people and at the same time point out their wrongs if any. But if all the time we don’t see anything good about such people, then we have a problem. This is not a spirit of God but that of the devil. Please if you know you are one of those people then repent. If not I assure you that, you would have no place in God’s kingdom.
Continue the good works you are doing and don’t allow anybody to distract you. They are doing that out of jealousy. They wouldn’t do what you are doing, they only want you to stop so that you don’t become popular than them. Your name is gaining grounds than them, so their action is only to destroy your future. But the truth is that enemies are not God. Don’t be afraid of them.
May Jesus be your source of strength so that you are not easily distracted by negative comments . Amen
Have a blessed day.
Shalom 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
Thursday, 18th September, 2025.
Theme: Avoid Spiritual Pride
( 1Tim 4:12-16, Ps 111, Lk 7: 36-50)
Beloved in Christ, as Christians we don’t need to parade ourselves as being righteous than others. The sickness of self-righteousness is destroying us. Most of us easily point 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.
The Pharisees didn’t accept themselves as sinners who need God’s mercy. 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 broadcast 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 . 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 behave like the sinful woman in the gospel, who acknowledged her nothingness before God, but not the Pharisees. Jesus came for the sinners but not the righteous. A healthy person needs no doctor only the sick. You also need a doctor (Jesus)as a sinner to be healed.
May God help us to acknowledge our sinful nature and work on them.
Amen. Have a Blessed Day.
Shalom.🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew.
Friday, 19th September, 2025.
Theme: Focus on Christ and not Money
( 1Tim 6: 2-12, Ps 49, Lk 8:1-3)
Paul in his letter to Timothy indicates that, the love of money is the root of all evil ( 1Tim 6:10). Paul didn’t say money is the root of all evil but the love of it. This implies that money in itself or material possessions is not a bad thing, but how it is used makes it bad. Paul continue that the craving for money has made some people to deviate from the ways of God. They have lost their touch with their maker because of money.
This situation is still the case of our time. Because of money, people are doing all kinds of evils. Some people have killed their children, spouses, brothers and sisters, parents, to mention a few. All in the name of acquiring money. Some people are made to sleep in cemeteries, some are to sleep with mad people, some are made to sleep with certain animals, all in the name of making money. Some are made to lose their fertility, some their sexuality because of money. People are ready to do anything just for money. Our young ones who are into Sakawa are made to do all kinds of things because of money.
Beloved, some of us have centered our whole life on money and material possessions. As if life is all about money. We don’t think about anything apart from money. Our heart is centered on money. When we see money we begin to shake like a fetish priest whose oracle has descended on him. Life goes beyond money and material things. As Jesus said in Matt 16:26 ” What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but lose his soul ….”
The love of money has brought a lot of divisions and hatred even in the church. Some priests and pastors are fighting among themselves because of love of money. Always there is tension in our mission houses. They have abandoned their core mission of preaching Christ to amassing of wealth. Some of us are so active in church not because of our salvation but because of money and material things. Some end up even stealing church money, and sometimes they are caught.
We don’t care about our salvation anymore. Even if we will get the money and die today, we would prefer it. But the truth is that money and material things can’t gain you your salvation. Remember you will die one day and leave all those things behind. Imagine you killed someone or used any foul means to get your money, and afterwards you die, what will you tell God? Or are you going to get up as a dead body and carry everything away? You won’t even be thinking about that, because you would be facing judgement to decide your fate.
Let’s center our hearts on Jesus and things of God. Because where our heart is there also is our treasure. Let’s strive to live godling lives so that we can save our souls from eternal damnation. Put God first in your life and not money. Remember heaven and hell are real.
May Jesus strengthen us to always put him first in our lives. Amen
Have a blessed day.
Shalom 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
Memorial of Andrew Kim Taegon and Companions
Saturday,20th September, 2025.
Theme: Be a good-fruit bearing child of God
(1Tim 6:13-16, Ps 99, Lk 8: 4-15)
The gospel reading of today 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.
The gospel points to the fact that, our reception of the Word of God is very important so far us its impact on our lives is concerned. The Word of God does not fall in a vacuum. The soil for the reception of His Word is the heart of every child of God. The gospel points out four different forms of Christians in relation to the reception of the Word of God. The first category are those who hears the Word without understanding it and the devil comes to steal it from their heart. The second are those who receive the Word with joy but have no root so when tribulations and difficulties come, they easily fall away. The third are those who allow worldly anxiety and pleasures to choke the Word received and bears no fruit. The fourth is the expectation from every Christian; the good soil which receives the Word of God and bears fruits abundantly. But the question is, where do you and I belong?
The very heart which is supposed to be receptive to the word of God 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 once 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 accept the word of God and bear fruits as good disciples of the Lord. Amen .
Have a Blessed Weekend. Shalom.
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
