Dear Friends,

What a week this was! What a climax!

The said week, known as Holy Week, is always a week of gross contradictions and naked betrayals. These painful contradictions and betrayals involved people who were supposed to be the soul friends of our Lord and Savior Jesus and a people he “slaved” and sacrificed so much for. Led by the ever-impetuous Peter, the whole bunch of the apostles abandoned and betrayed Jesus at his hour of greatest need. This becomes particularly so painful after Peter even pompously professed that he was ready to die for him. That he would never abandon him even if others did. Did he? Not at all!

Dear Friends,

This weekend, we celebrate Palm Sunday, also known as Passion Sunday. For the past five weeks, we have, I believe, engaged in many spiritual activities in order to prepare well and share fruitfully in the paschal mysteries of our Lord which we are about to celebrate in a few days time. To help us in this process, in one of my articles at the beginning of this season, I recommended a series spiritual activities to observe.

My Dear Friends,

“However big a tree is, it cannot make a forest” (African Proverb).

This past weekend, we had our Parish Census exercise during which over 600 of you registered or updated your information. Since I do not have any precedence to compare these numbers with, I consider the entire exercise, a great success already. This fact is also corroborated by numerous positive feedback I have been receiving during this entire week. Know that the Census is still ongoing for those of you who have not yet done so till mid-April.

My Dear Friends,

For the past two weeks, we have been inviting you to participate in our Parish Census, giving reasons as to why it is important to do so. My invitation still continues especially today when we begin our actual Census exercise. Did you know that a census is so important that one of the most significant events in Salvation History, that involved God being ushered into our world as a child happened around a census? The Gospel of Luke connects the birth of Jesus to a "worldwide census" ordered by Augustus Caesar in which individuals had to return to their ancestral cities to be counted. Jesus' parents, Joseph, and Mary, had to travel about 90 miles from their home in Nazareth, Galilee, to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. Yes, the birth of Jesus happened around a census, that’s how important a census is.

My Dear Friends,

The three spiritual activities recommended for us to embrace during the Lenten seasons are Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving. In one of my previous articles, I reflected on Prayer as an important component of Stewardship. In this article, I would like to reflect on the aspect of almsgiving in the context of sharing our treasures with the poor.

My Dear Friends,

In one of my articles several weeks ago, I indicated that one of my focuses for this year will be on emphasizing Stewardship as a way of life here in our parish. However, in order to better plan for the parish, I also pointed out that we shall be conducting a census in order to determine the size and needs of our parish. This is because, over these last few years, we have navigated through many transitions, including the Covid-19 pandemic, the post-pandemic, and multiple leadership transitions in our parish. These changes have resulted in a series of minor changes in virtually every part of our Parish Community.

Friends,

I bring you very warm greetings from my family, students, and friends in Uganda. This particular vacation was very eventful for me because it was characterized by many joys and a great conference on the Impact of Peace on Education for the students and staff of St. Thomas Aquinas College which I helped establish in Uganda. However, it also had its share of sadness due to the sudden loss of two priest-classmates and a nephew all in the space of three weeks last month.

Dear Friends,

“Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

When we hear these words, the first thing that comes to mind likely is not, “Wow, what a great pick up line!” In fact, these words may cause anxiety or melancholy in our hearts. However, these words appear as we begin this Lenten Season and encounter a fascinating intersection between what has become a somewhat kitschy, secular celebration wherein romantically involved couples exchange chocolates and love notes and go out for an expensive meal in the name of an early church martyr who was beheaded for bringing the Eucharist to imprisoned Christians, Saint Valentine, and the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday.

Dear Friends,

When I was ordained to the priesthood on June 5, 2020, surrounded by family, friends, and brothers and sisters in Christ, I was profoundly aware that my ordination and indeed my future as a priest was a result, not of my own competency or fittingness, but of the many people who supported me along my vocational journey. Ever since I was a young boy I wanted to be a priest, but what kept that immature desire alive and allowed it to grow was the support and encouragement of family members, parishioners, and strangers.

Dear Friends,

In my previous article, I discussed prayer as an essential aspect of Stewardship. I emphasized the need to put prayer, especially the Eucharist, at the center of our activity recognizing that we are creations of a loving God (our Father) who gives Himself freely for us in the Eucharist; that all we are and all we have are gifts from Him. He entrusts these gifts to us for use, not only for ourselves but to help others to gain eternal life. Prayer also helps us build a personal relationship with God. For this relationship to exist and grow however, we need to give TIME for prayers.

Dear Friends,

I walked into a restaurant while still in Kampala (Uganda’s capital) last week and after going through the menu, I ordered some food and what I experienced there has tempted me to digress a little from my planned article on the Stewardship of Time. Instead, I will reflect some more on the Stewardship of Prayer from the perspective of the Mass.

Dear Friends,

Prayer is essentially our communication with God. The more we communicate with God, the deeper our relationship grows as it does in ordinary relationships and the more, we are blessed. This communication in the case of fostering our relationship with God, can take various forms. The most common and basic forms include prayers of praise, of petition, of gratitude, and of intercession. Whichever form it takes however, it is all meant to foster a deeper relationship between us and God.

Dear Friends,

I would like to state upfront that stewardship is not about asking for money as it has often been misunderstood to be. It is much more than that. But before I get into what it is, allow me to share something briefly about my African heritage.

Growing up in rural Northern Uganda, one of the memories that still come vividly to my mind and which I still cherish, was how young men in my village often came together to construct a hut for one of them who declared an intention to get married.