Joseph Osho

  HOW TO PRAY AS OUR SAVIOUR TAUGHT US Isaiah 55:10-11 Matthew 6:7-15 IN PRAYER, WE COME TO GOD OUR FATHER  We are all familiar with the Our Father as Jesus gave us in today’s scripture.  It is a prayer most of us learned as a child. In Jesus, we see the perfect way of reaching to God in trust and confidence. In giving us the pattern of prayer, Christ revealed to us as children of God the power of honour,, praise, submission, petition, compassion, mercy and deliverance in prayer. Prayer is the lungs of the soul. Prayer is the submission of our hearts and minds to God and the way that Christ gave it to us, describes the kind of God we serve and how we are to relate with Him. He is a loving Father who cares for His children.  THIS IS WHAT CHRIST TAUGHT HIS DISCIPLES  This is especially true in the teachings of Christ which refer to God as "Father" no less than 160 times. Christ taught his disciples that they must ever pray, to "Our Father." Many times, he went to ...

  BE CHRIST TO OTHERS Leviticus 19:1-2,11-18 Matthew 25:31-46 THE LAST JUDGMENT  In today’s gospel, Jesus talks about the parousia-His second coming to judge the world. Here we see the designation of all mankind under two figures, the sheep or the goats. This is in keeping with the dual classification stressed throughout the Scriptures, such as the ‘good’ at "wheat" or the "chaff," the "wise" or the "foolish," ,the”right” or the left’ etc. The Last Judgment will reveal that God's justice and mercy triumphs over all the injustices committed by his creatures and that God's love is stronger than death.  THE CHOICE IS YOURS The choice is ours to make either to choose life or death, reward or punishment and God cannot be blamed for the eternal punishment men shall certainly incur who ignore the divine warnings, reject the Saviour's sacrifice, and plunge headlong into eternal death your will is yours.  WHATSOEVER YOU DO TO THE POOR…YOU DO I...

  OBEDIENCE IS OUR GIFT TO GOD; PRAY AGAINST TEMPTATION As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners,so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous. First Sunday of Lent (Year A)   Gen 2.7-9, 3.1-7;   Rom 5.12-19;   Mt 4.1-11   SIN IS MISSING THE MARK The human tendency of making bad decisions has been around for a long time. We often substitute our God-given choices, that is, choices of respecting one another and integrity, for our selfish desires and aspirations. These wrong choices and intentions can lead us far away from God. In today’s first reading, we see how our first parents were tempted by the devil, fell into sin and sin gave a dirty mark on humanity. Eve made a bad choice and from then on Adam and Eve started going further away from God.  DISOBEDIENCE IS THE RESULT OF UNBELIEF  Disobedience is the mark of sin and they lost their tickets to heaven. The soul’s spiritual faculties over the body was shattered, the union between ma...

  GOD RESCUES AND RESTORES HIS PEOPLE  SATURDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY Isaiah 58:9-14 Luke 5:27-32 In today's first reading from the book of the prophet Isaish, we see  Isaiah, addresses the post-exilic community struggling to make a new life in Jerusalem during the 530s and 520s BCE. He talks about the restoration of the people of Israel (Temple and their nation)but that can only happen if the people repent of their sinful ways and live according to the commands of God. The prophet condemns those who assume that frequent worship and obsequious rituals will persuade God to help them. Such self-involved worship sours and curdles into insincere gestures of pious theater and leads to doom. God’s demands are clear, but our anxious desire to secure our own lives, even when it requires that others suffer, make obedience challenging. In today's gospel, the Lord calls Levi to become one of his disciples. Christ hates sin but loves the sinner. he came to calls to repentance those who...

  WHAT KIND OF FASTING PLEASES GOD OUR HEAVENLY FATHER?   Isaiah 58:1-9 Matthew 9:14-15 THE LIMITED UNDERSTANDING OF THE DISCIPLES OF THE HOUR   In today’s gospel, the disciples of Jesus at this time are yet to understand what Jesus’ passion and death would mean. Walking with Jesus and working as his disciples has been a wonderful experience.  THE HOUR In today’s gospel Jesus says, in verse 15 when the bridegroom is taken away then they will fast. There are times in our lives when “the Bridegroom is taken away.”  This can also refer to many things apart from the actual event that took place in the garden of Gethsemane when Our Lord was taken away from them on that Holy Thursday night after being betrayed by the kiss of Judas Iscariot,  SIN SEPARATE US FROM CHRIST   One thing it particularly refers to are the times when we experience a sense of the loss of Christ in our lives.  This can certainly come as a result of our own sin, but it can also com...

  THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY WHAT CHOICE AM I TO MAKE AS A CHRISTIAN?  Deuteronomy 30:15-20 Luke 9:22-25 Today’s readings are so vivid, and alive in describing the euphoria of the time and season,  we had just begun yesterday.; the season of Lent. The lenten season is a season of hope. The hope we journey with is Christ himself. Christ is our hope when we fast. Christ our example as we pray, Christ is love shared among us and Christ our hope who rises in beauty after taking up the cross and was crucified on it died, and rose again. Eternal life is in Christ Jesus and those who believe and follow Him, He saves.  In the first reading, Moses is drawing our attention to the power of free will that God has infused in every human soul. It is the power of freedom. Moses is offering us a choice to make; life or death; prosperity or doom. The choice is to obey God’s commands.  In Exodus Chapter 40, we see that God leads and guides his people. He leads and guides them b...