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.

Dear friends,

As we come to the end of the year, I look back with profound gratitude to God for the many blessings we have received as individuals and as a parish. I look forward to yet another wonderful year ahead. However, aware that it is often very easy to overlook the many good things we were gifted with and focus only on the negatives, I invite you to take a moment to honestly audit the year and be grateful to God for all the gifts you too have received. While I leave it to you to individually count your own blessings and thank God for them, I invite you to look forward with greater optimism and gratitude to God for the many more gifts and blessings yet to come this new year.

Dear Friends,

It is another great year and a special opportunity for me to wish you my dear beloved family of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year 2024, as your Pastor. As we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior today and throughout this season, I want to thank God for the many blessings He has bestowed upon us individually and as a community since our last Christmas celebration. As a community, I am sure, these blessings are numerous to count.

Dear Friends,

As we have heard several times already, Advent is a time of preparation for the coming of the Lord: His coming to us sacramentally at Christmas, His coming to us individually at the end of our lives and His coming to us collectively at the end of time. But He comes to us all the time. He is among us. That is why in the First Sunday of Advent, we talked about preparation by being watchful, being alert, because we do not know when Christ will come again; in other words, the key word in this First Sunday of Advent called us to Watch.

Dear Friends,

In my last article, I emphasized the reality and certainty of Jesus’ coming and the need for us to be always watchful and alert. In this article, I want to emphasize the need to be prepared for His coming especially by being found doing good when He comes. Allow me to share part of an article I read sometime back that highlights the same theme of being always prepared and being found doing the right thing.

Dear Friends,

The term Advent comes from two Latin words Ad-ventus or ad-venire, which simply means “to arrive” or “to come” respectively. It marks the beginning of the Church’s liturgical calendar. It is a four-week period leading up to Christmas.

For us Christians, and Catholics in particular, it means a time of expectation and preparation for the Lord’s birth. So, the prophecy of John the Baptist: “a voice of one calling in the desert, prepare a way for the Lord …” (Mk 1, 3), echoes loudly to us this season.