"Love Our Lady and make her loved;
                           always recite the Rosary and recite it as often as possible."
                                                            — St. Padre Pio

My Encounters with St. Pio of Pietrelcina
 
On September 23, 1968, the 43rd day of my birth, Padre Pio was born into heaven. Our paths have crossed several times since then. The first time our paths crossed, as I recall, was in the early days of my spiritual revival in early 1992. It was at St. Dominic Catholic Church, Yaba, Lagos, my home parish in Nigeria where I had gone to the bookshop to find books on doctrinal teachings of the church on Mary and the saints so I could explain this catholic devotion to my Pentecostal friends. And behold on one of the book stands was the picture of this bearded man staring at me; it did not matter where I stood in the bookshop, it kept staring at me. When I could not resist any longer, I decided to take a closer look at it and that was the moment Padre Pio invited me to become his spiritual son-I did not at that time know there was a prayer group founded by him and of thousands of spiritual sons and daughters he birthed by it. This was the moment seed of my vocation to religious life and priesthood was planted.
 
The next major encounter with Padre Pio was late 1992 when I visited my benefactors. This family who lived across the road from my family house helped me spiritually and financially to get ready for my application to the Dominican formation house. The first thing I saw on entering their parlor was the imposing picture of Padre Pio with his famous “inviting look.” I felt called to the priesthood, to a crucified life with Christ when I saw this picture of Padre Pio on this particular day. I knew there was no turning back at this point, Padre Pio was definitively backing my desire to embrace the vocation to religious life and priesthood!
 
At my solemn profession of religious vows, I announced my name as Bernard Mary Pio and many of my brothers till this day still refer to me as Benny Pio! My connection to Padre Pio grew throughout my priestly formation years and I always sought his help and tried to imitate his love for the crucified Christ My ordination day was set for August 8, 2000 and by some divine “machination” midway into a novena to Padre Pio, the date was moved to September 23, 2000! It did not occur to me at the time that it was the day Padre Pio died, it was only in retrospect, after his canonization in 2002 that it occurred to me that it was not accidental that my ordination day in 2000 was moved from August to September 23, the feast day of St. Pio of Pietrelcina! 
 
I am a proud spiritual son and a strong devotee of this holy man. I have experienced many graces through his intercession and pray others experience the same. His life is a reflection of Christ crucified. For 50 years he bore the stigmata of Christ Jesus on his body as a testimony to his closeness to Jesus crucified. His love for the Eucharist and the Blessed Mother is exemplary. He followed Christ faithfully and Christ lived in him. Padre Pio taught us how to love and pray to our Guardian Angel and to pray the rosary, a devotion we are called especially to in the month of October. St. Pio loves all his spiritual children, praying they make it to heaven: ”I belong entirely to everyone. Everyone can say: ‘Padre Pio is mine’…. Lord, I am staying at the gates of Paradise; I will go in when I have seen the last of my children enter.” Padre Pio, pray for us.    
 Fr.  Bernard
 
 
 
 
 
 

Dear friends,
 
On Relics of St. Pio of Pietrelcina and Prayer
 
I invite you to a special kind of prayer on Monday, September 23, 2019, the feast day of St. Pio of Pietrelcina (affectionately known as Padre Pio). St. Pio’s feast is going to be specially celebrated in our parish this year for a couple of reasons. First, we shall have an opportunity to venerate relics of St. Pio! Second, this September 23 is the 19th anniversary of my priestly ordination. You see, I have a deep devotion to St. Pio and my vocation to the priesthood is tightly connected with Padre Pio, long before his canonization in June, 2002 by Pope John Paul II.  During my religious and priestly formation years, I prayed the same Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus that Padre Pio offered for the intention of his spiritual children (I am proudly one of them) and venerated the third class relics of St. Pio. Prayerful devotion to St. Pio helped and still helps nurture my spiritual growth. On Monday, September 23 from 3 PM, we will get an opportunity to venerate relics of St. Pio at St. Peter’s. Reverend Fortunato Grottola, OFM, Cap  of San Giovanni Rotondo will bring to us gloves and sacred vestments Padre Pio wore before he died and lead us in the veneration of the relics of the first priest to ever receive the stigmata.
 
Veneration of relic, a word derived from the Latin reliquiae, is a Christian devotion that glorifies God’s manifestation of his power through the sacred bodies of holy martyrs and saints, whose bodies as the Council of Trent taught, were living members of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6: 19) and which by the power of God will be raised up to eternal life and glorified. As shown in 2 Kings 13: 21, Acts 19:12 and Acts 5:15, contacts with bones, handkerchiefs, clothes and shadows of holy people of God brought about miracles. God works through created things. Hence, the Church permits veneration of authentic relics because the holy lives led by the saints and their closeness to God could aid our goal of seeking holiness. Veneration of relics and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament begin at 3 pm followed by our parish daily mass at 6:30pm. At the end of mass there will be opportunity for prayers of healing with relics of St. Pio. 
 
With St Paul I invite you to prayer on Monday, September 23: “It is my wish, then, that in every place the men (and women) should pray lifting up holy hands, without anger or argument” (1 Tim 2:8). Come, let’s pray to God with St. Pio.
 
On a different subject, I want to plead with all of you to bear with any forceable or otherwise consequences on your Sunday routine as a result of the changes to mass schedule beginning October 5. I know some of you are going to find it hard to adjust but I plead with you in the name of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer to support this change. Let’s be open to it and see how it works out. Thanks for being an important part of St. Peter’s parish family.
 
 
In Christ our Love,
 
Fr. Bernard Oniwe, OP
 

                                                               A Preacher’s Perspective:
                                                 Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
 
                                             Turn from Lord of the Flies to Lord of Mercy
 
What monstrous act did God’s people commit to stir up His “burning wrath” (Ex. 32: 12) against them? Their offense was bad enough that he called his very own chosen people depraved (de-pravus)! God’s own people have become stiff-necked and depraved by quickly turning aside from God their savior to worship a self made calf that can be likened to Beelzebub-Lord of the Flies (Ex. 32:8-9). They sinned against God and God was going to destroy them but for the intercession of Moses. Sin corrupts and destroys our original innocence, pre and post baptism stages. Like “the Beast” figure in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, sin is a violation of God’s established order, an evil thought or action that triggers a descent of God’s children into spiritual savagery and to an erosion of divine order in their relation to God and neighbors alike. Despite our self-willed walk into path of depravity, God still loves us enough to want to keep his promise of divine life to us his sinful children by sending us his Son Jesus Christ to save sinners (1 Tim 1: 15). God’s abundant grace is at work in Jesus Christ, the Lord of Mercy who seeks out sinners and welcomes anyone who repents and returns to “God, who is rich in mercy” (Ephesians 2:4). God is patient and forgiving; all who have acted corruptly, anyone who has strayed away from his love and repents will be treated with mercy and strengthened (1 Tim 1: 12).
Like the prodigal son (Lk 15:21) and like Saul, “a blasphemer, a persecutor and  an arrogant man” (1 Tim 1:13), each one of us has needs for repentance and to his honor and glory, we have a generous Lord of mercies patiently awaiting our journey back to His love by way of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, back into his waiting joyful embrace.  Let’s bring about waves of “rejoicing among the angels of God” (Lk. 15:10) today by repenting of our sins, turning away from sinful fixation on Lord of the Flies to the Lord of Mercy.
 
Dear friends, do you turn frequently to the Lord of Mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation to confess in similar humble words of St. Paul: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these I am the foremost.” (1 Tim 1:15)? 
 
After praying about it and putting into consideration the result from last week in-pew survey, I hereby announce the new weekend mass schedule taking effect from October 4/5: 
Saturday 5 pm (4  pm during winter), Sunday  8:30 am, 10:30 am and 7:15 pm (E-Town College ). 
Thanks for your understanding on the new changes.
 
 
In His Divine Mercy,
Fr. Bernard Oniwe, OP

 
Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time-September 8, 2019
 
A Preacher’s Perspective: Dancing with the Cross
 
I felt elated about following Jesus the first time I heard the song “I will follow him” from the 1992 film Sister Act.  The film's version of Little Peggy March 1963 original iconic song was performed towards the tail end of the movie by a nun choir led by Deloris Van Cartier (Whoopi Goldberg) for an audience made up of an unidentified pope and red hat cardinals. Little did I know at the time of the underpinning Hollywood sarcasm and ideological undermining at play in the song and the scene; it simply sounded joyful and thrilling to sing and dance to. I was particularly drawn to the song’s simple and catchy lyrics: 
 
“I love him, I love him, I love him
And where he goes I'll follow, forever, and ever
And side by side together, I'll be with my true love
And share a thousand sunsets together beside him.” 
 
A group of nuns excited by a life totally devoted to following Jesus in the monastic way of life  as the upbeat version of the song suggests gave me an impression that discipleship or following Christ closely is mainly marked by festive living without a burden of any significant suffering or sacrifice. The major message I missed in my uncritical embrace of the singsong tone and value of the song is that authentic following of Jesus entails dancing with the cross. Many Christians approach discipleship in this way, a happy way of life eschewed of sufferings and self sacrifices. But in all sincerity, conditions for following Jesus necessarily includes self denial and renunciation, the readiness to walk the way of the Cross. It is a path of perfect love; it does not permit of lukewarmness. To “hate” one’s family and indeed one’s life (Lk. 14:26), St. Jose Maria Escriva says is to “love more, love better, in the sense that a selfish or partial love is not enough: we have to love others with the love go God.” True discipleship, the following of Jesus closely, includes the joyful acceptance to carry our crosses daily. We can always be assured that when we place God’s will above all things, including over our legitimate comfortable desires, Jesus will walk with us and strengthen us. IT IS when we live in imitation of Christ, to borrow the title of Thomas a Kempis classic, when we dance with the cross of Christ crucified that we can sincerely say,
 
‘I will follow him, follow him wherever he may go
There isn't an ocean too deep
A mountain so high it can keep me away.”
 
Are you ready to embrace all it takes to be a follower of Christ? Think prayerfully about it. May Mary who stood at the foot of the cross pray for us.
 
In Christ’s Cross,
 
Fr. Bernard Oniwe, OP