OLA Knights and Ladies of K S J I

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REST IN peace sister MILLICENT Ghartey

One Bread, One Body - Reflection for April 18, 2019

THE LIFE-STOPPING GIFT

"This is My body, which is for you." —1 Corinthians 11:24

The Eucharist is the Body and Blood, soul and divinity of Jesus. The Eucharist is not only a gift from God, but the Gift Who is God. Therefore, the Eucharist is the greatest of all gifts.

How are we to respond when God gives us His Body and Blood? The right response to the greatest Gift is communion (see Ps 116:12ff), that is, the sharing of covenanted, unconditional love. Therefore, when Jesus gave us His Body and Blood, He presented us not only with the greatest Gift but also the greatest responsibility (see Lk 12:48). When God gives us His Body and Blood, we have an opportunity to receive communion with Him in such depth that every aspect of our lives is transformed and we are never the same. We can choose to let the Lord move us radically forward in our spiritual walk. We live no longer for ourselves but for Him (2 Cor 5:15). We lose our lives (Lk 9:24).

On this Holy Thursday, let us respond to the greatest Gift by giving ourselves radically, unconditionally, and totally to Jesus. Let us not only go to Holy Communion but be in communion. May Holy Communion not only be part of our lives, but may our lives be lived in communion with the eternal and infinite Trinity.

PRAYER: Father, may Holy Communion bring an end to my worldly, selfish life.

PROMISE: "If I washed your feet — I Who am Teacher and Lord — then you must wash each other's feet." –Jn 13:14

PRAISE: "O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and thanksgiving be every moment Thine."

One Bread, One Body - Reflection for April 10, 2019

DEATH-DEFYING

"Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Who sent His angel to deliver the servants that trusted in Him; they disobeyed the royal command and yielded their bodies rather than serve or worship any god except their own God." —Daniel 3:95

Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, we must be able to look death right in the face and say: "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" (1 Cor 15:55), for "death is swallowed up" (1 Cor 15:54) in the victory of Jesus, "the Resurrection and the Life" (Jn 11:25).

The Holy Spirit can free us, for the Spirit we have received is no cowardly or fearful Spirit (2 Tm 1:7). The Holy Spirit produces the fruit of love in our lives (Gal 5:22), and love is as strong as death (Sg 8:6). In fact, love is stronger than death. For example, when Jesus, Who is God and Who is Love, died on the cross, Love was stronger than death, and Jesus rose from the dead. The love of Christ impels us (see 2 Cor 5:14) to risk our lives to do God's will and to lay down our lives for the Lord and His Church (see Jn 15:13; 1 Jn 3:16).

In these last days of Lent, let us pray and fast to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit of love, fearlessness, and life. In this way, we will live in, with, and for the risen Christ forever.

PRAYER: Father, by Your grace I defy death.

PROMISE: "If the Son frees you, you will really be free." –Jn 8:36

PRAISE: Marsha saved her husband's life by donating her kidney to him. She trusted that Jesus would keep both her and her husband safe.

One Bread, One Body - Reflection for February 20, 2019

DOES IT REALLY TAKE A VILLAGE?

"Do not even go into the village." –Mark 8:26

The village in today's passage was Bethsaida, a place Jesus elsewhere condemned for its advanced hardened and unrepentant attitude (see Mt 11:21-24). This is the only incident in the Gospels in which Jesus had to heal a person in two stages. Possibly the extreme hardness of the village made it more difficult for a healing to take permanent root.

First, Jesus "led [the blind man] outside the village" (Mk 8:23). Healing often occurs best away from the skeptical crowd, by either getting away from the crowd or putting the crowd out of the healing place (see Mk 6:6; Mt 9:25). Jesus healed the man. However, the blind man's sight was not clear but cloudy. This may be an indication of the long-term impact of living in a hardened, skeptical culture, much like the present "culture of death." Then a second time Jesus laid His hands on the blind man's eyes and "he saw perfectly; his sight was restored, and he could see everything clearly" (Mk 8:25).

Finally, Jesus sent the healed man "home with the admonition, 'Do not even go into the village' " (Mk 8:26). Jesus likely meant by this that the man had been healed fully, physically and spiritually. He was not to return to the hardened culture in the village. He must cultivate his new life in the Lord and never risk losing his restored sight in the spiritual blindness of the village.

"Do you want to be healed?" (Jn 5:6). "Do not even go into the village" (Mk 8:26). Live for the Lord alone.

PRAYER: Father, may my village be centered on attending Mass as often as possible.

PROMISE: " My vows to the Lord I will pay." –Ps 116:14

PRAISE: Margaret separated from her drug-abusing "friends" when she returned to the Church.

God is great

Our Lady of Assumption Commandery 619 and Auxiliary 554 are ten (10) years old. Hurray.
Much as we anticipate celebrating this milestone in grand style, it becomes quite necessary at this moment for very deep reflection on the journey made so far and the journey ahead after ten (10) years.
Can we boldly say we have achieved our aims and purpose as a fraternity and a charitable entity? How consolidating have we been with our membership hold. There are lots of questions than answers. I will not be far from wrong to indicate here that, it has not been so rosy for OLA, comparably to some other Comanderies. OLA has had its air share of lows but these are strictly artificial causes. They are self inflicted.
A huge surge forward for OLA is what is important and vital at this stage of celebration. It is time Leadership of the Commandery and Auxiliary is taken over by the ably young ones to inject fresh, prudent and workable starategies to grow the Order here in OLA (my candid thoughts though). I strongly support the effort by these young men's bid to take over the reigns of the Order to quite a sustainable level (you never heard of this "revolutionary" bid?). I tell you, these young men are "wild" and bent on salvaging the causes and effects of credible leadership.
Happy anniversary celebration to all of us.

OLA Knights and Ladies of K S J I Our Lady of Assumption Commandery of Knights of St. John International and Ladies Auxiliary, Tantral Hill, New-Achimota, Accra