By Ifeoma Ezenyilimba
The parish priest of St Michael’s Catholic Parish, Igboukwu, Rev Fr Jude Thaddeus Offordum, has described the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM), as the fastest and easiest channel to heaven.
Rev Fr Offordum stated this in his talk titled: ”The Necessity of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary”, at the Catholic Diocese of Awka, 2019 Rosary Carnival, held at St Joseph’s Pro-Cathedral Parish, Ekwulobia, Aguata LGA, October 19.
‘Just like everything in life has a formula, making heaven also has a formula. To spend life with God while on earth and make heaven in the end is the reason behind the creation of man. Anyone who has looked up to the BVM as role model will nevertheless take up her virtues, and in the end, make heaven,’ Fr Offordum stated.
According to the priest, BVM, who was honoured by God through the message that was delivered by Angel Gabriel, was a special woman and the only womb that bore Jesus Christ, the saviour of mankind.
Rev Fr Offordum, who based his reflections on the miracle of Turning of Water into wine at a wedding in Cana, extolled the couple for their wisdom to have invited the BVM, a poor handmaid, to their wedding.
He noted that just as Holy Mother Mary took her son, Jesus Christ, to the wedding, and the couple encountered a special miracle through her intercession, the same way those that invited the BVM into their lives would enjoy the blessings and goodness of the two inseparable hearts of Jesus and Mary.
‘Holy Mother, Mary, the Queen of heaven and Earth, will always provide for those that invited her into their lives. She will jealously guard and protect all her children against the snares of the evil one,’ the priest said.
Recalling his personal contact with Holy Mother, Mary, from his childhood till date, Rev Fr Offordum described himself as an evidence of the motherly love of the Holy Mother. He narrated the healing of acute fever he got through the recitation of the Rosary on the eve of his 3rd term exam in Primary 5, and the healing of an acute stomach ache he had as a seminarian on apostolic work in Ugbenu.
The priest also narrated the story of a young girl from Ifitedunu, Dunukofia LGA, Anambra State, who was saved from the hands of ritualists due to the power of the Holy Rosary.
According to him, the young girl, who was on her way to write her GCE exam in Awka, was abducted at Oye Agu Junction, Abagana, Anambra State, and taken alongside others to a bush in Asaba, Delta State, for ritual purposes. The said girl was the only one that was not murdered for rituals due to the shock the killers got from the finger rosary she was putting on.
On how to be consecrated to the Holy Mother and enjoy her maternal love, Fr Offordum identified regular saying of the Prayer for Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary; constant praying of the Holy Rosary; wearing of the scapular which would in addition keep one away from sins; visit and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, First Saturday Devotion and wearing of other sacramental, as the key ways.
Pointing out that proper attention to the Rosary and constant praying of it would get one very close and dear to the BVM, the priest charged all to meditatively say the Holy Rosary regularly.
He stated his conviction that through constant devotion to the Block Rosary Crusade and prayers, Legion Prayers and Holy Rosary as individuals, families, parishes and communities, God would through the BVM’s intercession, perform the same miracle He did in Russia and Lepanto, in Anambra State and in Nigeria.
