Priestly Ordination Dec. 1, 2012

Finally as many of you are aware, I was ordained on December 1, 2012 along with my three other brothers, Kevin, Peter and Albert. Thank you so much for all your prayers, support and all the cards i recieved from you. I am forever grateful to you and continue to pray for you. Those cards and prayers means a lot for me. Thank you for your friendship and love.

knights and Ladies Auxillary of St. John Int.Knights and Ladies of Marshal

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you all and a Happy Coming New Year. I have not forgoton about this blog. The internet connection here really got too slow that it was very difficult to update or upload pictures. I do appologize if anyone came to this blog to read something new only to find old stuff.

 

I am hopng to be able to catch up with all the events begining with pictures from my Ordination through to what i have been up to these days.

God bless you and again Merry Christmas to you.

VISIT TO THE FRIENDLY CROCODILES IN PAGA, GHANA

On Saturday, one priest from the southern Part of Ghana, Cape Coast, was leading a Catholic Charismatic Program at the University of Development Studies in Navrongo. He has never been in this part of the country and so I decided to take him to Paga, where we have the friendly crocodiles. It was an amazing excursion and very fascinating.

 In my Holy Spirit Parish Sweater

 

 

YEAR OF FAITH LUNCHED IN NAVROGO-BOLGATANGA DIOCESE

Pope Benedict XVI in his Opening homily for the Year of Faith said "It is in starting from the experience of this desert, from this void, that we can again discover the joy of believing, its vital importance for us, men and women. In the desert we rediscover the value of what is essential for living; thus in today’s world there are innumerable signs, often expressed implicitly or negatively, of the thirst for God, for the ultimate meaning of life. And in the desert people of faith are needed who, with their own lives, point out the way to the Promised Land and keep hope alive. Living faith opens the heart to the grace of God which frees us from pessimism. Today, more than ever, evangelizing means witnessing to the new life, transformed by God, and thus showing the path."

On Friday, October 12, in my Diocese, the Year of Faith was lunched by a Candle light procession to the Basilica where the faith started. The following day we had a talk on the Faith by one of our Older Priest, Rev. Fr. Abasi who gave us an exposure on the Second Vatican Council and how we as a diocese could strengthen our Faith.

The Opening Mass was said by the Bishop of the Diocese Most Reverend Alfred Agyenta and I was privileged to assist at the Mass as a Deacon with Deacon Albert Wugaa.

The Bishop at the end of Mass unveiled a cross that the diocese would use to mark the year of faith. This cross will travel the whole diocese in the course of the Year and finally reach its destination at the Cathedral in Bolgatanga where the closing Mass will be held. Thus starting from where the Faith came to us commissioned for the new evangelization.

Students of Notre Dame Minor Seminary Senior High

Students of Notre Dame Minor Seminary Senior High

Students of Notre Dame Minor Seminary Senior High

Cross Section of the People in the Minor Basilica

Cross Section of the People in the Minor Basilica

 

 

Roasary in the Basilica after the Candle light procession

Bishop Agyenta looking at the Year of Faith Cross for the Diocese that will travel all the parishes in the Diocese

OCTOBER - ROSARY MONTH

The month of October as we all know is the month of the Rosary. In my diocese, Navrongo- Bolgatanga, this is celebrated big in all the parishes around. For instance, all the parishes meet up every day to pray the Rosary together. After the first week, the Statue of the Blessed Virgin is then given to the various Christian Communities so they can pray weekly in their own communities.

Over here in the Basilica, they have a long tradition of having Exposition, Rosary and Benediction every day in the whole month of October at 5:00pm every evening. The Grotto is always packed for this important encounter with the Lord in prayer.

 

Blessing Rosaries

my new friend after Rosary Prayers :)

 

Benediction

PARISH FEAST - OUR LADY OF SEVEN SORROWS

These might be a little bit late but that is because i could not get access to internet :) This is Ghana for that matter :-)

Since the  Patron of our Dioces and the parish I am assigned to for that matter is the Feast of the Our Lady of Sorrows, My parish had a week-long prepartion to celebrate this all important feast.
in the couse of the week leading to September 15, we had Rosary prayers at 5:00pm every day. I am so amazed at the turn out ever day of the week and the full and active participation of the parishioners.

Rosary Prayers

 

Rosary prayers

 

 

 

 

Sunday Communion Service and Baptism of Four babies

This week has been quite a very busy week for me. Besides my birthday falling on this week, the parish was filled with lots of activities such as talks and communal Holy Hour on every Thursday. I did the exposition and Benediction afterwards. Then on Friday, My Birthday came, it so happened that I had to travel back to my home Parish in Bawku to sit in with my others three Ghanaian Deacons for a meeting with the Ordination Planning Committee so I got tosee my Mother and some family members.

 I cannot believe it that my Priestly Ordination is less than 90 days. In fact as I write now it is 80 days, 13 hours, 45 minutes and 40 seconds to the Ordination. Am I counting??? Maybe! But I just think it is cool and it is helping me to continue to focus on the Lord who has called me to do his work.

This Past Sunday, I went to an Outstation/ Mission Parish for a Communion Service and also baptized four infants.

 

 

Reception

 

 Baptism

 

Offertory, the people in their poverty brought all they had to offer

 

An act of faith-this old man came for me to bless him after the Service

Group Picture of the parents and Godparents of the Baptized infants

First Baptisms in Ghana as a Deacon

The Lord promised his chosen people through the prophet Ezekiel that

"I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God."

Ezekiel 36:24-28

 In light of this Jesus continue this teaching of Baptism when he told Nicodemos that, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit"

John 3:5.

This past weekend, many parents brought their children for baptism after going through the appropriate required instruction. I baptized ten infants and I was very happy that Jesus Christ was receiving these children and was not only going to wash away their sins and welcome them into the church, but was going to in a very special way bless each of them. It made me remember my own baptism as an infant and how my parents and Godparents had to stand in for me. I am grateful today that this best thing (Baptism) happened to me. I belong to Christ now and so are these babies who were Baptized, and so are you.

Reception of the infants infront of the Minor Basilica

 

 Reception of the infants infront of the Minor Basilica

 

Celebration of the rite 
 

Group Picture after Baptism

 

My YAHOO Email is Hacked

Please I want to use this forum as well to inform you that someone has hacked into my yahoo email trebor6000@yahoo.com and is sending out emails in my name requesting for money with the lie that I am in Spain. Please desregard that email should you recieve it. It is a scam.  I am well and in Ghana. The hacker has deleted all my yahoo contacts as well and so i do not have access to my contacts to alert you. Due to this I am no longer using my yahoo email. my email address now is abotrobert@gmail.com.
Thank you so much and may God bless you.

Junior Cadets and Ladies Auxiliary of the Knights of St. John Internation

This past week, the Junior Cadets of and Auxiliary of the knights and Ladies of St. John International held their Jamboree in our Parish. It was a four day program. I helped them in a few areas that they need my assistance. I was very happy to see these young boys and girls on fire for their Faith.

I had the privilege of exposing the Blessed Sacrament for Adoration and inasmuch as I could see that some of them had never had that opportunity to adore the Lord, I could feel the hunger in them to be so close to the Lord. It is my hope that God willing other groups will be introduced to Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament outside Mass. Below are a couple of Pictures for that Occasion

 Adoration

 Adoration

Adoration

 

Benediction

 

 

On their final day last Sunday, they had a parade and joined in the procession. It was very well organized and again I was filled with you to see all these young ones on fire for the Lord. Below are more pictures.

Closing Parade

Closing Parade Junior Auxiliary

Inspecting the closing Parade (Kadet) with Fr. Tony, a visiting native priest

Inspecting the closing Parade 

cross section of the Band