TRIBUTE TO OUR BELOVED AND UN-BLOODY MARTYR EMERITUS BISHOP ANTHONY EKEZIE ILONU BY REV PAUL IKECHUKWU OGUJIOFFOR (ROMA)
The un-bloody martyr of our time is gone. Your sincere life as a priest and Bishop is characterized by your life With Christ (sacrifice), For Christ (obedience) and In Christ (holiness of life). Your life of detachment is very much evident in the total sacrifice of all you have for the growth of the Church. The legacy you left shall not be forgotten even by generations yet unborn. The love of salus animarum lead you into the apostolate of creating schools and parishes-in-buildings into every nook and cranny of the diocese. Today other dioceses has copied your original and pioneer thought, Ad Mayorem Dei Gloriam. Your sacrifices were blessed with glorious passage into eternity as those who saw you the last three days of your earthly existence. You were a lover of Saints that made you on Wednesday June 13, 2012 Memorial of your Patron Saint Anthony of Padova, you started your saintly transformation of your body exhibiting the most excellent gift of clarity of your handsomeness that people around you were saying behold how innocent and childlike nature you were oozing out, before you were rushed to St. Anthony’s Specialist Hospital Okigwe. At the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, June 15, 2012 you were silently reciting the Litany of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, as He forgives your imperfections, Our Blessed Virgin Mary accompanied you gloriously with the Divine Fire of Holy Spirit that has already purified you through the un-bloody martyrdom you have undergone. For with St Paul you preached thus: Gladly then will I boast of my weakness that the strength of Christ may be mine. So I rejoice when I suffer infirmities, humiliations, want, persecutions: all for Christ! For when I am weak, then I am strong 2Cor.12: 9b-10. Today, memorial of St. Benedict, father of Western monasticism, you are committed to the mother earth. Requiescat in pace, Amen.
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