Dr. Cosmas Ilechukwu

Ralph Martins is the president of Renewal Ministries, based in the United States of America (USA). He is a professor of theology and was among the first-tier leaders of the Charismatic Renewal Movement in the Catholic Church right from its inception.

Dr. Ralph Martins was arguably the foremost lay person in the leadership of the movement in the early seventies.

He, working alongside Steve Clark, Kevin and Dorothy Ranaghan, and Reverend Father O’Connor did a tremendous job at promoting and internationalizing the Charismatic Movement among Catholics through their incisive articles in the New Covenant Magazine, published by the Word of God Community, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. Dr. Martins served as the Director of the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Office (ICCRO) under the bishopric oversight of Cardinal Leon Joseph Suenens of Brussels, The choices we face (1) •Dr. Cosmas Ilechukwu By Dr. Cosmas Ilechukwu the highest-ranking Catholic cleric involved in the charismatic movement in those days.

Ralph Martins was quite an influence on me, and I still feel indebted to him in a number of ways for being such an inspiration. In 1985, he inaugurated “The Choices We Face,” a television show, which today is the longest standing Catholic based television show viewed in several countries across the globe. I borrowed the title of the current reflection series from him – The Choices We Face. Life is all about the choices we make and their ripple effects. Each day we live on earth confronts us with fresh choices right from our waking moments.

As a matter of fact, getting off bed at daybreak is a choice we all make every morning. What to eat, how to dress, and where to go are all things we do in response to our choices. Our choices bespeak of our hopes. We choose based on what we look forward to in life either in the interim or in the long run. Wrong choices have their consequences which can sometimes be confounding and debilitating. Right choices also come with their blessings which are often empowering and enriching.

The great undoing of humanity was the wrong choice of our primal progenitors in the Garden of Eden. God clearly commanded them saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). Here, man was confronted with an existential choice – the one choice that will ultimately determine his destiny and those of his descendants.

They were to either choose to obey God and stay away from the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, which would mean life to them; or to disobey Him and eat the forbidden fruit, which would mean death to them. Unfortunately, they chose to eat and die, and by so doing implicated the entire human race.

•Dr. Cosmas Ilechukwu is General Overseer of Charismatic Renewal Ministries. For Prayers and counseling, call 08037239971. Facebook: Charismatic Renewal Ministries Inc.