LENTEN OBSERVANCES

Another Lenten journey of further conversion will begin on Ash Wednesday, February 22, 2012. Lent prepares the faithful to celebrate the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection.

It is a time for reflection and spiritual renewal, a time to examine one’s relationships with God and with others. The Church also calls Catholics to a spirit of penance, above all fasting, prayer and almsgiving, “which express conversion in relation to oneself, to God, and to others” (CCC 1969, 1434.)

FAST AND ABSTINENCE (self-denial). To foster the spirit of penance and of reparation for sin, to encourage self-denial, and to guide us in the footsteps of Jesus, Church law requires the observance of fast and abstinence (CCC 1249-1253).

1. Abstinence: All persons who have already celebrated their 14th birthday are bound to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays of Lent.

2. Fasting: Everyone, from the celebration of their 18th birthday to their 59th birthday, is bound to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Voluntary fasting on other weekdays of Lent, especially on Wednesdays and Fridays, is highly recommended. Fasting is generally understood to mean eating one full meal each day. Two other partial meals, sufficient to maintain strength, may be taken; but together they should not equal another full meal. Eating between meals is not permitted, but liquids are allowed.

Other forms of “fasting,” especially regarding alcoholic drink, needless television, video games, Internet use and social entertainment, is of true spiritual value and is strongly encouraged. When health or ability to work would be seriously affected, neither the law of fasting nor the law of abstinence obliges. If in doubt, one’s parish priest or confessor may be consulted.

Airport workers, travelers, and others while on board ships or airplanes are dispensed from the laws of fast and abstinence for the duration of their journey (except on Good Friday). It is desirable that they perform some other pious act instead.

PRAYER. In order to deepen one’s love for Christ, Catholics are urged to read and pray over sacred Scripture; to study the Catechism of the Catholic Church; to participate in devotions offered by the parish; and to pray more fervently — individually, as families, and in common with others. The faithful are exhorted to pray the rosary, to make private visits to the Blessed Sacrament, and to pray especially for vocations to the priesthood and the religious life, for world peace, and for an ongoing implementation of the pastoral initiatives of the Third Diocesan Synod.

1. Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation: Lent is a privileged time for celebrating this sacrament. Parishes generally make readily available the Sacrament of Penance, including its communal celebration. (In this way, the social and ecclesial aspects of sin and reconciliation, as well as one’s personal reconciliation with God may be underscored. At communal celebrations of reconciliation, however, general absolution is not permitted. People should attend also to reconciliation in every aspect of human life — personal, familial, societal, and ecclesial. During the Lenten and Easter time, Catholics are reminded that they are obliged to celebrate the Sacrament of Penance at least once a year.

2. Lenten Mass Schedule: Daily Masses during Lent are so scheduled so as to facilitate the attendance and spiritual growth of the faithful. The faithful are urged to attend Mass on weekdays.

3. The Stations of the Cross are celebrated publicly in each parish on Fridays during the Lenten season. Parishioners are urged to participate.

4. Wedding Masses may not be celebrated during the Easter Triduum, on Sundays of Lent, Ash Wednesday, or during Holy Week. Marriages may take place at other times during Lent according to the proper liturgical norms and provisions, but it is contrary to the penitential spirit of the season to have elaborate weddings or lavish receptions.

5. Funeral Masses may not be celebrated on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, or Holy Saturday, nor on the Sundays of Lent. When pastoral reasons require that a funeral be celebrated on these days, a Liturgy of the Word, with the final commendation and farewell rite, is held.

6. Mass may not be offered on Holy Saturday, except the Easter vigil, which may be celebrated only after nightfall, in darkness.

7. Easter Duty: All Catholics who have been initiated into the Holy Eucharist are bound to receive Holy Communion worthily at least once during the Easter Season. Catholics are encouraged to receive Communion as often as possible, not only during Eastertide, but throughout the liturgical year. However, “Anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to Communion” (CCC 1385.)

ALMSGIVING. The act of giving to the poor, in the most ancient tradition of the Church, is an expression of penance, a form of piety, a witness of fraternal charity and an expression of Lenten conversion. Therefore, all Catholics are urged to support generously the charitable works of the Church. People are also encouraged to assist the sick, the aged, the needy and the imprisoned in other ways. Fasting and abstinence together with works of charity help Catholics live in solidarity with the crucified Christ reflected in the image of our brothers and sisters who suffer.

In our Lenten pilgrimage of faith and ascent to the holy mountain of Easter, may God direct our steps to Him, and show us how to walk always in His way

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Lifelong Learning : A Nigerian Perspective

Lifelong learning is a relatively new field of academic endeavor. It has become a predominant goal for International policy making, and is often advocated as a way to achieve socio-economic development and as a tool for promoting a knowledge based society. Life long learning is inbuilt into the nature of human beings. Humans by nature are self preserving specie. Every society, whether simple or complex has its own system for training and educating its citizens. The education for the good life has been one of the most persistent concerns of men throughout the ages (Fafunwa, 1976). In our rapidly developing world knowledge and education play an even more significant role than ever, so learning and education in Nigeria should not be confined to the school setting alone.

 

The concept of Lifelong learning has to do with all learning activity taken throughout life. According to the Scottish Executive; life long learning covers the wide rang of learning that includes formal and informal. It also includes the skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviors that people acquire in their day to day experiences.

In response to finding an accurate definition for lifelong learning several scholars and institutions have come up with different ideas to what life long learning should be. The European council communication defines it as “all learning activity undertaken throughout life, with the aim of improving knowledge, skills and competence, within a personal, civic, social and or employment related perspective”. It was defined by the Association europeenne des conservatories as “all learning activity, formal or informal”. In the Harper Collins dictionary “lifelong learning is the provision or use of both formal and informal learning opportunities throughout people’s lives in order to foster the continuous development and improvement of the knowledge and skills needed for employment and personal fulfillment”. The common factor in all the definitions stated above are learning activities and throughout life. Life long learning can therefore be said to be about acquiring all kinds of abilities, interests and knowledge from Pre School to post retirement. It also implies all forms of learning including formal learning such as regular school programmes to non-formal learning such as vocational skills acquired at work and informal learning such as learning music notes from friends. It may be broadly defined as learning that is pursued throughout life; learning that is flexible, diverse and available at different times and in different places. Lifelong learning crosses sectors, promoting learning beyond traditional schooling and throughout life. This definition is based on Jacques Delors’ four pillars of education for the future: learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be. These are summarized in “learning to learn”. Lifelong learning therefore instills creativity, initiative and responsiveness in people thereby creating a learning society.

 

 

The above concept and definitions of Lifelong learning brings us to the traditional practice of education in Nigeria, in which education is regarded as a means to an end and not and end in itself. In the traditional Nigerian setting Education was seen as an immediate induction into society and a preparation for adulthood. Children were involved in practical farming, fishing, weaving, cooking, carving and other such crafts. The ability to pass this knowledge from one person to another is very important. The traditional society envisioned lifelong learning by the roles one was expected to play in society. Despite the advent of modern educational systems these traditional practices still take place along side.

 

Contemporary educational practices in Nigeria have over the years played down on vocational, non-formal and informal learning, key aspects of lifelong learning. However, the internet has exposed the current generation of Educationists to external experiences through social media interactions, which has affected their perspective. They are now more aware of globalization and are flexible in adopting new global pedagogies. The new national policy on education in Nigeria seeks to make education more assessable and lifelong to a wider population through e-learning, adult education, continuous learning, nomadic education and vocational. It also recognizes the fact that that the former system where learners focus on classroom reading ill suited to equip people to work or live in a knowledge economy and learning society. The notion of a learning society has gained considerable recognition because if learning involves all of one’s life in the sense of both time-span and diversity, and all of society, including its social and economic as well as its educational resources, then we must go even further than necessary overhaul of educational systems until we reach the stage of a learning society. The learning society is an educated society, committed to active citizenship. The aim is to provide learning opportunities to educate adults to meet the challenges of change and citizenship

 

Despite the shift in policy on education in Nigeria, educational administrators must come to understand that lifelong learning spans a wide range of education issues and speaks to many different audiences. They should come to terms with four major characteristics of lifelong learning as espoused by researchers.

 

Informal learning

As seen in the various definitions, Lifelong learning encompasses formal and informal learning.  Informal learning describes a lifelong process whereby individuals acquire attitudes, values, skills and knowledge from daily experience and the educational influences and resources in his or her environment, from family and neighbors, from work and play, from the market place, the library and the mass media. It also means that thee is no need to talk about planning, organizing and structuring of the learning process. It comes about in an unplanned manner. In Nigeria informal learning also takes the form of folklore, traditional events like age grade rites of passage. Although it is not easily measured informal learning plays an important part in the process of lifelong learning. “Informal learning, Schugurensky (2000) suggests, has its own internal forms that are important to distinguish in studying the phenomenon. He proposes three forms: self-directed learning, incidental learning, and socialization, or tacit learning. These differ among themselves in terms of intentionality and awareness at the time of the learning experience. Self-directed learning, for example, is intentional and conscious; incidental learning, which Marsick and Watkins (1990) describe as an accidental by-product of doing something else, is unintentional but after the experience she or he becomes aware that some learning has taken place; and finally, socialization or tacit learning is neither intentional nor conscious (although we can become aware of this learning later through “retrospective recognition”).   Merriam and others (2007) state: “studies of informal learning, especially those asking about adults’ self-directed learning projects, reveal that upwards of 90 percent of adults are engaged in hundreds of hours of informal learning. It has also been estimated that the great majority (upwards of 70 percent) of learning in the workplace is informal (Kim, Collins, Hagedorn, Williamson, & Chapman, 2004), although billions of dollars each year are spent by business and industry on formal training programs.”  Experience indicates that much of the learning for performance is informal (The Institute for Research on Learning, 2000, Menlo Park). Those who transfer their knowledge to a learner are usually present in real time. Such learning can take place over the telephone or through the Internet, as well as in person.

Self motivated learning

The second major characteristic of Lifelong learning is self motivated learning. The human person has an innate desire to explore the unknown and discover new frontiers of life. Although education and training may have economic benefits for individuals, it is recognized that economic incentives alone are not necessarily sufficient to motivate people to engage in education and training. A range of motivational barriers need to be identified and addressed in order for some people to participate in education and training. While some of these barriers are economic and can be overcome with financial assistance, many people are deterred from engaging in education and training by social and personal factors. An Australian survey of participants in adult education courses identified a range of factors motivating people to undertake adult learning, such as:

• To upgrade job skills;
• To start a business;
• To learn about a subject or to extend their knowledge;
• To meet new people;
• To develop self-confidence;
• To get involved in the community; and
• To develop personal skills;
• To participate in social networking

By acknowledging the range of factors that act as both a motivation and barrier to engagement in education and training, lifelong learning policies tend to promote participation in learning for its own sake rather than as a means to a specific end (i.e. employment). The goal of participation in learning thus appears to be more significant than the reason why. This can be seen as an acknowledgment of the range of factors that motivate people to participate in formal and informal learning other than, or in addition to, instrumental goals. The day to day life of an average Nigerian presents him/her with several challenges to encourage self motivated learning. The lack of many basic infrastructures opens new doors for people to advance their learning. For example the lack of regular power supply should be used as a motivator to learn new technology to solve power problems in many communities. In the diverse communities of Nigeria there is a pool of self motivated learners who should be harnessed to promote national development. It is quite unfortunate that this category of learners is not given attention by education policy makers and economic planners in Nigeria.

Self-funded learning

Self-funded learning is the third characteristic of the lifelong learning literature. The concept of self-funded learning is linked to the characteristic of self motivated learning. In recognition of the costs involved in subsidizing lifelong involvement in education and training, the lifelong learning policy agenda emphasizes the responsibility of individuals to finance their own continuing education and training with minimal support from government. The West report defines a lifelong learner as a person who takes responsibility for their own learning and who is prepared to invest time, money and effort in education or training on a continuous basis. The government in Nigeria subsidizes most aspects of adult Education, but enough has not been done to encourage people see the need to pay to acquire knowledge for their personal development. According to a survey carried out by the University of Calabar most Nigerians feel that learning is for Job seeking and so do not feel they have a need to pay to acquire more knowledge.

Universal participation

The fourth distinctive feature of the lifelong learning is a commitment to universal participation in education and training. In advocating ‘lifelong learning for all’, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) argues that universal participation is necessary for meeting the economic demands of the 21st century. The concept of universal participation includes both informal and formal learning for all purposes – social, economic and personal. As stated earlier, universal participation in lifelong learning is necessary for social cohesion in a time of rapid economic and social change. The world is now a global village and Nigerian educators should make this reflect in their pedagogy and policy.

Salvation: Assurance or Hope? Are you saved?

so that we might be justified by His grace, and become heirs in hope of eternal life.  Titus 3:7

One day while going to Confession, I found a Protestant tract (pamphlet) wedged in the confessional screen. Its basic message was that we can be assured of our salvation as long as we believe in Christ. To paraphrase that tract, it argued that we can be assured of going to heaven, since God loves us (John 3:16). Even though we have sinned and are separated from God (Romans 3:23), Jesus Christ died for our sins (Romans 5:8). By repenting of our sins and receiving Christ into our heart, we are saved from hell (Acts 3:19; Rev. 3:20). That tract expressed several basic Christian truths, but it lacked the fullness of the Christian Faith. A few important points need to be clarified.
Let us begin with John 3:16…

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. [John 3:16, RSV]

This verse is a concise yet beautiful statement of the Gospel message. God so loves us that He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the Cross at the hands of sinful men in order to save us from hell (Romans 5:6-11). Our salvation is a free gift from God purchased by Christ. We cannot earn heaven least we boast (Ephesians 2:8). We are saved through Christ by believing in Christ. But what is “believing?”

Now John 3:16 is not a complete expression of the doctrine of salvation. We must understand it in the context and fullness of revelation. Only twenty verses later, it is also written:

He who believes (pisteuon) in the Son has eternal life; he who does not obey (apeithon) the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him. [John 3:36]

The RSV, NAB and NASB Bibles translate the Greek verb, apeithon, as “obey.” This verse connects “belief in Christ” with “obedience to Christ.” Elsewhere St. Paul connects faith with obedience as in “the obedience of faith” [Romans 1:5] and with good works as in “faith working through love” [Galatians 5:6]. Also it is written, “By faith Abraham obeyed…” [Hebrew 11:8]. According to the Bible, “to believe” also means “to obey.” We do not sincerely believe in Christ, if we disobey God’s Commandments – i.e. commit sin (James 2:18-26). Sin is a break in faith (Numbers 5:6-7).

As a result of Adam’s sin (Romans 5:12) and through our serious sins, we reject God and deserve hell – the loss of eternal life. It must be remembered that hell is not punishment from a vengeful God but the natural consequence of rejecting God – the Source of life and goodness. Our sins offend God’s love. There is nothing we can do as finite (limited) creatures to repair this infinite (unlimited) offense. Fortunately due to God’s mercy, Christ redeems us from hell through His Passion and Sacrifice on the Cross. As a free gift (Titus 3:5), God forgives us and offers us the grace to live with Him in friendship forever, beginning in the Sacrament of Baptism (Mark 16:16; 1 Peter 3:21; Acts 2:38). In the washing of Baptism, we receive Sanctifying Grace, which makes us right with God (Acts 22:16; 1 Cor 6:9-11).

Now we are surely redeemed by Christ in Baptism but we can freely choose to reject this gift through serious sin. As St. Paul writes:

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. [Romans 6:23]

In this verse, eternal life is heaven, while death is hell – the opposite of eternal life. Heaven is a free gift from God, but we can still earn hell by committing serious sin (i.e. mortal sin). Obeying God’s Law does not save us, but the Law does point to sins that can damn us (Romans 3:20). As an analogy, my civil liberties are a gift from my forefathers, but if I commit a felony, I may go to jail. Also in the Bible:

Make no mistake about this: no fornicator (those who have sex before marriage), no unclean or lustful person – in effect an idolater – has any inheritance in the kingdom (heaven) of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with worthless arguments. These are sins that bring God’s wrath down on the disobedient.[Ephesians 5:5-6; NAB]

Another sobering verse from St. Paul is:

For if we deliberately sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgement. [Hebrews 10:26-27; RSV]

Please note that the “we” in this verse also included St. Paul – a faith-filled, baptized Christian! After Baptism if we sin deliberately and remain unrepentant, then we can lose the gift of salvation. In Baptism we receive Sanctifying Grace in our souls by no merit of our own, but afterwards we must cooperate with this grace or we will lose it (2 Cor 6:1). This cooperation with God’s redeeming grace is the Catholic understanding of merit (CCC 162; 2025).

Fortunately God has given us the Sacrament of Confession (Penance or Reconciliation), so we can receive His continuing forgiveness for our sins committed after Baptism. Since we continue to sin after receiving Baptism (1 John 1:8-9), we must continually repent, confess our sins and turn our heart (will) back to Christ. Repentance is not a single event in our life, but must be an ongoing, everyday process for us. Yesterday we may have sincerely repented and been forgiven, but tomorrow through our weakness, we may stumble back into sin (2 Peter 2:20-22). We can be assured that Jesus will forgive us as often as we forgive others (Luke 6:36-37; Matt 6:14-15). Through this Sacrament, we receive Sanctifying Grace and Actual Graces which can help us resist future sins.

Jesus understands our weakness even after Baptism. This is the reason that He gave His Apostles the authority to forgive sins:

…He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” [John 20:22-23]

Through the centuries this authority has been handed on to the bishops and priests as the Sacrament of Confession. Christians today need forgiveness for their sins as much as those in the first century A.D. In addition the authority to either forgive or retain implies oral confession (disclosure) of our sins since the priest needs to know the nature of the sins (Acts 19:18; Leviticus 5:5-6).

Even though our personal salvation is not assured, we still must hope in it. In the Bible, St. Paul uses the phrases: “the hope of salvation” [1 Thess 5:8] or “hope of eternal life” [Titus 1:2; 3:7]. If we were assured of heaven, then there would be no need for hope. Hope is not the same as assurance (Romans 8:24). According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC):

Hope is the confident expectation of divine blessing and the beatific vision of God; it is also the fear of offending God’s love and incurring punishment. [CCC 2090]

The two sins against hope are despair and presumption (CCC 2091). The sin of despair is losing hope in our salvation by failing to trust God. The sin of presumption is losing hope by either relying on ourselves for our salvation instead of God or taking God’s mercy for granted without fear. Denying our sinfulness or believing “once saved, always saved” can lead us into the sin of presumption. However, we must not go the other extreme and fall into the sin of despair. Hope is a delicate balance between confidence in God’s promise and fear of the Lord (Proverbs 1:7).

God wants all of us to be saved from hell and come to know the truth (1 Tim 2:4). Through Christ’s Church – the Catholic Church, we can come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 3:15; Matt 16:18). Through the Sacraments we receive God’s saving grace as a free gift. But afterwards we must cooperate with that grace, since we have the free will (choice) to reject God at anytime through serious disobedience, i.e. mortal sin. After receiving God’s redeeming grace in Baptism, we must continue to “work out (our) own salvation with fear and trembling” [Philip 2:12]. Through Confession, we can ask God for His continuing merciful forgiveness and more graces to help us resist sins in the future. As sinners we are not assured of our salvation. But Christians, who faithfully use the Sacraments -Channels of God’s saving grace – without giving up, can certainly hope for salvation.

Printed with permission from A Catholic Response, Inc.

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READING IS FUN WORKSHOP!

We at TANAR Educational Consultancy (TEC) are pleased to present our educational initiative tagged “READING IS FUN”.

It is essentially designed to impact knowledge in a fun filled atmosphere. it is also aimed at:
*emphasizing the importance of books in child development.
* to stimulate interest in the written word
*to revive the wanning passion for books

EVENT DESCRIPTION
Reading by a star personality (Her excellency the first lady of Cross river state)
Reading competition among students
Reading workshop
Career Guidance

Date: 3rd August,2011
Venue: Federal Government Girls College,Calabar.
Time: 10am – 1pm

special Guest: Barr. Mrs Obioma liyel Imoke

The Joy of the Eucharist

A former Protestant pastor who felt haunted by the hidden God in the presence of the Eucharist. A tiny Iraqi nun whose Catholic faith life grew living among the homeless amidst the devastation of war, even though she wasn’t Catholic. A priest who encouraged others to seek freedom from life’s material attachments—and let grace flow through their life. And a former secular Irish singer whose own faith—and career—took off after a serious throat operation left her unable to sing for years.

The stories shared by the speakers in the English track during the 2011 Eucharist Congress—Dr. Paul Thigpen, Sister Olga of the Eucharist, Father Robert Barron and Dana—were all different. But all shared a similar message: that the “abundant harvest” of faith starts with just a small seed planted in the wild garden of life’s trials and tribulations.

“I planted, Apollos watered; God gave the growth,” Thigpen said, quoting St. Paul, as he talked about his own circuitous journey to Catholicism. “It all starts with seeds and sprinkles.”

Here is a sampling of their talks and some audience reaction.

Sister Olga Of The Eucharist

In the garden of humanity, Olga Yaqob is certainly one of God’s most tenacious plants; rooted in hostile soil, her faith is now flowering into one of the 21st century’s new Catholic orders of sisters.

The diminutive 4-foot-10-inch Iraqi woman—dressed in the simple blue habit of her order— stepped in front of the podium in the cavernous Georgia International Convention Center hall to tell the crowd her story of growing up in a war-torn nation wondering if her country would ever see peace.

Olga could have been shielded from the carnage of war because of her family’s wealthy status. But she didn’t shy away, even when she saw the devastation caused by war up close as a teenager.

She helped prepare the bodies of the war dead for funerals. As she washed and cleaned the bodies, many horribly disfigured because of their injuries, she wept.

“I prayed for peace every day,” she said. “I thought, there has to be a way to stop the war, as I witnessed one funeral after the other. I thought this shouldn’t be the reality of how we treat each other. God says, ‘Peace be with you’… and we Christians have a responsibility to speak and preach about peace; I wanted to become a missionary of peace.”

She grew up in the Assyrian Church of the East, an ancient Christian church that broke with the Catholic Church in A.D. 431, but that began a fruitful theological dialogue again with Rome starting in the 1990s. Her own young seeds of faith—and that desire to become a missionary of peace—were cultivated by a Catholic family who invited her to Mass and showed her how to pray the rosary. It was while visiting a Catholic church that she also learned of the Virgin Mary and her role in the church.

“I thought, who can teach me to be closer to God than Mary,” Sister Olga said.

“Who can teach me more about peace than the Prince of Peace himself,” she said, as she reflected on the gradual growth of her Catholic faith.

Her faith grew despite the adversity she faced as she eventually began to embrace the Catholic Church and a celibate lifestyle, much to the dismay of her family and the church of her childhood.

Disowned by her family for running away to avoid an arranged marriage, she lived among the homeless helping others while she built her own faith life. Eventually, her piety and good works led her to be invited to start an Assyrian order of sisters by her bishop in 1995. But the Assyrian Church after several years rejected her because she continued her Catholic practices of praying the rosary and attending daily Mass. With the help of Jesuits, she came to the United States to study in Boston. There, while studying English, she began helping students at Boston University with their faith. She was able at last to join the Catholic Church and was asked by the archbishop of Boston to become the Catholic chaplain at the university. Now Sister Olga of the Eucharist has been invited again to start a new order of sisters, this time by Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley.

Listening to Sister Olga speak, Carolyn Webster was moved with emotion, reflecting on the good Catholics who let her experience their faith over the years. Webster attended the session with her 18-year-old daughter, Grace, This was the St. Anna’s parishioners’ first Eucharistic Congress.

“I see that suffering gets us to where we need to be to know our true vocation,” she said, reflecting on Sister Olga’s own faith journey. Then she looked up, with tears in her eyes. “Over the years, God has put good Catholics in my life, and I would attend Easter services. Last year, I witnessed a woman being baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church; she was so joyful. I knew I also wanted to receive the Eucharist—to experience that joy.” She joined the church in April with her teenagers.

Dr. Paul Thigpen

That hunger for the Eucharist was shared by another speaker, Dr. Paul Thigpen, whose own faith journey meant leaving his Protestant faith and a successful career as an evangelist.

“Even as a pastor I knew the power of the Eucharist—I would go into a Catholic church and see (the tabernacle) and know there was a presence. I was haunted by the hidden God,” Thigpen told the crowd. “I tell you that vocations do live in the Eucharist, and I was called to enter into our Lord’s Catholic Church.”

After years of work as a Protestant pastor, Thigpen became a Catholic in 1993. A prolific author and Catholic historian with a doctorate from Emory University, he directs the publishing division of the Coming Home Network International, an apostolate that helps non-Catholic clergy enter the Catholic Church.

Thigpen encouraged others attending the Eucharistic Congress to practice “10 small effective ways to evangelize” and share their faith.

“We have to help plant our faith and cultivate our faith,” he said. Those tips for Catholics to help with that “cultivation,” include: answering a question; recommending a good book; recalling a meaningful experience with God; offering to pray with someone or for someone; and providing an example of integrity to your own faith commitment.

Thigpen added that even doing everything on the list may not produce results. He added, “Be patient. If you plant the seed of faith, someone else will water.”

Father Robert Barron

Father Robert Barron, founder of “Word on Fire,” a global nonprofit media ministry, also encouraged the crowd to cultivate a very public Catholic faith. But he also reflected on the importance of the Eucharist in that faith in deepening an individual’s own vocation as a Catholic.

“Jesus makes meals so central to his ministry,” Father Barron said, as he recounted the story of the fishes and loaves and the Last Supper. “And you know we are what we eat. … In the Eucharist, we eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus Christ. We conform unto him.”

He challenged the crowd to discover their own mission and vocation in sharing their faith with others.

“How do you allow divine grace to flow through you into the world?” he said to the crowd.

“To fulfill that you need freedom …freedom from your attachments to wealth, pleasure, power and honor. To be detached from these things is to be able to respond freely to God’s will.”

Father Barron is currently finishing up a documentary film series about the Catholic faith called “The Catholicism Project.”

Tony Rozier, a parishioner at the Cathedral of Christ the King, was taking notes during the English track, but stopped to reflect on what he had learned after Father Barron’s talk.

“I think the message and the recurring theme of today is that you never know God is all you need until God is all you have—and that’s when you really begin to live,” he said.

Dana

Dana, the singer whose hymn, “We Are One Body,” became the anthem for a resurgence of Catholic youth in the Church, seemed to reflect Rozier’s thoughts, as she told the crowd her story of how her dormant childhood faith was renewed after an operation that left her unable to regain her singing voice for over a year. The popular singer told the crowd that it wasn’t until she finally allowed herself a small prayer to God that her answer was given—and her recovery started immediately.

“The hardest things that we meet in life—we can really look back on them and say that was a blessing to me,” said the singer, whose full name is Dana Rosemary Scallon.

She spoke with emotion as she shared with the crowd that Ireland will host its first Eucharistic Congress since 1932 next year, inviting everyone to come to Ireland in 2012.

“Your light of faith is needed in Ireland. I invite you to be with us in prayer or be with us physically,” she told the crowd.

Reflecting on the day, Lina Cruz summed up her own experience.

“The Eucharistic Congress always has touched me and refreshed my faith,” the St. Lawrence parishioner said, as she joined the rest of the crowd who held hands as they sang, “We Are One Body.”

Printed with permission from the Georgia Bulletin, newspaper for the Archdiocese of Atlanta

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PEER EDUCATION!

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the crazy wife

Loud screams brought him back from dream world, not for the first time that night. Chief Akoropo was having a torrid time; his wife’s behavior had progressively gone weird over the last few months. She claimed to be in communion with a mysterious being, who constantly gave her strange instructions.

She had burnt all her vital documents on the instruction of the voice. She had given out all the wrappers in her shop. Several of her choice china plates were destroyed by her with great fervor. It all seemed like a new form of religious fetish to chief Akoropo, until he returned from work one day to meet most of their furniture outside.

Some relatives and neighbors were trying to restrain her; it looked like scene from a gladiator battle. She kept on insisting on following the orders of the voice, which no one seemed to hear. He joined the fray as his wife landed a right jab on a neighboring jaw! Chief was emotionally misled into thinking that his wife would relent when she saw him. Her balled fingers found its way to the space between his eyes; a red line appeared. He was stunned. Even Klitscho would have been impressed. He had to receive attention on the sidelines while the gladiators’ tried to tame the rampaging bull. It took the superior arsenal of the Nigerian Police to cage her.

The Police station was more torment for the officers on duty than Mrs. Akoropo that night. The DPO had to take her home personally at the light of dawn.

Chief had his hands full. After consultations with friends and relatives, it was generally agreed that she was possessed! Prophet Raja, a renowned deliverance minister was the solution. Mrs. Akoropo was taken to his church for fasting, prayers and deliverance. Four weeks later, chief took his disheveled, soggy and still acting crazy wife back home. It seemed Prophet Raja was not well equipped for this kind of warfare.

After four months and numerous crusades, prayer houses and prophets, Mrs. Akoropo was brought back home, bound and locked up in a room where she screamed, threatened and inflicted cuts on her self.

As chief sat up, weary and emotionally drained, his mind was a bottomless pit of thoughts. Another round of screaming from the next room brought him back to the moment. He was desperate to rid his wife of the demons that possessed her. Ubon, his ally, had promised to bring a doctor to see her; what could a doctor do, this was a clear case of spiritual attack.

He walked in with calculated strides, dark, sturdy and towering above all present. His optical enhancement nestled on his slender nose as if they were a package. Doctor Bassey, the resident Psychiatrist at the teaching hospital, glided into Mrs. Akoropo’s room, as the people gazed in lure. Thirty minutes and a shot of Clorazil to her later, he came out and said crisply “could you carry her to my car, please”. He then turned to chief Akoropo “you should have brought her to me earlier”. The peacefulness of Mrs. Akoropo as she was carried out left them perplexed.

THE SHROUD OF TURIN

shroud

According to a most ancient tradition the shroud is Jesus’ burial sheet. The one purchased from Joseph of Arimathea, which Jesus’ body was wrapped before burial and later found in the empty tomb.

The shroud is about 4.36 meters by 1.10 meters in dimension. It is woven in a three- to – one herringbone twill, composed of flax fibrils. It’s most distinctive characteristic is the faint, yellowish image of the front and back view of a man with his hands folded across his groin.

One of the great mysteries of the shroud is that science is at a loss to explain how the image came to be there. It was not painted, nor was it drawn. It lacks any form of colour pigments but has stains of AB type blood on it. Image analysis by scientists reveals that the image unexpectedly has the property of decoding into a 3 – dimensional image of a man when darker parts of the image are interpreted to be those features of the man that were closest to the shroud, and the lighter areas of the image those features that were farthest. This is not a property that occurs in photography and researchers could not replicate the effect when they attempted to transfer similar images using techniques of block print, engraving, a hot statue and bas- relief.

The shroud first became known around 1357 when it was exhibited in a small wooden church in the sleepy village, Lirey about a hundred miles southeast from Paris. Jeanne de Vergy, the widow of Geoffery de Charny,a French fighter exhibited the garment in order to raise funds to improve her economic welfare. This was however brief because the local Bishop then, Henri Poitiers order the exhibitions to stop.

The shroud has been to a lot of places spanning from Jerusalem to Edessa, in modern day Turkey to Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) from where it was taken to Athens and finally in the 14^th century it arrived in France. In 1453 it became the property of the Royal house of Savoy. The Umberto of Savoy donated it to the Vatican in 1983.

In 1898, the cardinal of Turin commissioned Secondo Pia, a lawyer, to take pictures of the relic. At around midnight of May 28, that year Pia was in the dark room developing negatives, when he got the greatest shock of his life; the photographic plate on the reverse showed the image of a man and a face that could not have been observed with the naked eye. The mystery of the image associated with the holy face of Jesus started that evening.

The shroud had overturned all the laws that govern photography. It was discovered that the image on the cloth bears all the characteristics of a negative image, meaning that Pia’s photographic negative acted as the positive image. This is unique to the shroud, and remains a mystery to this day.

As usual scientists doubted the authenticity of this relic even in the face of evidence from pollen testing. In 1978, the Shroud of Turin Research Project(STRUP) composed of seven scientists studied the shroud for five days, their result was that the shroud could not be a forgery.

To have a definitive proof, carbon- 14 dating tests were carried out in 1988 in three separate and highly prestigious laboratories simultaneously: Oxford in

England, Tucson in the US and Zurich in Switzerland. The results showed that the shroud originated between 1260 and 1390 and therefore was a forgery. A big blow was dealt the Catholic Church, but that was not the end.

A Russian scientist, Dimitri Kutznetov, proved that a piece of cloth, when subjected to high temperatures, increases its’ carbon content, and would therefore test younger than it actually is. Now the shroud had indeed been in a building that had caught fire in 1532, in Savoy, France. Many sindonologists have agreed that the 1988 carbon 14 test was flawed. Also, the late Raymond Rogers, a member of STURP, was given access to left over samples from the 1988 testing, showed in a paper published in Thermochirmica Acta

that the sample used in the testing was not part of the original cloth, probably due to the fact that the cloth was repaired at a point.

Scientific testing on the shroud continues, but historians are equally at work. Alessandro Piana, a 28 year old Italian biologist sheds more light on the dark period of the shroud between 1204, when it disappeared from Constantinople to the middle of the 14^th century when it resurfaced in France. The key to unfolding the mystery is a certain Frenchman Othon de la Roche, Baron of Ray- sur- Saone.

It is said that before Jesus died, Abgar V, the first century ruler of Edessa who was stricken with leprosy had requested he come and heal him. He sent a disciple Jude Thadeus, who arrived in Edessa after the death and resurrection of Christ bearing the burial garment. The emperor received healing and he and his Kingdom were thus converted to Christianity, the shroud was venerated by the converts. Abgar V’s son reverted to paganism and persecuted Edessa’s Christians. The cloth vanished but it memories remained. Nearly 500 years later, a cloth bearing the image of a man was found in a niche above Edessa’s west gate, after the reappearance, the cloth with the holy image was again venerated and its discernible influence on art began at that time

By 944 the shroud had been taken to Constantinople and was in the hands of the Byzantine Emperors. Emperor Romanus Lececapus after conquering Edessa exchanged 200 muslim prisoners for the relic because he thought it would bring protection to his city. In constantinopole the shroud became known as the MANDYLION. During the crusade of Pope Innocent III in 1198, the crusaders left their original target of the Muslims in the holy land and attacked the eastern Christians in Constantinople. After three days the city fell and was looted by the crusaders.

During the crusade Baron la Roche had been a trusted advisor to Boniface of Montferrat, the leader of the crusade. The crusaders raided palaces and churches and took things of value. The most precious objects, however, were not jewels, but the relics of Christ and his saints. Baron who was a gallant, courageous and intelligent soldier was rewarded with the shroud for his efforts and given the title “Megaskyr” meaning “lord of Athens”. He brought the relic to the new city, where he remained until 1225, after which he sailed to France with the relic. A number of antiques belonging to the baron are still kept in the tower of the castle of Ray-sur-saone.They include splinters of the true cross, a banner with an effigy  of the man of the shroud and in particular a wooden casket in which the shroud was allegedly kept during the passage from Constantinople to France. The Templar Knights were also believed to have custody of the shroud, in fact Baron la Roche is said to be a templar. The templar knights were aware of the significance of religious relics and were responsible in a way for the huge trade in these items in the 13^th century. More significant was the rumour that they worshipped a mysterious bearded male head called Baphomet during their meetings. In the year 1307, the rumour was used as an excuse by King Philip of France to arrest all Templars in France on charges of heresy and idolatary. In Paris on the 14^th of March 1314 AD, the last two Templars were burned at the stake on the island of Seine by King Phi;ip and his cohorts. They proclaimed their innocence of the charges to the end. One was the Grand master of  the Order, Jacques de Molay and his companion in death was the master of Normandy, Geoffrey de Charney! Did this Geoffrey de Charney manage to smuggle the shroud to his family.

These findings are of great importance, not only because they shed light on the 150 year gap, but mainly because they suggest the existence of the shroud in a historical date before the one indicated by the carbon 14 test of 1988.

a hero comes home

“Bomboy, Welcome, how was the trip”, that was Akan’s mother talking with gleaming eyes. Mama, I am here to rest, I don’t want the whole village pouring in here’’, Akan warned in response. Akan just returned form Lagos with new suspicions. He knew his mother would not heed his warning, but he had to try anyway.

The next morning cacophonous conversations in the living room brought him to consciousness.

“Brother, people are here to greet you”! That was his little niece, peering through the door. He dragged himself up, trying to ignore the rage building up in him.

Most of them where drunk or close to it when they left at about midday, but before chief Akpan okon left he had a proposal for Akan: “Look, my son I want to expand my poultry , I need a hundred thousand Naira from you. “Uncle I can’t afford that!” Akan exclaimed. “Where do you want me to get that sum from”? “You don’t have to give me all at once”, Chief pointed out, “You can give me in installments”. Akan knew there was a dilemma heading his way. Chief Akpan Okon was his uncle who prided himself in bragging to any willing ear “I trained your father!” Giving him the money was not really the problem, there where other issues.

“Mama I can’t give any body in this village money again”, Akan told his mother later that night. She was shocked and tried to persuade him to rescind his decision. After a while he blurted: “Do you remember Efa, he died after buying a bus for his uncle. What of Anietie who paid school fees for all his late brother’s children, is he not paralyzed and bed ridden today? Did Eno not die in a horrible car crash after giving money to chief Ime for his business?” “What are you insinuating my son?” Mama interjected. “You can’t mean what I am thinking”, she quipped. Akan then delivered the killer blow: “Mama, all the elders and chiefs in this village are agents of the devil! They collect money from us and then attack us with juju. My pastor saw it in a vision and has told me not to help any one in this village anymore”. Even when his mother reminded him, that he was the hero of his people, his die was already cast. “I will rather use my money to sow a seed with my pastor”, was his parting shot.

At dawn he sneaked out of the village under the cover of darkness, in a bid to escape the evil charms of the villagers.

Two nights later, he lay cold on the slab at the general hospital morgue.

sacramentals and relics