Why Do We Celebrate New Year?

We have already left one more year behind and we are about to start a new year. In these moments, reflection is born almost spontaneously in us. We become more lucid awareness of time, of that curious reality that we are spending without taking it too much into account. These are the ideal moments to take stock of the past and also project our gaze towards the future.

Many things that distressed us and seemed almost insurmountable have already happened. Today they seem insignificant and unimportant to us. Looking back, the days that were tough look different. Now we feel calmer and more serene, even in the face of what now overwhelms us the COVID- 19 and that one day will also pass.

At the same time, we feel homesick. Nothing remains. With the old year, not only the difficult and hard things go away, but also the beautiful and good things. And the more one advances in age, the greater is the force with which one perceives the inexorable passage of time. This past year also leaves us with a bittersweet flavor. We have not been what we wanted to be. We have not done what we set out to do. We have not been true to ourselves. One more year that goes by without us having grown in truth, in generosity, in love.

H. Hesse says that "in every beginning there is something wonderful that helps us to live and protects us." What truth is contained in these words when one looks at everything beginning with eyes of faith. Again we are offered a time full of hope and intact possibilities. What will we do with it?
The questions we can ask ourselves are many. We will increase our standard of living and our comfort perhaps, but will our hearts continue to shrink? We will have time to work, to possess, to enjoy, will we also have time to grow as people?

This year will be similar to so many others. Will we learn to distinguish the essential from the accessory, the important from the accidental and secondary? We will have time for our things, our friends, our social relationships. Will we have time to be ourselves? Will we have time for God? And yet that God whom we corner day after day amid so many occupations and distractions is the one who sustains our time and can breathe new life into our existence.

Without faith, our calendar is nothing other than the measure of the rotations of the earth. In twenty-four hours the earth revolves around itself and in three hundred and sixty-five days, around the sun. The day and the year are ultimately nothing more than purely mechanical measurements. Thus, time is like a circle. The earth continues its career, regardless of the sufferings and hopes of the men and women who live on it. Only faith transforms time and gives it meaning. Throughout the year we believers celebrate the holidays that remind us of God's actions, from the birth of Jesus to the resurrection of Christ.

However, we have the bitter experience of the past. When we want to walk through life alone, we end up meeting our own helplessness. Will we not have this year the new experience of living with more trust in the Father? Why is it not possible in these modern times to live with such deep trust in God? We do not know what awaits us in the new year, but we know that God awaits us. We do not know the problems, conflicts, sufferings and loneliness that can shake our hearts, but we can always invoke God. We do not know what sins we will commit and what mistakes we will make, but we can always count on his forgiveness.

Happy New Year 2022

NSINGA., Robert

Where Does Consciousness Come from? Consciousness Is Formed in Education from Childhood

 

Every person has an inner voice that guides his decisions and his action towards the good, towards what is right; however, his human condition makes him an imperfect being. From a philosophical-anthropological perspective, it presents in a very succinct way the importance of knowing what moral conscience is, how it acts; how and why we should form it and know the limits of respect for the conscience of others.

Reflecting on moral conscience constitutes a path to understanding the excellence of the human person, to understanding the reason why we are called and endowed to perfection and to doing good, being in each one of us to know how to take advantage of it by virtue of our freedom.

Man is the only animal that makes a moral assessment of his actions and questions the causes that motivate them; on the one hand, we lament the opportunities wasted and on the other, we are convinced by arguments from the decisions taken.

It is worth remembering the difference between moral conscience and psychological consciousness, the latter is basically the intimate knowledge that the human being himself has of himself and of the reality that surrounds and limits him; to be Me and to know Myself, the notion of being present, that our Self is acting or not.

We observe, for example, a subject assaulting a young woman in the street. We feel worried and scared, but at the same time, our moral conscience tells us that what the subject is doing is wrong and dangerous, we also know that the right thing to do would be to help the person who is being assaulted, but that is something that very rarely happens because our psychological conscience limits us from acting for fear of getting hurt.

Because we are free men we live in a complex world; since we are obliged to decide and even more, to decide for the good. Psychological and moral consciences are functions in the human being that constitute unity of body and soul. Consciousness is the capacity of reflection of the human being on what is right in relation to acting.

What is consciousness?

"Conscience tells everyone what to do"; this assertion, as simple as it seems to be, can lead to error. Moral conscience is the capacity of reflection of the human being on what is right in relation to acting. Consequently, it is directly related to ethics; Since, ethics reflects on the goodness or wickedness of our actions.

In animals there is an external law that moves them, the natural law, instincts. They lack intellect (which seeks the truth) and will (which pursues the good), and consequently freedom. The will puts into practice what my conscience dictates, which is based on reason and for believers, on reason and faith. The judgment that is the fruit of conscience is not a practical calculation; sometimes it requires going against the system and/or getting out of the comfort state.

In short, conscience is the act by which reason discerns the morality of a past, present or future action. But how can we not fall into self-deception? with a dialogue about the good and just; reasons and counter-reasons must be known. Whoever is not interested in delving into the reasons for his actions, the one who believes himself to be aware of the truth, will be confusing conscience with a particular whim. But getting stuck in reasons and against reasons has no end, since in life it is necessary to act in a timely manner and do it responsibly. The conviction with which our discourse ends is called conscience; however, you are not always certain to objectively do your best. What can be known is what is the best possible solution at that time according to one's own knowledge, so forming consciousness well is an imperative.

A doctor (or any professional) who by negligence is not aware of the advances of medicine will be acting without conscience and as that action becomes vice, the voice of conscience slowly fades; likewise, the one who closes in on himself, ignoring the observations of others.

Formation of consciousness

In every man there is a germ of conscience, an organ of good and evil. It is a matter of seeing children, they have a keen sense to distinguish the authentic from the false, with a natural tendency to kindness and sincerity.

Where does consciousness come from? is a question similar to Where does language come from? because who has never heard of it is still mute. Man cannot be said to be, by himself, a species that speaks or thinks. Man is a being who needs the help of others to become what he is called to be. Upon hearing consciousness, it seems that we completely subtract from an external impulse or that we act automatically. That momentum has been programmed by our parents in the first instance, by the educators and the cultural environment in which we have been raised. The modes of behavior that we were instilled in childhood and that we learned to obey, have become orders that we give to ourselves; although it should not be understood as nothing more than the reflection of education, because sometimes conscience also leads us to question the patterns of behavior that seem correct.

Consciousness is formed in education from childhood, instilling the recognition of the good and the way to practice it. For the latter, the example of parents and educators is invaluable. Sincerity with oneself, recognizing one's own limitations, is also a force for the voice of conscience that invites us to ask for good advice from whom we recognize as more prudent. Another basic means for the formation of consciousness is the permanent study and acquisition of knowledge of duties, obligations and all kinds of knowledge.

Conclusion 

Whoever is raised in lies and bad examples will be characterized by a conscience devoid of finesse. On the contrary, the delicate and sensitive conscience is characteristic of an inwardly free and sincere man; who despises and is not prey to violence, fear, ignorance and passions. He who does not form the conscience acts negligently because this is the gateway to the virtues; if consciousness is turned off, then nothing matters to us.

 

 

 

 

Education, In What Values?

 

Educating in values ​​is a more indeterminate expression than the Roman "bonus pater families". At the end of the day, we all intuit that a good father of a family exercises authority without authoritarianism, seeks the physical, psychological and spiritual well-being of his family, has the capacity for sacrifice to achieve this end, and governs his family in order to do well. However, educating in values ​​is an ambiguous term, because it will depend on what values ​​are those that mark the educational line and what are the assessment scales. Saying that we educate in values ​​is as empty as saying that we have a progressive political project, or that we fight for peace and freedom.

Because in the words of Saint Thomas, to educate is to "lead man to the state of virtue." That is, to lead the student in the sense of justice, prudence and temperance in judgment, and in the search for the Truth that allows him to locate himself in life. Accompany him on the way to answer his basic vital questions: who am I, where am I going, what is the meaning of my life. Because only from the ground of vital certainties is it possible to build moral certainties. The anthropological reality allows us to know and exploit the infinite potentialities of our human nature. Intellectual restlessness makes us become "curious" with the will to advance on the path of Truth. Control of our will makes us masters of ourselves rather than slaves of our fleeting desires.

And more. Only the following of the risen Christ is the Way of Hope, Truth and Life. Everything else is "rubbish", in St. Paul's terms. Therefore, it is difficult to understand why we Christian educators insist on "hiding" the risen Christ in exchange for preaching solidarity, tolerance or social justice. Deep down, Christians are still billionaires who live in need.

Because Christ does not annul the values ​​of solidarity and social justice. On the contrary, he magnifies them. In the same way that religion does not annul man, but rather exalts him, it offers him his true dimension because he responds to our true desires. Because our heart is made for infinite love and is not content with contingent mediocrities. Only God is capable of satisfying the deep longings of the human heart. "You made us Lord for You, and our heart is restless until it rests in You", said Saint Augustine.

Without a doubt, an ambitious plan, which will remain halfway. Will the family model of the single contemplate, the one who has decided to live with himself? And the model of the one who lives with his faithful cat or a dog to whom he leaves all his inheritance?

In conclusion, the UN agencies have joined with an enthusiasm worthy of a better cause to this project of "education in values", which at heart aims to educate without God and, therefore, without values. By the way, what a coincidence that those who promote this education in values are the mainstays of the culture of death. I think the cause is a "weak faith", it is this weak faith that leads educators to adopt the new secular religion of values. Values from which the transcendence has been voluntarily taken away in a new attempt to deify man.  

Life and Death

"Death is only important to the extent that it makes us reflect on the value of life." Andre Malraux

The human race knows that its existence is ephemeral, it is aware of its temporality. We know that biologically our passage through the planet is seasonal and that life is a flower that with the passage of time tends to wither. Life is fleeting, it is a fragile sigh that lasts as long as fate considers pertinent, its ecstasy leads to knowing its beginning and never its end. Life is only a part of us that cannot define itself, but needs a counterpart to delimit itself, life is the light that needs darkness to know its value and even know if we are in its presence. We cannot give content to life without first defining death.

The relationship between life and death is a close bond that tends to deny itself. It is a difficult relationship because we avoid and deny the departure from this earthly plane and at the same time, we try to make lasting what by nature is temporary. We are terrified of death and we rejoice in life, for death is the world of the unknown and life is the terrain of the accredited. We know that we die because we live, we know that we exist because we depart, and therefore, life and death are two concepts that must be understood by seeing each other head-on, only by looking into each other's eyes can they give value to themselves. This crossing of eyes means that each value they give to this diffuse relationship depends on the cultural burden that is assigned to it, however, necessarily the value given to life has repercussions on death and vice versa.

Moreover, death has lost its mysticism, it has neglected its intrinsic purpose that gave it its raison dies. We die just to die, death is an empty concept that only happens because it is part of a biological process, but there is no mysticism because death is worthless. Unlike the cultures of our ancestors, death today is meaningless.  

 

Respect for life is disrespected when it is taken away from a person the joy of having it because it is known that death is only a fact that comes to put an end to it, Death has no value that prevents it from hastening it nor enjoys a purpose that manages to prevent it from happening just by happening. When in reality life and death should be a singular nucleus that defines us, both must have a mystic, since we live to complete our cycle with death and die to ecstatic life. We must seek meaning from death to add value to life.

In addition to this, we must stop looking at death as a count of figures, which make invisible the unrepeatability of life lost, the trickle of deaths prevents us from observing the mystique of death and with it, the value of a person's life. Death is not a number because we do not live for it, on the contrary, we live for a reason to highlight our unique and unrepeatable identity. Life is an unrepeatable and unique good that only the mystic of death manages to complete, both death and life complement each other. The mystic of one endows the other with mysticism.

 By NSINGA., Robert

The Meaning and Mission of the Family in Today's World

The world seems, in some cases, a spiritual desert, with large areas of skepticism and discouragement. The difficulties, problems, that humanity lives today; Our society, in family crises, divorces and incomplete families is a fact that we face every day.

Now, if the threats are serious and numerous, the hopes are also great. If there are many shadows, the positive direction of so many homes are appreciated, which despite the external and internal difficulties of their own family, have been faithful to their vocation and mission. Families that fully live the sacrament of marriage. Families where you say yes to God, to love, to life, to true freedom and mutual respect.

Is it possible to speak of a family mission? Or rather, each family has its mission, its identity. Are there some values ​​that are at the base of the identity and mission of the family? Or can these values ​​easily change without prejudice to the development of the family, society and the Church?. To answer these questions and deepen the meaning and mission of the family in today's world, we must revolve around one major theme: God's plan for marriage and the family.

God's plan for marriage and the family.

Where does the trend toward marriage and family come from? The tendency of men and women to unite in a conjugal coexistence?

In the first place we can say that marriage or family is not simply a social custom, or a form that imposes authority or a remedy for human weaknesses. The answer is found in God's own design for man: "God has created man in his image and likeness: Calling him into existence out of love, he has called him at the same time to love.

From here several consequences follow:

That we are creatures: God is the Creator and we are creatures. God has a plan for me that I am a creature. This plan, this personal call that God makes to me inscribes it in my being and consequently the capacity and responsibility to love and communicate. Love comes to me from above.

That we are creatures called to do something: therefore, love is the vocation, the fundamental and innate call of every human being.

That we are called creatures, but free to choose and that true freedom lies in choosing this vocation to love.

That God has two ways of calling: one of the two ways to carry out this vocation is marriage, the other virginity.

That I am a creature with a body and a spirit: Man is called to love in his unified totality, that is, a soul that expresses itself in a body. By virtue of this substantial union with a spiritual soul, the body cannot be reduced to a complex of organs, tissues and functions, but is a constitutive part of the person, which manifests itself through it. Love also encompasses the body.

If my body is not just a complex of organs, tissues and functions, for this very reason, sexuality is not something purely biological, but affects the most intimate part of the human person: his body and his spirit. It must be considered as the value of the person, as created in the image of God.

The only "place" where the total donation of a man to a woman is possible is marriage, that is, in that election. conscious and free with which man and woman accept the intimate communication of life and love that God himself has wanted. Contrary to what I have said, the world in which we live rejects many of these ideas: one can speak of justice, family, love, but they do not have God as a point of reference.

Today's man likes to be a "creator." Make use of his body and his sexuality according to his "creative plan", not as a creature. His "freedom" lies in irrationally defining the rules of the game. Go against the very nature of him. In a word, not accepting God's plan for marriage, family, and one's own person. And as Víctor Frankl says: "When people turn their backs on God, what is happening happens: there is contempt for life."

Do not forget, the world in which we live is in need, like few others, of love as a principle and force of communion and coexistence. Man cannot live without loving, and neither can family. Without love man, marriage and family remain incomprehensible beings to themselves.

 

What Does It Mean to Be a Christian Today?

 

The vast majority of people today live in situations of hunger and misery, which are manifested in very high infant mortality, lack of decent housing, health problems, extremely low wages, unemployment and underemployment, job instability, mass migration, illiteracy, marginalization and enslavement of women and children, etc. To these economic problems are added those that arise from the abuses of power, typical of the governments of force.

However, these people are Christian, and mostly Catholic. This implies not only having been baptized, but also having assimilated the deep values ​​of the Gospel, which have been inserted into its ancestral human, cultural and religious riches.

Now, it is contradictory to being a Christian, the way many Christians live their faith. On the one hand, a rich and powerful minority calls themselves Christian and defender of the Western tradition and uses faith as an instrument to maintain their privileges as a social group, subjecting the majority to an inhuman situation. On the other hand, large popular masses live their Christian faith in an alienating way. For many, faith is only a help to resign more easily and wait for the reward of the prize in the afterlife. Christianity becomes in fact a drug, a numbing anesthetic.

Puebla reacts to this situation:

"We see in the light of faith, as a scandal and a contradiction with being Christian, the growing gap between rich and poor. The luxury of a few becomes an insult against the misery of the great masses. This is contrary to the plan. of the creator and the honor that he owes. In this anguish and pain the Church discerns a situation of social sin, all the more serious because it occurs in countries that call themselves Catholic and have the capacity to change (DP 28).

Faced with this situation of poverty and alienating and alienated Christianity, a double awareness arises today throughout Latin America. On the one hand, this situation of poverty is beginning to be seen as not accidental or natural, but the result of unjust economic, social and political structures (DP 30)”.

It is in this relatively new context that the question arises, what is it to be a Christian today? The question about the meaning of Christianity is never abstract, but always refers to a specific place and time. Therefore, before trying to answer this question, it is necessary to reflect from where the question is asked. From poor and Christian people, who begin to become aware of their dual condition of poor and believer, the question arises about the meaning of the Christian life. Surely being a Christian is different from what many have believed so far.

Being A Christian Is Not Simply. . .

Before answering the question about being a Christian in a positive way, it is necessary to undo the misunderstandings of false or insufficient definitions of Christianity.

Being a Christian is not simply doing good and avoiding evil.

There are many honest people, who work to build a better world and try to fight against corruption and injustice. They are moved by noble motives and a humanistic ethic. However, despite their positive contributions and human values, they cannot be called properly Christian for this reason.

Being a Christian is not simply believing in God. Jews and Mohammedans, Buddhists and Hindus, and members of other great religions of humanity, believe in God, the origin and ultimate end of everything, but they do not believe in Jesus Christ. As much as their lives and efforts are under the provident love of God and the power of his Spirit, they cannot be called Christians.

Being a Christian is not simply about performing certain rituals. Every religion has symbolic ceremonies and rites, otherwise it would become a mere ethical intellectualism for minorities. But it is not enough to have been baptized, to have made the first communion, to attend processions, to make pilgrimage to Marian shrines, to celebrate festivities to be able to be identified as Christian. The Pharisees of Jesus' time were very faithful in their rites and yet Jesus denounced them as hypocrites (Mt 23). The rite is necessary, but not sufficient to be a Christian.

Being a Christian is not limited to accepting some truths of faith, in some dogmas, reciting the Creed or knowing the catechism by heart. Many who profess upright Christian doctrine are in practice very far from the Gospel. It is necessary to accept the faith of the Church, to know her laws and precepts, but this is not enough to be a Christian. Christianity is not just a doctrine.

Being a Christian is not identified with following a tradition, which is maintained for centuries through an environment. Every religion recognizes the importance of the weight of history, but Christianity is not simply a culture, a folklore, an art, an immemorial custom that is transmitted through the ages.

Being a Christian cannot consist only of preparing for the next life, waiting in the hereafter, while one is disinterested in the things of the present or is limited to suffering with resignation. The Christian faith affirms the existence of an eternal life and the consummation of the earth, but the hope of a new earth should not dampen the concern to transform and change this history (GS 39). For this reason, one cannot call a Christian who is inhibited from historical concerns, with the excuse of future heaven.

Being a Christian does not identify with any of these positions or others like them. Some are prior to Christianity (doing good, believing in God), others admit necessary elements, but not enough (practicing rites, accepting truths), others are mutilations of Christianity (reducing it to a tradition or waiting for eternal goods). Surely the contradiction of Christianity today stems from the fact that many Christians identify with some of these inappropriate forms of Christianity.

To Be a Christian Is to Follow Jesus

One cannot be a Christian apart from the historical figure of Jesus of Nazareth, who died and rose for us and God the Father made him Lord and Christ (Acts 2,36). The Christian is not simply a doctrine, an ethic, a rite or a religious tradition, but Christian is everything that says relationship with the person of Jesus Christ. Without him there is no Christianity. The Christian is the same. Christians are followers of Jesus, his disciples. In Antioch, for the first time the disciples of Jesus were called Christians (Acts 11:26). The Christian life is a way (Acts 9,2), the way of following Jesus

Following Jesus means recognizing him as Lord.

Nobody follows someone for no reason. The Apostles followed Jesus because they recognized that He was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (Jn 1,29-37), the Messiah, the Christ (Jn 1:41), the One of whom Moses wrote in the law and the prophets (Jn 1,45), the Son of God, the King of Israel (Jn 1,49). Before Jesus, Peter exclaims before following him: "Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinner" (Lk 5,8). The Apostles recognize that Jesus is the One whom the prophets had announced as the future Messiah and that John the Baptist had proclaimed as already near (Jn 1,26; Lk 3,16).

Today the Christian recognizes Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life (Jn 14,6), the Door (Jn 10,7), the Light (Jn 8,12), the Good Shepherd (Jn 10,11, 14 ), the Bread of Life (Jn 6), the Resurrection and Life (Jn 11,25), the Incarnate Word (Jn 1, 14), the Christ, the Son of the Living God, (Mt 16,16), the Son of the Father (Jn 5,19-23; 26-27; 36-37; 43 ff), the one who exists before Abraham (Jn 9,58), the Risen Lord (Jn 20-21), the Judge of the Living and Dead (Mt 35,31-45), the Beginning and the End, the one who is, was and is to come, the Lord of the Universe (Ap 1,8).

The Christian does not follow, then, anyone, but the Lord from whom the initiative starts for us to follow him. He is the one who always calls and says to each of us "Follow me." The call comes from Him, through Scripture, the Church or the events of history. Faced with this vocation, the Christian exclaims like Peter: "Lord, to whom would we go?" You have words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy God "(Jn 6,68).

Following Jesus means accepting his project

Jesus has a project, a mission: to announce and carry out the Kingdom of God (Mk 1,15). This is the plan that the Father has entrusted to him, to form a great family of children and brothers, a home, a new humanity, the new heavens and the new earth that the prophets had predicted (Is 65, 17-25).

Following Jesus means continuing his evangelical style

The program of Jesus, the Kingdom of God, is inseparable from his person, in the Kingdom of God it is incarnated and personified, with Him the Kingdom draws closer to humanity (Lk 11:20). Jesus has a peculiar style of announcing and carrying out the Kingdom.

Following Jesus is being part of his community

Although Jesus called the disciples personally, one by one, to follow him, he formed a group with them, the twelve, to which later men and women were added to form a community: the community of Jesus (Lk 8,1-3). This way of acting of the Lord is not accidental, but corresponds to God's plan to form a people, throughout history, to be the seed and ferment of the Kingdom of God (LG 9).

Following Jesus is living under the power of the Spirit

Following Jesus, being part of his community, continuing his project in today's history, are realities that surpass us. This is why Jesus promised the Spirit to his disciples (Jn 14, 17) and this Spirit is the force and vital breath that animates, vivifies, guides, sanctifies, enriches and brings to its fullness the community of Jesus' followers (LG 4). The Spirit converts the following into a new life in Christ, into a vital communion with the Risen One in his Church, it makes us go from the voluntarist ethic to the mystique of remaining in Him and living on his vital sap, like the branch in the vine. (Jn 15).

Finally, we could affirm that the following of Jesus today means fighting for the God of life. The Christian position cannot be merely negative, the fight against the gods of death is oriented to fight in favor of the God of Life, of the God who is the creator of life, of Jesus who has come so that we may have abundant life (Jn 10, 10), of the Spirit of Life.

 

Believing Attitude to The Covid19 Pandemic

 The front pages of all the media on the planet have been practically monopolized by the Covid19 pandemic. Without being as harmful a virus as SARS, MERS or swine flu (pandemics of our century), Covid19 has spread much more easily and rapidly, posing today one of the most formidable health threats. Undoubtedly, the extraordinary increase in international travel, as a result of globalization, has contributed crucially to this expansion.

It is worth remembering that this pandemic, regardless of its origin, has neither been the first nor will it be the last. To remember only the most lethal since the beginning of our era, we can cite the plague of Justinian (541-542) that ended the lives of more than 30 million people in just one year. The Black Death (1347-1351) took away more than 200 people (a third of the population in Europe at that time); smallpox (1520) took the lives of 56 million people; closer to us we have the American flu imported into Europe (1918-1919) which wiped out 20 million people, and finally AIDS (1981- ) which has killed between 25 and 35 million people.

It is worth remembering the history of pandemics to avoid the presumption of believing that they are new catastrophes. Certainly, no pandemic is similar to another; in this sense we can say that what is happening to us is something "new". For example, one of the novelties of Covid19 is the rapidity of its expansion, the result of the great interconnectivity of humanity, as well as the media magnitude it has had or the incredible impact on the world economy, managing to paralyze for the first time in history, and at the same time, the largest economies on the planet. As some experts say, the economy is now in uncharted territory.

Even so, these unique characteristics, typical of the globalization achieved in the XXI century, should not overshadow the reality of a common denominator that helps us to interpret each pandemic from its fundamental keys. While the tools with which we must deal with this pandemic should not be the same as those of our ancestors, it would be foolish to discard the wisdom acquired by humanity throughout its turbulent history. To give an example, there we have the ancient technique of confinement or separation between healthy and sick as the best solution to stop an uncontrolled infection.

Believing and Reading the Virus

Unfortunately, we believers have not always been bold enough to face the evils that come from a nature in constant creative process; we have not even been to interpret natural disasters within the divine design in a constructive way. In this way, we must recognize that religion has sometimes understood pandemics as plagues of divine origin, either to annihilate enemies (as in Egypt) or to punish believers themselves for their sins (such as banishment). The tremendous insecurity that produces the human being not understanding neither the meaning nor and the origin of the tragedies seems to have made it necessary to look for "culprits", whether It is God in his inscrutable designs or the human race in his sinful condition.

It is evident that there are fundamental theological experiences related to concepts such as "divine punishment" or the "wrath of God", although making a literal reading of them, ignoring the historical, psychological and even mystical contexts, can make us fall into many traps from which we will know a lot to get out. The simplicity of attributing to God any event that overflows our intellectual and even spiritual knowledge can constitute a serious transgression of the second commandment, shamelessly taking the name of God in vain to justify not only our rational limits, but even our intellectual and spiritual laziness.

Believing attitude to the Virus      

Reality is making us smaller and smaller in number, but that does not mean that it has to make us weaker. On the contrary, in nature this process of dwarfing has its advantages by increasing what is now called "resilience". An elephant or lion may be stronger than mice or ants, but it is elephants and lions that are in danger of extinction, not mice or ants. A smaller Church can also be more flexible and resilient when its size shrinks at the same time as its ties become closer. Therefore, this is an ideal time to recover some essential values of faith, especially those that reinforce the community as an antidote to individualism. If individualism makes the subject great in order to differentiate him from the community, Christian personalize advocates a relational humility that not only dignifies the individual by turning him into a person, but also reinforces the resilience of the groups whose members live in communion.

The stress to which we are subjecting the planet forces us to a more ecological model of Church, where relations with nature, with others and with God are imposed by their quality. Digitalization is going to test the quality of our relationships. If new technologies cease to be a means and become an end, there is a fear that far from strengthening us as individuals and groups they will make us more fragile, immature and dependent. It is essential to value a natural relational sense, where the artificial is a means and never an end in itself. The domestic church must take center stage and with it the pastoral promotion of family relations. I am thinking, for example, of the need to recover child catechesis as a family, freeing parishes from a structure that is too collegial to become oases of spirituality again in an increasingly desert world. The treatment of the sick and elderly in hospitals and nursing homes must be a priority, prolonging the healing of Jesus of Nazareth. It goes without saying that given the economic crisis that is looming, social service from charity must be the backbone of our parishes, even if this means the loss of economic power of the clergy who, although already low, enjoy social security within the reach of many few people.

In conclusion, it is about taking another step in the process of pastoral conversion that is based on a spiritual renewal, taking advantage of the plagues to get out of our addictions and enter freely into the deserts of life, because the hardness of the desert also frees us from the accessory, purifies and strengthens us in the essentials.

The Challenge of Marriage

Amidst change of every kind, while being impacted by force at work for which we have little or no control, and juggling more responsibilities in our daily lives than ever before, we are challenged to foster a healthy and nurturing family life. We can choose values, behaviors, and activities that will contribute to the overall health, well-being, and happiness of our family. It can be done.

“Life is difficult”, we can add that life comes with no guarantees. This is not to take the joy or the hope, out of life, but rather to recognize the reality that, to varying degrees, life will have its challenges and hurdles as well as its pains and struggles. Spiritual writers, past and present reminds us often that there is no growth without struggle or sacrifice. So, too the relationship we call marriage and the set of relationships that form a family will have their moments of difficulty, challenge, struggle, hurts, pains, misunderstandings and problems. From all of them we can grow as persons and in our relationships.

A relationship can only be as strong and as healthy as the individuals within it. If one of the persons entering the relationship of marriage is “broken”, is incomplete in some way, brings a significant amount of unfinished work from childhood or adolescence into the relationship or has major physical, emotional and psychological problems, the relationship will begin with huge challenges and problems. If both persons entering the relationship bring major issues, the problems and hurts into the relationship, the impact on the relationship more than doubles its problems and challenges because an addition to the two “handicapped” individuals, the “we” or “us” relationship-  the new reality created by marriage- will present its own challenges and problems. Before entering marriage, people need to know themselves and to have dealt with their principal, substantive and predominant problems and issues. Ideally, people entering marriage will have achieved the developmental goals appropriate top their age.

Subsequently, relationships in a family can only be as strong, nurturing and life-giving as the individuals in it. Of course, the physical, emotional, social and spiritual health parents have the greatest impact on the strength and vitality of the overall health and well-being of the family.

Building healthy and nurturing relationships in a family presumes that parents have achieved the level of maturity and acquired a set of skills for dealing with one`s problems and challenges. In addition, parents should have made a firm commitment to working on their relationship as husband and wife as well as ion their family life, with its unique set of relationships. This requires a willingness to make a family life a priority and to make the decisions and sacrifices necessary to keep family life a priority. It is not easy. It is possible.

The relation of husband and wife establishes the marriage it`s the primary and foundational relationship upon which the family is built. The work of marriage continues even after children are born. In this regard, it is critical that the husband and wife never forget that this primary relationship will take work and must be actively and intentionally nourished throughout the relationship. When a couple forgets, or fails to tend to their marriage at any time in its life, but especially when children become part of their relationship, they will find that slowly and almost without notice, they will grow.

If the husbands and wives do not grow together, share in and contribute to each other`s growth throughout the relationship, the relationship is doomed. The greatest gift a mother can give her child is to love the child`s father, her husband; the greatest gift a father can give his child is to love the child`s mother, his wife. Their love created the child, their love provides the soil and environment in which their child will grow into adulthood.

The birth of children creates a nuclear family. Children depend on their parents for care, support, comfort, nurturing, discipline, affection, and love.

Parents are not only the first teachers of their children, they are their child`s first role models of good relationships. Their relationship becomes a paradigm experienced and observed by their child (children) that will be initiated, adapted and formative of their child`s views about marriage, about the relationship between husband and wife, about what it means to be mother or father.

Love is a decision. Love does not just happen; it takes hard work. Equally, creating a healthy, nurturing and life-giving faily relationship takes hard work. In fact, husbands and wives, most of whom become mothers and fathers, make love a reality in their commitment to working on their relationship as husband and wife and as mothers and fathers. Love takes on fresh in living it.

A healthy family is one in which each member of the family is valued and respected; one in which each member of the family feels safe and se cure; one in which each member of the family is supported, comforted encouraged, guided and challenged to grow.

A healthy family provides an environment and resources for each member of the family to fulfill developmental tasks appropriate to each family member`s age to achieve an appropriate level of maturity and to reach his or her maximum potential.

Occasional Sex Doesn't Work as A Stress Inhibitor by Helping to Feel Better About Everything.

 

From the article of Teresa Morales Garcia published in the 14 Aug. 2018 titled "Casual sex? Of course I do." The author defines casual sex as a practice with someone without an affective bond or commitment. In addition, "this type of sexual practice in which there is no stable relationship or a minimum of sentimental obligations between the two people, not only cannot be bad, but functions as a stress inhibitor and helps to feel better humorous about everything." With this author's thought, I wonder what that sexual experience can occur without Eros, without being in love, and that this Eros includes other things besides sexual activity? Sexuality that is common to all of us and entirely common to all people, but a properly human variety of it that develops within "love", what I call Eros.

Sexuality can act without eaves or as part of the eaves. I believe that it is the absence or presence of the Eros that makes the sexual act "impure" or "pure", degrading or beautiful, illicit or lawful. If all those who lie together without being in love were detestable, then we all came from a dishonorable line.

According to many cultures, most of our ancestors married at an early age the couple chosen by their parents, for reasons that had nothing to do with the Eros. They were going to the sex act without someone else. And they did well: Christians and honest husbands and wives who obeyed their fathers and mothers, fulfilling each other, and forming families in God's fear.

On the other hand, this act performed under the influence of a high and iridescent Eros, which reduces the role of the senses to a minimum consideration, can nevertheless be a simple adultery, can break the heart of a wife, deceive a husband, betray a friend, stain hospitality and cause the abandonment of children. God has not wanted the distinction between sin and duty to depend on sublime feelings. This act, like any other, is justified or not by much more prosaic and definable criteria; by the fulfillment or breaking of a promise, by justice or injustice committed, by charity or selfishness, by obedience or disobedience. My treatment of the subject despises mere sexuality, that is, sexuality without eaves for reasons that have nothing to do with morality.

Sexuality is an essential, constitutive characteristic of the human being. It's what makes a man and a woman. It is the substantial way of being of the person, not just a simple attribute or a functional capacity of it. As a "unity of soul and body", the person is marked by sexuality throughout his being and throughout his existence, sexuality affects the person integrally and dynamically: from the structure of his cells, through his organic configuration, to his psychic and spiritual life. The sexual differentiation of the individual is already present in the creative project, as male and female the person is the image of God (Gen 1:27); its meaning consists in the reciprocal integration of the two members of the couple ("the two will be one flesh". Gn 2:24) and in the task of procreation ("be fruitful and multiply": Gen 1:28), Sexuality, as it belongs to all human beings, is also marked by sin. The estrangement of God also leads to disorder in the sexual sphere so it leads us to occasional sex (casual sex).

conclusion

It is important to take account of the procreative dimension the responsibility arises to decide whether and when to procreate, that is, responsible procreation and to face the fruit of procreation as in front of a person. Also, the dynamic idea of a sexuality that accompanies and determines the becoming and being of a person finally derives the importance of a sexual pedagogy that helps to discover and live the sense of love and sexuality, which is decisive for the meaning of man's life on earth and for his future destiny.

 

 

Hope in the Storms

Why I build Hope in God part I

I received many messages today asking me why of all writings and preaching I refer to Hope. I have shared my two testimonies many times but the biggest part which was my turning point is the following testimony which I love to call part one. I build Hope because I needed Hope one day as a lonely young girl at the end of her Rope. It was only Hope in God that I had to survive alone as a vulnerable young girl with no relative in the big city of Kampala.

I am a last born and by the time I joined primary school I had a chance to have big brothers to take care of me and my edecation. I may say that my childhood was full of joy and I was one time the District Commissioner’s daughter.

However, my saddest turning point was in S. 3, when one of my brothers died of HIV/AIDS. In the same way, while in S.4 my other brother who was paying my school fees got very sick and I had to care for him alone in Kampala since his wife died earlier. He later died too immediately after I had finished my S.4 exams. That was the beginning of my misery and agony because I had no body left in Kampala so I had to go back to the village.

After burial that left me empty I came back to our rented house in Entebbe and sold some of the items to get transport money to transport the household items to the village. I came in the morning from the village, we packed the items on the lorry. Because I was in the hurry and could not get market easily, I sold few items that made money for the lorry to transport items to my village in Mbarara. I was left with only bus money and few coins to take me to the bus park in Kampala. I could not travel that evening to the village because the buses had gone and the lorry was too full to jump on top in the night wind. So I had to sleep over and go the following day.

When the lorry moved, I was left alone in the empty house where people had recently died with no curtains, I felt so scared and lonely. I cried to God to help me. I was hungry because I had not eaten the whole day. I cried to God to send me a helper but there was none. I prayed to God in sobs to protect me in the scary house. I remembered my grandmother Tabitha the strong lady who started our first Protestant church in my village telling me that in trouble remember Psalm 91. I recited it. I had no power to even open my mouth but amidst sobs of crying I called on God to be my protector, I prayed to God to get me a Good Samaritan to pay my fees and bring me back to Kampala. I prayed to God to one day give me a family, house and Ministry to look after vulnerable children. I prayed to God to keep me safe that night in an open lonely house without curtains.

I got a corner of the inside cold bathroom and coiled myself. Because of hunger and too much crying I slept off. I found myself in a corner of an empty house on the bathroom floor the following day so weak and frail to even lift my legs.

There were no mobile phones those days so I had no help. I closed the empty house early morning and I was there wondering how to carry my mattress and heavy metal suitcase with my legs shaking. God sent my first help. The care taker of the house came to pick the keys at the nearby shop where we were to leave the keys. Was told they went away so had come to check. On seeing me, he cried. Gerald was a good man- God bless him. He carried my suit case and my mattress to the nearby stage to get a taxi. He asked me if I had eaten since yesterday I told him nothing I had eaten.

Gerald left me at the stage and came back with a bottle of juice and katogo of meat and matooke in Kaveera. He resurrected my soul, my mind and body with that food. After eating I was now normal my legs and body were now firm and not shaking. Gerald offered to take me up to Bus Park. God sent Gerald to me. He gave me my first hope to carry on. We need to be that hope to young people and I will do it the rest of my life.

I reached well in the village. My exams came and I was in the local Newspaper to have passed highly. I had put my first choice at Gayaza High school but my elderly peasant parents could not afford to take me there. Five months passed since others joined S.5 I was still home hoping my father would sell cows and I join any High school in my village.

But one thing God gave me was Hope inside me. I would cry to God at night to give me a miracle and go back to school. I kept seeing my friends of Uganda Martyrs SSS Namugongo where I was in S.4 in class in my dreams. When I was entering the sixth month, I gave up and I knew my only dream is to get a good man and marry and be like my elder sisters.

The second term of S.5 when it reached, my late brother’s Employer asked where I had gone since he saw me in the Newspapers. He was told I could not continue with school because of school fees.

The man felt bad and drove his car to come to the village and see the problem. He saw me now barefooted with dirty clothes I was already a village girl and had given up on school. He asked me if I wanted to go to school I told him it was my prayer to God each day but my parents can’t afford.

The second Samaritan God had sent to me picked me in the biggest car I had ever entered. I kept checking my body to see if am ok or dreaming. It was the reality. He had asked a family to take me in as their foster child and he would pay my fees and needs until I finished school. They agreed.

I got a family, up to date they are my parents in Kampala and my Guardian Angel paid my school fees and needs until I joined University on Government scholarship. I have done many beautiful jobs up to Executive Director, travelled over 20 outside countries, built a house and even a landlord now.

I work with an NGO to help the vulnerable children like me with school fees mainly but of course overwhelmed by number of vulnerable children. I have a family blessed with children. Am in Kampala. I studied my Master’s degree in Europe. All these God has been my Anchor in the Storms of life.

Am using my given hopeful life to preach the good news, building hope of others and imparting faith and love through church preaching, school outreaches, community outreaches and discipleship- You can join me and be part of it.

But in all God built my Hope. The Good Samaritan Gerald, my foster parents and Guardian Angel were channels God used to build my hope further.

I want you to keep hopeful because God is our only pleasant help and hope in times of trouble. He answered my prayers in the lonely empty house as a young girl and heard my cries in the darkness at night in my village. He did it for me and can do it for you. Keep Hope in the storm.

God’s goodness is not defined by whether life seems good. We might not be able to escape a moment, but we can find refuge in it by remembering God’s goodness. When hardship or sorrow visit us and cover us in pain, we can have refuge and hope even in shame or pain because God bestows favor and honor to His children. Period. No good thing does He withhold. No. Good. Thing. And this comes from the only One Who is truly good. Amen!

Psalm 84:11 (ESV) “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly”.  In the Bible, Job’s pain was great at one time he lost the hope but when he admitted the sovereignty and goodness of God he was restored. Hope was his doorway to help and happiness.

So pray to God in whatever pain that God will replace the darkness of your sorrow with His healing light and that the control of all life will give you hope and peace. Please say- I am believing that am one with God of signs and wonders, and I will worship him in truth and Spirit, I am staying in faith and trusting God to get through the storms of my life and taking me to my destiny, I am not giving up but keeping the hope in God and the good Lord will bring me victory in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Part 2 loading……

By

Rose.,  KEISHANYU RUTETEBYA

LEARNING TO BE HAPPY

The life of every man requires a north, an itinerary, an argument. It cannot be a simple fragmentary succession of days without direction and meaningless.

Every man must strive to know himself and to seek meaning in his life by proposing projects and goals to which he feels called and that fill his existence with content.

From a certain age, all this must already be something quite defined, so that at every moment one can know, with a minimum of certainty, whether what he does or intends to do sets him apart or about those goals, makes it easier or difficult for him to be true to himself.

It is curious how many people think happiness is something reserved for others and very difficult to give in their own circumstances. We run the risk of thinking that happiness is like a dream that has nothing to do with ordinary and concrete living. We relate it perhaps to great events, to being able to have a lot of money, enjoy a seamless health, have a dazzling professional or affective triumph, star in great achievements of whatever kind. But the reality then is quite different from that.

The proof is that people who are richer, more powerful, or more attractive, or better endowed, do not match the happiest people. To see it, just take a look at the magazines of the heart. Money and possessions are in themselves a mirage of true happiness. Fame also doesn't contribute much on its own; Moreover, the famous man needs a special maturity to know how to assume his birth, without having an emotional imbalance (in addition, it is the center of attention of many looks, which follow him very closely and often judge him with special severity).

Nor does it seem that having a great talent or enjoying very good health are the key point. These are things that can favor, that can create a climate conducive to feeling happy, but it is not always so, because we have all seen many examples of very intelligent people who have completely ruined their lives, or others who, on the contrary, on the occasion of the disease have discovered a new dimension of their lives and have matured and been much happier.

Nor is it that to be happy you have to be foolish, sick or unfortunate. Also among those, as among all, some will feel happy and others will not. It seems that happiness and unhappiness come from other things, from things that are more inside the person, in the way his life proposes.

For example, we often suffer, or embark as a feeling of discouragement, or agony, or inner fatigue, and there is no clear external explanation at first glance, because we have had no serious setbacks, no hunger, no thirst, no sleep, no lack of the health or comforts that are reasonable.

They are intimate pains, and if we investigate a little we come to discover that they are caused by ourselves: many of the complaints we have against life, if we examine ourselves sincerely and courageously, we realize that they come from our inner state, our laziness, small selfishness, envy, susceptibility, etc. In short, of personal errors that give us a disappointment.

However, it must be thought that it is precisely this disappointment that gives us the opportunity to improve and be happier. Just as physical pain has the invaluable utility of warning that something in our body is not going well, those pains we talk about warn us that something inside us must change. It is positive in addition to natural that we notice with intensity the weight of our mistakes: if not, it would be very difficult for us to correct each other.

Perhaps the hardest learning in life is disappointment: accepting that things starting with the reality of ourselves are not how we wanted them, as we thought, or as they had been told; that things aren't that simple, that life isn't that easy. But, the conquest of happiness is not something that is reached in an impromptu or casual way; it is achieved after a long effort on ourselves, it is like a work of continuous personal engineering.

Sexual Greed

It's what makes people cheat
It’s what breaks up marriages
It’s what breaks hearts
It’s what causes terminal diseases
And it’s what brings men and women down.

Men and women don’t cheat because the girl/boy they are with is not enough for them. They don’t cheat because the woman/man they married stopped being sexy or hot. No, they cheat because they are greedy.

It reminds us of how useless and destructive the greed for sex can be;

JESSE JAMES was happily married to Actress Sandra Bullock for 5 years. But his sexual greed made him cheat on her with 19 women. He broke her heart, ashamed himself, destroyed his family and got divorced by her. TIGER WOODS was happily married to Elin Nordegren. He got greedy. Slept with 12 women. Broke wife’s heart, ashamed himself, lost $22Millions of shillings from sponsors, destroyed his home and got divorced by Elin. RUPERT SANDERS was happily married to Liberty Ross for 10 years. With two kids. But his greed got him sleeping with Kristen Stewart of TWILIGHT. He ashamed himself, brought endless pain to the wife, destroyed his home and got divorced by his wife. MARK SONFORD, the U.S Governor, was happily married to Jenny Sanford for years. He got greedy cheated on her with an Argentine woman. He received national shame, lost his job, lost his home and also got divorced by his wife.

These men, and many others, lost millions of dollars just to pay for sex and finance their partners. They lost prestigious jobs. They lost their homes. They lost huge, huge earnings. They were turned into objects of shame and ridicule. They embarrassed and permanently crushed their wives. They destroyed their families. They lost their marriages. They lost any respect the public had for them and lost the respect of their children, relatives, families and friends. Just because of their Greed.

Men and women who are sick of the love of sex! There is too much to lose! For just a few minutes of pleasure! It’s not worth it. You have to sit up and think straight. And learn to say NO to the DESIRE. No to temptation. And No to greed. Say to yourself “l am not ready to waste thousands of money, just for illicit sex! Am not ready to embarrass myself because just because l could not control my lust! Am not ready to lose my home in future just because I did not Zip up! I am not ready to get myself sick to death just for few minutes of pleasure!

I am not ready to lose another sweet, adorable and royal girlfriend/wife just because I sneaked out with a slut! NO. THE COST IS TOO HIGH, the risk is too much.

Dear men and women of our generation.

It’s true we love sex. Yes, we truly adore it. But we must learn to control ourselves and learn to love getting it from the right person. Always, it’s better that way, safer that way and godlier that way.

Let’s respect our bodies, respect our girl/boyfriend/wives, Respect our homes/families, and above all… respect God. Its starts with YOU. Sexual greed is risky business. It’s a shame, a waste, a pain and disgrace.