Happy New Year to you all. I sincerely hope that your holiday celebrations were filled with peace and joy. These first few days of 2015 found me reluctantly returning to my desk and computer after a nice long break over the Christmas holiday to savour time with family and friends.
It was party galore here in Ghana. The pressure of spending more time in Nigeria after my father’s death and trying to reposition my business in Nigeria and the publications of The Beacon International Catholic Magazine have left me working non-stop.
Shortly before Christmas I felt my stress level rising, I knew that the time had come to build in a bit of down time over the holidays. This was not to be as the family had to prepare for the burial thanksgiving in Ghana!
I recognized my need to step away from the laptop over an extended period from Christmas Eve through January 5th. It was a long overdue “log off” time not only for an enhanced time with my family and loved ones, but also to regain some perspective on the work I find myself doing these days.
As I prepared to return to work on January 5th, I found myself pondering my New Year’s resolutions. I’m not a great resolution-maker, so I typically spend the first week of January thinking over and praying about my goals for the coming year. My list is always far too long, and has too many items that have been repeated (and remain unattained) year after year.
It is my major resolution to redesign the website. I only hope I can get this done in January. The amount of things required and changes to be made scares me. We also will have to rest TimeOut Ezine. It has served its purpose when The Beacon Catholic Magazine was a quarterly. We will henceforth be a monthly magazine.
I also resolve to make spiritually led use of digital technology - refrain from use of technology on Sundays, leave mobile phone and Tablet at home during Mass.
I also resolve to practice “unplugged” prayer and protected time for family priorities, by not allowing social networking relationships to hinder “real world” relationships.
Since you are reading this online, perhaps you also spend a great deal of time in the digital realm. And perhaps you too will want to set your own resolutions.
I’d love to hear yours, and would also love to hear from our readers who don’t engage in the practice of setting of resolutions but have personal goals for the effective and spiritually encouraging use of technology.
Have a fantastic year ahead.
I have been thinking a great deal about my experience at Reconciliation this past Saturday. I felt an intense and unexplainable urge to go and confess my sins when I woke up that morning. I try to go every six weeks or so, but this was no routine visit to the priest for me. I needed to unburden myself of the numerous venial sins I had committed since I last participated in this Sacrament.
Purest Gold: God's Refining Fire in our Lives »
After salvation, many young Christians wonder if there's anything more to their newfound faith than just the security blanket of "being a Christian." Time and time again, God shows himself as a "refiner," and our lives are as gold. God started leading me in this study to understand what He was doing in my life, as well as in the lives of others.
Picking up my pen to write this column, I couldn’t imagine how time flies. Since the last publication of this column I have gone through a lot, especially the loss of my dear mother to whom I dedicate this article. Not only her, but seems I lost a whole generation of my close family.
How to Achieve Business Excellence »
“Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before Kings; He will not stand before unknown men.” Proverbs 22:29
Spiritual Development for our Youth »
Most of us youth in today's fast moving world are easily thrown off by difficulties and worries.
The theme of conversion is a thread that runs all through Lent, but conversion takes on different aspects throughout the phases of Lent. The first two and a half weeks focused on the interior turning of hearts; the liturgy urges the faithful to reflect and examine consciences thoroughly.
Saint Josephine Bakhita »
Feast Day: February 8
Patron Saint Of: Sudan
Saint Josephine Margaret Bakhita was born around 1869 in the village of Olgossa in the Darfur region of Sudan. She was a member of the Daju people and her uncle was a tribal chief. Due to her family lineage, she grew up happy and relatively prosperous, saying that as a child, she did not know suffering.
Catholics Must Fast More Intensely This Lent»
The Norbertine Canons of St. Michael's Abbey have created this digital Lenten retreat so that you can journey through this holy season alongside them. If you want to have one of your best Lenten seasons yet, join us in our Lenten Program "The Great Fast" - https://theabbotscircle.com/the-great-fast-join
When Your Faith Is Put to the Test - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon»
Friends, we come now to the Second Sunday of Lent, and we’re on both dangerous and very holy ground with the first reading from the twenty-second chapter of Genesis. The ancient Israelites referred to it as the “Akedah,” which means the “binding”: Abraham binds and is ready to sacrifice Isaac at God’s command.
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