Welcome to the brand new 2020. I wish you all a Happy New Year. I hope that you had a holiday filled with fun, peace and joy with family and friends.
2019 was a tough year! There were numerous challenges. There were happy times as there were sad times. There were exciting times as there were disappointments. I had a major health challenge in November that started as something minor…thank God for the balm of Gilead and Jesus for the 32 stripes. I was made whole again.
Above all were the unexpected shocks which further proved that “Life Happens”. Through them all, we made it to 2020 by God's grace!
For me, it was a year of serious character reformation. I discovered how to a large extent to stop acting God and letting God be God. In other words, dependence on the Supreme Being.
As usual, we spent much time towards the end of 2019 in Nigeria for Coat of Many Colours Africa programmes. It was hectic catching up with work back log after recuperating from my illness in November. I’ve been working non-stop since then!
I spent the Christmas and Boxing Days planning for the work that lay ahead in the New Year. I pondered over my New Year’s resolutions. I usually spend the first week of January thinking over and praying about my goals for the New Year. My list is always far too long, and has too many items that have been repeated (and remain unattained) year after year.
This year, I have changed all that. I have only one hydra-headed resolution. I will be a better me in all aspects. Why, I confess that I’ve never prayed as much as I did in 2019. Thank God I was able to achieve much of the goals with his help. For the unattained, I leave them as SFGTD…Something for God to do.
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.
Welcome to 2020, and 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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