what can we say about this???

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command said it has arrested some suspects in connection with the killing of a woman preacher in Kubwa, FCT.
The FCT command’s Spokesman, ASP Anjuguri Manzah confirmed the arrest to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Abuja.

He said the Commissioner of Police, Alkali Usman, has directed the homicide section to take over the investigation.
“We have made some arrests and they are helping in our investigation.
“The commissioner of police has ordered the homicide section of the command to take over the investigation of the case,” he said.
The spokesman, however, did not mention the number of suspects arrested.
He said that personnel of the command had visited the scene of the incident and that investigation had begun.
NAN reports that the woman, whose name was not disclosed, was killed while preaching in the early hours of the day around the pipeline area of Kubwa, a satellite town of the FCT. (NAN)

Good movie for women

 womemMonday Special: Women and Girls Driving Kenya's Future - allAfrica.com

see what risky games can cause?????

A matador has died after being gored by a bull in Spain - the first bullfighter to die in the ring in Spain this century.

 
Victor Barrio, 29, a professional bullfighter, was killed when the bull's horn pierced his chest.
Also on Saturday, a 28-year-old man died after being gored by a bull during a bull run through the village of Pedreguer, near Valencia.
The last matador to die in a bullfight in Spain was Jose Cubero, or Yiyo, in 1985.
Television footage shows the bull throwing Barrio into the air before goring him on the right-hand side of his chest and violently throwing him.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy paid his condolences to Barrio on his Twitter feed.
A comment on the official feed of the Las Ventas bull ring in Madrid, where Barrio began as an apprentice, said it was "distressed and very moved" by his death.
El Pais newspaper said that in the past century, 134 people, including 33 matadors, had been killed by bulls in Spain.

Last year, leading matador Francisco Rivera Ordonez, known as Paquirri, was badly hurt while taking part in a bullfight in the north-eastern town of Huesca.
About 2,000 bullfights are still held every year in Spain, but the numbers are falling. In 2010, Catalonia became the second Spanish region after the Canary Islands to ban the tradition.
Opponents describe the blood-soaked pageants as barbaric, while fans say the tradition is an ancient art form deeply rooted in national history.
In the other incident on Saturday, a man was killed while running alongside bulls in Pedreguer. Spanish media said he was trying to help another runner when he was gored in the throat and abdomen.
Meanwhile, in the San Fermin bull running festival in Pamplona on Saturday, a 33-year-old Japanese man was gored in the chest and a Spanish man in the arm. Another 12 people were injured, the regional government in Pamplona said. 
what is now the essence of the tradition?????

formation of christian conscience

The wisdom of a great theologian of our time.

A theological reflection on the formation of Christian conscience in Evangelization –Rt Rev. Dr. Msgnor Michael Ifeanyichuku Mozia of Issele-Uku Diocese

Formation of Christian conscience

This topic calls for a theological reflection on the true nature of conscience. It will also involves formation of Christian conscience and the role it plays in helping the faithful to experience God and express God and communicate God in their everyday life .this will assist the faithful in their work of evangelization.

In discussing this topic, the first question that comes to mind is this: “what is conscience?” Some people say it is the “voice of God” in the human person. It is not, because if it were, how does one explain erroneous conscience or scrupulous conscience or perplex conscience? Can God be wrong? Surely, conscience is not the “voice of God in man” but what individual understands to be “the voice of God”. If there is a wrong understanding of what God id really saying, that conscience becomes erroneous, and not actually what God is saying that is erroneous.

So primarily, conscience is a special gift from. It is a  God-given capacity to distinguish between what is morally right or wrong. Sometimes one may sincerely make moral judgment but erroneously one may think that what he or she is deciding to do is right but in reality is not right. But Moral theology has a principle that if one is sincerely convinced that it is right to take certain action according to his or her conscience, he or she should follow it. Thus, in moral theology we can conclude that “erroneous but sincere conscience should be obeyed”. Therefore, conscience is the capacity to make moral judgment and should be generally followed.

The Fathers of the second Vatican council call conscience the “sanctuary where God meets with man” (cf. “the church in the modern world,”Gaudium Et Spes, No.16).so the conscience is an individual “secret” where God is at home with him or her. That is why no one is allowed to violate the conscience of another person. It is a sanctuary where the individual spirit and the spirit of God come to meet. It is there that the individual comes to discover what God is telling him or her to do or not to do. What conscience discovers is not necessarily the will of God, but what an individual perceives or understands the will of God to be.

Therefore, the mystery of the human person is reflected in this capacity God has given him in his conscience. But there is a danger at times of following the individual’s conscience if such a conscience is individualistic. How often do we hear some people say: “oh! My conscience tells me to do this and I am going to follow it”; this is said without considering whether the conscience is individualistic or not. Conscience is not just something given to an individual to use in any way the individual likes. No. It is given for the building up of the community of Gods people. This is why; in moral theology, one can talk about “reciprocity of conscience”. This means the conscience of the individual is called upon to enter into the stream of “common search for the will of God” and for the common solution to the moral problem facing the human family.

For example, each person has an individual conscience but there is also what is called “conscience of the community” which determines what the community should do. There is also what is called the “ecclesial conscience”: which reflects the magisterrium of the church-the power of “binding and losing”. The second Vatican council also talks about this “reciprocity of conscience”:  “All the people of God are invited to a common search for the truth and the will of God”. Nobody has monopoly of truth, about God, about Christ, and about who the human person is. Everybody must work together in common search in prayer, humility, in discussion to be able to discover a common search for what the will of God is in a given situation. For instance the conscience of each community will consist in the ability of each member, through prayerful reflection, to consider a situation and come up with a solution, “Yes, this is what God wants us to do”. No one individual member has monopoly of the truth that should guide the life of the community. Again, considering the etymological meaning of the term, conscience coming from two Latin words; “Cum” and “Sciencia”; “Cum” means “together with” whereas “sciencia” means knowledge. So conscience means knowledge together”. This negates all individualistic understanding. It is a common search for what God is asking of each person or human community. This is so, because God gives one an individual conscience to enable man work together to build up human family. It is not an individualistic conscience that could divide the human family but the individual conscience that seeks to collaborate with other consciences in the common search in understanding the will of God. Therefore, every human being, whether Christian or an atheist, has a conscience. Everyone is able to make moral judgment. Everyone is able to say: “This is what God wants me to do”. For the atheist, they are able to say: “This is what I think is right”. God has given each person this capacity to judge according to his or her conscience. This understanding is very important for evangelization today in our pluralistic society.

Formation of Christian conscience

To be more specific, our consideration here has to do with the formation of Christian conscience. It is important to note that the Christian conscience differs from the conscience of other people who are not Christians. This is because of the nature of who the Christian is, and what the Christian should believe in. Every individual’s conscience should be able to reflect what he or she believes in and that helps to form his or her personality. It identifies who the individual is and what he or she believes in.

The following are the elements that distinguish Christian conscience from a non-Christian conscience.

1.   Trinitarian element: The Christian is a person who is born again in baptism. He or she was baptized in the name of the Father and of the son and the Holy Spirit. From that moment he or she became a home for the three persons of the Blessed Trinity. So the Christian conscience should reflect who he or she is as a temple of the trinity-a home for the three persons in one God. The faithful who have entered into covenant with three persons of the Blessed Trinity are given the guidelines that reflect the divine life of the blessed trinity. Therefore, they act no longer alone.

They ought to act in consonance with the life and action of the blessed trinity. Thus, they behave, act and take decision in accordance with what the trinity expects of them. For example, the decision that one is a child of God and wants to behave as one. So what a person wants to do must be in consonant with what pleases God the father who created him or her in love, with Jesus who redeems him or her with the Holy Spirit who sanctified the person. The Christian conscience then should lead them to become co-creators with God the father who creates the world anew in love co-redeemers with Jesus Christ liberating people from sin. Finally, their consciences should lead the faithful to become co-sanctifiers with the Holy Spirit. Their conscience, as co-sanctifier Christians, should help them to act in a holy way; they should be able to ask themselves: Is this a holy act, a loving act? They are thus able to make moral judgments in accordance with who they are, in union with the Blessed Trinity. That is the identity of the Christian conscience. Thus, Christian conscience should be influenced by the three persons of the Blessed Trinity.

2 Christ: Christo-centric

We specify Christ in a special way because of the role he plays as God-made-man. The Christian has to study Christ in his person. He or she has to know what the “person is Christ” is saying to him or her  “in his words” as you read the scriptures, and “in his actions”. The person, the words and actions of Christ continue to be revealed in, with, and through the church and the sacrament. They become guiding Principles for the formation of conscience as a Christian conscience because Christ comes to give himself to the faithful so that they become one with him. Therefore, they will be acting together, working together, thinking together, and making judgments together in Christ. So the faithful need Christ in their lives to be able to guide them in making moral judgment. Thus Christ becomes the yard stick for determining what is good and bad in making moral judgment.

3.                           The church: Every Christian is a member of the church by virtue of Baptism. Since the church plays an essential role in the life of the faithful, it forms a very important element in making moral judgment in determining what is immorally right and wrong. In making such moral judgment, every member of the church ought to ask some question such as these: am I a faithful of the church? Is this action I am about to take in keeping with the teachings of the church? Is this given action in consonance with who I am as a member of the church? This is why the magisterrium of the church is an important factor in the formation of conscience. So the magisterrium has great influence in the formation of conscience. It is really essential in helping the faithful to determine what is right and what is wrong. This is very important, especially, in our time and age when people do what they like when many people go astray by doing what I call “morality of convenience”. In this type of morality they feel that it is convenient “it is morally right if it is not convenient, it is wrong. This is what is called “ethics of relativism” Everything is relative, and there is no absolute moral norm. They feel that an action is right or wrong depending on the situation. This is “Situation Ethics” .It is this dangerous way of thinking that makes the church an important element in the formation of conscience. This calls for the guidance of the Holy Spirit working in the church as leads the faithful in their search for truth and the will of God. Christ gave the church the guarantee of the knowledge of truth. He said “you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”. Truth found in the church. The head of the church St Peter and his successors were given the “key of the kingdom of heaven”. He says: “and I say to you, you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gate of netherworld will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bond in heaven loosed on earth will be loosed in heaven”. (Cf. Mtt. 16:18-19)

4.                           SACRAMENT

The next element for the formation of conscience will be the sacraments. The Disciples of Christ are sacramental persons. Through the sacrament of Baptism, they entered into a covenant with Jesus who is the “Great sacrament”. They share in the sacramental life of Christ by becoming “the visible manifestation of Christ’s saving presence in the world”. So as sacramental persons; the Christians actions must reflect Christ who is the sacrament. It is in that light that the Christian consciences ought to be formed to reflect the visible manifestation of the love of God. The invisible reality is the covenantal bond Christians have with God the father, with Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit. So the Christians are visible expression of God’s saving presence. Their actions should reflect and express

Christ’s redeeming presence and actions in the world. This is where the Christians’ consciences should be trained to be a visible expression of God’s saving will within and outside the church. This is why the formation of Christian conscience has to express the church and the sacraments to able the Christian’s faithful to determine what is right and wrong.

5.   Community as a Family the next element necessary for the formation of the Christian conscience is recognizing the “church as a family”. Apart from seeing the church as a family one has to consider “inner family” within the family of the church. For example, the individual cannot depend solely on his or her conscience without reference to the conscience of the “inner family” and the with the “conscience of the church as a family”. When the individual conscience is in conflict with the conscience of the church as a community, the principle of the “reciprocity if conscience” should be applied.

Vocation to love in relation to the sacraments and the churches’ mission of evangelization:

Christian’s vocation to love involves our vocation to discover God’s love for humanity. This calls for serious study. This means that Christians have serious obligation to study daily and not just reading books. It requires a real studying of God’s love through the Christians’ life experiences. It becomes a challenge to them to experience God’s love to express God’s love and to communicate God’s love. This is precisely an important goal of evangelization. The greatest place to discover God’s love is in the “Body of Christ”, and that is the church. It is important to recall there that the church is described as the “sacrament of salvation”. The fathers of the ||Vatican council call the church “the church is the sign and instrument of salvation”. (Lumen Gentium 1). It is a sign that tells people of God’s love and salvation. It is not sign but it is also an Instrument that communicates salvation. It is not like a sign  post that point to people where to go and what to do. In the same way Christians should not just be a sign, but a sign that has the power to communicates what the sign signifies, and that is Christ himself. The Christian does not only point Christ to the people but accompanies them to meet Christ and stay with Him. Thus the Christian who are members of the church, becomes a sign of God’s love to the world. It must be recalled that the church is a “mother”. As a mother she shows she shows she is the greatest place where one can find love. She should reveal that loving mother who carried her children for nine months in her womb. In such a mother finds a sign of God’s love, a sign of salvation. In this context one is able appreciate the church as “sacramental tool” for communicating Christ’s love to the world

The seven sacraments the sacrament are vehicles or channels of grace for communicating God’s love. These seven sacraments are individually and collectively visible and effective instrument for communicating God’s love. God mercy and forgiveness to the whole word. It is the challenge of each Christian to discover how each sacrament reveals visibly God’s love in the world. Let us briefly show how each sacrament reveals God love and hoe it challenges the Christian faithful to respond to God’s love in a visible manner. For lack of space and time only a few of the seven sacraments will be example here to show how the sacraments in general constitute channels of God’s live and salvation.

In baptism, the disciple recognizes and discovers how God’s loves him or her so much that He (God) invites him or her to share in His (God’s) divine life. The followers of Christ are born again into a Trinitarian family the church. As members of Trinitarian community; they share in the divine life of love. By sharing in this Trinitarian life of love, they become morally oblige to this life of love in its entire ramification. This becomes a moral imperative to daily experience, express and communicates this divine love in all they do. This is how the sacrament of Baptism challenges the Christian faithful to respond to the vocation to God’s love.

2.   The sacrament of penance is, in a particular way, a very effective means of discovering and expressing God’s love. In receiving this sacrament, the faithful encounters Christ who forgiveness them their sins through the words of absolution by the priest. The grateful acceptance of this forgiveness of sin by the penitents, invites them to share this forgiveness with others. Thus they become “ambassadors of forgiveness and reconciliation” (cf 2 cor.5:18ff). This is why this sacrament becomes a privilege opportunity to respond to God’s vocation to love. The sacrament makes the penitent a “reconciled reconciler” i.e. having been reconciled to God through the forgiveness; he or she becomes sacramental vehicle for sharing the reconciliation with others. Again, the penitent becomes wounded healer having been healed from the wounds of sin and division, the penitent gratefully embraces the vocation to bring healing to those wounded by sin. This sacrament of reconciliation is, like any is the seven sacraments, a sacrament of faith. Those who see no need for confession have some fundamental problems. And what is the problem? Such people have lost faith in God’s forgiveness within and even outside the church and some of them also lack the ability to forgive themselves or others. These people have failed to appreciate the beauty Christ’s parable of the prodigal son in Luke Gospel (cf Luke.15:11ff.) the father of the prodigal son said: “let us celebrate because this son of mine was lost and now is found…” so it is a celebration in faith celebrating God’s merciful forgiveness. So when the Christians celebrate this sacrament, they celebrate their faith in the forgiveness that Christ offers to all sinners. Thus they celebrate their faith in the following ways by professing their faith:

1.   Faith that only God can forgive sins

2.   Faith that he has given the power to Christ so through Christ he reconciles the world to himself.

3.   Faith in the church that is now given this power to continue the mission of reconciliation.

4.   Faith in the priest who is now representing Christ and his church in bringing about God’s forgiveness. This is the power of binding and losing.

Therefore, in the sacrament of penance, the faithful are celebrating their faith in God’s mercy which is communicated to humanity through Christ and through the church and through the priest. And through this sacrament the Christian faithful believe that when church follows the traditional procedure she is empowered to confer forgiveness of sin to her children. And when we do that, the sacrament of reconciliation does not only take away our sons but it heals us of the wounds and the attraction of sin. Sin can be attractive. And it must be further noted this sacrament does not only takes away sin, but also gives the Christians the power of a stronger attraction to Christ. When they get so attracted to Christ, sin has no more power over them. This is what happens at confession. So it is a sacrament of faith, reconciliation, forgiveness and healing since only God can forgive sin, it is only God also who can give Christ’s followers the power to forgive and communicate the loving fogginess of God. The wound caused by sin makes it difficult for them to forgive, but when they receive God’s mercy and forgiveness they are empowered to bring the same mercy and forgiveness to other people. That is how again the faithful assume their identity as “wounded healers”. We are redeemed to continue the work of redemption.

The sacrament of Eucharist is the greatest of all the sacraments. In this holy Eucharist the faithful Christians encounter Christ face to face  in the covenant of his blood . “This is the cup of my blood of a new and everlasting covenant which has been shed for you and all for the forgiveness of sins”. So through the sacrament of the Eucharist, Disciples of Christ enter into communion with Christ and they are empowered by Christ to become one with him and to carry out the work of love .You discover God’s merciful love in the sacrament. In this sacrifice of the mass Christ said, no greater love than this that one lays down his life for his friend. So the greatest act if love is “this is my body, this is my blood.” That is the greatest prayer of Christ the greatest sacrifice in which he offered his blood to take away our sins, to purify us, to transform us, to make the faithful enter once again into communion with him. This sacrament which is called “Holy Communion”; it is the sacrament in which the faithful experience, in the deepest possible way, the loving forgiveness of God. In it we are empowered to share his loving forgiveness with other people. Because he said “do this in remembrance of me”. In other words he commands his followers to go and “offer” or sacrifice their bodies to one another for the forgiveness of their sins. That involves “turning the other chick” when someone slaps you on the chick. People may tear you to pieces as they tear me to pieces” and your response will always be: “father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing”. Thus the faithful are empowered to pray for forgiveness of an enemy. They should not only celebrate it but live it out by praying for those who have hurt them. “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do”. This is the greatest expression of God’s love. This is the area in which the believers continue to discover Gods love in their daily life and, in discovering Gods love they are empowered to live out their vocation. They are able to say in words and in actions “our vocation is to love”. So God does not just give the law of love “just as a commandment”, but he is also asking his followers to “live out who they are” i.e men and women who are “created in his image and likeness of God is “love”. He gives his followers the power to do it. He is not just giving direction, but he gives power to follow the direction. He is the source of all spiritual power, spiritual nourishment, spiritual healing. For me as person I find in the Eucharist the greatest consolation that is why the church talks of the Eucharist as the source and summit of our Christian faith, the summit is the highest point of our Christian faith. Therefore the Eucharist is the highest point where one can find God’s mercy and forgiveness. The more one meditates on this, the more one appreciates his love, and the more one also impacts this love to others. That is why at the end of Mass the priest says: “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. In other words: “Go and share this love with all those who come your way”. This is indeed an injunction to continue the works of evangelization.

So the individual Christians’ prayer and study should be aimed at discovering the love of God as revealed in Christ, the church, in the sacrament especially the sacrament of penance and Eucharist. The love of God as is revealed in their day-to-day living in the daily events of their lives. Therefore, their mission and identity can only be found in discovering this love in our journey to heaven.

Conclusion

Christians are responsible for one another. It is this sense of responsibility that makes human being who he really is –a child of God. Human beings are distinguished from other animals, by their rationality. Man is a rational being. Their rationality makes them different from other animals. “Gaudium Et Spes” the fathers of the second Vatican council refers here to this as : “ the new humanism” (cf.Gaudium Et Spes no.55”) “we are now witnessing the birth of the new humanism where man is defined above all else by his responsility to his brother and to the course of history” .this is the “responsibility” that Christians who reflect the “new humanism” are one another’s keepers. They are responsible for their brothers and sisters. In this way, they continue to respond to a call to holiness since it is an expression of love which involves holiness and wholeness in human relationships. And this reflects precisely the goal and focus of the evangelizing mission of the church. That is why the formation of Christian conscience must never lose sight of this aspect of evangelization.

Every evangelizer is therefore called upon to consider the above points in the evangelizing mission f the church. These are to be considered in their mission of evangelizing, catechizing and sacramentalizing. None of these aspects can be effectively carried out without the formation of authentic Christian conscience.

 

 

    

 

 

                  

 

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The irony of life

...Our life is a short time in expectation, a time in which sadness and joy kiss each other at every moment. There is a quality is sadness that pervades all the moments of our lives. It seems that there is no such thing as a clear-cut pure joy, but that even in the most happy moments of our existence we sense a tinge sadness. In every satisfaction, there is an awareness of limitations. In every success, there is the fear of jealousy, behind every smile, there is a tear. In every embrace there is loneliness. In every friendship, distance. And in all forms of light, there is the knowledge of surrounding darkness… but this intimate experience in which every bit of life is touch by a bit of death can point as beyond the limit of our existence. It can do so by making us look forward in expectation to the day when our hearts will be filled with perfect joy a joy that no one shall take away from us.