Showing posts with label Once Upon A Culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Once Upon A Culture. Show all posts

20210328

BEING EUCHARISTIC 24/7

 Every Roman Catholic Priest is aware of his vocation to be Eucharistic, every day of his life. Celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass should be uppermost in his mind, nothing should ever stop him from celebrating this Sacrament of God's love to humanity.  From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we all know the benefits of the Mass, for whom and why they are offered.

It is not about you, the Priest; it is about the Holy Will and Plan of God, our Creator.  Like every child of God, your guardian Angel and hosts of Angels surround you, particularly being the Alter-Christus, these Spiritual Beings accompany you, everywhere.  As St Pio of Pietrelcina {Padre Pio} once said: "feel free to send your guardian Angels on errands..." They are there to 'serve' us as they serve God. Personally I have often tried to do this: ask my guardian Angel to keep Jesus company after I begin my holy hour, before the Blessed Sacrament, and suddenly have need to step out of the Chapel. I simply genuflect on two knees before the Blessed Sacrament, turn and bow towards the kneeler I feel my Guardian Angel is staying and say: "please, keep the Lord company while I step out.... thank you"  I have always had the feeling that I have not left Jesus - the Prisoner of Love, alone.  My guardian Angel kept Him company in my brief absence.

Our awareness of this ever-presence and company of our Guardian Angels, should help keep the Priest, by God's grace, conscious of the avoidance of mortal sin. 

20210202

IGBO


    ~~    Dreaming, Eating, Living, Talking, THINKING, Sleeping  ~~  IGBO

Igbo is my Culture, Igbo is my Language, Igbo is my Tradition, Igbo is my Tribe.
In sum, my quintessence is IGBO.
Ironically or sarcastically IGBO is the acronym of a reality in se: I Go Before Others”.  
We want to believe in this factual statement, which does not, by any stroke of the imagination, imply SELFISHNESS OR SELF-CENTREDNESS.  NO !!!; nothing could be farther from the truth. This appears most natural, human and indeed 'reasonable'. 

The Latin adage is:  Nemo dat quod non habet” – You cannot give what you don’t have. 

One evening I was visiting a family friend, their little girl was just beginning to crawl and make some 'verbal' sound; she could hear when mom or dad calls her. She will turn, giggle, increase her speed and pretend to go away from their direction.   My close observation was that whatever little Ada-mma picked from the floor - bread crumbs, cookies, groundnuts (peanuts), etc. goes into her mouth. Certainly she loves the mother and father, but she will not pick a piece of cookie or peanuts and take it to her mother, NO; she puts it into her mouth. Is this little girl, yet crawling, selfish? NO. When she grows up to reason, she will begin to know what it is to give/share. In the meantime, she is acting and responding to that which is natural and human:  The saying goes thus: "Charity begins at home", but does not end there.  Later this little girl will grow up to learn to love others, outside of herself. 

A few months ago we had a symposium shortly before the pandemic: one of the presenters had a power-point presentation and one of the slides says: "you cannot pour from an empty cup" showing an empty cup tilted, really empty. Basically if you have nothing, you cannot give anything. Like the Latin adage: "ex nihilo, nihil fit"~ from nothing, nothing comes.
                                                         I G B O
  
Igbo is my Culture, Language, Tribe and Tradition. The Igbo is a unique tribe in the West Coast of Africa. Their uniqueness stems from so many attributes, including but not limited to their ways of expressing their life and culture, their expressions, relationships with self, fellow Igbo and strangers/foreigners, etc. The Igbo language has within it what one could call "dialects" whereby certain sections of Igboland speak a version of the language peculiar and unique to them ~ Abriba, Afikpo, Anambra, Ikwere, Ngwa, Owerre and other major sections of Igboland have their dialects.  Despite these 'apparent differences', we understand each other when we speak. The Igbo are very warm and welcoming people; from our ancestral wise sayings, we love and respect the stranger, conscious of our being a stranger somewhere and to some people, quite soon. They are everywhere; every city/town is their home.  A former Nigerian President, comparing the different tribes said that while some see their big cities as their village, the Igbo sees the world as his village. The Hausa have a proverb that says: "any city you visit and do not find an Igbo man, either the city does not exist or the inhabitants are demons" The Igbo express themselves by their Culture, Religion and Tradition. Food, dance, festivities, learning, etc. are part of the culture.   ////////