WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

             

· One day a monkey woke up, and saw all the trees in the forest cut down. He said to himself ‘one day the trees would grow again’.
·    A tree was loosening its flowering leaves, and soon birds no longer nest in it. It became a laughing stock. He prayed and cried bitterly, the tears kept on watering and floating down. From stem to the roots, it continues. Soon the tree became strong at first, and then sprouted flowering leaves, and the bird soon made their nest and sang in it. Feeding on the ripe fruits it bears and animals soon took shelters in it covering. ‘Only action makes it work’.
·    A bird had an accident and he was injured, lose a wing. Thus, couldn’t fly anymore. He saw the younger birds flying, singing happily, he missed those good days he could do the same and even more, he’d fly far away forget its problem, fed on long, big tree’s fruits…
He said to itself; ‘one day I will fly again’.

A LIVING ROCK

      At opportune time Jesus tested his disciples with a crucial question: ‘who do the people say that I am and who do you say that I am?’ (Mt 16:13). Jesus was widely recognized in Israel as a mighty man of God, even being compared with the greatest of the prophets, John the Baptist, and Jeremiah, peter, always quick to respond, exclaimed that Jesus was the Christ, the son of the living God.
The gift of faith
What enable peter to recognize that Jesus was more than a man of flesh and blood? Through the gift of faith, peter recognized that Jesus was the ‘Anointed One’ – called the messiah in Hebrew and the Christ in Greek – and the only begotten Son except through the gift of revelation which God gives to those who seek him. Jesus then conferred on peter authority to govern the church that Jesus would build, a church that no powers could overcome. Jesus played on peter’s name which is the same word for ‘rock’ in both Arabic and Greek.
Spiritual rock and living stones
To call someone a ‘rock’ is one of the greatest of compliments. The ancient rabbis had a saying that when God saw Abraham, he exclaimed: ‘I have discovered a rock to found the world upon. ‘Abraham put his trust in God and made God’s word the foundation of his life and the bedrock of his faith. Through Abraham, God established a nation for himself. Through faith, peter grasped who Jesus truly was. He was the first apostle to proclaim the Jesus was truly the Anointed One and the only begotten son of God.
Church as a spiritual house
The New Testament describes the church, the people of God, as a spiritual house and temple of the Holy Spirit with each member joined as living stones (1Pet 2:5). That means that each member of the church is a living stone. This is because faith in Jesus Christ makes us into rocks – spiritual stones. The lord Jesus tests each of us personally with the same question: who do you say that I am? Let us end this quote from Epiphanius the Latin, 5th century AD church father; did the lord not know what people called him? But questioning he brought forth the conviction of the apostle peter and left for us in the future a strong affirmation of faith. For the lord questioned not only peter but all the apostles when he asked, ‘who do people say that I am? Yet one on behalf of all answered the king, who is in due time to judge the whole world. He is God, both God and man. How miserable does this make those who are false teachers and strangers now, and to be judged in eternity. If Christ is the Son of God. By all means he is also God. If he is not God, he is not the Son of God. But since he himself is the Son, and as the Son takes up all things from the father, let us hold this same one inseparably in our heart because there is no one who escapes his hand.’ May God strengthen your faith in him and grant you all the blessings you need to drew you closer
Shalom!

THE FIRST AND LAST

The house of Israel is the vine of God - who planted and watered it, preparing the Israelites to bear fruits of righteousness (Isaiah 5:7; 2-5). Israel failed to yield good fruits and the lord allowed his vineyard, Israel’s kingdom, to be overrun by conquerors (psalm 80:9-20). But God promise that one day he would replant his vineyard and its shoots would blossom to the end of the earth (Amos 9:15; Hosea 14:5-10).
This is the biblical backdrop to Jesus’ parable of salvation history in today’s Gospel. The landowner is God. The vineyard is the kingdom. The workers hired at down are the Israelite’s, to whom he first offered his covenant. Those hired later in the day are the gentiles, the non-Israelites, who, until the coming of Christ, were strangers to the covenants of promise (Ephesians 2:11-13). In the lord’s great generosity, the same wages, the same blessings promised to the first called, the Israelites, will be paid to those called last, the rest of the nations.
This provokes grumbling; doesn’t the complaint of those first laborers sound like that of the older brother in Jesus’ parable (Luke 15:29-30)? God’s ways, however, are far from our ways.
Like the gentiles, many will be allowed to enter the kingdom late- after having spent most of their days idling in sin. But even these call upon him near, as we sing in psalm. We should rejoice that God has compassion on all whom he has created. This should console us, too, especially if we have loved ones who remain far from the vineyard.
Our task is to continue laboring in his vineyard. As Paul says; let us conduct ourselves worthily, struggling to bring all men and women to the praise of his name amen.
REV FR. CYRIL UDOM, OCD

THE MEANING OF ‘LAST SHALL BE FIRST’ (MT 20:1-16)

If you read the passage with the intervention of the Holy Ghost, then you would see things others couldn’t see, and understand what others couldn’t understand. Especially the meaning of ‘last shall be first’.
 Three set of workers were used by Christ. The first set of workers who had started working since morning they were hired, by the vine owner. This first set represents those who have been in right with God almighty, right from the beginning (the Israelites). They have not hesitated, or ignore the call to work in God’s vine yard.
The second set are those, though were not in right with God right from the start, but were later called. And they too, obeyed.
The last set, were those who had gone round wasting their time, they did not hear or accept the truth or acknowledged Christ Jesus to be their God, and source of  everything that is good. Doing all such of immoral things, and soon realized that, they have been wasting their time (the gentiles). He said to then why are you there wasting your time, anything that is outside God is really a waste of time. But God is always waiting to welcome anyone who wants to surrender to him. And he gave them also the right to be called sons and children of God.
The vine yard, is the service of God. We are all called to honour.
The copper coin is the wage or gift of God to those who work in his vine yard which is eternal life’. Whether big or small, insofar we are right with God, on that last day it is eternal life. This ideal really sounds unfair to the first set, forgetting that there is nothing better than eternal life of God. Only the best God gives. It was a bargain that a day’s job is a copper coin. We are told that God is not happy seeing sinners perishing, he would rather like to see them repent and be saved (EZ 18:23). He is compassionate, we too should be. We should be happy to see sinners repent. The principle is this: if a righteous man stops doing good, and starts doing evil. God said in his word that none of his good will be remembered (EZ 18:24). Also if a sinner stops doing evil and does what is right he will saved (EZ 18:21). Note, the ending is better than the beginning. This since very unfair to the first workers, (the Israelites) and the complained bitterly that isn’t right (EZ 18:25-32). One thing we should all know as true follower of Christ is that as the scripture says: the way of God is not the way of man (). As far as the heaven from the earth, is God’s thought from man’s.
Most Christians would rather be jealous, and envy than to rejoice and celebrate when a lost ship (sinners) is found by the owner (creator). Some always criticized and condemn, doing the work of God, Christ Jesus is and he alone should be the judge. Christ say to such people; be there criticizing while the so called prostitutes and thieves are making their way to heaven.
We are all on the same move but different routes, so let’s help one another to get there. You have nothing to lose only something to gain. God bless you as you always do what is right Amen!
STEPHEN OMERE

SOCRATES GREAT PHILOSOPHER (427-399 BC)

He was the teacher of Plato and was born in Athens. He was a moral teacher and sought truth by asking questions. He enriched science with the tools of universal definitions and inductive reasoning.
SOME OF HIS QUOTES:
·    Worthless people live only to eat and drink, people of worth eat and drink only to live.
·    The greatest way to live with honour in this world is to be what is to be what you pretend to be.
·    The way to gain a good reputation is to Endeavour to be what you desire to appear.
·    True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand life. Ourselves and the world around us.
·    It is not living that matters but living rightly.
·    Let him that will move the world first move himself.
·    An honest man is always a child.

LOVE TEXT

·    You got all a man needs in a woman, if you don’t have it then it doesn’t exist.
·    I never realize how much I love till I missed you.
·    I need a woman who can tell what I am thinking when I think of love, with good sense of judgment and virtues. You are such a woman and I will be my best to you.
·    I’m glad that I made you feel glad.
·    You have more than a thousand things I love.
·    I’d give everything just to hug and kiss you, for as long as I have you I have nothing to lose.
·    Your warmth skin is good for my body. You are good for my health.
·    You’re the brightest side of love. There is always more about you.
·    You are my queen, I adore you and I am glad that I make you feel glad.
·     You are a sunny sky. A sky full of birds and a sky full of stars.
·    My love will always stay alive and awake for you.
·    You are my sweetest reality.
·    Your love is better than red wine, and close to you, is close to happiness.
·    Your love has imprisoned me, and I love the prison.
·    Please tell me, am I enchanted? I yes, please don’t let it fade.

by stephen omere

HERNIA

Hernia occurs in an individual when part of the intestines pushes through the wall of the abdomen and appears as a bulge at the site. There are many sites where hernia can occur, although the commonly encountered type is that found in the groin. This type of hernia is known as femoral or inguinal hernia. Hernia may occur on the navel of near it. The hernia which occurs on the navel is called umbilical hernia, while that which occurs close to it is known as paraumbilical hernia.  These two types of hernia are less common than the femoral type. Sometimes, hernia occurs at former sites of operation on the abdomen, particularly where the operation wound was not well closed or the wound did not heal properly. This type of hernia is called incisional hernia.
Groin hernia occurs more commonly in males, but can also occurs in females in o few cases, in this kind of hernia, there is a weakness in the abdominal wall in the groin region about midway across the groin. It may appears on the either side or, sometimes, on both sides.
SIGNS:
The early signs are swelling in the groin which initially may not be noticeable but, later on, the bulge starts to grow in size and becomes quite conspicuous. A good check is to give a deep cough and the swelling will increase in size. In some cases, especially in males, the protrusion may move into the scrotum.
As the swelling increase, initially, it can be pushed back manually into the body. Later on, it gets bigger still and lies almost permanently outside the body, especially when the patient stand up, but if the patient lies on his back this complications later on. These complications, which often give rise to pain, usually include obstruction and strangulation. In obstruction, the bulge refuses to be pushed back. In this state, the intestines are blocked and the passage of food is prevented. If this persists, the blood supply to the trapped intestine is cut off. This blocking of the intestines causes swelling in the abdomen. The patient wriggles in pain and May, at this stage, vomits. In such cases becomes an emergency which must be promptly attended to in hospitals by surgeons.
TREATMENT:
In some cases of obstruction, the bulge can be pushed back successfully and a surgical operation can be arranged later for the patient. Obstruction which cannot be pushed back requires an immediate surgical operation called herniorrhaphy. Herniorrhaphy may involve the repair of the weak abdominal walls, or the cutting off and the removal of the damaged parts of the intestines. It is important that the operation is carried out by a trained surgeon. Once a hernia is recognized, surgical repair should be arranged to avoid complications.
CAUSE IN CHILDREN:   
Children also suffer from groin hernia. Groin hernia in children is usually due to a hole in the abdomen which ought to have closed at birth but did not. In such cases the intestines protrude into the scrotum.
The only effective treatment for all cases of hernia is surgical operation.

DIABETES

More than one million people in the United States have type 1diabetes mellitus, according to the Nation institute of Diabetes and digestive and kidney diseases (NIDDK)
BACK GROUND
This type of diabetes, also known as juvenile –onset or insulin-dependent diabetes, develops when the pancreas does not produce enough of the hormone insulin. Insulin helps transport sugar to the body’s cell; without it, dangerously high levels of sugar remain in the bloodstream, and cells are starved of energy. To control their disease, Type 1 diabetics typically test their blood-sugar levels and inject insulin once or twice a day. Even with this treatment, however, many diabetics develop blindness and suffer vascular damage that results in amputations, and thousands more die each year from other complications of the disease such as kidney failure, heart disease, and stroke.
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
A 10- year study conducted by the NIDDK has shown that diabetics can significantly reduce their risk of long-term complications by monitoring their blood sugar and injection insulin more frequently. The study compared the conventional treatment method with an ‘intensive’ program in which patients received three to four insulin injections a day doses were adjusted according to a patient’s daily diet, exercise, and blood sugar, which was tested at least four times a day.
Among the study’s 1, 4441 participants, those who followed the intensive protocol showed greatly improved control of their blood sugar. As a result, diabetic eye disease decreased by 76 percent, and the progression of eye disease in patients who were already afflicted was slowed.
However, patients following the intensive protocol were also more likely to suffer episodes of low blood sugar if they failed to comply with recommendation, concerning diet and exercise. Most experts agree that full compliance would eliminate the increased risk of hypoglycemia. According to Phillip Gorden, M.D., director of the NIDDK, the intensive treatment program might be appropriate for Type 11 diabetics as well. Although the cause of this ‘adult onset’ diabetes is unknown, about a third of the 13 million Americans who have it also take insulin.

THE MYSTERY OF BUTTERFLY

In order to reduce mankind’s dependence on fossil fuel, scientists are eager to improve the light-harvesting efficiency of solar collectors. ‘The solution to this problem, ‘said a scientist’ may have been… fluttering right in front of our eyes.’
Facts: to keep themselves warm during cold weather, butterflies spread their wing in the sun. The wings of some species of swallowtail are remarkably efficient at trapping and absorbing sunlight. The insect’ secret lies not just in their dark pigment but also in the structure of microscopic, overlapping scales coating their wings. The scales, in turn, contain rows of honeycomb like holes separated in inverse v-shape ridges that funnel light into the holes. This ingenious traps incoming sunlight, making the wing to be extremely black and warming with amazing efficiency.
‘butterfly wings may rank among the most delicate structure in nature, ‘says science daily‘, but they have given researchers powerful inspiration for a new technology that doubles the production of hydrogen gas-a green fuel of the future from water and sunlight. ‘Other promising applications include optical instrument and solar cells. Also scales of the butterfly’s wing have honeycomb like holes.  

THE SECRET OF WIDOWHOOD

Widowhood, which in many studies women feared even more than an illness that might cause their own deaths, was also ‘surprising’ in its actual effects on women compared to men. When Helena Lopata started her ground- breaking study of Chicago windows of that generation had many ’complaints’ about the problems of widowhood: ‘a feeling of incompetence and incompleteness as persons, being shunned by others and experiences of strain in social interaction…’ But, - after the ‘initial grief work is completed’- the overwhelming majority became ‘more independent and competent now than while their husbands where living’ (63 percent); in addition, many became ‘freer and more active’ (47 percent). Lopata concluded: the overwhelming proportion of widows who recognize or admit change in their personalities, previously restricted or limited as a result of marriage. This does not mean necessarily that they had bad marriages, as these are the very same individuals who list loneliness, rather than money or other troubles, as the worst problem of widowhood and miss their husbands most as a person or a partner, rather than as a breadwinner.
New research has revealed that older women ‘adjust’ to the death of a spouse and, with whatever grief or pain, move on to new strengths afterward, with less apparent difficulty than younger women- and than men at any age. It is striking that if a man’s wife dies, he is much more likely to become sick and die himself within the next two years, from any number of diseases, than other men at his age. This vulnerability disappears only if he remarries- or after he survives five years alone. No such drastic toll on women’s lives takes place with widowhood, whether or not they remarry.  ­­­­

WHY WOMEN AGE LONGER AND BETTER THAN MEN

At the turn of the century, life expectancy for both men and women was roughly the same-45 years for men, one year more for women. By 1930, deaths of women in childbearing had been basically eliminated, but the age gap between women and men at death continued to increase-by 1950 it was five years; now it is eight. If this trend continues, it is estimated that by 2020 there will be a 12-year difference in the life expectancy of women and men. The difference is so striking that one wonders why there hasn’t been a major public outcry as to why men are dying younger than women.
Sex difference were until recently ‘expected and unquestioned in all aspect of life,’ gerontologist Lois Verbrugge has pointed out. Statistics revealed such differences increasing over the century but were taken for granted ‘and not given further scrutiny.’
At first there seemed to be a contradiction in these statistics- men die younger, but women report more illnesses, thus, women appear sicker in the short run, but are less likely to die when ill. Further, women are ‘much more active in personal hygiene or health care.’ The fact that women seemed to get sick more often actually hid a basic and increasing male disadvantage. Examining mortality data from the National Centre for Health Statistics (1958-72), Verbrugge found that all causes of death combined, female rates were only 56 to 64 percent of male rates. Males showed increasingly higher death rates than females for most leading causes of death period 1958-72-heart diseases, cancer, cardiovascular problems, accidents, pneumonia, arterioscleroses, which women once seemed to suffer more frequently, now render a far higher number of men unable to carry on major activities. The difference widens for every successive age group-some 28 percent of all men 65 and over were so disabled that they could not do strenuous work of any kind, compared to only eight percent of women were diagnosed more often for cancer. Evidently women are more likely to report symptoms of cancer and hypertension in time for them to be treated.
Lately, psychologists have been investigating why women seem to report more illnesses and go to doctors. They speculate that women are more sensitive to changed in their own health and body signals, that women may be more willing than men to report illness, that girls are more socialized than boys to take caring measures when ill, and that women have more flexible roles and fewer time constraints than men. Even in conditions where women seem to report more sickness, their strikingly lower mortality rates highlight a worsening situation for men. However, until 1970, women certainly seemed certainly sicker than men. Some of that evident sickness was surely caused by women’s narrow sex role and inequality. In famous essay written in the 1940s, the eminent anthropologist Ruth Benedict blamed women’s greater psychological impairment on the discontinuities of women’s lives. A girl grows up going to school, playing games with boys, competing for good grades. She goes to college, starts a job, and abruptly, in her twenties, has to put ambition aside for the isolation of her own home and her role as wife and mother. And then suddenly, at 45 or 50, her role is finished as she experience menopause and the ‘empty nest.’ It was not really questioned, during those years, why a great preponderance of beds in mental hospitals were filled with women suffering ‘involutional melancholia.’
But the studies done since the 1960s on women aging in America are full of new contradictions, paradoxes-surprises. In the years that women have been breaking through the feminine mystique. They have apparently stopped suffering a lot of those symptoms of impaired mental health and even physical distress that obscured their survivors’ strengths. In fact, the actual experience of women in the last 25 years who continued developing after their childbearing years has defiled the expected traumas of empty nest, menopause, even widowhood.
For example, when researchers went researchers when back 20 years has later to follow up the groundbreaking Midtown Manhattan Longitudinal Study, originally done in 1954, they were surprised to discover that mental health of women had shown increase impairment each decade after 20, and drastic decline after 40, compared to men. In the later years, the percentage of women suffering Impaired mental health after 40 had been cut more than half-from 21 to eight percent-whereas men’s impaired at nine percent.
In the 1980s, Resalind Barnett and Grace Baruch of the Wellesley Centre for research on women compared women aged35 to 55 in all sorts of compared combinations of roles and found, instead of the expected decline of mental health with age, that most great women experienced a sense of resurgence, of revitalization, a new self and sense-worth in midlife that gave them confidence. By the 1980s, what asked about age, these women, at 55, said, ‘well, I’ve lived through all this change and my life is so much better now, so the next change is not a great fear for me. Why should I be afraid of it?’
The entrance of increasing millions-by now a majority-of women into jobs and professions and decision-making roles in society was, of course, the most striking of the last 25 years. But in the national studies, housewives as well as working women experienced the same dramatic improvement in mental health after mid-life. In the Baruch and Barnett study. I was struck by the fact that the sense of self-worth and openness  to change was found most strongly not among lifelong professional women with the highest status, but among women who combined marriage, motherhood, and work were in the greatest state of psychological well being. The combination seemed to give them greater control over and more pleasure in their lives, buffering the more burdensome part of either role.

ARISTOTLE A GREAT PHILOSOPHER (384-322 BC)

He was the most accomplished of Plato’s pupils. He was born at Stagira in Macedonia. He was a tutor of Alexander the Great. He wrote books on almost all the areas of knowledge – biology, botany, anatomy, physics, metaphysics, astronomy, mathematics, logic, economics, politics, psychology, etc. His influence on subsequent development of science and philosophy was enormous. In particular, his views on physics and astronomy controlled the view. Most men had of the universe for two thousand years.
Howe ever, to him, the proper means of investigation was observation.
In conclusion, Greek science was said to be more of a speculative and theoretical activity rather than experimental and practical.

SOME OF HIS QUOTES ARE:
·    Men are good in one way but bad in many ways.
·    Of in the varieties of virtues liberalism is the most beloved.
·    Youth are easily deceived because they are quick to hope.
·    What lies in our power to do, lies in our power not to do.
·    We make war that we may live in peace.
·    Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference.

               

WAYS TO REWARD CHILDREN-WITH NO COST

Hugs, kisses, and compliments are worth more than anything money can buy.
It’s easy to reach for cash or candy to honour a child for a good grade or extra effort. But it may leave your young achiever shortchanged or overloaded on sugar.
Educators say some of the sweetest incentives don’t cost a cent-but keep paying off for years. Instead of material prizes or presents, consider hugs or pats on the extra attention. Reading together is a great gift you don’t have to wrap, not only because it brings you close to your child but because studies show it kindles interest in books. Give compliment face to face, or say good things about your child to others-loud enough so he or she can hear.
Find rewards that show how learning itself can be rewarding, says Sara Wilford, M.Ed., director of the Sarah Lawrence College early childhood. Development center in Bronxville, N.Y. if the child has finished a history report, Wilford suggests going to a museum together-a kind of intellectual dessert. Throw testimonial dinners for children as a fun reward the whole family will enjoy.
Rebecca Simmons, Ed.D, a research associate at project Zero at Harvard Graduate school of Education, suggests a once-a-month pizza celebration to mark success. ‘Maybe one child was able to be a ‘hot shot’ in maths’ to deserve special attention around the family table. Simmons says. It’s important for children to enjoy the satisfaction of achieving goals they set for themselves.





   

SMOKING IS A RELENTLESS KILLER

SMOKING A GLOBAL EPIDEMIC
Authorities estimate that if current trends persist, by 2030, the annual death toll smoking will climb to more than 8,000,000. And they predict that smoking will have taken 1,000,000,000 lives by the end of the 21st century.
Tobacco’s victims are not just the smokers. Included are the surviving family members, who suffer emotional and financial loss, as well as the 600,000, nonsmokers who die each year from breathing secondhand smoke. The burden spreads to everyone in the form of rising healthcare costs.
Unlike epidemics that send doctors racing to discover a cure, this scourge is eminently curable; the solution is well-known. Dr. Margaret Chan, director-stated: ‘the tobacco epidemic is entirely man-made, and it can be turned around through the concerted efforts of governments and civil society’.
International response to combat this health crisis has been unprecedented. As of august 2012, some 175 countries have agreed to take measures to curb tobacco use. This measure include educating people about the dangers of smoking, resting tobacco-industry marking, raising tobacco taxes, and establishing programs to help people quit smoking.  However, powerful forces keep the pandemic raging. Each year, the tobacco industry spends billions of dollars on advertising to attract new customers, especially among women and young adults living in the developing countries. The addictive keep many trapped in a habit they wish they could break. That was the experiences of a young lady named ‘Laura blit’ copying the way the habit was portrayed in the media made her feel sophisticated. Despite seeing both of her parents died from lung cancer, she continued smoking, even while raising her two children. ‘I was concerned about getting lung cancer and worried about my children’s health’. She admits, ‘but I still couldn’t quit. I thought I would never stop smoking’.
Yet she could stop. She found the motivation to overcome her smoking habit in the same source that has helped millions remain free of tobacco. Laura Blit first made up her mind that wants to stop it, this first step is crucial. Then she made her move, by relying in the one person that never fails ‘God’. If you let him in he won’t disappoints you, I promise you.
SMOKING IS ADDICTIVE
Tobacco contains one of the most addictive drugs known-nicotine. It acts as a stimulant as well as a depressant. Smoking delivers nicotine to the brain quickly and repeatedly. Since each puff supplies a single doses a day, a higher dosage than in any other drug use. Such frequent dosing makes nicotine uniquely addictive. Once hooked, a smoker experiences withdrawal symptoms if his craving for nicotine is not satisfied.
The Bible helps us to have the correct view of the matter when it says: ’do you not know that if you present yourself to anymore as obedient slave, you are slaves of the one you obey’ (Romans 6:16) when an individual’s thinking and actions are dominated by a craving for tobacco, he soon becomes a slave to a degrading practice. However, God wants us to be free, not only from things that harm our body but also from those that corrupt our spirit, that is, our dominate mental inclination. (psalm 83:18; 2 Corinthians 7:1) thus, a person grows in appreciation and respect for God, realizes that God deserves his best and that he cannot give God his best while remaining enslaved to a lethal habit. That realization helps to give a person the will to resist hurtful desires.
SMOKING DAMAGES THE BODY
‘Smoking cigarettes . . . has been scientifically proven to harm nearly every organ in the body and to increase morbidity,’ says the tobacco atlas. It is well-known that smoking causes noncommunicable diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and lung ailments. But according to the world health organization (WHO), smoking is also a major cause of death from communicable disease, such as tuberculosis. God wants us to treat our body with respect; the desire to please God should motivate you to quit smoking.
SMOKING HARMS OTHERS
Exhaled smoke and smoke that comes from smoldering tobacco are toxic. Inhaling such secondhand smoke can cause cancer and other disease, and each year it kills 600, 00 non-smokers, mostly women and children, avoid where people smoke it is as deadly as a poison.
A report by the WHO warns: ‘there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke’.
QUICK SCARING FACTS ABOUT SMOKING
It killed 100,000,000 people during the last century.
It takes about 6,000,000 lives a year.
On average, it kills one person every six seconds.
It kills slowly by passing nicotine to the victim’s system, thus. Exposes you to all kinds of disease.

   

THE CROSS: OUR SALVATION AND LIFE

Many are people are repelled by the cross. This is because such people see the cross as a means of punishment, rejection suffering, the fruitfulness and the riches that the cross reveals. Blinded by their wrong conception of the cross, they see only the pain and the weight of the cross but not the salvation, the means and hope of salvation. The cross is Christ’s glory. As we celebrate the exaltation of the cross, we are raised up with the crucified one, who promised: ‘and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself’ (John 12:32). Jesus fulfills this promise by drawing us to the cross, where he is the priest, prophet and king. With Jesus on the cross, ‘we are more the conqueror’s (Rom 8:37); we are ‘triumphant and victorious’ (Ps 118:15); we leave behind sin and death. It more precious than anything on earth, in fact it is indeed a treasure, for in it and through it and for it, all the riches of our salvation are restored to us.’
The church, our redemption, our forgiveness of sin, the destruction of the power of hell (Satan) are but some of the fruit and effect of the cross of Christ. That is to say that participating in the sacraments and in programs and activity of the church is to participate in the power of the cross of Christ: The sources of life of the church. That is why we can confidently say: ‘no cross: no crown, no salvation, no redemption, no love, no peace, no prosperity, no hope, ‘therefore, we are not ashamed of the cross, or rather. We , who know the power of the cross and believe in it, have reason to celebrate it, exalt it, embrace it, wear or carry it on our body, and sign or bless ourselves with the sign of the cross.
God told Moses to ‘make a fiery serpent’ so that those bitten out of their stubbornness of heart and disobedience and ‘looks at it’ (Num 21:8) would be saved. Looking at the cross or beholding the wood of cross on which hung the savior or the world (as we do on Good Friday) is to contemplate on the beauty and vicarious nature of the cross. He offers us his body, which is the fruit of the cross, to eat, as our spiritual food. He also offers us his blood, to drink as our spiritual drink. Jesus clearly linked Moses’ act of deliverance in the wilderness which only resulted in temporary relief for the people, Jesus ‘ atoning death on the cross brought decisive victory over sin, Satan, and death. Jesus victory in the cross cancels the debt of our sin, and releases us from guilt and condemnation. In the church, we use the cross in different ways, it is used as a form of prayer and for blessing people and objects. As a form of devotion, people devoutly kiss it. Making the sign of the cross is an utmost sign of our faith in the cross of Christ. Kissing the cross is a holy act that has worked innumerable miracles in the lives of those who practice it. Many sick people have received their healing and comfort from the lord. People bless themselves by making the ‘sign of the cross’ at times with holy water. At mass, the ‘small sign of the cross’ is made in which a small cross is traced with the thumb on the forehead, the lips, and the breast of the individual while whispering the words: may Christ be in my mind, on my lips, and in my heart’
May God help us to understand the meaning of the cross.
Shalom