Cleric calls on Christians to be spiritually charged as SSP Catholic Church celebrates Advent

Last Sunday service at the Society of St match. Obawole Estate, Iju, Lagos, will remain memorable in the minds of worshippers and visitors as the Church celebrated its New year (Advent) with funfair.

Aside, the youths also marked the advent with a Trade fair where they showcased their skills while the adult thrilled spectators with a novelty match .

During the homily, Rev. Fr. Gerald Tanko, told the congregation to be ready to welcome Jesus as he would be born soon with pure hearts and absolute submission to the commandment of God.

Fr. Tanko said : ” Jesus Christ came about 200O years ago and he is coming back again ,but we have to welcome him with clear hearts and we must be spiritually charged. As the Catholic church is celebrating the Advent , I wish you a happy New year .

I know that some visitors may not understand why I am wishing you a happy new year ,but as Catholics , we have entered the new year as the liturgical calendar stipulates.

” Jesus is coming the second time , but no one knows the hour. Prophet Jeremiah had spoken that God would raise an offshoot from the house of David. Jeremiah witnessed the ruins of Jerusalem, the atrocities in the city and the destruction of the temple by the Babylonians.

Despite the havoc, Jeremiah gave the people hope. He told them not to be discouraged as God would raise a righteous branch from the house of David that would repair and fix Jerusalem. Just like the city of Jerusalem, Nigeria is in both political and economic ruin. people are going through pains . some people are anticipating to commit suicide.

Food stuff prices are skyrocketing beyond understanding and nothing seems to be moving on. The Lord is telling Nigerians to be patient as he is coming soon . Jesu is telling us that we should not be afraid .He is telling us that when he comes ,he is going to end corruption and wickedness .

But while waiting for his second coming ,we have to live a righteous life ; shun drunkenness and dissipation. Stop drinking with recklessness . You have to be prepared so that he will not meet you unawares.

You must live right . Watch and pray because you don’t know what will happen the next minute .Old people die and young people die too . We should not waste time in too much eating and drinking .

We should be prayerful at all times . I am not saying that you should hide under laziness. You should not cover laziness with prayers. I am not saying that on week days ,you should be praying in the Church instead of your work places .

Take care of your family while we expect Jesus. You have keep your family in order.A family that prays together in pure heart is ready to welcome Jesus “.

On her part , St Paul’s youth Coordinator, Mrs. Chinyere Chibundu, who is also in charge of Informed and Focused Youths ( IFY ), explained that the Youth Fair was put together by the youths and herself two years ago to showcase talents among the youths.

The society is full of-of many confused youths who don’t know where their destination

is . The youths don’t even know who they are. The social media rules their mindset. We decided to disabuse their minds from felling hopeless and make them understand that they have talent .We are able to prepare the things we are selling today in this fair with the money Rev Father Jikson and few individuals gave us last year. The is the second fair and the money we raised today will be used in the 2019 Youth Fair.

” Our youths are focused. The future of youths in this church is bright. We have talents .We created a WhatsApp group where we discuss trending issues in the social media and I am very happy with their response to issues. We have discussed over 40 topical issues.

We have discussed ponography , suicide ,security , cohabitation before marriage , sexual abuse , sexual harassment on campuses etc. We have talked extensively on such issues as formication under the guise of live -in- lovers on campuses .

We talked about pornography the implication of unwanted pregnancy and abortion. our youths are well informed and we are doing more to keep them learning. We are really doing wonderfully well trying to guide our youths in the right direction .

I want to thank Rev. Fr. Jikson , our parents and all those who contributed to make the Youth Fair a huge success. On behalf of the youths, I assure that next year’s fair will be better ”
The activities ended with a novelty match which had the Arsenal team as the pornography