POPE TO BUHARI : STOP THE KILLINGS IN NIGERIA

Pope Francis has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure the safety of all Nigerian citizens.

Speaking at Wednesday’s general audience at the Vatican City, the Pope condemned the insecurity in northern Nigeria and expressed solidarity with Nigerians over the killings in Kaduna state at the weekend.

On Sunday, bandits attacked Madamai and Abun communities in Kaura LGA of Kaduna state, killing 34 residents.

Eight people sustained injuries during the attack while about 20 houses were said to have been burnt by the bandits.

The Pope prayed for those who lost their lives in the attack and said he hoped the safety of citizens will be guaranteed.

“I learnt with pain the news of the armed attacks that took place last Sunday against the villages of Madamai Abun in Northern Nigeria,” he said.

“I pray for those who have died, for the injured and for the entire Nigerian population. I hope that the country always guarantees the safety of all its citizens.”

The Pope has in recent times condemned abductions and attacks in Nigeria.

In February, he condemned the kidnapping of more than 300 students of Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe in Talata-Mafara local government area of Zamfara state, which he described as “vile”.

THE STORY OF THE NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.

 

 

The Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary
by Giotto, in the Scrovegni Chapel
Padua, Italy (c. 1305)

 

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary,the Marymas or the Birth of the Virgin Mary, refers to a Christian feast day celebrating the birth of Mary, mother of Jesus.

The Catholic Church celebrates the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary on its traditional fixed date of September 8, nine months after the December 8 celebration of her Immaculate Conception as the child of Saints Joachim and Anne.

The circumstances of the Virgin Mary's infancy and early life are not directly recorded in the Bible, but other documents and traditions describing the circumstances of her birth are cited by some of the earliest Christian writers from the first centuries of the Church.

This work has no historical value, but it does reflect the development of Christian piety. According to this account, Anna and Joachim are infertile but pray for a child. They receive the promise of a child who will advance God’s plan of salvation for the world. Such a story, like many biblical counterparts, stresses the special presence of God in Mary’s life from the beginning.

These accounts, although not considered authoritative in the same manner as the Bible, outline some of the Church's traditional beliefs about the birth of Mary.

The “Protoevangelium of James,” which was probably put into its final written form in the early second century, describes Mary's father Joachim as a wealthy member of one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Joachim was deeply grieved, along with his wife Anne, by their childlessness. “He called to mind Abraham,” the early Christian writing says, “that in the last day God gave him a son Isaac.”

Joachim and Anne began to devote themselves extensively and rigorously to prayer and fasting, initially wondering whether their inability to conceive a child might signify God's displeasure with them.

As it turned out, however, the couple were to be blessed even more abundantly than Abraham and Sarah, as an angel revealed to Anne when he appeared to her and prophesied that all generations would honor their future child: “The Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth, and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world.”

After Mary's birth, according to the Protoevangelium of James, Anne “made a sanctuary” in the infant girl's room, and “allowed nothing common or unclean” on account of the special holiness of the child. The same writing records that when she was one year old, her father “made a great feast, and invited the priests, and the scribes, and the elders, and all the people of Israel.”

“And Joachim brought the child to the priests,” the account continues, “and they blessed her, saying: 'O God of our fathers, bless this child, and give her an everlasting name to be named in all generations' . . . And he brought her to the chief priests, and they blessed her, saying: 'O God most high, look upon this child, and bless her with the utmost blessing, which shall be for ever.'”

The protoevangelium goes on to describe how Mary's parents, along with the temple priests, subsequently decided that she would be offered to God as a consecrated Virgin for the rest of her life, and enter a chaste marriage with the carpenter Joseph.

Saint Augustine described the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary as an event of cosmic and historic significance, and an appropriate prelude to the birth of Jesus Christ. “She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley,” he said.

The fourth-century bishop, whose theology profoundly shaped the Western Church's understanding of sin and human nature, affirmed that “through her birth, the nature inherited from our first parents is changed."

SIX NUNS FROM THE SAME CONVENT DIE IN LESS THAN A WEEK

Photos of the six nuns from the same Brazilian convent who died within one week. Five died from COVID-19./ Facebook Congregación de las Hermanas Franciscanas de la Sagrada Familia de María

Six nuns from the convent of the Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Family of Mary congregation in Curitiba, Brazil, died in less than a week, five of them from COVID-19.

Other nuns at the convent also came down with the illness and some were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). Sister Madalena Ryndack of the Curitiba convent said that "with the prayers of many friends" the situation is gradually "returning to normal."

The Archdiocese of Curitiba published the death notices of the nuns.

On Aug. 28, Sr. Helena Glovacki, 95, and a sister for 74 years, passed away. On Aug. 29, Sr. Elizabeth Tartas, 94, who was in religious life for 64 years, died. The following day, Sr. Marieta Bet, 88, who spent 70 years in consecrated life, died. On Aug. 31, Sr. Sofía Culaves, 78, with 65 years as a nun, passed away.

On Sept. 2, Sr. Stella Albina Franzo died at the age of 87, with 65 years dedicated to consecrated life.

The one death not connected to COVID-19 was that of Sr. María Catarina da Silva, 70, with 46 years in religious life, who died on Sept. 1. According to the Franciscan Sisters, she had been in the ICU for 47 days with complications from a pituitary tumor, sepsis and kidney failure.

Sr. Madalena told ACI Digital, CNA’s Portuguese language news partner, that "these days were very difficult,” for the congregation “with the sisters dying, the funerals, others in isolation."

The nun said the sisters don’t know how the virus got into the convent. "There was an outbreak, an almost uncontrollable situation, but we managed to take care of the sisters and we are coming out of this situation," she said. She also said that all the nuns who died from COVID-19 in recent days were elderly and had "health conditions."

According to her, some sisters with COVID-19 who were put into isolation are already finishing their quarantine and of those who were hospitalized, only one is still in the ICU. "Another two are in the ward and one may yet be discharged today (Sept. 3)," she said.

The nun said that during these recent trying days, they “felt very strongly the unity of our congregation. Many sisters came to help, sending already prepared meals. All of this gets us back on our feet and makes us believe more and more in the consecrated life and that God does not abandon us,” she said.