All posts tagged: easter

Things To Give Up This Lent: A List of Ideas

Published by Osemhen

We interrupt our regular “Blessed Are The Merciful” series to bring you this Lenten edition. 😀 So Lent begins officially on Wednesday. That’s tomorrow. Traditionally, these 40 days before Easter are dedicated to fasting, alms giving and prayer. The model is Christ’s example; he spent 40 days in the wilderness fasting and praying. Most people remember the fasting; not everyone remembers giving alms and using the season to deepen our prayer life. And when we say fasting, people automatically think of food. Then there are all the various modes of fasting as practiced by the various denominations. 6am to 6pm fasting, one-large-meal per day fasting, dry fasting (no liquids, no food), one normal-sized meal per day and liquids (Milo, Lucozade etc.) to supplement… I could go on.    For clarity, these are the rules for fasting in the Catholic Church: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are prescribed days of fasting and abstinence (from the flesh of all animals except fish) for Catholics between the ages of 18 and 59. The ill, pregnant and nursing mothers …

An Easter Story

Published by Osemhen

 picture from www.cardiphonia.org He was dead. After three years of the most unbelievable miracles, of awakening hope in the hearts of the people, of bringing light to hearts darkened by sin and dispelling fear and despair. After everything…. He was dead. A most unbelievable fact. Rage, disappointment, grief and shame warred for prominence in Cephas’ heart. The Christ, the Messiah, dragged through Jerusalem like an animal, nailed to a tree like a common criminal. He who had woken from sleep to still a storm, he before whom demons cowered had stood in silence as his trial turned into the most abominable travesty. The very people who had rejoiced with palm branches and shouted hosanna as he rode into Jerusalem had cried out as one that he be crucified. Now he was dead, dead as the wood to which he had been nailed. Cephas looked round the room, filled to capacity with men who had given everything to be with the Man from Galilee. A gentle man whose hands had tickled children… and held a whip …

On Fela! and The Book Thief.

Published by Osemhen

First, FELA! Amazing. The dancing, the music, the sheer energy! Out of this world! The storyline itself, meh. But then again, I didn’t go to see Fela’s biography enacted. I went to see a Broadway production. And it was spectacular. The turn-out was lower than expected; I heard the play was shunned because peeps were miffed at the thought of a wholly American cast and (horror of horrors! *said in his pseudo-Nigerian accent*) an American/Haitian Fela. Haha! Please! Stop with the beef already. Why didn’t a Nigerian Director hit upon the idea? What stops a Nigerian from still producing a Fela play? Let’s face it: we let Fela die in our hearts, in our minds. He’s an international icon! They celebrate him, his music is taught in schools! And we, we rejected our prophet, reduced him to much less than a symbol. We forgot him and put him on the shelves, the back burner, the archives or wherever the hell it is we relegate our “heroes past”. It really is shameful that it took foreigners …