Beauty Without MakeUp

Do you spend hours every day in front of the mirror to look beautiful?

Many of us cannot even imagine our lives without make up. Yes, it is possible to be beautiful without makeup.

Frankly speaking, it is all about your insides and how well you look after yourself. Yes! You need to be mindful of essential aspects of YOUR DIET, YOUR HABIT, YOUR LIFE STYLE and YOUR SKIN CARE ROUTINE.

Some tips on how you can be beautiful naturally.

 Take care of your smile

Take care of your smile

Sometimes smiling makes one more beautiful. Beauty does not depend on makeup but how happy you are inside yourself. So, it is necessary to smile when appropriate. When you meet an Igbo girl, especially the beautiful and available one, and you make eye contact, the first thing you can easily grasp is a beautiful smile.. It is not being sexy, but being beautiful. In Nigeria Igbo land we call them Nwa Mammy Water, the Obanje woman   Some people prefer looking sexy instead of looking beautiful. There is a clear difference between beautiful and Sexy. Sexy is being hot. To tell someone that he is sexy means that he is hot, in other words he is dressing nude. This latest fashion now where people wear torn cloths showing their sensitive body parts. That is hot. Hell fire is hot but heaven is beautiful.

Drink enough water

Drink enough water 

The very act of eating good meal a day or one meal every other day and drinking enough water makes your beauty and appearance to shine more. You do not need make-up. You are already beautiful by nature. Get creative and make it in to a game to drink more water each day. Once you have brought more water into your life and drink it regularly, you can fine tune your routine. One way you can tell if your body is getting enough water is to check your urine. Remember not to drink too much water when you are traveling

Get regular hair trims

Get regular hair trims

Deal with those pesky pimples in the right way

Deal with those pesky pimples in the right way

Maintain good posture

Maintain good posture

 Engage in activities that makes you happy    

Frequent exercise contributes not only to a sense of well being but also to longevity

 Have a genuine love for everyone around you.

IZUNWAONU LOVES YOU

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart. 

One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood. ...

Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful. Thank you.

ADVENT PREPARATIONS! By Fr. Dr. Ben Agbo

Homily recipe for the 2nd Sunday of Advent, Yr B 2017 : ADVENT PREPARATIONS!
* Is 40 : 1 - 11, 2 Pet 3 : 8 - 14, Mk 1 : 1 - 8.

A. MESSAGE OF CONSOLATION
The 1st message of Advent is a message of consolation : 'Console my people, says your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem. Tell my people that their time of slavery is ended and their deliverance /redemption is at hand, that her guilt has been atoned for and from the hand of the Lord she has received double punishment for all her sins'. This message started during the time of Moses, Ex 3 : 7. According to the Expositor Bible Commentary, 'Your God' reminds us of the covenant term, Jer 31 : 31. 'Heart of Jerusalem reveals the new people of God that would emerge from the ashes of the old. 'Double punishment' is the hyperbole used to impress on the people that the chastisement of the exile was really over. And so, 'Like a Shepherd he feeds his flock and gathers the lambs in his arms... leading them home'. What a promise! Our failure to study our consolation theology has kept our flock scattered and vulnerable today.

B. MESSAGE OF PREPARATION
Jesus our redeemer cannot come if we don't prepare the way for him. We must do this in three ways ; (i) Filling all valleys - working on our spiritual weaknesses ; laziness in prayer, laziness in Bible study, etc. (ii) Levelling the mountains and cliffs - working on our pride and vain ambitions, selfishness, lustful tendencies, drunkenness, etc. (iii) Straightening the highway of the Lord - making our life more righteous and avoiding idolatry and hypocrisy.The baptism of repentance is presented as our 1st option calling us to take our own sacramental baptism more seriously (whether infant or adult) and not make it dysfunctional by our attitude to it. The baptism of the Holy Ghost is presented as the 2nd option. It is not a different sacrament but just a way of activating what was done before. We must take seriously our sacraments of confirmation, our revivals, retreats, life in the Spirit seminars, crusades, Pentecost Vigils, etc.

We are invited to the desert in today's gospel where we meet personalities like John the Baptist - a man of God who made straight the way for the Lord by his austere life, fierce preaching and his dying for the sake of the truth. John was no city dweller. He avoided the flashy cars, the comfort glassy houses and the soft and effeminate luxuries which kill the soul. As marketers of Christ's gospel today, we should also imitate the man who led the advance team for Christ through desert life, desert food and desert garment. Many a man comes today with a message which he himself denies but in the case of John, the man was the message and the message was the man and because of that, the people listened. John asked for nothing for himself but everything for the Christ whom he proclaimed.

Today, the message of deliverance has shifted from revival to removal ('mkpocha na nzacha' - where the man of God promises to do everything for us by himself). Our interest in 'Dibia pastors' (so called 'men of God' who minister exactly like the African 'dibias') has grown, thanks to Pentecostalism with its emphasis on private ministries. The consequence is that we hardly prepare the way for the Lord yet we want the Lord to come by fire by force.
* Story of a man who continued to search for his missing key in the Church while he knew that he left it at home. Reason : Because it is brighter there.

C. MESSAGE OF ANTICIPATION
We are waiting for what he promised us - 'the new heavens and new earth' - where righteousness and peace will be enthroned, 2 Pet 3 : 8 - 14. Pope John Paul II calls it 'the new civilization of love'. Friends, this is realizable on earth if we can all double our efforts in preparing the way for Christ in our various parishes. Catholics alone all over the world can work the magic.

D. CONCLUSION
'And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it', Is 40 : 5. Oh my God! I believe in this message and I can do anything to make its fulfilment come fast! Let us enthrone the spirit of sonship enabling us to call God 'Abba Father', because as as long as we are still under age and enslaved to the elemental principles of this world, we remain under obstruction, Gal 4 : 3.
Let us go to the desert and deal with our evil family foundations, Ezek 18 : 14. Our best preparation for Christ is through repentance for righteousness, Prov 14 : 34. The easiest aids to the desert life of prayer are ; (i) Simplicity through fasting and abstinence, (ii) Silence through withdrawal from noise and listening to the Word of God and (iii) Solitude through withdrawal from sin and spiritual distractions.
Our 2 major seasons of grace (Christmas and Easter) are periods of special outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They require preparation. Happy Sunday dear friends! Fr. Dr.  Ben Agbo

 

A wife from my village

A wife from my village by IZUNWAONU

            In our village we all had different behaviors, as different as the way we ran our lives. But there was one thing common to all: that was love for one another.  I was a close friend of one such man,  Emeka Joe. He was married with four children; three boys and a girl. His wife was doing well but that was a wife his parents found for him. That same evening I came back from Emeka Joe's house, I told my Mum to get me a wife.

            My Mum was very happy and she promised to get me a good wife. I was dedicated to marry  Adanna the girl my Mum suggested to me. She was a daughter of a teacher in a small village a little far from my house. My mother, as all the Igbo mothers, was very tender and concerned; she made sure she found a good wife for me.

            One Sunday evening Adanna visited us, she really dressed like a woman from my village. The last time I saw a young woman dressed as a woman was ten years ago when I was in St. James Primary School. As I never meet her without experiencing a heartfelt pleasure, I stayed and talked to her, leaning over the back of our chair at the sit out. After some time, she seemed a little confused, and ceased to answer me with her usual ease of manner. I was struck with it.             “Heavens!” I said to myself, “can she, too, be uneducated.

            I was engaged in observing her lip and did not notice that my Mum was at the end of the room whispering to her to be smiling. I sprang from my seat and approached her, she did not even notice my presence, until I knelt at her feet, took her hand and spoke some reassuring words to her.

            Being engaged in conversation, I did not notice the presence of my Mum, until I told her that she would be my wife. I was then first attracted by the picture of a lady's hand holding a plate of well cooked food, coming down to me, and on raising my eyes I almost discovered that the owner of the hand stood before me.

             When my Mum saw that I was interested, and series of investigation conducted, my Mum said to me,

             "A marriage is for life, for better or for worse. This is the person that you have to care for and spend the rest of your life with. We are not like the English where you can just leave your wife and marry someone else or divorce her. In our culture you always have to stay with your wife and look after her." Divorce was rare in my village. It was a big decision for one because it was going to be difficult for one to find another wife after the divorce.

            Then, when the bride price was to be paid, there was a ceremony in which we had fixed at Adanna's compound. Toward the evening that day, we set out for Adanna's house. I was sure she had already gotten everything prepared.

            I remembered the conversation I heard with her from the evening before and Adanna's words was echoing in my mind.

             "I love you, and I will be faithful to you."  

            "You know I love you very much, and if you will grant permission, I will do everything possible to go back to Europe with you." I said to her.

            Looking through the window of my car, I saw a young Lady standing near Almond tree at Ifekwo village square. I looked and looked at her, and I knew, as clearly as I know that I was not myself That I loved her more than anything I had ever seen or imagined on earth was what i said which I regretted. She was very sexy almost naked. She had on a pretty white perforated dress; her hair was curled; she looked as if she was waiting forsomebody.

            I asked my driver to stop then  went down to meet her. How she attracted me I could not explain. Without wasting any atom of time, I proposed to marry her but she started crying.

            "Please stop crying,"

            I said while I tried to catch my breath.

            "I hope I didn't hurt you."

            "No, you didn't hurt me," she told me, "at least not too bad. But where are we going? She asked.

            I looked up at her face then bit my tongue, searching for something else to say. I knew I was in big trouble, but then told her we were going nowhere.   

            "Do you think that you can pay for my bride- price?' She asked care-freely because she did not I thought she did not know me very well."

            "If I can't then I will borrow. I have many people who will be ready to lend to me, interest free.' I said in like manner.

            "It seems you're already intoxicated by alcohol. How on earth do you think you will pay my bride price from borrowing? Then after the payment I will follow you and starve to death simply because I want husband." She said.

            She was like "mamaiwota" and her appearance made me change direction. I told my driver to revise that we are no longer going to Adanna's house.

            I was sure Adanna was already waiting for us but I was not sure of what she did when she did not see us. I came home again telling my Mum that I have found another wife; a wife I did not know her name and where she came from.

            Prior to the day, I saw in my dream where.... To be continued

ADVENT SEASON : A PERIOD OF WATCHING AND WAITING! By Fr. Dr. Ben Agbo

Homily recipe for the 1st Sunday of Advent, Yr B : ADVENT SEASON : A PERIOD OF WATCHING AND WAITING!
*Is 63 : 16 - 64 : 8, 1 Cor 1 : 3 - 9, Mk 13 : 33 - 37.

 A. PREAMBLE
The early Christians had 4 allied conceptions of the end time that made them fearfully vigilant ; (1) . They dreaded the day of the Lord, Amos 5 : 18 - 20, Is 13 : 9, Joel 2 : 1, etc. (2) . The prophesied fall of Jerusalem that finally happened in 70 Ad, Lk 21 : 5 - 11. (3) . The 2nd coming of Christ, 1 Thess 4 : 16 & 5 : (4) . The idea of impending persecution / martyrdom, Mk 13 : 9. The summary of the Church's escatological teachings is the imminent coming of the end (the time is irrelevant) and the ultimate reign of Christ (destruction of the Satanic systems of evil, Rev 18 - The fall of Babylon the great city, the famous prostitute who corrupted the earth with her fornication) and the reward of good and evil, Matt 25 : 31 - 46.

 

B. THE THEOLOGY OF WATCHING AND WAITING
With this background, today's gospel says : 'Be on your guard, stay awake because you do not know the time the Master of the house is coming'. In the parable of the foolish virgins, Matt 25 : 1 - 11, we take note that what made them foolish was not lack of knowledge but lack of vigilance. Vigilance is the first and the last word of the Church. The Church teaches us to be watching and waiting always because we do not know when the Master is coming so that he does not find us asleep (in mortal sin) .
In the theology of watching and waiting, we speak of the following dimensions ; (1) Watching in vigilance, Matt 25 : 1-20 , (2) Waiting in communion, 1 Cor 1: 2 - 9 - You will not be without the gift of the Spirit while you are waiting for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed and he will keep you steady without blame (purity) , 1 Thess 5 : 4 - 8. (3) Waiting in perseverance, Rom 5 : 1 - 4.

 

C. CONTEXUALIZATION
Ours is a society where patience /ability to wait has become the scarcest commodity in the market place of virtues. Check our banks and see impatience ; Look at our traffic and see rush ; Our young girls can no longer wait for husbands ; Our young men no longer wait to gradually make their money ; Our students can no longer wait to learn ; Our parents can no longer wait for their children to grow up before burdening them with responsibilities, etc. According to Fr Emma Onuh of blessed memory, 'The Christmas Jesus is a very popular man but the Jesus of the Advent and Lenten season is always abandoned in all our Churches, denied in the market place, ridiculed in the offices and defiled on the streets of our daily lives. Why? Because of the "Instant - service - mentality" of our present day society '.

 

D. CONCLUSION
A good Advent season begets a good Christmas season while a good Lenten season guarantees a good Easter season. The Advent season is a period of waiting placed by the Church before Christmas and Easter to teach us that joy comes after mourning, Ps 30 : 5. The liturgical significance of the purple colour used during Advent, Lent and Funerals is vigilance. Green signifies normal life. White is for the joyful seasons (eg Christmas and Easter) while red signifies martyrdom and the Holy Spirit. Romans 5 : 1 - 4 gives us the connection between waiting and the Holy Spirit ; Suffering brings perseverance which brings hope which does not fail us because the Holy Spirit is poured out when there is hope.

Those who wait upon the Lord will have their strength renewed, Is 40 : 30. According to Fr Emma Onuh, 'The engine of hope is powered by the oil of patience, while patience is the ability to wait gainfully'. Life itself from womb to tomb is a whole project of waiting. We must wait to be born ; to grow up, to go to school, to get admission, to graduate, to get a job/start a business, to get married, to have children ; we must wait to train them, wait to die and even in purgatory, we must wait to go to heaven. Why the female anatomy in general biology seems to be a hybrid superior to the male specie is that they are more patterned to waiting than the male . This is perhaps why they survive more in the womb and outside the womb and generally live longer than men.

We must learn to watch and wait for the coming of our Lord in purity and devotion. Our 1st reading says that God is our father and we are the clay. He is the Potter and we are the work of his hands, Is 64 : 6. We must wait for God to mould and direct our destiny, Jer 29 : 11. We must put on the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Love in order to watch and wait till the end. Happy Advent Season dear friends!

Fr. Dr.  Ben Agbo