OUR SONG TODAY: "Your Kingdom come, O Lord." 
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EVERY SOUND PERSON IS INTERESTED IN YOUNG PEOPLE.

• Have you ever watched Animal kingdom or Wild life in National Geographic channel. Animals sacrifice a lot to provide for their young
• Among human beings, you know how mothers suffered and are still suffering for us.
• The Church is organizing a special meeting of Bishops in Rome, in October (3 - 28).

           The main issue is all about young people.   Why?      

• Here is a simple answer:

Ever person is interested in the future. That future is the young people. And the young people are all of you listening to me. Very soon you will be managers of our world. My dear young people we all are interested in you.
 

CONSIDERING YOUR FUTURE

• Some of you have approached Guidance-Counsellors to ask for their recommendation for choice of carrier in life.
• Some have gone to the so-called men of God to “sow seeds” in order to get choice-carriers in life and good partners.
• Some are working hard to improve their credentials, obtain higher certificates and higher skills to enhance their chances of getting better jobs.

If I say what you truly want to be, you say “Yes”. If you disagree, you respond "No"

• You are going to be a rich person.... (Yes / No)
• You are going to be an honest person.... (Yes / No)
• You are going to be President of Nigeria.... (Yes / No)
• You are going to be a professor.... (Yes / No)
• You are going to be an armed robber.... (Yes / No)
• You are going to be a priest.... (Yes / No)
• You are going to be a headmaster.... (Yes / No)
• You are going to be an APC Member.... (Yes / No)
•  You are going to be a business man or woman.... (Yes / No)
• You are going to be a senator.... (Yes / No)
• You are going to be a kidnapper.... (Yes / No)
• You are going to be a governor.... (Yes / No)
• You are going to be a PDP Member.... (Yes / No)
• You are going to be a reverend sister.... (Yes / No)
• You are going to be a prisoner.... (Yes / No)
• You are going to be a medical doctor.... (Yes / No)
• You are going to be a devil.... (Yes / No)
• You are going to to have stability in life.... (Yes / No)
• You are going to be a good husband/a good wife.... (Yes / No)
• You are going to live a fulfilled life.... (Yes / No)
• You are going to be an incurable liar.... (Yes / No)
• You are going to be a saint in heaven.... (Yes / No) etc.

 

• Now tell yourself what you want to be….. Only God know how many things all of you have said you want to be.

CHOOSING YOUR VOCATION IN LIFE

• Many things affect your choice. Some do not depend on you.
  • Your family background.
    • Poor honest parents. (No good education, no decent regular meal).
    • Poor village (no exposure to higher culture). Wicked relatives, etc.
  • The distractions you cause yourself.
    • Bad company. Booze all the way. Dance, party. Hemp, cocaine. Your head is no longer coordinating well! 

 
LET US SING OUR SONG: Your kingdom come, O Lord.

TECHNOLOGY AND THE CHANGES IN OUR LIFE 

• The distractions of the modern technology
  • When I was growing up, there was
    • No electricity in my village. We used kerosine lamp, we used it to prepare for our elementary 6 exams and many of us passed with distinction. We used daylight very well.
    • No telephone. On very rare occasion when there was need to make telephone calls, somebody was sent to PT (modern or is it already ancient Post Office) to make an intercity trunk call. Yet we visited our relatives in distant places. They came home very often to spend good time with us. We looked forward to Christmas time for a happy family reunion.
    • I do not remember any one in our neighborhood who had a television set. But then, television programmers used to start in the evening and stop at midnight. It was just black and white TV. The channels cover specific areas. Only cultural values of a specific geographical area were transmitted.
    • At night we gathered together to listen to folklore stories from our elders. It was a delightful experience to interact with our brothers and sisters.
  • Today everything has changed.
    • With 24-hour TV programme. Some now have their eyes glued to the repetitive news items. Many hours are wasted. Satellite network now means that questionable cultural values are beamed to geographical areas where the people absorb them innocently. Just look at your mode of dressing. In many cases, it is a cultural mix up. We receive through satellite TV values that insult us as a people. You, young people are confused by such invasion.
    • The internet has arrived. This has improved they way we obtain information. You can search for job anywhere in the world today. Thanks to email, you can reach most people at the speed of light. But it has created new problems for our young people. The web can become “a place of loneliness, manipulation, exploitation and violence”. My young friends, know it very well, every website you visit, what you do when you are there, every communication you make through the web is documented and can easily be traced to you. DO NOT BE ADDICTED TO INTERNET.

 
LET US SING OUR SONG: Your kingdom come, O Lord.

THE MOBILE PHONE IN YOUR HAND

• And now the mobile phone arrives. Where is your mobile phone? Now we have sms, Facebook, Instagram, and the all-powerful WhatsApp.
  • Some of you do not sleep again. They wake up several times in the night to check their phone.
  • It is funny to see people sitting in one room, every person busy communicating with somebody else outside.
  • Some of you have become isolated from the rest of mankind. They find it difficult to stay with others and generate topics for discussion.
  • Some have become very lazy. They do nothing the whole day, just toying with their phone. Because of this, they are bored. There are people who have committed suicide because life has ceased to be meaningful.
  • The Pope was greeting a group of young people in Italy. Every person was busy taking selfie that no body cared to look at the Pope in person.
  • Isn’t it sad that some of you told lies or even stole money in order to buy a mobile phone?
  • Many of you create or receive false stories and you send it to others. I want to give you these pieces of advice:
    • Do not circulate photo of dead bodies.
    • Do not circulate photo of torture
    • Do not circulate photo of nudity whether of yourself or anybody.
    • Do not circulate information that will promote violence or make others to be hated.

TAKE CONTROL
Now is time to regulate yourself. Set time limit for use of phone every day. Switch it off. Let it not take over your life.

• Learn to creative. What value is your presence activity adding to our world?
• Tell yourself that your mobile phone is your slave and not your master.

 
LET US SING OUR SONG: Your kingdom come, O Lord.

WHAT DOES GOD WANT FROM YOU?

• Every manufacturer makes his or her product for a specific purpose: soaps are not made for lunch, you do not eat your certificates, your shoes are not worn as ear rings, your tattered pair of trousers or you bikini  or your sleeveless singlets or spaghetti blouses are not meant for church services, etc.
• Who made you? God made me.
• And why did God make you? To know Him, love Him and serve him in this world, in order to live with Him in heaven.
• Whatever you want to be and you are able to become, let these three ways of realizing the purpose of your creation be there: know God, love God and serve God. And let your carrier lead you to heaven.

 
Now comes the issue of your faith.

• Faith is a supernatural gift from God. Freely he gives us. WE MUST NURTURE IT.
• Hold on to these three tasks:
  • Know your faith
  • Live your faith
  • Share your faith