Ramadan 2025, Islam’s blessed month of fasting, penitence, recoil from sin, religious and spiritual instrospection, unveiled itself in the cosmos last Saturday for Nigerian adherents. Four days later yesterday, Nigerian Catholics observed Ash Wednesday, harbinger of the Christians Lent season of 40-day fast, abhorrence of sinful ways and dedication to teachings of the Lord Jesus that would culminate in Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday holiday,all of them anniversaries of the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of the Lord.Before the onset of Ramadan and Lent, the Redeem Christian Church of God ( RCCG) began a 100-day fast on January 11 which should end on April 21. Unlike the Christians fast, Moslems will not eat or drink during the day hours unless, for weighty reasons, they cannot stand the pressure. However, they are free to eat and to drink anything they like, except alcohol, in the evenings and night hours before sunrise next day. For many Christians, their fast is from sunrise to sunset where they do not break it at mid day or at 3 p.m. Many persons who fast on religious ground believe, rightly or wrongly, that, by merely agreeing to fast, i.e even by condescending to fast, their sins will be automatically forgiven. There are many persons who reject this conception of religious fasting. Like them, I believe what will count is the genuiness with which a fast is approached and the positive changes it brings about in the person who is fasting.This week, some of my friends and I who are taking advantage of this season of fasting for health and spiritual gains, had our usual discussions typical of this season. We examine inner life, health benefits and challenges of fasting such as life style, detoxification, which the body of a fasting person naturally embarks upon, the Die Off Effects which detoxification brings about to make a fasting person temperate seeker and, of course, the questions which sometimes or always trail a religious fast. This week, the question was about King David( DAUDA), Batasheba his stolen wife, Uriah, Batasheba’s husband and their infant child who died when he fell ill despite all the fasting undertaken by David. As a reminder: Uriah was a soldier in King David’s army. He and his wife lived in a house beside the palace. Uriah went to fight in a war to protect the country. Bathsheba bathed nude on the backony of their house overlooking the palace garden. David saw her. They met. She became pregnant. To cover their sin, David recalled Uriah from the battle front only to give him a letter he was to deliver to war commander. Uriah was so loyal to the King and country that he did not stop over in his house next door but took the letter striaght to the war commander. The letter instructed the war commander to place Uriah in the hottest sector of the war where he would be killed. Uriah died. Bathsheba moved into the palace. The baby whose name the Bible did not give was born. Soon, he fell ill. David began to fast so that the baby would not die. He wore rags and covered himself with ash, praying day and night. Nevertheless, the baby died. Was the sin of David and Bathsheba forgiven?. Does this teach us that we do atone for every misdeed?. These are questions for another day.
Ramadan 2025, except for its aftermath, should be bidden Nigeria bye on March 29 or 30 and Lent should be close to the Christians Withsuntide,itself a few days away from the greatest Spiritual events in our universe, the Festival of theHoly Dove. I am not a member of the R.C.C.G. I am fascinated, though, that it chose The Dove as its insignia. In the spiritual, not religious, Festival of The Holy Dove, it is The Holy Dove which appears in the Highest Temple of God in Creation, as the spiritually visible sign of The Holy Spirit to announce the Grace of God which permits continual existence of the entire Creation.Thus, we stand in a season in which, literally speaking, invites us all, left, right and centre, to awaken inwardly, that is spiritually, to the purpose of our creation and existence on earth.The bottom-line of it all is that we struggle to understand the Will of God and to Unconditionally fulfil it. Islam means Submission to The will of Allah. The Lord Jesus taught us we could not enter the kingdom of God unless we fulfilled the Will of His Father. Through the Festival of the Holy Dove, we are permitted access to a new stream of Divine Power to enable us to recognise the Will of God and to Unconditionally fulfil it.
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After Easter
Forty days after Easter Monday, which is April 21, May 31 will bring Withsuntide, also known as Pentecost, which is the anniversary of the Ascension of the Lord Jesus.The Pentecost being the 7th Sunday in the Christian calendar after Easter Monday, is a movable event. This may be something remarkable in the Pentecost of 2025 falling on May 31. I say so because 28 to 31 May is the immovable Festival of The Holy Dove. I was privileged as a 27- year- old to be aware of this festival in 1977 during my Youth Corps Service in Uyo and Calabar. Still this day, The Catholic Church revers Pentecost. On that day, the altar decoration like the reinments of the officiating Priest, altar boys and girls is in red colour.
In the Catholic Church, decorations in red colour on Pentecost Day (also known as Whitsunday) symbolised the “tongues of fire” that descended upon the Apostles on the first observed Pentecost, as described in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:3). Pentecost happens on 28 to 31 May every year, but is unknown to or consciously observed by a majority of mankind. The first observation marked the beginning of the Christian Church. It was thought by many Christians then that it was the decent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. However, it is now known from the extension of spiritual knowledge for humanity that the Apostles received of the Outpouring of Power by the Holy Spirit, not the Holy Spirit himself. In this conception, the Holy Spirit who created the earth from outside the earth, cannot dwell on the earth but maintain the earth periodically through an outpouring of divine power into creation, just as the human heart maintains the human body through every heart beat.
By decorating the altar with red, the church visually represents the fiery tongues of the power, signifying the outpouring by the Holy spirit upon the faithful. This powerful symbol reminds Catholics of the Holy Spirit’s role in guiding and sanctifying the Church.
However, from the extension of the knowledge of Creation for mankind at this time of the Cosmic Turning–Point, the high-point of Festival event on earth is on May 29. The Cosmic Turning- Point is when the gigantic universe, with its uncountable number of solar systems and galaxies and stellar constellations, complete a cycle of movement around its own power hub as the eight solar planets in our own solar system complete theirs around the Sun. Thus, great events are expected to happen on earth in our time, according to hints given to humanity from about the second decade of the last century. Therefore, whoever made presidential authority transferable in Nigeria on May 29 may have been unconsciously inwardly guided or simply floated on the crests of the sublime waives or currents.
Every Ramadan
Every Ramadan, as in every season of Lent, I strive to fellow the fast as much as I can in the body and spirit. Even if only temporary, who would not like a loosening of spirit, soul and body to empower the spirit for it ascent homeward to Paradise? Who would like another surgeon on planet earth to make good avoidable misdeeds of today? These were some of the spiritual opportunities inherent in the Ramadan and in the Lent fasts. The Pentecost, in which the Lord Jesus ascended to the Father was an off shoot of the Festival of the Holy Dove of that time.It is not a festival of any fast but the renewal of the Power of God in His Creation without which Creation would rapidly age, wither, collapse and die. Imagine commotion in the Cosmos in which the stars are colliding and planets are falling upon one another in which planet earth loses balances into the depths or is sucked upward into inhospitable realms! The renewal of God’s Power in His Creation is like the renewal of the earth body with each pumping of blood by the heart round the body. A growing number of men and women is becoming aware of this Festival and preparing themselves inwardly for it every month of May. As the Lord Jesus was aware of It, He prepared His Disciples for the absorption of the currents or energy of this Outpouring of Power by the Holy Spirit when He asked them to assemble in the upper chamber of a house where He appeared to them for the first time since His Crucifixion. It was on the re-bound of the waves of this Power that He Himself ascended homeward to the Father. Earth body cannot ascend to the Father. It belongs to dust and remains with dust. On Ash Wednesday, Catholic approach the Priest and he rubbed dust on their forehead to remind them that their bodies were dust.The Lord Jesus took a body of dust from the earth in a woman’s womb to work on earth and left it behind.This was in the season of creation’s renewal sensed on earth and called Withsuntide. Any-one who in humility opens himself or herself to this power in this season would absorb of it in the measure of the opening of this Spirit.Later, I will speak of some of the spiritual benefits of a genuine fast, as distinct from fasts merely out of habit which hardly touch the spirit or help its maturing.Meanwhile, I wish to consider some of the health benefits and of how, during this season, the body maybe supported with certain impactful herbs.
Plus or Minus
A fast for religious or spiritual goals has its benefits and potential dangers. It may offer the body a holiday from digestion of food three times a day, removing scenarios of “all work and no rest makes Jack a dull boy”. During this holiday, the body has an opportunity to invest the energy it is saving in the digestive system on the excretory system, eliminating wastes,which may have been hanging in the cells and tissues for years and, thereby, offering the body a new lease of Life from them.
In the early 2000s, I was privileged to read two books on fasting by two professionals icons on this subjects. Euro-Americans were dying in large numbers from Hypertension, heart attack,stroke, diabetes, obesity, e.t.c. Dr Herbert Shelton wrote the book Fasting Can Save Your Life. Father and daughter Paul Bragg Ph. D., and Patricia Bragg Ph.D., authored The Miracle of Fasting.Arguably, they opened the first health food store in the United States and traveled nation wide propagating their ideas of natural foods and herbs for the healing of ailing human bodies.Expanded the frontiers of alternative Medicines and Nutritional medicine.One of the nutritional medicines they bequeathed to mandkind and which is popular in Nigeria today is Apple Cider Vinegar(WITH MOTHER). Thanks to Mr Sam Ayeni of Sea Duck InternationaL who brought this product to Nigeria. He was later sent out of the market he created by seemly faceless pirates he did not have the might to fight. He began in Nigeria the business of the BRAGG Brand Apple Cider vinegar with Mother with the order of a small quantity of this product,loaded his car with some cartons and drove all the way from Lagos to Lokoja, sometimes sleeping inside his car in motor parks, only to distribute the product to pharmacies stores. Cypril Scott, who wrote a pocket book he titled Cider Vinegar opened my eyes to the importance of Apple Cider Vinegar its nutritional medicine and its rich assembly of phosphate salts. I found it useful for stopping bleeding. My wife took at least three months from child labour and had no problem of blood seepages. I gave it to a mother of five who was to undergo surgical removal of her uterus overgrown with fibroids. Her doctors had obtained blood donations from her relations believing she would need blood transfusion during the surgery as she was very pale. However, to their surprise, she had no need for a droplet.Two of my male professional colleagues who had hernia surgeries and took it six weeks before had no need for blood transfusion.So are the experiences of many persons. Before I get lost in the wilderness of nutritional support for any-one who is undergoing a strenuous fast, I will quickly return to Dr Herbert Shelton and to Paul Bragg and Patricia Bragg.
Dr Herbert Shelton’s book, Fasting can save your life, says that, when we fast, the body often breaks down subnormal tissues, evidence of ill health,for nurture and energy.He advocates fasting as a natural remedy for various health issues,says fasting allows the body to heal itself by redirecting energy from digestion to repair and rejuvenation and that fasting can help alleviate chronic diseases,such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension.Mental clarity is not left out of what fasting can achieve.Dr Shelton suggests fasting should be supported with certain techniques, including gradualism, hydration, and post-fasting nutrition.This book emphasises that fasting should be regarded as a means to an end, not as a cure-all or magic bullet against all diseases.The body has an innate ability, he says, to heal itself when given the opportunity.
Helpful as fasting can be, it has its critics. These are persons who condemn fasting on the ground that it may cause malnutrition and resultant dangerous health hazards.
The Miracle of Fasting explores the benefits of fasting for physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. The book discusses how fasting can help detoxify the body, improve digestion, and increase energy levels.
As we fast…
The Yorubas say we see through our tears. So, as we fast,we should know why we are fasting. Arabia was a very dark society before the advent of Prophet Mohammed ( May the Peace of Allah be upon him whereever he is). As in Calabar Nigeria, where twins were killed because they were taught to portend evil omen, baby girls were often buried alive in Arabia. Grown girls and women could also be killed to show visitors to a home how well appreciated they were. Slavery was the other of the day.Ethnic rivary and killings were rife.The inhabitants worship multiple gods.The Prophet turn their gaze to Allah, the only GOD and focused their attention on him in five prayers they must make everyday, each one about five hours from the next. Before a prayer, the must undergo ablution. Symbolically, they rinse their mouth and hands with clean water, wash their faces and feets clean before they approached Almighty Allah in prayer. The symbolism of ablution is that, as they strive for cleanliness in their bodies, they should also strive for cleanliness in their souls and spirit. Soon, they would be introduced to a whole month of fasting, the Ramadan, to bring them closer to their Maker. It was expected that every Ramadan like each of the five daily prayers, would make a better human being of the adherence of the faith.Those adherence in far away lands were also given the privilege of pilgrimage to Arabia for them to appreciate that the life and times of the Prophet were a reality.This, too, was expected to make better human beings of this pilgrims.Therefore, every adherence, in private or public life, who approaches 2025 Ramadan or the pilgrimage to Arabia may wish to always evaluate his or her spiritual content through the sacrifices and pure teachings of the Prophet.
As for the Lent and Pentecost, there are many questions still unresolved by the Church regarding the pure teachings of the Lord Jesus and the distortion of them held up before Christiandom and adherence of other faith. Among them is the resurrection of a mutilated and slain human body. Allusion to the raising of Lazarus and the Widows daughter of the Centurion’ servant will not hold because the circumstances were not Apposite. Apostle Paul and the disciples of the risen Jesus met on the way to Emmaus told us the Jesus they encountered was not the slain Jesus.Did disciple Thomas not doubt. Nevertheless, Lent and Pentecost hold great values for the spiritual maturation of the Christian who has oil in the lamp of his or her soul like the five wise virgins.That is the inwardly attentive Christians who doesn’t belive just any teaching but the pure teaching of the Lord Jesus.This is a season for such Christian to…repent and to reflect on their sins, weaknesses, and areas for spiritual growth.It is a time to acknowledge the need for renewal