Nigeria: Human Person - the Ultimate Resource

It is an honour to be called upon to make a contribution to a harvest of tributes to mark the 30th anniversary of the Priestly Ordination of the Catholic Archbishop of Onitsha and the 10th anniversary of his Episcopal Ordination. Archbishop Valerian Okeke is a true man of God in the order of Melchizedek. He is a servant of both God and man in the truest sense. When he was elevated to the bishopric a decade ago while still relatively a young priest to preside over the historic Archdiocese of Onitsha which gave birth to several dioceses in Eastern Nigeria, a lot of people were surprised. They should not have. Archbishop Okeke has long been destined for an uncanny service to the Almighty. Only a man genuinely called by God could afford to voluntarily withdraw from the prestigious Christ the King College, Onitsha, where the exceptionally handsome young Valerian was classmates with people like Professor Pat Utomi of the Lagos Business School and Chief Tony Nnachetta, an eminently successful Lagos-based financial and business consultant, and head for All Hallows Seminary, Onitsha, a school run with far stricter discipline than a military academy. It shows Okeke's profound love of God has been with him from the day he was born. As the common saying goes, God does not leave his people and those who love him empty handed; they get rewarded.

Archbishop Okeke is not a person to shy away from the most important issues of our day. His thoughts are found in numerous publications. But I will, in this short paper, restrict myself to his noble thoughts on the contemporary Nigerian youth and the appropriate kind of education for them, using his 2009 Pastoral Letter entitled "Our Greatest Legacy" as our guide. It is apposite that I am discussing Archbishop Okeke's idea of good education for Nigeria's youngsters because I am a scholar and the Archbishop himself is not only a gifted Professor of Moral Theology but was the Rector of Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu, when he was 10 years ago entrusted with shepherding God's children in this part of the world.

His Grace's concept of education is composite and holistic. His idea of good education is not only about the technical development of an individual or enhancement of a person's competence and skill but also about the development of his or her mind and the nurturing of his or her spirituality. It is not education for just a person but also for society and for God. And it takes every aspect seriously. This is in keeping with the Catholic tradition of formal education. This is why Catholic education is highly valued across the world by believers and non-believers alike. In the United States, for instance, it is a thing of joy and pride to attend a Catholic school. Though only 12 per cent of Americans are Catholic, the Catholic Church has as many as 7,000 schools. Bill Clinton is no Catholic, but he is very proud of his undergraduate training at Georgetown University, Washington, the foremost Jesuit university in the United States which has the most respected School of Diplomacy in the world; and Clinton studied Diplomacy at it and excelled as a student. President Barrack Obama is proud of the brief period he spent at a Catholic primary school in Indonesia. David Hartman, the highly influential Israeli rabbi and scholar of global renown, never tires to tell the world that he was a below average student until he attended Fordham University, the Jesuit University of New York. Here in Nigeria, Loyola College, Abuja, is arguably the most competitive secondary school in Nigeria.

Inspirational Angel Sayings and Quotes

For heavenly deeds of kindness, where even angels fear to tread, For giving up uoir comfort, to others' good instead, for how you mirror God's own heart and countless other things, you've earned the right to own with pride, these special earthly angel wings.  ~  Unknown How wonderful it must be to speak the language of the angels, with no words for hate and a million words for love!  ~  Eileen Elias Freemen Office angel , my guardian dea, help me with the workload here...Guide my hands through this paper mess, and help me deal with deadline stress.  Amen.  ~  Unknown Even feel an angel's breath in the gentle breeze?  A teardrop in the falling rain?  Hear a whisper amongst the rustle of leaves?  Or been kissed by a lone snowflake?  Nature is an angel's favorite hiding place.  ~  Carrie Latat May you know the love of the Angels, deep as the ocean, steadfast as the stars.  ~  Unknown Life is a tapestry:  We are the warp; angels, the weft; God, the weaver.  Only the Weaver sees the whole design.  ~  Eileen Elias Freeman Songbirds are Angels that God sent to herald each bright and blessed new day.  ~  Unknown Silently, one by one, in the infinate meadows of the heaven , blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.  ~  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Children often have imaginary playmates.  I suspect that half of them are really their guardian angels.  ~  Eileen Elias Freeman An angel can illuminate the thought and mind of man by strengthening the power of vision.  ~  St Thomas Aquinas When angels visit us we do not hear the rustle of wings, nor feel the feathery touch of the breast of a dove; but we know their presence by the love they create in our hearts.  ~  Unknown This is the highest point of philosophy, to be simple and wise; this is the angelic life.  St. John Chrysostom Be an angel to someone else whenever you can, as a way of thinking God for the help your angel has given you.  ~  Eileen Elias Freeman God not only sends apecial angels into our lives, but sometimes He even sends them back again if we forget to take note the first time!  ~  Eileen Elias Freeman Angels can unleash hurricanes of healing, release itdal waves of love, move whole mountains of hatred, melt icebergs of jealousy and evaporate oceans of pain.  ~  Unknown These things i warmly wish for you: Someone to love, some work to do, a bit o' sun, a bit o' cheer, and a guardian angel always near.

Sermon in a Sentence, Volume 5, St. Thomas Aquinas: A Treasury of Quotations on the Spiritual Life

Basic Writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas: God and the order of creation

Of God and his creatures, an annotated translation (with some abridgement) of the Svmma contra gentiles of Saint Thos. Aqvinas

The Summa theologica

Reading John with St. Thomas Aquinas, theological exegesis and speculative theology