Essence of Christmas

      WE are in that special season of the year, a season of joy, of peace and of great tidings. It is a season of carols when we celebrate the birth of Christ the King, th At Christmas, we are expected to spare time to contemplate things eternal. That is, we must remind ourselves that we are strangers here on earth; that our real home is in heaven, and that no matter how long we live, we shall surely die one day. 

      So many people who started the year 2012 with us are not around to finish it. Like us, they commenced the New Year with high hopes and aspirations.

Some may have planned to marry this year, buy a new car or move into a new apartment. But alas, all those are now lost. Thus, we should count ourselves lucky to be alive to see Christmas. This should, therefore, be a period of gratitude to God for sparing our lives and counting us among the living. It should equally be an opportunity for us to mend our ways before God so that we would not be found wanting redeemer of mankind. Jesus is the reason for the season. The spirit behind Christmas is that of giving and sharing. In the Bible, we learn of how the wise men, on learning about the newborn child, came calling with gifts of gold, incense and myrrh. We should also be like these who understood the virtue in giving. It is through giving that we receive. Sometimes, the gains may not be natural but spiritual.

     

    The three wise men, on learning about the born child, came calling with gifts of gold, incense and myrrh Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide open heart that thinks of others first. The birth of the baby Jesus stands as the most significant event in all history, because it has meant the pouring into a sick world of the healing medicine of love which has transformed all manner of hearts for almost two thousand years… Underneath all the bulging bundles is this beating Christmas heart. – George Matthew Adams t is December, the month of Christmas. Carols coming from every store, television set & radio, from church choir & ordinary people caught-up in the spirit of the season. Some of the carols are secular, some sacred with their various deep meanings.

Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities : Progress for All

      This year, the United Nations (UN) focuses attention on the fact that the respect of women’s rights and the guarantee of opportunities lead to significant advances in social and economic development. Under the theme “Equal rights, equal opportunities: Progress for all,” International Women’s Day underlines the need for governments, civil society, women’s organizations, the private sector, the media, the entire UN system, and individual women and men to join forces in making important changes to policies, programs, attitudes and behaviours to ensure that women fully participate in economic and social life.

     Genuine equality between women and men, girls and boys can only be realised in the process of a just, fair and humane transformation of our society as a whole. There's need for us to unite and enable women to take their rightful place in production and political activity to improve their economic and political status.There is need to educate ourselves and others to take a more correct view of women and to actively redress the injustices done to women in all our institutions - the Church, state and family.

Climate Change

       Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions, or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions (i.e., more or fewer extreme weather events). Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes (such as oceanic circulation), variations in solar radiation received by Earth, plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions, and human-induced alterations of the natural world; these latter effects are currently causing global warming, and "climate change" is often used to describe human-specific impacts.

           Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models. Borehole temperature profiles, ice cores, floral and faunal records, glacial and periglacial processes, stable isotope and other sediment analyses, and sea level records serve to provide a climate record that spans the geologic past. More recent data are provided by the instrumental record. Physically based general circulation modelsare often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data, make future projections, and link causes and effects in climate change.