FEAST OF BLESSED
CYPRIAN MICHAEL IWENE TANSI - JANUARY 20, 2013 by IKECHUKWU OGUN P
As the Church in
Nigeria celebrates this Feast of the only beatified son of Nigeria from Aguleri,
among many other heroic Servants and Daughters of Nigeria yet to be raised to
the order of sainthood by the Church, we implore our brother Iwene Tansi to continue
to intercede for our country Nigeria. What can we learn of this our heroic
brother in the faith? Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi was absorbed in
prayer and was a living example of patience and charity. This led him into his
strong spirituality as a pastor to vehemently preached and encouraged sanctity
of life. In teaching catechism to those preparing for the Sacrament of
Matrimony, he insisted on avoiding sex before marriage or both partners living together
before the Sacrament of matrimony. Today, very many Christians find no meaning
in this virtue. Men and women alike in the same percentage go into sexual
relations before ever receiving the Sacrament. This virtue does not rule out
courtship but rather the partners who wants to marry see and understand
courtship as moment of testing the sexual capacity of either partner, and
this is spiritually wrong and that was what Blessed Iwene Tansi was lamenting
of, according to the teachings of the Mother Church, which is not in any way a
new teaching but have been there in
diebus illus. We are called to the holiness of life and holiness is practiced
and not just spoken about verbally. Let us in this Feast day of our saintly
heroic brother Blessed Iwene Tansi, revisit the virtue which portrays the high
integrity of virginity before marriage. Iwene Tansi di Ngozi, yobala anyi
ayiyo.
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