"Gratitude is a sign of a healthy person, a healthy family and a healthy institution." Says Bishop Sabino.
Bishop Sabino made the remarks during a thanksgiving mass held at St.John Bosco Core Primary Teachers College,
Ludongo in Yumbe District on Thursday 16th of November 2023.
Bishop Sabino Ocan Odoki, who was the main celebrant during the celebration of the mass, expressed his appreciation
to St.John Bosco Primary Teachers' College Management for their remarkable achievements over the years and their
commitment to giving gratitude to God, stating that an institution that emphasizes thanksgiving is indeed a healthy institution.
The thanksgiving celebration was also to recognize a transition that the college will be undergoing from a Primary
Teachers Training College to a Teachers Training Institute that shall now handle not only certificate courses but also
diploma and later degree courses. The college celebrated seven distinctions recently achieved in national examination
and a national award for one of the staffs Mr. Abutre Robinso.
Bishop Sabino extended thanks to the Ministry of Education, the Board of Governance, parents, the school's management,
the chaplain, priests, district leaders, and school neighbors for ensuring the supervision and guidance of the college.
He said that the positive spirit shown by these entities has elevated the college to greater heights.
In his homily, Bishop underscored that many times people forget to give gratitude to God and to one another saying that
gratitude is a good sign of a healthy family, a healthy person or a healthy institution.
"Giving thanks to God is not our own invention but it has a biblical foundation. It is also something from God. From the
book of first chronicles. We have heard about the people of God giving thanks.The book of Chronicles is one of the last
writings of the old testament. The word chronicles means recording events that were going on.
The book tells us what was going on in Israel towards the ends of the old testament time. And we can see that the recording
is indicating time of joy because the people were in their captives in foreign land and now they were back in their home land.
And so they were giving thanks to God for bringing them into their own home.
So as we give thanks to the Lord for the achievements of this school, we are also looking forward to seeing more wonderful works
from the Lord continuing in this institution. So let us learn to always be grateful to God.
St.Peter in his second letter is telling us that only those with faith can
give thanks and praise to God. Those without faith attribute everything to
themselves and not God. And will fail to give thanks to God. Because we are
believers, we attribute all our achievements to God. And that is what we are
doing today in this celebration. St.Peter continues to say that when we have
faith, we continue to grow in virtues. So if we don't have faith we shall
lack virtues. That is why we see some powerful people who don't have faith
bringing to our society practices which are not in the divine will of God .
Like these days people speak a lot about homosexuality. This is an abuse.
People speak about those who are not born have no right. A child
conceived already is human and grows to nothing else but a human person.
Life has to be respected. This virtue is very important.
We should add to our faith other virtues. Like goodness. Even feeling good is a virtue. We have to add Knowledge and to knowledge, add self control. These days we have people who say they are learned. But they have no knowledge. You can learn a lot but if you have not learnt to apply your knowledge, it means you have not learnt anything. When you have knowledge you have self control. Emotional intelligence. Sometimes people flare up and they don't know how to control themselves.
People who have faith and knowledge would know how to handle every situation.
And self control is key. People who have faith will
persevere. They know that the suffering of this world can purify us. People who have faith are Godliness. The divine presence in them makes
them different. And finally if we have faith we will have love. So virtue empowers us to do greater things. So this school is doing well because
it has people of good virtue.keep on practicing these virtues and you will grow strong and strong." Says Bishop Sabino.
