I will briefly spend a little bit of time on the road to Emmaus but I'm excited to be able to look really at three themes quickly. The first one is hope. I believe that we live in a very, very challenging world and things are confusing to the church and I think we need hope desperately. And so I'd like to speak briefly about that. I want to talk a little bit about what I would call world view or it's also called imaginative vision and I'll talk a little bit more about that and then I would hope to get to, we've got the time, a really simple solution to restore hope called the little way. And so I'm looking forward to that. Well that's pray, name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. Lord Jesus, we ask that you would send us your Holy Spirit. Now at this moment, but Lord throughout our entire lives, that you would transform not just our hearts but our minds, that we would see what you see, that we would love what you love. The world pushes us to think about things, everything differently from you, but you through the power of your spirit can transform us into your image. Be with us Lord, we love you and we entrust ourselves to you through the mother you've given us as we pray together, Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. Well I'd like to talk to you a little bit about hope. Hope is a very interesting virtue and like the other virtues were taught by St. Thomas Aquinas and others, that the virtues are actually opposed by vices in a very unique way. There's actually two vices that oppose every virtue. One of them is the exact opposite of the virtue so for hope the opposite would be despair but the other vice that attacks is a counterfeit. It's a shallow pretend version and the pretend version, the counterfeit for hope is presumption and so I want to talk to you about how we need to avoid presumption because it's going to, it'll paralyze us and how we need to avoid despair because it also paralyzes us. We have to be able to act with hope and hope is different than optimism. Optimism is the whimsical desire, the wish if you will that things will get better and I stand before you tonight brothers and sisters I am not an optimist. I do not have a whimsical view that things are going to get better but I am here tonight with you filled with hope. Hope says if we fall to our knees, if we draw close to the scriptures, if we immerse ourselves into sacraments, if we work our tails off if and only if we're immersed in prayer and in the sacraments because grace is everything and then we work and we suffer. God will bless that and we could see things change for the better in dramatic ways. Hope is amazing. It's this wonderful virtue. It's poured into us at baptism and strengthened in confirmation and every in all the sacraments to be able to see the power of this great virtue. It's interesting to see that St. John Paul II sometimes was referred to as an apostle of hope. His autobiography, Witness to Hope, he wrote on the threshold of hope. He spoke a lot about because I think he saw the same thing that there are challenges with us and there are challenges on the horizon that will require us to have the virtue of hope and not mere optimism. I want to give you an example of presumption and how I think sometimes Catholics have a faulty or an incomplete view of a biblical passage which we all know very, very well and that we need to understand that it can lead us to presumption. We know it well in Matthew 16 verse 18. Jesus says, upon you Peter, I will found my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it and I think this if we're not careful can lead us to presumption. I heard people say things like this, well, we're going to win in the end, right? And that's true but this is where the presumption comes in. The margin of victory is very much up for grabs. We're going to win but really the margin of victory is everything. There are billions of people on earth today who do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and if we don't go and get them, they may die without ever having known him, ever having known to call out for his mercy. But if we were to pray and immerse ourselves in the sacraments and the scriptures and we were to go in hope, then we could reach them and they might live forever with God. We can't presume because the margin of victory is everything. Many of you have family members and loved ones who are in a questionable place with the Lord right now. We want to be filled with hope and then to act. We'll talk a little bit more about how to act. I want to talk to you about despair and I'll give you an example. Just a couple weeks ago, I got back from Greece. I took my wife to Greece, a pilgrimage. The pilgrimage was the footsteps of Saint Paul and it was beautiful. We had 50 Catholic families, a bishop and about five priests on a four mass sailing ship. It was unbelievable, mass and holy hour every day, great pilgrimage sites and then also a happy hour every evening.  Michael and I looked at each other and said, we can do that. It was amazing and probably the highlight of the trip was the day we were in Patmos. Patmos is where Saint John the Apostle was exiled and where he received the book of Revelation in a vision and dictated it to one of his young disciples. The cave is there and it's an amazing situation. It's a large Orthodox monastery above the cave and we're down in the cave and this is the place. They're just 100% sure and it's just amazing to be there. There's a little notch where Saint John would have been able to put his head and as you look out from the cave on a clear day, you can see Ephesus. Ephesus is where he had been exiled from. You may remember that he brought the Blessed Virgin Mary there after the persecutions in the Holy Land increased. He brought Mary to Ephesus. Ephesus was one of the largest cities in the world but it was neither Jerusalem nor Rome which were dangerous places for Christians. So Ephesus was relatively calm. Later St. Paul would come and live there and write a famous letter to the Ephesians and so we were there and it was just, it was spectacular and great day of prayer. The next day we sailed to Turkey was our one day in Turkey and we went to Ephesus and Ephesus is devastating. It's literally devastated. It's in ruins and I want to read to you just a quick passage from the very letter of Revelation to the church at Ephesus. They're told in Revelation 2 verse 2, I know the deeds in your toil and perseverance that you cannot endure evil men and you put to test those who call themselves apostles and they are not and you found them to be false. All positive compliments now the challenge and you have perseverance and you have endured for my namesake and have not grown weary but I have this against you. You have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds that you did at first or else I'm coming to you and will remove your lampstand. The image there of removing the lampstand is I will remove the church. A church founded by Paul and John and Mary. Church was flourishing that received a beautiful letter from St. Paul. It has been illegal to be a Christian in Ephesus for centuries. The lampstand is gone. In fact when we were there we spent the day in Ephesus and I found myself devastated. I said we came here to pay money to see what non-christians broke. It's all gone and you go and the council of Ephesus was held there. The first Mary and dogma that Mary is the god bearer the theotokos was declared there and as the case with Mary and dogmas they're really about Jesus. That Jesus is one person and we don't our natures don't have moms or as persons we have moms and so Jesus is two natures human and divine united in his divine will divine personhood had a mother and a father and Mary's the mother of God and it's kind of cool the people outside were chanting about Mary being the mother of God. The bishops inside were thinking I think they're praying and trying to figure out and the people are chanting it hit me while I was there of course they're chanting their great great grandparents knew her. Oh my goodness it's so real but the place with the council of Ephesus to a place is in ruins and then we went to the other side of town to the basilica of St. John which is written ruins and we were traveling with a guy who's kind of a character and he knows how to get things done if you know what I mean he went to the Turkish government and said could we have mass on the ruins of St. John's Basilica and they said we don't know we don't do that and he said are you sure and so Bishop Tubes who are we're with the wonderful bishop from Beaumont Texas said mass on the ruins of St. John's Basilica we first started to talk to the local tour guides they said there hasn't been a mass here in over a decade and then we talked to some others it's there hasn't been a mass here in over 25 years and as we dug a little bit more it may have been hundreds of years the apostle John's tomb is there it was moved from the ruins of Ephesus to where the basilica was and then was later destroyed the church is gone but it doesn't stop there there's six other churches in the book of Revelation who will get warnings for various things and all seven of those churches are no longer they have no Catholic presence at all no Catholic presence at all in fact if you look at the New Testament you look at the letters written to the cities Rome Corinth Galatia Ephesus Philippi Colossae Thessalonica Rome is the only city that still has a majority Catholic presence all of those churches are gone they're either dominated by Muslims or in some cases like Corinth there's a strong Orthodox presence but Rome's presence is not there and I left Ephesus is the sense that we lost we got trounced and I found myself being angry that this had been destroyed and I thought this is not the attitude that Paul had when he came here he loved these people with the love of Jesus Christ and he wanted better for them and I remember sitting I said bishop can I talk to you at lunch and bishop tubes at lunch and I said I've been in doing evangelization for 25 years I don't even know of anybody who's actually talking about sending Catholics back to Ephesus or to Smyrna or any of these places to win them back to Christ into the fullness of faith in the Catholic Church we have to I'm not saying that focus should do that but I'd like to encourage people to I don't know what God's calling us to do but I found myself despairing for a couple of hours and then realized I can't live and despair we have to pray we have to dive deeply into the sacraments and then we have to act with the power of the Holy Spirit and so that's that's hope and I'm very grateful that we have an opportunity to do this and I'm here to tell you what I'm going to share with you works it works if we didn't invent it we just stole it from Jesus and it works but there's a really simple stuff that we as Catholics can do and I want to talk about that but before I do I want take one step also on to the issue of worldview or imaginative vision because I believe if we don't understand this we can't provide a solution and I would say things have gotten so bad that if we don't understand this we can't make headway we can't make headway now what do I mean by worldview well my good friend Ted Street was talking to some of our leaders the other day Ted Scott glasses and he said you know worldview is kind of it's not what you see it's the lens through which you see and it's developed over time you're sometimes we're frequently not aware of what it is but lots of different influences form the way we look at things and and then Ted said my eyesight is so bad that when I take off my glasses I can't tell if you're a boy or a girl which is exactly what's going on right now in our culture they've got broken lenses and things that are so obvious they can't see and I'm not saying they're bad people I'm saying they're held captive by a worldview which is resistant to the gospel and I want to talk about how that happened and then I want to talk about how we can overcome that because there's a simple simple solution the great thing is is everybody in this room can participate in this there are superstars in this room there are priests in this room men and women who are called to do unbelievably great things there are also folks that are relatively ordinary who have been called to live extraordinarily ordinary lives and you can do this too powerfully so I want to talk about that but what I want to see is that there's a a set of influences that are going on in our world and it's been going on for a long time Dr. Sree led our leaders in the study of a book the rise and triumph of the modern self by Carl Truman I don't have time to get into Truman's study he takes the argument back hundreds and hundreds of years and builds a compelling case that we've been wobbling for quite some time and now we're spiraling completely out of control and in the last generation it's just become undeniable that people are lost in a desperate sort of way but I just want to pick up the last generation because I would argue that something's been going on in the last generation that was built upon the sand of the previous couple hundred years that Truman talks about that we're already we were already thinking poorly or inaccurately about things see worldview is it's not what you think it's it's how you look at things it's it's a look at it this way I'm an LSU fan whenever Alabama loses it's good right off the bat I don't even think about it it's just great I just love when Alabama my two favorite teams LSU and whoever's playing Alabama and I just it's I don't have to think about it it's just right there I'll give you another example on the feast of the sacred heart this year the Dobs ruling came back and role was overturned praise God but there are millions of people in our country who immediately saw that as terrible news they didn't think about it any more than you had to think that robin overturned was a good thing because there's all kinds of thoughts and views and convictions that you have that leads you to be pro-life so yeah we can learn the arguments but we have deeply held convictions that are are poured into us and I want to talk about how that's happening and how I think it's happened in a particular way in the the last generation now I would go back and say I think we're talking about storytelling I think without a doubt the greatest storytellers in the history of the world are our Jewish brothers and sisters and the Catholic Church they've been telling stories for millennia for many many years when those stories were being told the person who told the story and the people who were listening did not know how to read stories were the lifeblood of the family when the sun went down you were done light a fire and tell stories and so dad and mom would tell stories and they would tell the stories of their ancestors and the great things and the terrible things that had happened and this would become the framework for their life and as Catholics we tell the stories of the saints but I would tell you that I think in the last generation an entirely different set of stories have been told and they're not from our background we have the best story in the world we are historically the best storytellers but we've been out story told in the last generation marvel comic strip 19 billion with a b dollars in storytelling and growing these numbers are probably six months old star wars 22 and a half billion dollars harry potter 25 billion dollars game of thrones three billion dollars in addition to that you've got video games 35 billion dollars a year facebook 86 billion dollars twitter 4 billion instagram 7 billion pornography 95 billion dollars now i'm not here to critique the stories much there's a couple stories in here like porn and the game of thrones i would critique dramatically but my point is let's let's take harry potter i didn't have my kids read harry potter when they were young i actually had an argument with archbishop chap you about this he said why won't you let your kids read harry potter i said i don't have anything against harry potter my kids don't know our story and until they know our story i don't want to listen to somebody else's story and it's the imbalance see here's what's wrong with these stories there's two things that are radically wrong with these stories the first thing is god is not in these stories oh i know when you first saw the star wars we as catholics injected god well obi won kinobi's kind of a christ figure okay but but you did that they didn't do it harry potter there's no christ figure and when we project that these are these are worlds in which god is not in nor is he the center of the story god is in and is the center of this story amen the other thing that i would have against them they're not true i hate to break this to you but harry potter never lived neither did obi won kinobi these things are all made up and here's the problem when young people read and watch this and they don't know the biblical narrative they don't know the lives of the saints when they start to think about the most important things in life they think about it from this perspective that becomes the lens they're looking through the world of harry potter the world of game of thrones the author of harry potter said i wanted to write a story about bad fathers the author of game of thrones said i wanted to write a story in which good lost an evil triumphed these aren't good stories i'm not saying they can't be entertaining but if we don't know our story first then we're going to be susceptible to thinking about the world and so a young person today when they think about the most important things from the perspective of these stories without god at the center that aren't true when they think about that and they're confronted with real life issues like death they don't know what to do if you ask a young person today if you knew you were going to die in an hour what would you do young people today would say i'd find the prettiest girl i could find and i'd make love to her to which we would say really you're gonna die and meet god in an hour so your your plan is to commit mortal sin that's the craziest thing you could possibly do but hollywood doesn't understand death or sex and they've been teaching our young people not to know about death or sex at all and these are two of the most important things in life to be able to understand this to be able to see these huge forces are coming at us they're they're they're powerful they're backed by billions of dollars they're taking millions of hours of our time and our energy and they're not moving us towards a godly culture i'm not saying that we say no no to all these those are decisions you can make what i am saying is if we don't turn up the volume in our story the great story of salvation history and the lives of the saints which is salvation history being played out in the era of the church if we don't know those stories of our young people don't know those stories they won't be able to evaluate things like dobs from a christian perspective do you see what i see says the hymn at christmas and it's a good question do you see do i see what he sees when jesus sees a mother in an unplanned pregnancy is it primarily about choice or primary about life for jesus it's primary about life do you see what he sees because we live in a world where they don't and and we're losing the battle and we have to recognize that and i would say the battle we're losing the most on the college campus is the issue about homosexuality and gender i would say we've been making steady grounds for the 25 years i've been serving on college campus on the life matters young people today are more pro-life on college campus than they were 20 years ago and it makes perfect sense many of them have brothers and sisters that aren't here because they were aborted many of them have had abortions and it didn't make anything better they don't believe what their parents or grandparents might have believed in the 60s make love and not war free love they don't believe that because they know that sex isn't free it's one of the most costly activities in our culture millions of babies and their lives defend that the broken lives we work with college men and women and i will say i see it particularly in the young women that we work with the devastation of giving themselves away physically to men who don't love them and then the pursuit for more attention and more love it's like drinking salt water it doesn't satisfy it actually makes you crazy and it can kill you now the men are experiencing the same thing but for some reason they seem to be a little more asymptomatic on the emotional side but they're just as devastated and to be able to recognize this and so how do we rescue them now we're not talking about emphasis we're talking about our young people our sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters in high school and in college today what are we going to do well i think we have to recognize there's some good good news here the first thing is there's massive hunger do you know how much hunger you have to spend that many billions of dollars oh my goodness our young people are searching really intensely and that's good news because we do have a true the true story and it is the best story and god is at the center we just have to learn how to tell it better and tell it more often and that's what i love about scott and kimberley and their life the institute of applied biblical studies of st paul's center this is what they've dedicated their life to i knew the scriptures before i met scott and kimberley i had read them many times cover to cover i just didn't know how to understand them and you need that i mean when you think about it when you look at our protestant brothers and sisters and and the catholic understanding of for example john chapter six we agree 100 percent what jesus said we do not agree on what he meant and how are you possibly going to know what he meant without somebody able to teach you in some ways that's exactly what the ethiopian unic was doing the book of acts reading the book of isaiah philip comes up to him says do you understand what you're reading he goes how am i going to understand unless somebody explains it to me and that's what the church can do she can teach us how to understand not just what it says but what it means and that changed everything because once we learn how to read the bible from the heart of the church well now all of a sudden we can become students of the greatest teachings and narratives in the world now i want to say i want to take a moment and talk about your mental capacity i don't care if you're a genius or you think you're average or you think you're below average you have so much more capacity than you could possibly imagine now what what you probably don't have is the capacity scott hon has i i i studied here and in my last semester i i was so foolish i decided to do an independent study with scott scott likes to use the term drinking out of a fire hydrant uh there was no place to hide for an entire semester uh and he's just piling books on me and and he reads and he's got a near or actual photograph it makes it ridiculous how great his memory is and and i had childhood dyslexia my my retention is pretty good but i read really slowly and he's like okay a thousand pages a day i'm like how about a thousand pages a year and at one point in time in this this independent study he handed me this 450 page book and i'm i felt like my eyes were bleeding and reading them oh gosh and there's it's the worst book i've ever read in my life and so there's nothing here this going on and on and i find it walked back over and i said why did you do this to me and he goes oh he opens up to page 342 and he goes see that sentence that's awesome sear ox the page man what are you doing ridiculous but i forgive you yeah and i survived barely i didn't need glasses before that independent study i do now but i would challenge you any any of you who know young people they know all the words to most of their songs on their playlist and they know some of the words to all the songs on their playlist i'm talking tens of thousands of lyrics and they've never seen the lyrics in writing our capacity to learn is amazing we're just using it to learn the wrong stuff pop music have you read the lyrics they don't even if they talk about anything it's bad stuff usually it's nonsense and to be able to recognize and this is what they committed they've loaded their brain with this and to the degree that it's not coming from a godly perspective and all you need to do is watch next year's grammy awards to see how how wholesome the music industry is right now that's in them and there was a principle they developed when they were creating the first computer garbage in garbage out and our young people have saturated and they watch video games our our young people are are supposed to be amazing and his first mass as pope benedict the 16th said and to you young people the world offers you comfort but you were not made for comfort you were made for greatness but our young people today experience greatness with their thumbs i conquered a city today no no you were really supposed to go conquer a city you were supposed to bring christ oh no i'm tired my thumbs hurt they've lost the the desire for greatness because they have a counterfeit that makes them feel great in a in an imaginary world i talked to young people young men in particular and i'll say why don't you become a missionary and i'll say well i don't know if i'm called i said there's a huge need i think you're called unless you're called to something else but a lot of these guys are i'm not sure what i'm gonna do i'm like i think you should do it and it's you know maybe later but i'm not hurting anybody if you're a fireman and the alarm goes off and you're playing video games you are hurting somebody and god did not make our young people for comfort he made them for greatness and there's a big war going on out there and here's the cool thing about it we don't go out and kill for christ but we may have to die for him we go out and love for christ but it's still war the battle will be between the devil and ourselves overcoming our own weaknesses so that we can love other people that's the love that john and mary and paul poured into emphasis and it transformed the city and the region for centuries that's the kind of energy that's needed today and so my proposal is a the little way and what i'd like to do is talk to you a little bit about the road to Emmaus i know you're familiar with it since you heard about it last night no but what i what i was talking with scott about this is um it's a funny thing to be a catholic because we know the bible so so well but we but we don't know how to read it very well it's been read to us but if i were to start a story to say there was a man a rich man who had two sons and the younger son came to us and i want my share of the estate you know how the story ends everybody in this room knows how the story ends and now not all of us know that's in luke chapter 15 but oh my goodness telling you that it's in luke chapter 15 is the easiest part the hardest part was learning the story and you already know and you know many many many stories now we don't always know we know for example that moses part of the red sea and that david killed goliath we may not be quite sure which one happened first and the cool thing about the way scott is teaching is that it's the bible's filled with stories but the bible is a story there's not just hundreds of narratives and they're amazing but there's a meta narrative that connects genesis to jesus and to be able to see the power that's in this tim gray and i uh wrote a book together on virtue and at one point in time the fbi was using it's a bible study and the fbi was using our bible study to train fbi agents and we were talking to the trainer and he goes here's what i do i sit back and say i don't you don't need to believe that king david ever existed but i want to tell you this story about king david and basheba and uraya because this is a great story because i don't need you to be believers but i do need you to be virtuous these stories are powerful and they're true david did exist and to be able to see the power of these and to be able to then recognize how they link together and build upon one another and all of its points to a universal family of god that can radiate and the love of christ and receive converts into her heart but at no point in time in the history of christianity have even half the people on earth believed in jesus christ the theme of our conference is found in luke chapter four and also do you see my glasses you see that this never happens in colorado i can't see they it's humid here luke chapter four jesus is in the synagogue you know this it says the spirit of the lord is upon me verse 18 because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind and to set those who are downtrodden free now i don't there there's four statements there and three of them to me make perfect sense if i was blind and it was going to be the jubilee what would i want i want my sight if i was a captive it was the jubilee what would i want i want to be let yeah absolutely and if i was downtrodden i'd want to be lifted up but it's interesting he says but to the poor we'll preach the gospel see if it was a if it matched it would be the poor would get wealthy and and and they are getting wealthy that's what the gospel does but not the way we've been doing it there's a there's a something i think we just have to understand i'm not here to criticize anybody but we have to understand john carol the first bishop of the united states i'm sure for good reasons i don't know the man obviously i'm i know i look old but i'm not that old the uh he removed missiology the study of mission from the curriculum because the united states was a melting pot and we were trying to get along now he didn't say it was wrong or bad he just said in the limited time we can teach we're not going to teach this and so the catholic church in the united states has never been a missionary church and when we have been it's been feeding the poor not preaching the gospel to the poor which is not what jesus said now i'm not opposed to giving food to the poor please god let's give food to the poor but here's the deal the corporal works of mercy serve the body and they're limited because the body's limited if i give you a meal you'll be hungry tomorrow but if i could if i could give you the gospel you could live forever and so we will care for the poor and their material needs but much much more important the spiritual works of mercy and we've reduced mission for the most part to the corporal works of mercy i think that's got to change without reducing the corporal works of mercy at all we need the spiritual works of mercy to come back because the good news is going to be preached to the poor and my experience is the poor are really receptive to it and they're waiting for us there are people in in our culture in our world in different cultures who are waiting and waiting and waiting you know we sent mission trips i think we've become the largest mission sending organization in the united states and maybe in the world i don't know and we send thousands of people into first second third world missions united states uh appalachia one of our favorite trips is india and uh so a group of our folks was was in india and one of the mission trip leaders had been on multiple mission trips but always to latin america and so he's they're in india and they're out just near calcutta and there's a little girl sitting in the sweltering heat emaciated covered in open wounds and people are just walking by her and a couple of the students that were on our mission trip said i'm a nursing student let's just go get some first aid and get her some water and and we couldn't speak the language and she was like an injured animal and it took a quite a while to just gain her trust so that we could give her some water and then of course with the ointment and the bandages they heard at first and so she didn't understand what was going on and so it was difficult but over time over hours we started to gain her trust but the other thing that was really amazing is that people started to gather hundreds and finally at one point in time one of the the locals looked at one of our missionaries and said what are you doing and we said we're trying to help her and he said why would you do that she was obviously terrible in a previous life and she has to work it out and if you don't let karma take its take its role she'll have to come back in a miserable life again as catholics we don't believe in reincarnation or in karma now if it's true then maybe they're right but that little girl's trapped and if we're right she needs to be rescued and it's going to only be from a christian perspective and i would argue will only be done most perfectly from a catholic christian perspective we can't think and i'm not here to criticize the hindus and the buddhists that are there that's not my point i'm here to say that there are amazingly wonderful people who are trapped in false belief systems waiting to be rescued that's what the early apostles did they rescued people from paganism because they were killing their children and now we live in a neo-pagan culture and we're killing our children again they need to be rescued they're not bad people they're victims they've been held captive by the devil and they're doing bad things but they want more they want you and they want me so the road to amass luke 24 so you know the story it's east or sunday not any east or sunday the east or sunday jesus rose earlier in the morning the two disciples clopis and his companion are walking and jesus shows up and they don't recognize him and he begins walking with them and you know scott mentioned earlier it probably was a couple hours maybe a few hours it's a six seven mile walk and they're walking along and they're talking so they're probably not making great pace and all of a sudden jesus comes up and essentially what he says is uh what's going on and they're taking a back what do you mean what's going on you're on the road from jerusalem you have to have known what just happened this weekend what happened jesus we thought he was the messiah and on friday they killed him and now his body's missing how do you not know this and i imagine that as they walked he was like so so tell me about this jesus and when the first one started said something like this oh i was at this sermon that he gave on a mountain it was crazy i uh i quit my job actually and just started following him it was i was like this is the guy this is the guy and uh how about you i was down in jerusalem and there was this woman caught in adultery and uh he walked up and he said well he was out sin cast the first stone and beginning with the oldest and wisest of the rabbis they all dropped their stones and then jesus looked there and said but i don't condemn you either go away and sin no more and i i thought gosh if he could forgive sins like that he could forgive me so i started following that's great what was your favorite part about jesus this goes on for a while and and and then he's talking to him and then finally he can't take it anymore and he says oh foolish men in slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken was it not necessary for the christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory and beginning with moses that's the title of my talk beginning with moses thanks and uh and with all the prophets he explained to them the things concerning himself in all of the scriptures this is the best bible study in the history of the world better than scott's it's really really good it's crazy how good this is and luke does not write one word about what he said not one word oh my i don't know if you if you go forward one page in john chapter one we find out what time it is it's four o'clock in the afternoon are you kidding me who cares what time it was i want to know a little bit about the bible study but the bible study is so good it's so awesome so he's there in the bible study and then he's he's looking like they've reached the end and he's going to go on and it says they urged him to stay with us because when you share the narrative of salvation history well people will want you to stay with them it's compelling their hearts would burn and then you know he goes into the end he goes with them and then the unity of the scriptures and the sacraments they recognize him in the breaking of the bread and then bam he's gone so they they run back to Jerusalem now what i hadn't seen until recently because the church when she reads these to us stops the story there on sunday and we pick up the next week but literally in loose gospel right back to back the next thing we know is jesus goes and appears in the upper room to the 10 you said 11 last night's 10 judas was gone and thomas was missing i guess so cool that has never happened and it probably will never happen again i almost told him about it privately earlier i had no way and this what does he do he does the exact same thing he gives the same scripture teaching again best bible study in the world number two not a different one second rendition of the same story and what we know from john's gospel it's not clear in loose gospel but just as in the first telling the telling of the scriptures in the narrative we're linked with the eucharist john helps to inform us that in the second telling it's united with confession because in john chapter 20 we know in this meeting in the upper room he gives them the power to forgive sins we don't hear in john's gospel about the bible study so we have to piece these together and reckon with the scriptures and the sacraments are meant to go so closely together there's only one prayer that we all have to pray as catholics it's the master's only one book that needs to be read at every mass and that's the bible and that is true of all of the full forms of the sacraments in an emergency you don't have to read from the scriptures grab some water and baptize them but in a liturgical baptism we read from the scriptures the scriptures and the sacraments are meant to go close and next to one another but my point i think is this jesus could have said anything he could have done anything but i gotta believe he's like you know i've been waiting since genesis three to come and do what i just did i i just well first of all my dad and i the holy spirit we wrote the old testament loaded all kinds of stuff in there that you would never understand until i came and fulfilled it that was amazing so let me tell you that but i don't know if you know today this morning i destroyed the devil it was awesome and i had a really good day and so did you best day ever it's so cool and the way i'm going to celebrate it i'm good i'm going to share the scriptures and i'm going to share the sacraments with you not to share the sacraments but for confession for the first time ever and what he's doing is he's shaping their worldview to understand because crazy stuff happens it had been a bad week they were all confused devastated and now all of a sudden his resurrection as and he could do this in your life too i know there are people at night that are hurting devastating her like i wasn't gonna come because i'm in so much pain and you chose to come i am telling you i don't know what is the challenge that you're dealing with and i'm sorry you are but i tell you our god is bigger than your problem and to be able to recognize that is that is salvation history salvation history says it's not that moses is going to walk out and say come on israelites let's walk across the newly made bridge across the red sea no he brings them to the edge of the red sea and then the most powerful military in the world is turned on them yeah i mean there are times i don't understand church leadership today that would have been really hard to understand moses really are you are you crazy you're just trying to kill all of us and then all of a sudden part the red sea that's pretty cool nothing cooler than dead in the grave rose from the dead and not just rose from the dead because lazars rose from the dead but died again when jesus rises from the dead he reveals the rebel the resurrection this is not a resuscitation no jesus's body can walk through walls he could be in more than one place at a time he could do anything you want he can't suffer and your body won't be able to either it'll be able to do all those things and not suffer when you experience the resurrection in jesus and that will be the case for everybody else who encounters the gospel of jesus christ but we live in a world where people's lenses don't have room for god now how do we fix that how do we fix that we tell them stories that's how they got there just tell them better stories and they're right here in the scriptures and in the lives of the saints tell them stories an amazing thing happens you know that's true for you that i kind of watch i like to watch movies because i like to forget when i'm no longer aware that i'm watching because at a certain point i'm like okay there's the credits yeah and then at a certain point time i'm like wow i was just totally there and somewhere along the line they just had me and when when the narrative of salvation history is shared well you will just have them so my encouragement to you learn the narrative well you have immense capacity to do this you already have so much in some ways some of the work at this point in time in our lives is just connecting the dots that are already there so that we can tell the story better and then finally i want to encourage you to actually tell the story i was with christian smith he works at notared ames sociologist we were at a meeting with some bishops over evangelization and christian said uh oh curtis i you'll be interested in my new work i researched and we studied hundreds of families we broke them into three groups catholic jews hindus people of faith and then all them people of faith and the question was did your kids practice the faith and one group was all of them yes the other group all of them no and then in the middle some yes some no he said we discounted the middle because we needed clarity and we went and talked to those families who had either succeeded in every case or had failed in every case he said curtis one thing came to the top more than anything else lots of things were important meals together going to church all important but he said the one number one thing that that made a bigger difference in helping young people to keep the faith of their parents oh i can see i'm out of time i wish i could share it with you oh you i actually have a minute and 50 seconds left uh he said they had spiritual conversations with their with their children what are spiritual conversations their stories let me tell you what i think about what i think about david and basheba let me tell you what i think about mary did this today let me tell you about joe's at the patriarch because he's one of those glorious people in all of scripture and we should think and talk about that it'll captivate the hearts these are men and women who either made the heroic decision to pursue virtue and were blessed or made the unfortunate decision of falling into vice and had to suffer consequences and when you learn about that in a story you can actually make better decisions yourself when i heard about saint maxby and colby trapped in a concentration camp i'd never heard about him before so this is a obviously a life of a saint and ten prisoners are lined up they're going to be executed and one of the men said please don't i have a family and colby cathlet priest said take me instead that really happened yeah he outlived all of them in fact he was living without food or water for so long they finally went into murder him uh because he just wasn't dying and he was glowing in the dark last part of his life and the guards were starting to convert so they had to kill him it was a terrible afternoon for him but it's been great ever since and there are hardships in our lives today and they're terrible some of them are horrible but they're only going to last for a fleeting moment and eternity is forever and so it is my hope and prayer for each of us that you will recommit and work with st paul center to deepen our knowledge of the narrative and then love people enough to share the stories and spiritual conversations let's pray name of the father the son and the holy spirit amen father god we want you to transform our minds and our hearts we want you to launch the world launch us into the world so we can evangelize the world make the church strong and alive again so that we'll be light to the darkness and that many multitudes of people will come so that this generation of catholics will serve this generation of people glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be a world without end amen father son and holy spirit amen


Inspector-General of Police Usman al-Khalibaba has described Saturday's presidential and National Assembly elections as the most peaceful and best-organized elections he had witnessed in his career. Babahu addressed journalists after a tour of Aitbulin stations and the federal capital territory set a level of preparedness from independent National Electoral Commission officials, and the responses from electorate were encouraging. Also in a very critical period now, which is sorting and counting in most of the polling stations that we have visited, the response of people are encouraging, people are guarding their boats, they are participating in sorting and counting of boats, the provision of security is also fantastic. I think I can adjudge that this is one of the most peaceful and best-organized elections I have witnessed in my career in the police force, I have been participating in elections and elections security. I think we have done well so far, the presiding officers to finish collecting their results and announcing it at that place and for them to move to the next coalition center. So we are on top of the situation, the performance of everybody is encouraging, particularly eternal in the south-east is also very, very encouraging and election is going on fine everywhere. It's not true that we have blasts in Meduguri but we have blasts in Borno State, which is Guaza. Guaza and Meduguri are over 200 kilometers apart, in that blast years we expected this kind of situation and we have made a proactive arrangement, prior to that the adversaries have sent in some whatever you call either blast or missile or whatever, but it has not disrupted the election very well, but we have about five injuries and some small damages, but the election is going on.


Hey Gems welcome back to my channel. So as you can see by the title of this video this is my pregnancy update video. For those of you who do not know I am currently pregnant with my third baby but I just wanted to record a separate video going more into details about this pregnancy because it is very different it is very special and I probably still won't be able to cover everything in this video but I'm gonna cover as much as I possibly can. So first and foremost I am currently 27 weeks I just entered my sixth month. This is actually my last week of my second trimester so I'll be in my third trimester soon. Oh my gosh I didn't even notice that. So yes I'll be entering my third trimester soon and I didn't even realize that but let me show you off. So yes I'm in my sixth month of pregnancy I say sixth month because I literally just entered my sixth month so I don't want to say I'm six months pregnant because I'm literally just like three days into my sixth month but um yeah that's how far along I am now. Okay so just a little backstory I found out I was pregnant last year November on about I remember the exact date November 4th. If you watched my previous video you know that I went through a lot of hard times and difficulties within my personal relationship with my children's fathers so uh during that time things were pretty much difficult. When I found out I was pregnant I didn't really have any reaction I wasn't happy I wasn't sad I was just numb and I was numb because of what was happening what I was going through at the time what I was feeling at the time it was just really hard and I didn't really know what to do and how to feel and uh the beginning of my pregnancy was actually very very hard not in the sense of like morning sickness and stuff because thankfully I didn't have much of that with this one but mentally and emotionally I was out of it I was not happy um things between my partner my then partner and I was just really bad and as much as I was trying to make it work from the time I found out I was pregnant I was already mentally out of the relationship like I just didn't want to be there anymore I didn't want to be around him I didn't want to see him this pregnancy is what gave me my push to leave something that I know was literally deteriorating my physical mental and emotional health and my spiritual health so I am very thankful for this pregnancy as much as it made sound sad that oh she's pregnant now she's single she doesn't like it's not a sad situation for me in that aspect because this pregnancy literally saved my life and that alone is a whole nother video of how this pregnancy saved my life but it did and I'm very grateful for it and whoever this being is that chose me to bring them into this physical realm I am so grateful for them because like I said he or she saved my life literally yeah starting out I was not healthy I was not eating I was barely sleeping like everything I should have been doing to make sure I'm healthy because I'm pregnant I was not doing because of the environment I was in the toxic relationship I was in the people that I was around everything was more negative than positive and that affected me deeply on top of that there was a lot of not a lot but there was physical abuse so I have to be honest and say like the beginning of my pregnancy was not healthy at all okay not let me not say at all because I'm here the baby is here and we're both fine but it was not healthy it just wasn't in terms of food and stuff like even food wise I wasn't eating as healthy as I normally would I didn't have no I had the herbs that I would need but I wasn't consistent like it was everything was just taking a lot out of me and I was not taking care of myself the way I should have been and that lasted for at least the first trimester of my pregnancy I wasn't gaining weight I was actually losing weight everything was just the opposite of what it should have been but I am thankful that I made it through it like my body was literally in survival mode and that is what got me to this point so at the end of the day I'm grateful I am fine now I am eating I have my appetite I'm resting I am gaining weight the way I should so everything is great now but that's just a simple reminder of how important you're surrounding your environment and the people you're around is when you're pregnant I do not wish what I went through on anybody no pregnant woman should have to go through that none like it took a lot out of me way too much this pregnancy is also different because I did not experience morning sickness the way I did with my first two when I was pregnant with my first son I was sick from beginning to end I was walking around with a spit bottle I was vomiting throughout the whole pregnancy I didn't want to leave the house I didn't want to do nothing because I was always sick the nausea the vomiting the spitting you can ask anybody that was around me on a daily basis I was miserable because of the morning sickness I don't even know why they call it morning sickness because that shit lasted 24 seven with my second pregnancy the same thing although it got a little better when I moved back to the to the virgin islands I was still sick throughout the whole pregnancy and I walked around with a spit bottle again and I had that spit bottle up until I was giving birth I was literally giving birth and spitting it was just oh it was just a mess however I was eating healthier but that that morning sickness just it did not give me a break with my first two pregnancy and this pregnancy I did get a little morning sickness in my first trimester and I did experience a little spitting in my first trimester as well but it went away and it wasn't spitting to the point where I needed a spit bottle like my other two pregnancies so that's one big difference the morning sickness was thankfully not so bad and then by the time I entered my second trimester it all went away I don't know when last yeah I have not thrown up since I don't know when I probably could count on my two hands how many times I threw up throughout my pregnancy so far and I'm already in my six month when in my first two pregnancy I was stirring up almost every day so yeah I am grateful that this baby is being good to me like I'm not miserable yes I get tired yes I'm I'm a little more irritable sometimes and you know just the normal pregnancy things that that comes along with bringing creating life but in terms of just the what I experienced with my first two it's not that bad at all and I'm so grateful for it like I said the feeling is different from the time I found out I was pregnant at at the time I was still in Ghana and still with my children's well we were still living together or whatever but I kept saying that like something about this pregnancy feels different and I can't put my hand on it and you know he just blew me off and be like oh every pregnancy not gonna be the same but I knew like it was undescribable how I was feeling like it was just different from the from the start like this pregnancy made me not want to be around anything that was detrimental to my life and to my well-being including my relationship and even though I tried to fight that feeling and still try to make it work this baby was like uh-uh you get out of this situation before I come because this is not what's up so it this pregnancy was my push it it's it's literally something I cannot verbally explain and describe but it's something that I guess you only know if you know in terms of if you have experienced it yourself yes I have pregnancy symptoms but they're not what pregnancy symptoms do I have oh so one thing I can point out is that my first two pregnancy I was so sensitive to smell that I didn't want anything scented around me I had to use unscented soap unscented body butter unscented everything I took all the air fresheners and everything that had a smell out of my house with my first pregnancy I throw away everything that like it all smelled bad to me but with this pregnancy I'm actually enjoying certain smells like sweet smells smells feminine sweet delicate smells I'm loving it like rose rose right now I am crazy about rose I have rose incense rose soap rose lotion like I am loving the smell of floral rosy scents and that's very different because I could not stand it with my first two pregnancies also I have more sweet cravings with my first two I had more salty cravings but now I have more sweet cravings like I had to make my mother make me some coconut drops because I am vegan I'm plant based and you know I wasn't gonna just go to the bakery and buy coconut drops and although she make it she makes it with some ingredients that I don't use like soy so I had her specifically make me some coconut drops with spelt flour and fresh grated coconut my bottle went and bought some fresh card coconut and he grated and instead of raisins she actually used dates and she sweetened it with agave and she used coconut milk and oh my gosh I tear those things up that's just an example but like I am having way more sweet cravings with this pregnancy but in all like I feel so much better with this pregnancy like I feel pretty I'm going out more like I'm always up and down but my first two pregnancy I was always in the house I didn't want to be around nobody I didn't want to be seen anywhere but now I like I enjoy putting on my little outfit stressing up and going out even if I don't really have anything to do but the hard part to that is still having two little ones to care for because naturally because they're so young they're gonna react due to due to the fact that they know another baby is on the way so that part has been hard but thankfully my parents have been so helpful and they love my parents they love their grandparents so now that I'm back home especially the one year old like he loved his grandfather he's always with him so that's a big help in that aspect so that gives me time to more focus on myself and take care of myself and heal from everything I went through so although that part is hard having to care for two little ones while pregnant especially being that they also experience trauma and I have you know be more patient and so far naturally you kind of lose some of your patients while you're pregnant and you're a little bit more irritable and so forth so that part is a little difficult but thankfully I have very supportive family and they've been helping so much so gender do I know the gender no I do not am I going to find out the gender no I am not so we all will be waiting to find out if this baby is a boy or a girl what do I think I'm having I'm not gonna say but you can tell me in the comments below what you think I'm having based on everything I said based on the comparisons I made between my first two pregnancies and this one but um yeah I genuinely don't want to know the gender for more reasons than one but the main reason is because I just really want to focus on bringing forth a healthy baby after everything I went through I just want to make sure my baby is healthy that I am healthy and that I have a healthy labor and birth so the gender isn't important because boy or girl this pregnancy is still very different and special because like I said before and I cannot stop saying it it saved my life and um I know that this pregnancy came from my own survival because it was the push I needed to put myself first after years of just not doing so so um yeah I'm not gonna find out the gender but I will be recording my filming my um my labor and birth am I gonna do another lotus birth probably not a full lotus birth but not because I didn't enjoy my first one that I did with my last son uh I truly did however the whole delay clamping and delaying detaching the umbilical cord from the baby is part of having to me a natural bird so I will be doing that so I will be leaving the placenta and umbilical cord attached to the baby for a few days until everything is dried up but I may not wait until it falls off by itself I don't know yet I'm still deciding I don't know I only saying that because with when I did my lotus birth with my son the cord actually dried up really quick like in within three days the cord was dried up however there was just one little piece of flesh that was still connected to his belly button and it was just literally hanging on and I was just waiting and waiting for it to fall off like it was literally just hanging like hanging there so I feel like once the cord is dried up I feel comfortable cutting it off but um I don't know yet I'm gonna feel things out and see if I do a full lotus bird or a half lotus bird but regardless I will be burying my placenta like I did with my last spurt and this time I may plant what kind of tree am I going to plant I don't know I don't know yet but I will plant some tree on top of the placenta so as I mentioned I will be recording my labor and birth but although I will be sharing my birth story on here on this platform YouTube I do want to record a very raw detailed birth this time like I this pregnancy I want to do things how I have always wanted to do things but haven't been able to just because of the background chaos and noise that I always had to experience so now that that is out the way I'm doing everything the way I want or the way that I feel serves me and that will make me happy so I want to record a very raw and detailed birth and delivery labor and delivery labor and birth video so YouTube may not be the platform I upload that on however I will share my birth story on YouTube but if you want to see that raw detailed video I may either put it up on my website or on patreon if I you know decide to start a patreon like I mentioned on my last video so I don't know just follow me and I'll keep you all posted on what I decide but I am definitely recording that because it's going to be something very beautiful I can feel it because everything about this pregnancy has been so different and so special and so spiritual that I cannot capture it in some type of way so I'm definitely going to capture it this time in the way that I know I really want to and now that I have the support that is going to allow me to capture it I'm going to make sure that's done so yeah that's about it for this pregnancy update it's a little long hopefully once I've edited it kind of come down a little bit but that's about it for this video you all can expect more videos from me of course I'll probably be sharing some what I eat in a day videos while pregnant random pregnancy updates I just want to be able to share whatever I feel like sharing in the moment and I hope that you all will appreciate that type of information and that type of content and stick with me help me grow my channel and follow me on all my platforms and stay tuned because like I said gem stylistic will be relaunching in a very special way I cannot wait to share you all share with you all what I have planned pertaining to gem stylistic and that's about it so the sun has set and it's beautiful out here but I'm gonna end this video and get off of the beach before it gets too dark but anyways as always I wish you all love light and prosperity and you all will see me in my next video I seek out the fullness in the future of the claddies


Hello, my name is Frank Wong and in this video I want to show you how to quickly toggle back and forth between part and full-score on the Henley app as The chamber musician. This is a big game changer Let's say you are a violinist in a piano trio, for example, and you want to see what the other musicians are playing No longer do you need to manually switch back and forth between part and full score? From my experiences watching my colleagues doing this. This was a bit tiring and cumbersome Now thanks to the Henley app. The study of chamber music has become a lot more convenient. Let me quickly show you how this works Before continuing on I want to stress an important thing in order for this to work You must purchase the same title of both the instrumental part and the full score from the Henley library as You can see here. I opened up the violin part of a Brahms piano trio. I also have the full score purchased as well Now look at what happens when I touch with one finger on this staff Here at the bottom you will now see an option for you to jump to the full score of the corresponding measures and you can easily navigate back to the violin part by tapping here again and Tapping down here. It's really that quick and easy This also works for a concertos, too in the case of the Beethoven Emperor concerto Here's the solo piano part without the orchestra Now when I tap here as I previously showed you It will take me to the orchestra score I would also like to mention that Henley has it currently set that the default jump will always be to the full score If only the piano reduction is available then the switch will occur there Again, I love how seamless and easy it is to navigate between the various scores When I coach chamber music groups I tell my students to always know each other's parts now with the Henley app There's really no excuse. I hope you enjoyed this video and will consider using this wonderful app To read my review and overview, please see the link below. Thanks for watching


Welcome to NTN Nightly, I am Genelle Norville, this edition's top stories. The ECCB says the COVID-19 pandemic must be approached with a mindset of growth. A committee has been appointed with a view of recommending commercial activity and the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports recognises the youth despite the odds. Hello and thank you for joining us at the Information Command Centre for the national response to COVID-19 as we bring you the latest developments. The Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, ECCB, in his recent address indicated that opportunity lurks amidst the doom and gloom brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. He noted that the ECCB has been working assiduously to assist members of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union, ECCU with an holistic response to the pandemic. Details in this report. Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, ECCB, Timothy Antoine in his recent address indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global economic downturn and an almost certain recession, something that he describes as the perfect storm. Governor Antoine noted that like many other crises before, the COVID-19 pandemic will soon be in the world's review mirror, but the stars and lessons will linger forever. The pandemic, according to the Governor, has presented opportunities to enhance the way we live, work and conduct our daily lives, opportunities that can be seized if approached with a growth mindset. The International Monetary Fund, IMF, is projecting that the global economy will contract in 2020 on a magnitude the same as or larger than the global financial crisis. The extent of the economic impact depends on the length and the severity of the pandemic, and those are still unknowns at this time. Governor Antoine indicated that the ECCB has run several scenarios for the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union, ECCU. Based on two such scenarios, economic activity in the ECCU is projected to contract between 5% and 7% in 2020, accompanied by a sharp rise in unemployment. Now keep in mind that prior to this pandemic, economic growth in the ECCU was projected at 3.3%. Member governments have fashioned and announced fiscal stimulus or what may be more aptly described as care and relief packages to help cushion the effect of the pandemic on individuals and businesses. This is an exceptionally challenging time for governments because revenues have plummeted. Since the outbreak, the ECCB has been focused on two priorities, protecting its staff and serving the region. The governor highlighted some of the actions undertaken by the ECCB to date. First, provided financial support to member governments through a $4 million grant, $500,000 for each member country, from the fiscal reserve tranche 2. Second, reached an agreement with the ECCU Bankers Association on a loan deferral program for customers for up to six months. A waiver of late fees and charges is applicable to eligible customers during that period. Third, created a page on the ECCB's website to provide information on the bank's COVID-19 response. Fourth, discussed a loan deferral program for customers with credit unions, the Caribbean Confederation of Credit Unions, and national regulators. Fifth, increased government share of the credit allocation budget, thereby increasing the central bank's lending capacity to member governments. Six, instituted bank-wide telecommuting working from home. And seventh, reduced the discount rate to 2% from 6.5%. This is a rate at which the central bank lends to governments and banks. The ECCB has also been conducting regular meetings with ministries of finance within the ECCU with a view of lending support to the development of national and regional responses to COVID-19. The ECCB is working closely with the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, OECS Commission, in the procurement of critical supplies, assessments, resource mobilization, and coordination. The ECCB has also engaged the IMF and World Bank Group on getting assistance from members of the ECCU. Like many other events and celebrations, activities scheduled as part of the celebration of St. Lucia's youth, such as the highly anticipated youth awards, have been halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Observed annually this year's Youth Month is being celebrated under the theme Puvarshenes, the Power of the Youth. Youth Day is observed annually on April 14, during the observance of Youth Month. Despite the odds, Minister of Youth Development and Sports Honourable Edmund Estefan seized the opportunity to convey a message of hope and resilience to the nation's youth. The minister recognized the contributions being made by the youth, from those who volunteer to those who contribute to the various sectors, including the agriculture sector and the green and orange sectors. He said their contributions did not go unnoticed as they are integral to the success of St. Lucia. Honourable Estefan highlighted some new initiatives being embarked upon by the ministry. The Ministry of Youth Development and Sports is working on a virtual youth development platform with the aim of helping young people engage in discussion during this time of limited social interaction with the pairs. We are also considering the provision of psychosocial support to the youth as this pandemic has suddenly taken a toll on the emotional and mental health. The ministry is also in discussion with the international and regional organizations on methods to bring relief to young people and that will be communicated when things are in place. We are also in discussion with young people in trying to develop an e-sports program in St. Lucia. Minister Honourable Estefan called on the youth to join in the fight against COVID-19 as part of the mitigation efforts to reduce the transmission of the virus. The Ministry of Youth Development and Sports will be contributing 35,000 disposable masks to young people across the island. This gesture signals the recognition of April as Youth Month as all celebration activities and events that would have attracted public gatherings have been cancelled. The Ministry of Youth Development and Sports will be assisting in the fight to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, the COVID-19. By distributing reusable face masks to young people across the island. We want young people to model the behavior of wearing these face masks to signal their commitment to haul the transmission of COVID-19. If you will be living your home, please wear a face mask. Youth workers will sensitize the communities at the appropriate time of distribution. Minister of Youth Development and Sports Honourable Estefan added that the disposable masks will be distributed across the island and will target young people in essential services including other places of employment as well as voluntary organizations using the services of young people. This is NTN Nightly. Please stay with the broadcast. We'll be right back. Coronavirus? I am worried Gaza is only old people dying from that. Hold up. Being young does not mean being safe. Yes, it's true that the elderly are at higher risk but anyone can get the virus. The effect is even worse if you have a chronic condition like hypertension, heart disease, lung disease and diabetes or weakness in your immune system. If you are living with these conditions, be extra careful. Wash your hands with soap and water. Use hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol when hand washing is not possible. Avoid touching your face. Take steps to boost your immunity through proper nutrition, exercise, rest and take your medication as prescribed. Limit being around people who have flu symptoms, even close family members. Our health is in our hands. Together through simple actions, we can stop the spread of coronavirus. This message was brought to you by the Bureau of Health Education of the Ministry of Health and Wellness. Welcome back. The Minister for Commerce, Industry, Investment, Enterprise Development and Consumer Affairs speaks to plans for the operationalization of the commercial sector. Anisia Antoine tells us more. The Government of St. Lucia is currently working with the public and private sectors for a phased reopening of the economy. As St. Lucia prepares for the drought season, hardware stores have been reopened in an effort to facilitate household emergencies and increase water storage capacity. A committee has been appointed to work with the sectors, as well as the public health departments, to put protocols in place for the full operationalization of commercial activity. Minister for Commerce, International Trade, Investment, Enterprise Development and Consumer Affairs, Honourable Bradley Felix, explained that all hardware and home supply stores have to submit an application to the Ministry of Commerce to be vetted before reopening. We continue to send out the message to the hardware store owners that there is a certain protocol that must be followed, whether it's external customers or your internal customers. So that is in place now. With regards to the convenience stores, the home supplies, owners, they do have to apply. We recognize that some of these stores sell a wide range of items, and we want to ensure that they restrict the activity in the store to what is considered to be essential items, which is your sanitary items, your cleaning supplies, health and wellness. We would try as much as possible. And we know that a lot of these stores do have various floors where different things are located. So if it's possible to completely lock off maybe top floors so people can only address the essential needs on one floor, we ensure that we provide that sort of guidance to them. The Minister for Commerce noted that his ministry has engaged all sector agencies in aiding businesses that have suffered disruptions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses have been significantly disrupted. Unfortunately, I believe there are some that will not recover from the current situation. There are those, I believe, that will recover and bounce back even better and stronger. What this has done is hopefully to create an awareness by all businesses that we need to have various systems, various business continuity plans in place, various guidelines enacted within the framework of their operations to ensure that when another such crisis, and I'm sure there will be others, comes up, that they are better prepared to deal with that. Honourable Bradley-Philips expressed gratitude to the sector agencies, including the St. Lucia Business Association and the St. Lucia Manufacturers Association for their contributions during this period. For those who donated graciously in terms of food items so that we could have supported the vulnerable, for those who were able to open under immediate requests by government to facilitate various shopping activities, for those manufacturers also who took advantage of what they saw was a necessary item required by St. Lucia in terms of some of what was produced. We saw nutmeg, we saw St. Lucia distillers, we saw others producing health and sanitary items that could have been used in this crisis. The Ministry of Commerce, International Trade, Investment, Enterprise Development and Consumer Affairs remains guided by the Ministry of Health and will continue to provide updates as it was related to the business community. From the Government Information Service, I am Anisia Antoine reporting. We now join Primers-Hudgingston for today's Nuffel-Oquiole. Thank you so much, General. Thank you, Madam Department, for providing information on this government. This is GIS. It is also a national television company, NTN, which is also a newquiole. This is Primers-Hudgingston. This government has established a programme of social stabilisation to assist people who are affected by the coronavirus. This means that they can work because of the virus. In particular, they can work in industrial, sector and domestic industries. I have lost work and the government is making a lot of money to help people who are affected by the coronavirus. The way we address this programme is Prime Minister Alain Chassny who has a very important initiative. Even if the government has placed a salary on the people who are affected by the coronavirus, they can also help people who are affected by the coronavirus. Prime Minister Alain Chassny has said that the programme of social stabilisation is mainly for people who are affected by the coronavirus and for people who are affected by the coronavirus. For example, citizens and people who are affected by the coronavirus are affected by the coronavirus. The Prime Minister said that the government has paid for the people who are affected by the coronavirus because of the coronavirus. After this, the government has put $6000 and $1,600 per month for the next three months. This is a direct 20% of real estate to be financed by the government in Europe before February 20, 2017. The Prime Minister has said that the government has placed $16.8 million That is, for those who do not want to pay assistance, the National Paying Corporation, NIC, I estimate that it will cost you $3 million, which will cost you $4 million in three months. That is, for those who want to pay assistance. For those who do not want to pay assistance, especially in a situation that exists today, it is important to pay the contribution of the government to pay the assistance of the government to pay the assistance of the government to the National Paying Corporation. That is, for those who do not want to pay assistance, especially in a situation that exists today, it is important to pay the assistance of the government to pay the assistance of the government to the National Paying Corporation. That is, for those who do not want to pay assistance, especially in a situation that exists today, it is important to pay the assistance of the government to the National Paying Corporation. That is, for those who do not want to pay assistance, especially in a situation that exists today, it is important to pay the assistance of the government to the National Paying Corporation. That is, for those who do not want to pay assistance, especially in a situation that exists today, it is important to pay the assistance of the government to the National Paying Corporation. That is for those who do not want to pay assistance, in a situation that exists today, it is important to pay the assistance of the government to the National Paying Corporation. That is, for those who do not want to pay assistance, especially in the economy, According to Dr. Mayer Lanienpil Institute in the West Parwes, he said that he advised not to go to a lot of people to get an initiative like that. Dr. Mayer pleaded and pleaded the educators to support the program for the students who are trying to get a job like that, and to support them in a way that is easy for the Ministry of Education to do to support a co-incident situation for the program for the students who are trying to get a job like that. So we are not going to go to a lot of people to get a job like that because we know that it is difficult. But we want to applaud him, we want to say, we are working together. Not only education, we all have a responsibility for our country. We have a responsibility for our mother, we have a responsibility for the work we are doing. We are not working together to keep the situation going. With us, with all the information we have, we know that we have done better, but we all want to try for you. Go together to do that. The third theme of the school for the students who are trying to get a job like that, started on April 20, 2021. That's why we have to work together. Thank you so much for watching. Thank you for the invitation. I would like to continue. What is life like? We are trying to get a job like that. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Nonetheless, emergency surgeries will continue. Effective Tuesday, April 21, 2020, outpatient clinics at the St. Lucia National Mental Wellness Center will reopen. Patients and family members are kindly asked to add hair to the scheduled appointments. That brings us to the end of NTN Nightly. Join us next time at 7pm, with a repeat at 7am. You can also catch up with us anytime on the St. Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel. I am Janelle Norville.


Time to look at what the papers have to say. We're joined by public affairs analyst Ambrose Igbokei who is on the line from Inugu, Southeast Nigeria. Mr Igbokei, good morning. Thank you very much for your time. Good morning. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I was having a chat with few of the air. Do we have fewer queues in your part of the country like we have in Lagos? Everywhere is queue and it's a terrible situation in Lagos. How is it in Inugu? Well, there are no queue here because usually in the Southeast, because of Lagos, you have private and public schools at the private and public schools at the pride where you sell in a budget Lagos and courts and courts. You're not timing up. What is the point when it was 165 in Lagos? You don't get it on 165 here. It's only if you fill in stations that sell 155. In metropolis like Inugu, maybe Alessia, Oka, Abakiliki and the rest. When you start leaving those capital, it's only in Italy. Like in Inugu, where it's not going to work on Oka and the rest. You're not paying them at 185. When it's even moved up, for the past three weeks, one month, we'll be buying three PMS pallets at over 200 Naira. So most of the stations that sell between 240 and 265 within the metropolis and as much as 280 to 290 outside the state capital. So first of all, they already have their margins, profits margin to a standard proportion that don't, they'll lose their fees. All right, all right. It's an interesting situation in the country today. Let's start with a look at the nation newspaper. It has the following headlines. A big one there, oil. Buhari warns against Niger Delta mistakes in the north. Of course, the president had inaugurated recently the oil business in Gongola Basin. This is what he's saying at the launch of that. For oil exploration, terrible hour recharge, recharge, they chad if elected. You won't know what that means. You have to read, you know, the nation newspaper to find out why Jonathan Cant back at Ticco by Wike. I think it's the latest project that he commissioned recently and where he had, I don't know who the latest Vista to Lagos state, river status. I think it was David Umahi and he made that statement there. He says the PDP candidates humiliated the ex-president in 2015. More from the nation. New Naira notes to go into circulation today. Interest rate now 16.5% that's calling yesterday's monetary policy committee meeting. APC to launch, crowd pulling app, raise funds, party rejects, campaign plan. Document on 2.2 billion Naira sovereign wealth fund missing. Ministry tells Senate. God have mercy upon us. No excuses for loss to Saudi Arabia, says Messi. That is a coming from the World Cup. We go quickly to leadership newspaper 2023, Christian leaders quiz at Ticco or be a day by your over plans for Nigeria. The writers to that. We won't endorse any presidential candidates as Christian Association of Nigeria. Okay, seems to be a U-turn. What happened? Give us a chance. We'll make Nigeria work again. PDP, Labour Party, flag bears, recharge, like child, even like the president. What does that mean? Please read the paper to find out. More from the leadership history as PMB commissions. 1 billion burial, coal money, crude oil drilling. Okay, congratulations to them. Court rejects request to order continuous voter registration. Talked about that in top trending segment. Buhari unveils redesign Naira notes today. CBN raises interest rate. We have Governor Suley presents 1.48 billion Naira 2023 budget to Nassir. Where am I reading that? Where am I reading that? All right, let's leave that. Okay, I think this is also interesting. Sao Olu won state's impute in electricity bill. The punch newspaper on Wednesday has the big story on its front page. 16.5% interest rate. Private sector protects factories shut down higher bad loans. So right, this means that they will not be able to pay back their loans on an increasing rate. CBN interest rate hike will increase manufacturers 5 trillion Naira debt. Monetary policy tightening will worsen inflation says Nassimha. Articul B meet can tackle APC on governance. It's late to resume voter registration. Court rules, fuel, queues, receipts in Lagos, marketers blame depots, new Naira notes for circulation before December 15. That's against a paper, I think it was the nation that said they'll be released putting circulation today. Punch demands to put 25.1 million Naira judgment debt from CBN. All right, what am I waiting for? Impeached akiti speaker heads to court. It seems it's not over there. Abuja Bouchie crushes Kale 44 FRSE plans. Mars burial. Very, very sad. There's a picture of the president inaugurating at a $3 billion oil exploration in northeast. Don't forget, they've not found the oil yet. They're looking for it. That is what he's inaugurating quickly from the daily trust. All in North. Co money drill attracts 1.33 trillion Naira investments. Buhari. We adopted core, why we adopted core regulation media owners. Race to the National Assembly. Baguro Alero in Titanic battle for KB central. I'll implement your demands. Attiquetel's current leaders and 66 travelers killed in Abuja Borno Kogi Plateau road incidents. Really sad situation there. Okay, let's start with the interest rate story. Do you agree with what the private sector is saying as per the punch in the newspaper? They're predicting that manufacturing, the industries in the country, the ones that are still operating will shut down and that there'll be more bad loans from the manufacturing private sector because of this 16.5 that Gordon Mifili and his MPC have increased interest rate too. Well, first of all, Nigeria business entity and sector has been strangulated by I would like to call it a devilish economic policies over the years. And that is why through the structural adjustment program brought in by the multiband model almost 40 years ago, we have started having decline in our manufacturing sector and other business sectors. And that is why we're applying what the grant rule institutions tell us. Our industries started dying. Our state plants shut down. Our textile industry shut down. Our sugar factories shut down. Our mobile factories, assembly plants shut down. Our agriculture shut down. All the production sector shut down. And then we can be consuming the show. And because of this incident, those who are importing goods to Nigeria in their own country, the production, the loan in their country, they get as low as some of them get 5% interest load. Some of them get it as low as 3%. Some of them even, you know, have intervention funds from their government. They have subsidies. They have subsidies in agriculture. They have subsidies in the factory. Sometimes the government even go to other countries to negotiate businesses for them. I remember not too long ago, the one that I was very, very, again, I make a question here to negotiate businesses for students or in Germany. And then because that is what other countries do. American government go to negotiate businesses for the big corporations like General Electric and others.  When they want to also borrow from the bank, they borrow it as single digits. And so any economy that cannot borrow is a, you know, our business sector or services sector. And it's 10, which is single digits. Then it means that they want to change the industry. So they are right to say that the business sector in Nigeria will suffer seriously. If we already complain, the interest rate is already too high. The interest rate is already too high. You cannot borrow, look at for agricultural properties. How many farmers can borrow, you know, the commercial regime is 32%. We'll go to the banks who want to borrow. It's 22% officially. How many businesses can survive like that? So what we are saying is that it is evil. It is evil to actually want to increase the interest rate. And maybe they should get creative on how to solve the problem of Nigeria.  And they should get creative. He has the great all kinds of window dressing over the years.  So from the president, he wants to go into policies, for he wants to redesign the Naira. He had the day slip up over the years. So he has no strategy on how to run this country, the economy of this country in terms of from the city and angle. And that's why we are getting cut out, cut out the approach to issues. We don't have any serious plan to recover the things. Okay, let's move on. Yes, let's move on to the other one. Still an economic issue. Let's stay with him as the new Naira nodes are set to be unveiled today. They are targeting December 15 as the deadline for circulating these new Naira nodes of 200, 500, or rather 1,500 Naira nodes. What are your thoughts on this?  At this point in time, when our economy is, I mean, in very, very serious crisis, our first priority is not just the designer Naira nodes. We are not stretching the production sector. We are not, we have not done anything. We are countries, companies are shutting down, companies are migrating from Nigeria to Ghana and some other African countries. The economy, and then we are designing the Naira nodes. The Naira nodes is the value as follows. So what are we designing? The exclusives are due, that's for people who are losing their economy and holding Naira and new health. Those are infinite stress issues. What do we have there? Where do we have the EFCC? What do we have the DSS? What can we use in detail to split out those who are committing money laundering? Is it the common man on the street that is holding money, that wants to money to eat? Do you know how much it costs the N to reproduce this that the entire Naira nodes in the country. So for me, I think it's the wishful exercise coming just few months to the election. Why did you know, why did the government not allow the incoming government from May 29 to see what they can do with that? All right, let me say, okay. So I think this designing of the Naira nodes is all just for the voice. Okay. Okay, Mr. Bukit, let's move on to the nation news report. In fact, a lot of other papers have this story. With the new oil exploration initiative in the northern part of the country, this is in the Gongola Basin. The initiative by the National, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is called the Coal Money Integrated Development Project in Barambu. That's the Gongola Basin, the community between Bauchi and Gombe State. It's an oil exploration project. While talking to the NNPC or speaking, given his speech, he had a piece of advice on the NNPC. He says that the Niger Delta mistakes or the mistakes of the Niger Delta should not be repeated in the northern part of the country. What are your thoughts on the development and then the statement by the president? Well, this is good. It's coming from the presidency and from the ruling class that there have been terrible mistakes done in the Niger Delta. In terms of the oil spillage especially, where the oil has been exploited for has been most of those parts of the country have been turned to waste land because of oil spillage over the years. And all the efforts to even compensate. That is one. Two is that the oil giants, the International Oil Corporation, IOC, have not been held accountable since IOCs cannot do, even in our neighboring countries like Algeria and some other African countries that are producing petroleum, that they do, they cannot try over there. They say they cannot try in Saudi Arabia. They are doing it recklessly here and we are allowing them to go scot-free. So that mistake cannot be repeated. In fact, there should be a policy that holds that responsible. Now, most of them are selling off their assets after they are rushing to wreck the country. They are sold their assets and migrated to another country to maybe to continue the wreck somewhere else. And we allow this to happen from the drilling or first drilling of oil, when the oil was cited in February in 1959. We have been on this now. So it's so hard. You need to see the figures and pictures coming up from the Niger data. I grew up in Warren. I remember as a young chap going to Secondary School, our uniform was white, you know. And then we go to the one called Acid Ray. People in other parts of the country, we call it Acid Ray. Ray before.  Because of oil effects, because of gas flaring. So all these things should not be allowed to repeat itself in the not-heast. And that is a great thing. I want to say that Nigerians should pull out of this climate change agreement thing that the world is, the West is imposing on all other parts of the world and call it green house emission or those things. Who heated up the green house? It is the West. It is you. Europe was using a code, was using fossil fuels and everything to develop the economy, to build all the giant industries I have. And then when Africa was trying to try to develop, you're telling us that green house emission and green house emission should not be allowed.  So we should exploit our mineral resources. We should use what we are taking in that oil, water, and the Nigerian data. We do not want to ensure that we minimize the use of fossil fuels to develop our economy. The weightage of the past 60 years should not be allowed to consume. All right, Mr. Bokeh, I'm sure you're also agreeing with the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate Shihwa Jibola, who said it would over this issue of environmental sustainability, but protection that you can tell the church right not to eat the, so to say, or quote, poison communion, looking at that situation. Let's not go into that. Let's round off quickly with the look at what the leadership has for us. It's talking about the stance of the Christian Association of Nigeria, whom we all thought had taken sides as far as the 2023 presidential election is concerned. But they are saying, because they met with Obit, Peter Gregory Obit, the Liberal Party's presidential candidate, and Attico Bokeh, the People's Democratic Party presidential candidate, to quiz them over their plans for the country. And they are saying that we won't endorse any presidential candidate. That to me is an interesting one. It seems the language of the Christian Association of Nigeria has been changing over the past few weeks or months, if you want to say that. What are your thoughts on this, this quizzing of the two leading candidates? I don't think Shihwa Jibola was there. Maybe he's going to go on a later date. I don't know. It is not the place of Khan or any religious group on that matter to endorse any particular candidate. It is not their mandate. And doing that would be throwing themselves into partisan politics. The work of Khan is to guide the Christian body in Nigeria, to be able to know what to do and explore other news for articulating the issues that the issue of this Muslim-Muslim teacher is what the Christian body in Nigeria has seen as a plight and an insult to the entire body. So these are the issues that can articulate. But to comment hopefully, to say that they will support a particular candidate of a particular party, it cannot be done because even in Khan or in Christian parties, there are supporters of different political parties across the world in the Christian realm in Nigeria. So the umbrella body of Christians in Nigeria cannot come up to say that they support of any particular, that would be to cut a split and disseminate in the Christian body in Nigeria. So that cannot happen. But they have the right to, you know, like what you were talking about support, I don't think they have supported anybody in the past. They are just voicing opposition to issues like the issues of what the APC has done, for example, the Muslim-Muslim ticket, which is a swap on Christianity in Nigeria. And so they have voiced it against it over and over time. And maybe that's what you call support. But they have not openly support any, and they won't do that because it is very wrong for them to take that extreme partisan position. All right. Ambrose Bokeh, thank you so much for your time. I totally enjoyed your analysis. And of course, the reportage you did for us on the current situation of field supply in Inugu state, we appreciate your time. Thank you very much for having me this morning. And that's the size of the package and off the press. We'll take a break now, of course. And as you know what happened today in history, more will come back. We delve into a first major conversation. Please stay with us.