Good Friday & Easter Sunday - Sermon on the Mount II

6th April - Good Friday. Day of Fast and Abstinence for Catholics

7th April - Easter Sunder. Catholics and Christians celebrate Easter and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Mr Simen held a gathering for some teachers at his home on Easter Sunday. He delivered some advice on how to build strong families:

On Family

1. Wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband has authority over his wife just as Christ has authority over the Church... Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it. .. A man who loves his wife loves himself.....Scripture says, A man will leave his father and mother and unite with his wife and the two will become one"....Every husband must love his wife as himself, and every wife must respect her husband....Children, it is your duty to obey your parents for this is the right thing to do. "Respectr your father and your mtoher" is the first commandment that has a promise added: "so that all may go well with you and you may live a long time in the land.". Parents, do not treaty your children in such a way as to make them angry. Instead bring them up with Christian discipline and instruction" - St Paul's Letter to the Ephesians 7:21-32

The Lord God said, "It is not good for man to live alone. I will make a suiable companion to help him...The Lord God made the man fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, he took out one of the man's ribs and closed up the flesh. He formed a woman out of the rib and brought her to him. Then the man said, "At last, here is one of my own kind - Bone taken from my bone and flesh from my flesh. Woman is her name because she was taken out of a man". That isan leaves his father and mother and is united with his wife, and they become one. - Story of Adam and Eve. Book of Genesis 1:18-24

Mr Simen pointed out that the best way to change your wife, husband, brother, sister, father, mother was to change yourself first. "All is fair in love and life", he said.

On Work and Family Concerns

Mr Simen also spoke about working as a professional. He said that one should never take his problems in the home into the workplace. A true professional can separate work from the affairs and worries about home.

On Your Own Parents

Mr Simen spoke about the importance of loving your own father and mother. Parents have unconditional love for their children. As such, it is a natural order of logical consequence that your mother and father are the people you trust and therefore love the most.

On Love

Mr Simen said that a person without love will be moody and depressed. As such, it was important to have love in your hearts. "Love is patient and kind. It is not jealous or conceited or proud. Love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth. Love never gives up and its faith, hope and patience never fail. ... Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love. (St Paul's first letter to the Corinthians 13:8:13)