The Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church at Chantan, an Outstation of Our Lady of the Assumption (OLA) Parish at New Achimota, Accra, in a grand style, marked this year’s Holy Childhood Week with a series of activities.
Activities for the Week-long celebration launched on Sunday, February 4 included evangelisation drive, preaching the word of God to their fellow friends, Singing, Holy Mass and adoration, aerobics and cleanup exercise.
The climax Mass on Sunday February 11, 2024 was presided over by Rev. Fr. Johnny Hanson Agboli, MCCJ, a Ghanaian Comboni Missionary working in Togo and concelebrated by Rev. Fr. Pius Buuosoro, MCCJ, also a Ghanaian Comboni Missionary Priest serving in South Sudan.
At the Mass, the children played all the ministerial roles – proclamation of the Word in English, Twi and Ewe; running commentary, enthronement of the Word, singing the post-communion songs, ushering and Serving at the Mass.
In a homily, Fr. Agboli entreated the children and adults in general to show love to people suffering from ill health by praying for them.
He lamented that there were many times that Christians treated people badly and made them feel isolated because of their sickness such as body odour and leprosy, praying that God would forgive our shortcomings and us grace to live in oneness.
He said Jesus’ act of healing the man of leprosy affirms God’s love to revive the dignity of man when we are faced with life challenges.
The Animators appealed to all parents to communicate effectively with their children, encourage them when they are down and be more involving by comprehending everything about them and most importantly draw them close to God.
“Also, we, animators believe the children are the heart of the church therefore the church should always make available any needed aids to make nurturing easy,” they told newswatchgh.com.
On behalf of the children service, they Animators collectively appealed to the leadership of Church to focus more on children by providing them with the necessary resources that would serve as a transformative tool.
“These tools, we believe will bring them experiences to discover themselves to become farseeing leaders in a holistic manner,” they added.
