The Devout Year

Excerpt from The Devout Year I. Advent is the season when we are taught to look forward both to the first coming of Our Lord into the world at Christmas-time, and also to His second coming at the end of time to judge the living and the dead. His first coming was to seek and to save that which was lost. His second coming will be to gather His elect into the celestial paradise, and to trample all His enemies under His feet. Shall I on that day be regarded by Him as a friend or as an enemy? Is my present life one of devotion to Him and union with Him, or one of selfishness, pride, impatience of the yoke of Christ? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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Torn between traditional and the Christian religions, Anyadwe, the wife of Ogwok, one of the pioneers of Christian faith in Coomit village, lead a stormy life with her posthumous son, Acellam. Because of her pious faith in the Christian faith she had received and in her dead husband Ogwok, Anyadwe rejected all the traditional inheritance marriage laws which were fronted to her by Opuk, the paternal uncle of her husband Ogwok. Opuk was a hard liner traditionalist, medicine man and soothsayer who chaired all the village elders meets. He was highly respected in the village because of these irreplaceable qualities. His prophecies were precise and his herbal medicines were indubitable. Nevertheless he abominated Christianity and called it white man hoax doctrine of dominancy over a black man land, cultures and integrities. Even if Anyadew gave due respect to Opuk leaderships as anyone else in the village did, their ideologies about Christian God and traditional gods were unmatchable. Notwithstanding the snappish differences between Anyadwe and Opuk, the village community appreciated their stands. As the results, most of villagers practiced both Traditional and the Christians faith because of Anyadwe and Opuk influence. Opuk oft en prophesied about the calamities to befall the village at the start of the year. These he always attributed to the disobedience of the villagers for the reason that the community had accepted the Christians God and has forsaken their own traditional gods whom they have been worshipping for years. During such occasions he also prophesied successes for the village which he also accredited to those who participated in traditional rituals to appease the traditional gods. Even Missionaries at the Coomit Mission were sometimes baffled by Opuk ingenious acts and words; however describing them as Satan powers at work. Nevertheless, they favored Anyadwe and described her as a role model of a pious Christian.