From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2013
Mama Rose from Busia, Kenya would like to know why St Andrews Day is connected with Advent and why around midnight on November 29, it was traditional for girls to pray to St Andrew for a husband.
Mama Rose St. Andrew’s Day is connected with Advent because his feast day is on November 30th which falls around the start of the Advent period and has become linked with prayer for the mission of the Church.
On your second question why around midnight on November 29, it was traditional for a marriageable girl to pray to St Andrew for a husband, there are reasons why this was happening. Girls could toss a shoe at a door. If the toe of her shoe pointed in the direction of the door exit, then she believed she would be married.
She would peel a whole apple without breaking the peel and toss the peel over her shoulder. If the peel formed a letter of the alphabet, then the skin peel suggested the name of her future groom.
The origin of this custom is explained by the name Andrew (best translated as “manly” or “man”) and by the fact that from ancient times he has been called the “most kindly of saints.”
Others have found the reason for this patronage in the antiphon of the Divine Office on Andrew’s Day: Concede nobis hominem justum (Grant us a good, just man). The girls also pour spoonfuls of molten lead or wax into cold water, and the shape of the congealing portions is supposed to reveal details of their future love and marriage.
In the western sections of Austria and in other Alpine countries young men and girls fasten a very small candle into a nutshell and put these little “boats” into a trough filled with water. All other lights are then extinguished and only the tiny flames of the candles sparkle in the darkened room.
By blowing against them, the nutshells are made to move across the water. When the lights of a boy and a girl collide without capsizing, it is taken as a sign that the two will fall in love and marry.
In Poland girls put bones from the remnants of a meal in front of the door. The girl whose bone the dog takes first will be the first one to marry.
Before going to bed on Andrew’s Night girls say a prayer to the Saint asking him to show them their future husband in their dreams. Saint Andrew was always considered very kind and generous in this matter, even to the extent that he himself would procure the right man for a girl whose own efforts had not been successful.
Here is such a prayer-poem from the Tirol: Heavenly patron, Saint Andrew dear, Please won’t you show me a picture clear Of the man whom thou hast chosen for me? Whether he handsome or homely be, Or young in years, or maybe old, Or still and shy, or loud and bold; I do not mind his manner and way: Just make him love me, that’s all I pray.
Even today there are thousands of local St Andrews singles, as the world’s largest dating site. It is easy and free, unlike paid dating sites. Over 1,500,000 Daters login every day to Plentyoffish.com, they are the market leader in Canada, UK, Australia, US, Ireland and New Zealand. Visit here to see the sample of how they register.
http://www.pof.com/register.aspx
Women praying to get husband is not something new. Even in Kenya over 5,000 love struck women thronged the Kenyatta International Conference Center (KICC) in September 2010 with the aim of finding true love and restoring broken marriage relationships.
There are several reasons why some women can’t settle in marriage. One of the reasons is to do with what Peter write in his first letter (1 Peter 3:1-9) that wives should accept the authority of their husbands.
Many educated and employed women can’t just agree to this text. It was in this way long ago that the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by accepting the authority of their husbands. Sarah obeyed Abraham and called him lord.
Similarly, there are also some men who don’t want, in the same way, show consideration for their wives in their life together. These types of men believe that women can’t have a say in the house. They consider women as the weaker sex.
Peter’s message here is very clear, that without humility and prayer relationship can’t stand. Husbands and wives are to live in unity of spirit, sympathy, and love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called—that you might inherit a blessing. One of Peter’s chief reasons for writing this letter was to tell his audience that as followers of Christ, their behavior was to be distinct and alternative to the wider culture and societal norms – something which would have been quite contrary to his audience’s former lives as pagan Gentiles.
The instruction that wives submit to their husbands is given for evangelistic purposes, so that through their actions, their husbands might be “won over without words. These women are to lovingly, and freely submit to their husbands, because such behavior would display the love of Christ to their unbelieving spouses.
Some women argue that women’s submission to men was assumed at that time when women were largely considered property of their fathers and husbands and they had no independent rights because it was believed that women were ontologically, or by nature, inferior to men, a belief that can no longer work today in the 21st century.
However, when Peter wrote that women to submit to their husbands, he was asking them to respect the social norms of the day for the sake of the gospel. At that time, women who excised autonomy and freedom were controversial.
Contrary to common interpretations of this passage, Peter does not emphasize male authority over women. When Peter tells women that they should have a “gentle and quiet spirit” he is telling them to possess those characteristics which are to characterize all Christians, not just women.
Another reason is financial independence. One of the reasons why women want to be financially independent is they don’t want to be abused in any way by husbands or in-laws. One of the common assumption of women is, if she has a job and all goes well then all is well.
Statistics support that money problems is the leading cause of divorce and separation, and the unprepared woman, long used to being provided for by the husband, should not be surprised to find herself suddenly alone to fend for herself. Worse happens when the husband turns out to be a no-good father too, and just totally abandons wife, kids and all.
Andrew was the brother of Peter, and a son of Jonas. He lived in Bethsaida and Capernaum and was a fisherman before Jesus called him. Originally he was a disciple of John the Baptist (Mark 1:16-18). Andrew brought his brother, Peter, to Jesus (John 1:40).
According to tradition, it was in Achaia, Greece, in the town of Patra that Andrew died a martyr. When Governor Aepeas’ wife was healed and converted to the Christian faith, and shortly after that the Governor’s brother became a Christian.
Aepeas was enraged. He arrested Andrew and condemned him to die on the cross. Andrew, feeling unworthy to be crucified on the same-shaped cross as his Master, begged that his be different.
So, he was crucified on an X-shaped cross, which is still called Saint Andrew’s cross and which is one of his apostolic symbols. A symbol of two crossed fish has also been applied to Andrew, because he was formerly a fisherman.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
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Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ
UN Disarmament
Conference, 2002