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• JAN / FEB

  This new year, make a point to awaken the giant within you!

  Everyone has a giant within them. It just needs to be awakened!

  It is a New Year and most of us have lined up a number of New Year resolutions. Things you want to accomplish this year.

  Maybe your new year resolution is to shed some weight, enroll for a course, drop that bad habit of drinking or smoking etc. or just change your life for the better.

  Let me assure you that you have the potential to do so.

  How do you do this? There are four things that you need to do in order to unleash your full potential, to awaken the giant within you.

  First, train your brain to learn new things by embracing uncomfortable situations. As humans, we tend to be comfortable with what we are used to, where there is less effort involved. Always strive to put yourself in uncomfortable situations and thrive in the uneasiness.

  Second, don’t believe what people say you can’t do. More often than not, you’ll find people in your life that will make you feel like you can’t achieve certain goals. The best thing you can do is to not listen to what people say and follow your passion. People will tell you that you can’t do this or that because you are young, incapable. Let your age not stop you.

  Third, hang around the right people. Sometimes, those around us hinder us from awakening the giant within us. You have certainly come across the expression, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” When you spend time with individuals who are on the path of unlocking their fullest, untapped potential, there is a synergy of energy that creates a momentum to assist you on your journey of self-discovery and unleashed potential. You need the help of others, as they can be mentors, coaches and a resource for you as you navigate uncharted territory.

  Lastly, set small goals. In order to start believing in your potential, you have to start by setting small goals. By changing your little habits, you start setting yourself up to achieve your goal. As medical student for example, if you know that your ultimate goal is to become a doctor, you need to take certain smaller steps to get there. Your small goals will be to pass exams, which will lead you to pass individual courses, which will eventually lead you to attain your medical degree. Small goals eventually lead to the big win.

  By adopting these habits, you can start reaching your full potential. And in the end, it all comes down to believing that nothing can stop you from achieving what you want to do: the only thing holding you back is yourself.

  This new year, make a point to awaken the giant within you!

• MARCH/APRIL

  It’s time to say goodbye…

  After nearly a decade serving you as the editor of this magazine, it is time to say goodbye! I am leaving The Seed to pursue my doctoral studies in communication.

  Of course saying goodbye is never easy. To say the truth, I feel emotional. The Seed has been home for me. It was my first love. As soon as I was ordained, I was sent to work here, hence the emotional attachment. This reminds me of a YouTube Video I watched a while back titled: Top 15 emotional farewell’s in football. Legends saying goodbye.

  It has been a great ten years as editor of this magazine, characterized by a steady stream of small victories, punctuated by occasional missteps which I used as learning opportunities.

  The other day I took time to flip through all the issues of the magazine that we produced in these ten years. As I did, I could vividly picture the entire production process of each issue, from the editorial meeting, to the fieldwork, to page layouts, to the cover design. I remember everything about each issue. As I looked at each issue, I felt joy in my heart and some sense of pride.

  I took over this job in June 2009. From then until now, I have produced a total of 89 issues with two special editions. I took over the magazine when the cover price was only KSh 80, now it is KSh 200!

  The ten years have been marked with some milestones for the magazine. The period saw the rebranding of the magazine in June 2011, when we came up with a new masthead, new page designs and new columns. This again, we did it in January 2017 to stay relevant.

  Some of the notable assignments I did were covering the Pope’s visit to Kenya in 2015, an event that culminated in the production of a Coffee Table Book, something that was appreciated by the Kenyan Church; a special edition in 2018 on the old and sickly priests: Why your Old Priest Needs You; a special issue to celebrate 25 years of the magazine in 2013, to mention but a few.

  I must say, it was fun doing this job. I will always remember my editorial team and I running around with cameras during events. Together, we crisscrossed the country in search of interesting stories from dioceses near and far.

  The Seed staff is familiar with my famous expression, Guys, we gotta run! When I used it, they knew that things were thick, and indeed they had to run to beat deadlines.

  It was fun working with the editorial team crafting catchy cover themes, and with the design team coming up with insanely great cover designs.

  I must admit that The Seed has changed my life in extraordinary ways, and opened doors to more opportunities than I ever have imagined.

  As I leave, I would like to thank The Seed staff, those still around and those who have since moved on, for their dedication and passion. You were my dream team as I always referred to you!

  I want to thank the leadership of Consolata Missionaries over the years - the late Fr Franco Cellana who brought me on board 10 years ago, Fr Hieronymus Joya, and now Fr Joseph Waithaka.

  I must thank Fr Eugene Ferrari, my collaborator with whom I have worked all these years. Fr Ferrari is the hand that you rarely see in The Seed. As the financial administrator, he works behind the scenes. He facilitated my work and I attribute my success to his advice, concerns and above all, his friendship.

  To all readers, it has been a great pleasure serving you. Time has come to pass on the editorial torch to new hands, Fr André Nzuzi Mabiala, the incoming editor.

  I wish him all the best in elevating the magazine to the next level.

  Thank you all. It has been a great ride!

  Fr Daniel Onyango Omondi Mkado

• MAY/JUNE

  Faith in the Time of Coronavirus

  That the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has changed our way of worship and other church rites is no doubt. The pandemic has left the planet’s Catholic faithful unable to attend Mass yet Mass by its very nature means a crowd of people coming together to pray. For the first time in living memory, Catholics worldwide did not celebrate Easter together physically.

  It is unusual times as religious gatherings are banned and people encouraged to avoid crowded places.

  Due to the corona virus pandemic, bishops around the world have currently given dispensations from Mass for the catholic faithful, which according to the Ecclesiastical law means permission has been granted not to attend Mass in this period of Corona virus pandemic, and so you do not commit any sin by not attending Mass.

  The pandemic has left church leaders with no option but to reach out to their Christians remotely. They have taken to streaming Masses online, recording biblical reflections and sharing with their flock. In Kenya starting from Palm Sunday there has been live Mass on a national TV to ensure the faithful do not totally miss out in Mass.

  It is true that watching Mass on television is not the same as attending it physically, it give the true sense of participation in the Body of Christ. While this physical separation from our parish communities is only temporary, it has real spiritual implications. And the shift to virtual Masses, especially, has left some Christians with doubts. Did I really attend to Mass?

  During live-streamed Masses, Catholics are invited to make a ‘spiritual communion’, a tradition that dates to the Middle Ages of praying with one’s desire for the Eucharist.The closing of churches and other places of worship was prudent and necessary measures designed to keep people healthy. As the Most Rev. Antony Muheria, the Archbishop of the Catholic Diocese of Nyeri notes in The Interview, God also counts on our human efforts and reason. That is why we must adhere to the other indications of health. Acting in this way would be showing God honour and not tempting him.

  This is also the time to put our faith to work by being each other’s social safety nets. Many people have lost their sources of income and there are already calls to help with basic needs, calls which as Christians we need to respond to watch mass and commune in spirit.

  As Archbishop Muheria notes, “...the Church of Christ has endured and will endure through internal or external difficulties. We may actually be undergoing a renewal which will make us even bolder and committed. God’s plans are indeed very unpredictable.”

  At the end of the pandemic we may not be able to count and say, ‘no one is missing,’ but our actions and willingness to follow instructions will help save lives.

  The pandemic interfered with funeral rites of the late Archbishop Raphael Simon Ndingi Mwana ‘a Nzeki, emeritus of the Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi.  Because of the need for social distancing, his funeral Mass was attended by less than 100 people. The late prelate will be remembered for his stand against tribalism and human rights violation in the run up to multipartism in Kenya.  He was among the first African bishops appointed at a very critical time in the growth of the Church in Africa.  He leaves a legacy not only for the Church in Kenya but also for Africa.May his soul rest in peace

• JULY/AUG

  The Value of Life

  Life is sacred and needs to be safeguarded. The story of Abel and Cain in Genesis chapter four helps us to understand the ramifications associated to destroying one’s life.

  In his pastoral visit in Bogotá, Colombia, on the September 7 2017, Pope Francis reminded Colombian Christians, and non-Christians, about their commitment to protecting human life at all its stages. Today we live in a society in which if two parties enter into disagreement or dispute, the stronger party exerts all its energy into terminating the life of the other.

  The recent killings in Kenya could been avoided if we each had or were a concerned neighbour.

  It is worth saying that the perpetrators of most of these violent murders are men. That is why men need to be reminded of their responsibility as first human beings to be created. Men are considered to be the head of family. If they do not have good qualities, it means that even the family is threatened.

  The experts in psychology and counselling fields interviewed in this issue pointed out that murder is a fruit of frustration. Frustration not only of a system where ‘mighty ones’ impose hardship on ‘weaker ones’ but also of series of things such as money, property and power that culminate in killings.

  Others think that the growing numbers of violent murders are also due to the depression. If our society wants to reduce these killings, I think that institutions of higher learning should invest more on forming professional psychologists and counsellors. Their role will be to accompany people affected by dysfunctional behaviour, mental illness and depression. The government should also create more structures which can accommodate people with dysfunctional behaviour.

  The Archdiocese of Nairobi has come up with the Beacon Boy’s Program (BBP) that aims at rescuing, guiding, empowering and training the boy child to become a leader. This program targets young males within age bracket of 9 and 17, and it is conducted by the Catholic Men Association from each parish.

  This formation program goes through four phases: Spiritual Connection based on the knowledge of the Bible, Cultural Process in which the boy child is taught the roots of African culture and Christianity as the superior culture, Life Skills where the boy child is taught to avoid the peer pressure. Finally, is the social empowerment phase. In this, the boy child is taught the moral, ethical and social values, and guided to know his position in the society.

  If this program is embraced and emulated in all the dioceses in Kenya, there will be less cases of homicide in our streets, families and villages.

  I would like to accentuate that life is the most ultimate gift from God and therefore it needs to be respected. Killing another person does not take away one’s frustrations. It rather creates more frustrations to the killer.

  Fr André Nzuzi, imc

• SEPT/ OCT

• NOV/DEC