Saudi Arabia announced that pilgrims who perform Umrah without a permit during the month of Ramadan will be fined as officials are trying to prevent the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

An official source at the Ministry of Interior said a fine of SR10,000 ($2,666) would be imposed on anyone who tries to perform Umrah without a permit, along with a SR1,000 fine for anyone who tries to enter the Grand Mosque in Makkah without a permit.

Saudi authorities are looking beyond Ramadan as the measure will be valid until the end of the pandemic or when “life returns to normal,” the source added.

The source said the ministry wants to ensure that all precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus are adhered to.

It also wants to ensure that approved regulations for performing Umrah and prayer are in line with the operational safety capacity at all Grand Mosque sites and squares.

Every pilgrim wishing to perform Umrah or prayers in the Grand Mosque must obtain a permit.

The source also said that security personnel will be on patrol at all security control centers, roads, sites and pathways leading to the central area surrounding the Grand Mosque.

Meanwhile, Prince Abdul Aziz bin Saud bin Naif, minister of interior, who is also chairman of the Hajj Supreme Committee, approved the general emergency plan for Makkah and Madinah during Ramadan.

The director general of the General Directorate of Civil Defense, Lt. Gen. Sulaiman bin Abdullah Al-Amro, said COVID-19 inspection tours have been intensified at all facilities and sites frequented by pilgrims and visitors.

The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah said on Thursday that the Umrah and Tawakkalna applications have been launched in their updated versions, through cooperation with the Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence.

Christians around the world are today celebrating Easter also called Pascha or Resurrection Sunday.

Easter is a Christian festival and holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day after his burial following his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary c. 30 AD.

There are over 2.3 billion adherents accounting for about 31.2% of the total world population. Rwanda’s population is more than 95% affiliated to Christian faiths. Nigeria has the largest Christian population in Africa.

Reports from the UK’s Church of Canterbury the highest seat of the Anglican faith indicate that Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby (pictured above) is for the first time giving his Easter sermon across television, local and national radio and the Church of England digital platforms.

A service is premiering on the Church of England website, Facebook and YouTube channels starting at 9 a.m., while viewers of BBC One are able to tune in to a live Eucharist from Canterbury at 10 a.m.

Welby’s Easter sermon proclaims the resurrection as the turning point of history. In raising Jesus to new life, he will say, God makes a “lie” of death.

For the Roman Catholics, Pope Francis their representative with seat in the Vatican is Celebrating the 9th Easter of his pontificate.

Pope Francis delivered a homily at the Easter Vigil Mass, reflecting on what it means to go to Galilee, where the Risen Lord would precede His disciples.

Reflecting on the Easter episode of the women at the tomb, the Pope drew attention to what the angel told them.   

“Wonder at hearing the words: ‘Do not be afraid!” the Pope said.  “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He has risen’.  And a message: ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him’.”

Ushering in the 9th Easter of his pontificate, the 84-year-old pontiff in his homily reflected on what it means to go to Galilee.  First of all, it means to begin anew. 

Galilee was the place of the first encounter of the disciples with the Lord, their first love.  It was here that they listened to Him preach and perform miracles. It was also where they misunderstood His words and in the face of the cross abandoned Him and fled.   

In spite of everything, the Lord invites them to start over from where they began.  “In this Galilee,” the Pope said, “we learn to be amazed by the Lord’s infinite love, which opens new trails along the path of our defeats.”

Hence, he said, the first Easter message of returning to Galilee is that “it is always possible to begin anew despite all our failures. 

“From the rubble of our hearts,” the Pope said, “God can create a work of art; from the ruined remnants of our humanity, God can prepare a new history.” 

“In these dark months of the pandemic,” the Pope urged all to “listen to the Risen Lord as He invites us to begin anew and never lose hope”.

Going to Galilee also means going to the peripheries.  Galilee, an outpost farthest from the ritual purity of Jerusalem, was where Jesus began His mission. 

There, He brought His message to “those struggling to live from day to day, the excluded, the vulnerable and the poor”.

It is in the peripheries that God tirelessly seeks out those who are discouraged or lost.  He goes to the “very peripheries of existence, since in His eyes no one is least, no one is excluded”. 

Thus, the Risen Lord is asking His disciples to go to the settings of daily life, the streets we travel every day, the corners of our cities. 

“There the Lord goes ahead of us and makes Himself present in the lives of those around us, those who share in our day, our home, our work, our difficulties, and hopes.” 

The Pope said, “We will be amazed how the greatness of God is revealed in littleness, how His beauty shines forth in the poor and simple.”

Pope Francis has underlined that the preaching of the Gospel “is always linked to the embrace of some particular cross.” 

The Pontiff observed while celebrating Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday in St. Peter’s Basilica.

He explained that the Gospel shows us the extent to which “persecution and the cross are linked to the proclamation of the Gospel.”

Dwelling on the “hours” leading to Christ’s Passion and Death, Pope Francis said “the hour of joyful proclamation, the hour of persecution and the hour of the Cross go together.”

 “The gentle light of God’s word shines brightly in well-disposed hearts,” the Pope said, “but awakens confusion and rejection in those that are not. We see this over and over again in the Gospels.”

Giving some examples, Pope Francis spoke of the good seed sown in the field that bears fruit, but it also arouses the envy of the enemy.

“The tender love of the merciful father irresistibly draws the prodigal son home, but also leads to anger and resentment on the part of the elder son,” he noted.

“All this enables us to see that the preaching of the Good News is mysteriously linked to persecution and the cross,” said Pope Francis.

Cross is non-negotiable

Focusing on two trains of  thought, the Pope said that first “we are taken aback to see the cross present in the Lord’s life at the very beginning of his ministry, even before His birth.”

“All this makes us realize that the mystery of the cross is present ‘from the beginning’.”   “The cross does not appear by chance,” he said.

When his hour came, explained Pope Francis, Jesus embraced the cross fully.  “For on the cross there can be no ambiguity. The cross is non-negotiable.”

Dwelling on his second point, the Pope said, “There is an aspect of the cross that is an integral part of our human condition, our limits and our frailty. Yet it is also true that something happens on the Cross that does not have to do with our human weakness but is the bite of the serpent, who, seeing the crucified Lord defenceless, bites Him in an attempt to poison and undo all His work…  It is the venom of the evil one who keeps insisting: save yourself.”

It is in this harsh and painful “bite” that seeks to bring death, that God’s triumph is ultimately seen, said Pope Francis. 

The Pope went on to say that “thanks to the reconciling blood of Jesus, it is a cross that contains the power of Christ’s victory, which conquers evil and delivers us from the evil one.” 

Sufferings of Christ in us

Pope Francis underlined that we as Christians are “not among those who shrink back.”

“We are not scandalized, because Jesus Himself was not scandalized by seeing that His joyful preaching of salvation to the poor was not received wholeheartedly, but amid the shouts and threats of those who refused to hear His word.”

“The way we embrace the cross in our preaching of the Gospel makes two things clear,” the Pope said:  “That the sufferings that come from the Gospel are not ours, but rather ‘the sufferings of Christ in us’ and that ‘we do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as servants of all for the love of Jesus’”.

God’s divine grace

Concluding his homily with a story from his past, Pope Francis recalled how, during a dark moment in his life, he asked the Lord for the grace to free him from a difficult and complex situation. 

During Confession he asked an elderly Sister, whose eyes were “full of light”  to pray for him as her penance because he needed a particular grace.

She replied by saying ‘The Lord will certainly give you that grace, but make no mistake about it: He will give it to you in His own divine way’. 

The Pope said that this advice did him much good, “hearing that the Lord always gives us what we ask for, but that He does so in his divine way. That way involves the cross. Not for masochism.  But for love, love to the very end.”