The maiden edition of the Ladies of St. Mulumba day (LSM) celebration may have come and gone but the spiritual and moral lessons learnt from this celebration can’t be forgotten in a hurry. Our correspondent Augustine Aminu, KSM brings some of the excerpt.
Amidst the various challenges facing Nigeria, many look towards the church for spiritual guidance.
However, beyong meeting the spiritual needs of the people, th economic challenges in Nigeria requires the church’s intervention. The reality is that there’s hunger and poverty in the land.
The LSM Day 2024 with the theme: ‘Strengthening our resilience amidst Emerging Challenges in Nigeria’ addressed both challenges.
Abuja Metro President, Lady Agnes Ozaohu Eneji rightly captures the essence of the celebration. She noted; “This event aims to increase the capabilities of Ladies of St. Mulumba on dealing with the current realities of socio-economic dispositions and insecurities in Nigeria.”
This message from the Worthy President, rightly captures a core objective of the LSM: “To serve the Catholic Church and the society by promoting religious, social and economic activities.”
Yet, it is without doubt that there is a growing form of a vicious, aggressive, and vindictive form of secularism that is accompanied by practical atheism, demonstrated in the lives of many modern-day men and women, including even some of those who fill up the Churches on Sundays. Hence, the 2024 LSM Day Celebration couldn’t have come at a better time.
So, in the morning of March 16, 2024 when the Ladies of St. Mulumba, Abuja Metro drove through the streets of Abuja, from the Catholic Secretariat, Durumi to the Abuja School for the Blind Children in Jabi, they brought a message of hope.
Aside the gifts of cash and learning materials, it was an atmosphere of love. And as the special children sang their hearts out, tears flowed. It was a touching morning.
Such outing indeed showed a fulfilment of one of the core objectives for which the LSM stands for: To render spiritual and material aids to members and the needy in our society.
But as the convoy left the School for a visit to Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama, the Archbishop of Abuja, it was set to fufil another of its core objectives, “To encourage the tenets of Catholicism among members.”
In an age of widespread unbelief and as the world gets more and more engulfed in the darkness that manifests itself in new forms of paganism, such as we see in the radical Gender, Transgender and Non-Binary ideologies, that aim to destroy traditional, religious and family values, achieving this important objective can be very challenging.
However, the Ladies of St. Mulumba are called upon to stand up to be counted among the true followers of Christ.
Rev. Fr. George Ehusani
Executive Director, Lux Terra Leadership Foundation rightly captures it. He said, “to truly function as Ladies of the Church in the 21st Century is going to be a difficult and challenging spiritual, pastoral and social enterprise. To live your lives and discharge your duties effectively as apologists and defenders of the Catholic faith today may be a via Crucis”
Nevertheless, it was the timely omily from Archbishop Kaigama that captures the roles of the Ladies.
“All hope is not lost” Archbishop Kaigama said as he urges the Ladies to wake up to the responsibilities of motherhood by building good homes through Christ, which would reflect on the growth and development of Nigeria.
One of the core objectives of the LSM is “to contribute our 3 Ts (i.e Time, Treasure and Talent) towards the growth of humanity, fully supported by our 3s (Sustainability, Spiritually and Selfless Sacrifice).”
Indeed, the lessons, both spiritual and moral learnt from the 2024 LSM day celebration will go a long way to reinforce the objectives of Selfless Sacrifice.
Abuja Metro President, Lady Agnes Ozaohu Eneji pointed during the celebration, “being sensitive to the needs of the poor and giving succour to the destitute, the disadvantaged and the oppressed in the society, this organization has touched many lives through lots of life changing projects and empowerment initiated, implemented and executed for some poor widows, orphans, less privileged members and non members of the LSM Nigeria.
“Our empowerments ranges from skills acquisition, funding education of less privileged pupils and students in the society, building houses for the indigent widows, medical outreach, offsetting of bills of prisoners, feeding the hungry, giving voice to the voiceless, training of some seminarians and enthroning peace in broken homes.”
Nevertheless in his paper presentation, ‘Catholic Ladies and Major Threats To The Christian Faith Today, A Reflection with Ladies of St. Mulumba, Abuja’ Rev. Fr. George Ehusani held the audience in awe.
We are indeed in very challenging times, Rev. Fr. George Ehusani said.
“Is it not instructive that multiple psychopathologies, including drug addiction, depression and suicide ideation, appear to be increasing geometrically in the same age and among the same generation that has witnessed what is called the “sexual revolution,” when men and women are being told that they no longer need to exercise any restrains and when all inhibitions in sexual expression are gradually being seen as vestiges of a dying primitive era?
“The truth that stares modern humanity in the face is the same one that dawned on St. Augustine in the 4th Century A.D., namely, that the human heart is either home-bound or death-bound; and there appears to be no resting place in between! Yet, a cursory survey of the dominant segments of our own youth culture in this country – especially as displayed in popular music and dance and on social media, will reveal that though our Churches are often filled up on Sundays, and though religion still appears to be thriving in our society, all is however not well with us at all.
“All is not well with us, because our youths are speedily abandoning the path of Christian virtues and values and losing their souls to the prevalent social and moral decadence of the age. Christian youths in this country these days are often the ones with the least respect for religion and religious persons. They are often the ones blasting the Church, insulting religious leaders, desecrating religious symbols and recklessly committing blasphemy. Most of the young Nigerians who are today addicted to pornography and those engaged in Yahoo+ rituals – killing their mothers, their sisters and girlfriends for quick money, are often Christian youth who seem to have lost their way in the world. Traditional African religious rituals have suddenly become very attractive for many of our young people, who today are becoming not only devotees of traditional deities and ancestral cults in their villages, but many are actually becoming priests and priestesses of some of these traditional African religious cults, which even their parents never knew, because their grandparents had abandoned those cults to embrace Christianity.”
Yet, he insists that the the Ladies “are called upon to quickly get yourself educated in your faith and in the dynamics of the times, so you may courageously confront the neo-paganism of contemporary society with the light of the Christian gospel.”
He further challenged them by saying, “I challenge you senior citizens and older members of this group, to take responsibility for the future by using your time and resources, your skills and talents, your rich knowledge and privileged exposures, your successes and achievements, but also your own record of failures and disappointments – from which hopefully you have learnt good lessons – I challenge you to use these experiences to disseminate those values and principles and promote those norms and habits that will make for meaningful existence of future generations of our people. It is in this way that you all will live your lives purposefully, that you will age gracefully, and that at the end, when the Lord calls you, you will have the honour of exiting this world as it were gallantly.”
