THE Grand Lady, Most Respected Sis Alice Stella Ayebi, has called on Marshallans to desist from the pull him or her down syndrome and passing derogatory comments that undermines the integrity of their fellow brothers and sisters.
“Let us avoid gossiping, false accusations, vindictiveness, revengefulness that go to intimidate and dehumanize our colleagues,” she said.
She made the call in an address read on her behalf by Most Respected Lady Sis Victoria Yellu at the plenary session of the fourth Accra West Regional Council and Court Conference at the Holy Spirit Cathedral, Adabraka.
MRL Sis Ayebi reminded Marshallans that fraternal spirit required them to open up for trust building, sharing ideas, time and resources with each other.
Be discipline
She urged Marshallans to exercise restraint in their behaviour, discipline themselves and educated their youth to comport themselves without the influence of selfish politicians and opinion leaders.
“We must pray for peaceful transitions in the order as well as contemporary society,” she added.
Please read the full address of the Grand Lady below
THE NOBLE ORDER OF THE LADIES OF MARSHALL
GRAND LADY’S MESSAGE – 2016 REGIONAL CONFERENCE
THEME: “THE MARSHALLAN AND THE NEW EVANGELISATION FOR TRANSMISSION OF THE FAITH”
Brothers and Sisters of the Noble Order of the Knights and Ladies of Marshall in the ………. Region, receive my warm fraternal greetings. May the love of God, through Christ who is the only source of peace and unity dwell among you and your families. I acknowledge your commitment and dedication to the Noble Order over the years. May you be guided by the Holy Spirit to continue your strive towards your salvation. May you also be guided by our values and principles to fulfil your tasks in the service of the church, the noble order and the society at large.
It dawns on me to focus on our four pillars; Unity, Charity, Service and Fraternity as well as our aim, for my discussion on the theme: “The Marshallan and the new evangelization for transmission of the faith.” Let us first of all reflect on our identity.
OUR FAITH
The basis of our membership as Marshallans stems from our baptism into the Roman Catholic faith. We are imbued into the faith, indoctrinated with the sacrament instituted by the church, hence, are called Roman Catholics.
‘Our Faith’ is a gift from God. This gift must be constantly renewed to maintain our relationship with God our creator and our fellow beings since God created us for a purpose and assigns us with the responsibility to worship him, oversee and protect our fellow beings and take care of the environment. Gen. 1:26-29, Gen.4:9-10, Luke 17:5, Matthew 21:21.
My dear brothers and sisters, in order to accomplish God’s task we must rely on him to support our strength to attain these goals. We must constantly pray and frequently participant in the sacrament to build our faith. We must also seek the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Anthony of Padua who are our patron saints to strengthen us. Constant renewal of our faith can also be attained through devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, praying regularly, maintaining good interpersonal relationships devoid of sin and emulating the live style of our patron saint and other saints of our church.
These actions strengthen our spirituality and help us to confront fearful and opposing forces as well as temptation that threaten our human endeavors and capabilities as Marshallans.
NEW EVANGELIZATION
As true catholi9c, the Marshallan must proclaim the gospel guided by his or her faith and be inspired by the Holy Spirit.
The proclamation of the gospel is by our actions and life style in our daily activities. It requires us to offer charitable services guided by the truth and justice in our daily actions.
New evangelization requires us to renew our faith and resemble our Lord Jesus Christ. It involves emptying our hearts to be filled by the Holy Spirit so that we can proclaim the gospel of hope. It is a matter of re-evangelization of self.
It is also any action taken to liberate the oppressed, recover sight to the blind, release captives, feed the hungry and heal the sick. My brothers and sisters, do not keep the poor man’s cloaks. Exodus 22:25-27, Luke 4:16-21.
CHARACTERISTICS OF NEW EVANGELISATION
• HUMILITY:
Our Lord Jesus Christ humbled Himself and washed the feet of the apostles, dined with the sinners and the social casts. It is not humanly to be proud and disregard a fellow human being. We are all created in the image of God and any attempt to under rate your fellow human being is dehumanization I the eyes of the Lord.
• CHARITY:
Charity begins at home. Faith without good works is dead. The scripture tells us to share the world’s goods with our brothers and sisters who are in need. 1 John 3:14-18. How often do we concern ourselves with the sick, aged and needy sisters and their overburdened dependents? How often do we extend our services to the needy and the sick in the church and in our communities?
• PASSION FOR JUSTICE:
A Christian must be passionate. We must develop the heart to forgive each other since God is passionate to us. Marshallans must desist therefore from being advocate and accomplices of violence, pull him/her syndrome and passing derogatory comments that undermines the integrity of their fellow brothers and sisters.
Will it not be constructive if we critically analyze situations and find the root causes of problems and resolve them amicably rather than accusing people out of injustice? Is it necessary to sabotage and confront actions that can bring advancement of people? Instead of these, let us dialogue with people to understand critical issues that we do not know about in order to compromise for an advancement.
Let us avoid gossiping, false accusations, vindictiveness, revengefulness that go to intimidate and dehumanize our colleagues.
Marshallans must exercise constraint in our behaviour, discipline ourselves and educated our youth to comport themselves without the influence of selfish politicians and opinion leaders. We must pray for peaceful transitions in the order as well as contemporary society.
• FRATERNITY:
Peace and harmony can be maintained if resources and goods available are made useful to the need of our society. Remember God has concern for the poor and shares his justice among his peoples. Ps 72:1-4
Why then do we discriminate against each other for the purpose of tribalism, inequality, status quo and affluence?
Why do we use our positions to control resources that can be equally shared to support the needy members of the society?
Why do we restrain people in authority to cripple their efforts and auctions in order to frustrate them?
Fraternal Spirit requires us to open up for trust building, sharing ideas, time and resources with each other.
• LOVE AND SERVICE:
Love thy neighbor as thy self. True love is the core for passion and forgiveness. Mother Theresa of Calcutta exemplified herself to the marginalized, the sick, the needy and the abandoned in the face of Christ.
Compassion, humility, self-discipline, forgiveness, service guided by justice and fairness should be our guiding principles in our interpersonal relationship. For, this “What Yahweh ask of you, only this that you act justly, that you love tenderly, that you walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8. The bible says we need not owe any thing than love to each other.
• SPIRITUALITY:
Constant prayers, participation in the sacraments of reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist, intensifying our corporal and spiritual works of mercy and emulation of the lives of the saints are the key to spirituality. Luke 11:4.
Marshallans must be committed to the observation of their Patron Saints Feast Days and pray unceasingly.
Abstinence from excessive alcoholism is crucial for spiritual growth since drug addiction is not conducive to spirituality. Worse than this alcoholism physically reduces sense of judgment.
• DISCIPLINE:
Discipline from within is a facet of good Christian life since it regulates our behaviour. It is necessary therefore that wherever Marshallans assemble, discipline must reign supreme. Orders must be taken from the guards and sentries directed from the Grand Knights and Noble Ladies. Refusal to conform to these directives results to disorder and disobedience in a group.
• SOCIAL TEACHINGS:
Pope Francis exhausts us to change our lives and allow our hearts to be touched and to listen to the innocent people who are deprived of their properties in the face of Christ.
The Catholic Church in her attempt to implement (Renum Novarum) – :Christ’s preferential option for the poor”, Vatican II, according to Pope John XXIII, who is now declared a saint, exhausted us to raise questions to confront unjust structures, situations and attitudes that confront peaceful existence in our society.
Other Popes pursued the course for similar line of action. These were: Paul VI 1975, Saint John Paul II 1990, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI 2012, Pope Francis 2015.
These actions indicate that God, through inspiration, is using various Popes to stress the importance of new evangelization in the church.
The actions are signs for the survival in the church and God’s guidance for the leadership to help us seek for salvation rather than following the new “prosperity gospel” being propagated by other believers.
CONCLUSION
“The kingdom of God is present wherever peoples are genuinely striving to make an option for the poor and build a just society; the Holy Spirit is certainly at work among them.” – Herbert MaCabe.
However, we must appreciate that God created a wonderful world with infinite possibilities but this world has become miserable for millions through greed, callousness and cruelty of a few individuals.
We must therefore believe that the Marshallan Order, guided by its values and principles is filled with the Holy Spirit to support the Catholic Church to attain the goals of the new evangelization to transmit the faith.
Thank you, God bless you.
MRL Sis Alice Stella Ayebi
(GRAND LADY)