My dear Brothers and Sisters,
Christ is Risen! Hallelujah!! In this month’s letter, I am moving temporarily away from choosing a theme from St Paul’s letters to using this “Rejoice Season” to reflect a little bit on our Order.
We are bold and encouraged to rejoice this Easter Season because of the spiritual experiences we have been through during the last 40 days in our preparation to celebrate the greatest feast of Christendom. During the period, the Church through her choice of readings from Holy Scripture, taught and showed us the way to real repentance and reconciliation with God. The Noble Order in her own small way supported our preparation in at least two ways. First, the Supreme Chaplain Rev. Fr. Bob Gilmour shared on daily basis through e-mails, Lenten reflections on the daily Mass readings. Second, the Noble Order set aside three days during which all Marshallans were to go into retreat to reflect on their lives and relations to God and man. In these reflections which were facilitated by the Church and the Order, our person and its relationship to God and man took centre stage. My hope and belief therefore is that most, if not all Brothers and Sisters in the Order took advantage of the many opportunities provided by the Church and the Noble Order during Lent and the Easter celebration to renew their lives.
Having been so renewed in the spirit of Easter, could we bring some of it to bear on the renewal of the Noble Order by pondering over the following?
1. How is the Noble Order seen by me versus my personal expectations?
2. How well do I understanding the Noble Order, its spirituality, principles and tenets and how are they impacting on my life?
3. What is the perception of the Noble Order to the public outside the Catholic Church?
4. How do non-Marshallan Catholics perceive the Order?
5. What do non-Marshallan spouses think or say about the Order?
6. What do our children both adult and young think about our membership of the Order?
7. Why do some members of the Church’s hierarchy so dislike the Order that they would even sometimes advise potential members to keep away?
I believe that if we could bring the same humility and honesty that we applied to our Lenten examination of conscience to reflect on the above questions, we would increase the level of appreciation of the gaps between other people’s perception of who we are, who we really are and who we are supposed to be. Hopefully, that understanding would help us to change our mindsets as we move forward into the future. The Knights of Marshall is 83 years this year and the Ladies, 40 years. Cumulatively, that counts to 123 years of existence between us. In these years many things have changed. Should the thought of that make a difference to the way we live our lives in the Order, Church and society? Do we need a renewal in our Order?
I wish you good deliberations on the above issues. May the risen Lord affect us so much with the love that led Him to die for us that having been so imbued with it, the intensity of its radiation would be felt by all around us. Christ indeed is Risen! Let our Noble Order also rise!!!!
Yours fraternally,
SIR KT BRO EDDIE PRAH
(SUPREME KNIGHT)