Catholics and Nigerians in general have been asked to pray and thank God always in whatever situation that they find themselves, as prayer is key to solving the myriad of problems and making things better in the country. The charge was given by Brigadier Gen. Joachim Chux Amamgbo, Grand President, Lagos Grand Commandery, Knights of St. John International, KSJI, last Sunday during the Lagos Grand Commandery and Laux Executive Board meeting and thanksgiving held at Christ the King Catholic Church (CKC), Akowonjo, Lagos. Recalling the power of prayer, Amangbo said followers of Christ should be prayerful and thankful to God at all times, like Paul and Silas as recorded in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, who prayed and worshipped God even when they were locked in prison. Speaking on the significance of the meeting, he disclosed that the meeting is held to harmonise the activities of the order in Lagos Grand Commandery, which he said covers the whole of the southwest. According to him, “Lagos Grand Commandery stretches from here to Ibadan, Akure, Ikare, Ondo, Osobgo, Ekiti and Ilorin. “We have arrangement to open commanderies in Ijebu-Ode and Abeokuta.
We also have arrangement to create Ibadan Commandery to enable Ibadan and others outside Lagos State to have their own Grand Commandery. This we want to do because of the insecurity going on in the country, so that people don’t have to travel far to attend meeting. On what the order intends to achieve after the meeting he said: “Knights are custodians of all specialties and disciplines. We defend the Church. With the way the Church is going now, we need to discuss a lot of things that is going to help the Church, help the priests. “You can see the trend of kidnapping of priests and Reverend Sisters here and there. We discuss all these things when we meet. We also discuss our spiritual welfare and we evangelise because in the Bible it is said that the work to be done is much but the labourers are few. We want to evangelise, get more people; we aim at promoting and supporting the Church.” While delivering the homily at Mass, Most Rev (Dr.) Alfred Adewale Martins, Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, urged Catholics to evangelise to people by the way they live their lives. Speaking on humility and thanksgiving, Archbishop Martins urged the people to approach God in humility so that great things will happen to them like Naaman the leper, a honourable man in the land of Syria who humbled himself to get healed of his ailment. “Humility with thanksgiving does great things in our lives.
Thanksgiving is desired of us no matter what God does for us”. he said. The Archbishop advised the people not to take the things God gives to them for granted. He added that the gift of the sacraments, the gift of faith is very vital in charting people’s life. We should not take the gift of the sacraments, the gift of faith for granted, if we do, it is at our own detriment”, he admonished.
