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May all your prayers from pilgrimage be answered
Police officers block pilgrims from accessing the Northern entrance of Namugongo Martyrs site during Uganda Martyrs Day celebrations on June 3, 2024. Photo/Stephen Otage
What you need to know:
The issue: Martyrs Day
Our view: We hope that the period helps all who sought protection, good health, wisdom, and all other life needs. Now is the time to go and put effort into the things you prayed for and work harder to change the community you come from.
Multitudes of faithful thronged Namugongo in Wakiso District yesterday to pay pilgrimage to the 45 Anglican and catholic martyrs who were killed in the 1880s for professing their faith in Christianity.
While the annual voyage to Namugongo may seem like a day to make merry, sing, and have fun to many, some have shared their testimonies of the blessings after the yearly ritual.
For instance, we reported in yesterday’s edition how 11-year-old Catherine Ninsiima from Bushenyi District walked back to the Catholic shrines to thank the Almighty for enabling her to get school fees, which she prayed for the last time she walked to the place last year.
On Page 2 of yesterday’s edition, we spoke to children aged between six and 13 years about why they walked to Namugongo for this year’s Martyrs’ Day celebrations. Many of them shared that they wished to get school fees, wisdom, and the ability to complete school, while in some emotional cases, the children wanted their parents, especially fathers, to return to them after desertion.
Many adults who shared their stories with this newspaper over the last two weeks, also made it to the prayer site to seek divine intervention in many aspects of their lives.
As Christians make their way back home after the Martyrs’ Day prayers yesterday, it is useful to first thank the security organisations for ensuring peace, and the churches for organizing the fetes.
As we return to normal business, it is time to now reflect on the issues we sought from God during the celebrations.
We hope that the period helps all who sought protection, good health, wisdom, and all other life needs. Now is the time to go and put effort into the things you prayed for and work harder to change the community you come from.
While prayer is important, we also need to acknowledge that the politics of the day are responsible for many of the things that the faithful have been asking for. Health, poverty, education, and many other social ills can be fixed if the politics is right.
At the Catholic Shrines, President Museveni once again promised to speak about the issue of corruption when he reads the State of the Nation Address later this week. We hope that he walks the talk this time, and that the leaders who sat through both the events at the Catholic Shrines and at the Anglican site also take heed. May all the prayers from people of all walks of life be fulfilled.
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