Monday 15 May 2017

EASTER MONDAY HISTORICAL SITES PILGRIMAGE



We left our house at 6:15am and arrived in Kampala around 8am. We were nine candidates of the Missionaries of Africa, Lavigerie house-Jinja, and four aspirants from Holy Cross sisters who joined us. The whole pilgrimage was guided by Fr. Otto Kato, the vocation animator of Missionaries of Africa, Uganda sector.

Easter Monday was one of the well spent days in Lavigerie house, as we continued to enjoy the fruits of Easter. It is a tradition here in Lavigerie house that every Easter Monday the first years go out to pay pilgrimage to the remarkable and Holy sites of Missionaries of Africa, as well as, the Catholic Church in Uganda and the whole world at large. Most of the areas we visited were Namugongo Catholic Martyr’s shrine and protestant shrine, Kigungu, the place where our first missionaries (Brother Amans and Fr. Loudel Mapeera),  stepped the first foot when the just entered Buganda Kingdom. Another place we visited was Namulagala parish where the first missionaries celebrated the first Eucharistic Celebration was celebrated. However they were many other places to be visited, but due to limited time we could not visit all places. 

It was such a great time as we were challenged and inspired by the courage the Martyrs had. To die for their faith is a great inspiration. The missionary zeal of Br. Amans and Fr. Mapeera inspired all of us. The whole pilgrimage was wonderful, as we shared different experiences.  Thanks to our formators who gave us such a beautiful chance to experience what it really means to be a missionary. Above all I  thank God who made it all possible for us to have such glorious experience of what faith is all about. As in the book of James, not words alone but faith accompanied by good actions witnessed through His Martyrs and His two servants Amans and Loudel we receive His grace.

Isaac Ogwang