. . . Holds Fund Raising, Celebrates 2019 Feast Day
By Chioma Ndife
The Awka Diocesan St. Jude’s Society has commence plans to set up the shrine of their patron Saint at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church, Adazi-Nnukwu.
Members of St. Jude’s Society in Awka Diocese intensified their plans sequel to the fund raising they organized to solicit support from public spirited individuals to assist the pious society to embark a on shrine project and complete its ongoing hall project that commenced in 2015.
The association solicited for support through the fund raising organized on Sunday, 27th October, during the 2019 feast of the association’s patron saint held at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church, Adazi-Nnukwu, Anaocha LGA, Anambra State.
Fides gathered that the pious group through the shrine of St. Jude which they intend to build, hopes to promote devotion to St. Jude and provide an avenue for members to present their personal problems to the patron saint for his intercession.
The society, through the address of welcome signed by the Diocesan President and Secretary, Bro. Chijioke Christopher Njoku, and Sr. Rose A. Umeadi, respectively, disclosed that the society was in dire need of a diocesan hall where members can assemble to deliberate on issues bordering on society and strategize in order to achieve the needed progress.
It revealed that the society through the first launch held in 2015 for the hall project, was able to complete the perimeter fencing by 80% and foundation with twenty three solid pillars. The floor, they said, had been duly covered with concrete and cement.
Part of the address read, ‘The next stage of the hall project shall be block work, roofing, fixtures and fitting estimated about Eight Million Naira. This is why we are having the second fund raising for the hall project.
‘The shrine shall be exclusively used by members for meditative and contemplative prayers. We intend also to organize and run periodic skill acquisition workshops/seminars for youth empowerment and social development. We crave your indulgence to kindly assist us. Our members are aged with feeble limbs but still struggling to prop up society.’
Leading in the Eucharistic Celebration, the Auxiliary Bishop of Awka Diocese, Most Rev. Jonas Benson Okoye, stressed the importance of humility and noted that God withheld nothing from a humane person. He called on Christians to desist from judging others nor to believe that one was better than others. He beckoned on them to avoid self-acclaimed holiness but to always seek for the mercy of God at all times as no one was righteous.
The Catholic Prelate tasked the Catholic faithful to always place God first whenever they were faced with decisions between worldly things and heavenly ones. It was good for people to always examine their conscience and stand by the truth,’ Bishop Okoye maintained.
In his remarks, the Diocesan Chaplain of St. Jude Thaddeus Society, Rev. Fr. Jude Nwankwo, appreciated members of the society for their consistency and effort towards the propagation of the society. He disclosed that the St. Jude’s statue should be placed in the shrine after its construction had been procured.
He emphasized the need for Catholics to return to their traditional prayer and charged all to tie a particular need to the support to be rendered to the association, saying that St. Jude had the abilities of interceding on behalf of the devotees for answers to their prayers.
Speaking to Fides, the Diocesan President of St. Jude’s Society, Bro. Chijioke Christopher Njoku, said the shrine would afford members opportunity to reflect and pray for their various needs. He noted that for the shrine project to be actualized, all hands must be on deck.
