by Fr Ncamiso Vilakati

“Travel light with little or no provision”

At Diaconate ordination the Bishop asks a candidate if he is resolved to maintain and deepen a spirit of prayer appropriate to the life he chooses and, in keeping with what is required, to celebrate faithfully the Liturgy of the Hours for the Church and for the whole world. After he has answered YES to all that he has been asked, the Bishop presents him the Book of the Gospels and placing it in his hands saying: “Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you now are. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach”. This is a beginning of a journey where the ordained will be a collaborator of the Bishop in the conveyance of Word of God. It is advisable and wise of him to travel light with little or no provision at all but the Lord himself. Continue reading “Reflection on the 15th Sunday Ordinary time- B” →

by Fr Ncamiso Vilakati

“My grace is sufficient for you for power is made perfect in weakness” 2 Cor 12:9

On the 14^th October this year, Pope Francis will canonise two holy men. Blessed Pope Paul VI as well as Blessed Oscar Romero an Archbishop of San Salvador in El Salvador from Latin America. The latter was a controversial Bishop who had to face adversaries from his own people, especially the government. As a believer he knew that through his baptism, God’s grace was and is sufficient in pastoral ministry. Its no wonder on the 14^th August 1977 he is quoted as saying: “The prophet must be disturbing to society when society is not with God”. In some instances, found to be saying “Even when they call us mad, when they call us subversives and communists and all the epithets they put on us, we know we only preach the subversive witness of the Beatitudes, which have turned everything upside down”. Continue reading “Reflection on the 14th Sunday in Ordinary time B” →

by Fr Chris Chatteris SJ

Pope’s Prayer Intention for July 2018

Priests and their Pastoral Ministry. That priests, who experience fatigue and loneliness in their pastoral work, may find help and comfort in their intimacy with the Lord and in their friendship with their brother priests.

It is very possible to be lonely in the middle of a crowd. A priest can be lonely in the midst of his congregation, even at a moment of great celebration. This may seem strange, but it happens. Why? Firstly, there is the simple fact that he is both single and singular. Because he is celibate, this makes him different, unusual. Whatever the compensations of the pastoral life, he will still feel, from time to time, the loss of the tenderness and intimacy of the married life and the deep satisfactions of creating a home and a family. Continue reading “July 2018: Priests and their Pastoral Ministry” →