Diocese of Manzini News Archives - Catholic Diocese of Manzini

St. Joseph Sodality gives to new parish

Posted on April 21, 2020 by Neliswa Mdluli

by Maduduza Zwane

A Twenty-Five-member delegation for St Joseph Sodality in the Diocese of Manzini visited St. Ignatius of Loyola Parish on the 23rd February 2020 for the purpose of recruiting married men at the parish to be members of the St. Joseph Sodality.

When the delegation got to Siphofaneni, it was difficult for them to locate the Parish because there was no road sign showing where the Parish was at Siphofaneni.

The Sodality felt there was dire need for a road sign to show where the home of the Word of God is at Siphofaneni.
The Sodality undertook to provide a road sign for the Parish. On Thursday 2, April 2020 observing the Social distance, and having washed their hands, Thamsanqa Mpanza and Gcina Mndzebele presented the Road Direction Sign on behalf of the Sodality to Sanele Dlamini the Parish Pastoral Council Chairman on behalf of the St Ignatius of Loyola Parish. Father Alwyn the Parish Priest was over the moon and said ” Thank you very much for this precious gift for the parish. May God bless St. Joseph Sodality”.
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Digital spiritual resources

Posted on April 13, 2020April 14, 2020 by Bishop Jose Luis

It was over a year ago that we launched the “WhatsApp project” called “Diocesan News” inviting you to join and receive news from the Diocese.

We started with one group. Now we have six of them with over 1000 people! As “WhatsApp” has a limit in the number of people in one single group, we had to create new ones. You all receive the same information at the same time.

We are deeply grateful to you. We hope many more will join. If you have not done it and you would like to do so, send us a WhatsApp message to: +268 7662 0223 (please note that comments in the group have been blocked)

We would like to give you a summary of the digital resources available in our webpage. You know them already because you have been receiving them regularly. We do it so that you see them all at once and, if needed, you know where to find them again. Continue reading “Digital spiritual resources” →

Journeying together during the coronavirus

Posted on March 30, 2020 by Bishop Jose Luis

By Fr Francis Onyango IMC

For many of us church has been like our second home, a place where we visit for solace when times are hard, a place where we feel free and comfortable to spend time and interact with fellow Christians and sometimes even after service we enjoy to hang around bonding with each other as we nurture our family spirit.

Sunday for many years has been our day of obligation, a day set apart for the worship of God and we naturally wake up geared for church. Then Corona virus came along and our church services were suspended; government placed restriction on gatherings and travels and God’s people were left unsure of what to do. Breaking a long held tradition isn’t always easy and this was one such tradition; waking up on a Sunday morning without a clue of what to do or where to go or how to spend the day was the most boring thing to happen on a Sunday.

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“We have realized that we are on the same boat”

Posted on March 29, 2020March 29, 2020 by Bishop Jose Luis

Pope Francis meditated on the calming of the storm from the Gospel of Mark during the prayer service over which he presided on the steps of St Peter’s Basilica on Friday evening. Here is the full text. (www.vaticannews.va)

“When evening had come” (Mk 4:35). The Gospel passage we have just heard begins like this. For weeks now it has been evening. Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets and our cities; it has taken over our lives, filling everything with a deafening silence and a distressing void, that stops everything as it passes by; we feel it in the air, we notice in people’s gestures, their glances give them away. We find ourselves afraid and lost. Like the disciples in the Gospel we were caught off guard by an unexpected, turbulent storm. We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other. On this boat… are all of us. Just like those disciples, who spoke anxiously with one voice, saying “We are perishing” (v. 38), so we too have realized that we cannot go on thinking of ourselves, but only together can we do this. Continue reading ““We have realized that we are on the same boat”” →