{"id":12848,"date":"2021-08-06T16:06:35","date_gmt":"2021-08-06T16:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/?p=12848"},"modified":"2021-08-06T16:06:35","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T16:06:35","slug":"kenya-do-not-sacrifice-personal-prayers-for-human-activity-nuncio-in-kenya-to-newly-ordained-jesuits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/2021\/08\/06\/kenya-do-not-sacrifice-personal-prayers-for-human-activity-nuncio-in-kenya-to-newly-ordained-jesuits\/","title":{"rendered":"KENYA: \u201cDo not Sacrifice Personal Prayers for Human Activity,\u201d Nuncio in Kenya to Newly Ordained Jesuits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA<\/em><\/p>\n

The Apostolic Nuncio in Kenya has cautioned newly ordained priests from the Religious Order of the Society of Jesus (SJ) commonly known as Jesuits not to sacrifice their personal prayers for human activity but to remain true sons of St. Ignatius of Loyola who founded the Order and be in constant contact with the Father through prayer.<\/p>\n

Addressing the four ordinands in his homily during the Jesuits Eastern Africa priestly ordination Saturday, July 31, at Mwangaza Spiritual Centre, Nairobi, the Pope\u2019s representative in Kenya and South Sudan highlighted that \u201chowever good human activity may seem to be, personal prayers takes precedence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is so easy to get lost in pastoral activities; teaching, studying, working with the poor and all other activities,\u201d Archbishop Bert van Megen told the deacons he was about to ordain Priests adding that, \u201call these activities are good, respectable and can surely contribute to the kingdom of God.<\/p>\n

However, the Nuncio continued, \u201cAll of them (pastoral activities) have also the temptation to seek for human recognition, human applause and to be acknowledged as prophet of the people which easily destructs us from being in contact with our Father.\u201d<\/p>\n

He acknowledged that humans are social beings and \u201cwe all feel the need to be accepted, loved, cherished, admired, adored, to stand out, have a place within the human society not to be excluded but be included, not to be rejected but be accepted, not to be hated but to be loved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amidst the human urge and desires, the Apostolic Nuncio disclosed while addressing the ordinands, \u201cthe only true consolation you will receive in this world is the consolation of Christ, and nobody else will be able to satisfy you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCleave to him (Christ) in whatever circumstance of your life; whether in sorrowful repentance or expectation of grace, whether in gratitude or as a sign of profound love\u201d the Prelate underscored, asking the four Deacons awaiting ordination to recall from the scriptures those who remained close to Christ and received his graces like the Canaanite woman, the blind man at Jericho, the woman who suffered hemorrhage, and the woman who kissed Jesus feet among others.<\/p>\n

Therefore the Pope\u2019s representative said, \u201cGo forth and set the world on fire, and remember you will need a strong companion in that battle, someone who will cover your back, who will hold up your arms when you get weary, hence, cleave to Christ and do not let go of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Vatican diplomat further warned that cleaving to Christ can also be betrayal as Judas Iscariot did, especially, \u201cwhen you try to use Jesus for your own intentions, for your own projects,\u201d hence the need \u201cto discern and understand where the spirit comes from and to know whether you are in the project of Jesus or Jesus is in your project.\u201d<\/p>\n

As you now enter the Promised Land he told the priests, \u201cLet your heart be undivided and always belong to him alone. Many will cleave to you, will desire you, will want to have you, manipulate you and use you for their own desires and purposes, shake the dust off your feet and let them not take possession of you for you belong to Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking at the same function celebrated on the feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola and which culminated the Province\u2019 congregation concluded few days before the event, the Jesuits Eastern Africa Provincial Fr.\u00a0Kizito Kiyimba encouraged the newly ordained to embrace the spiritual exercises which distinguishes them as Jesuits.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have had the privilege of being ordained during the Ignatian Jubilee year for Jesuits, teach the people around you to see everything ever new in Christ and make the Church a better place because you are men rooted in the Spiritual exercises,\u201d Fr. Kiyimba who is at the helm of the Eastern Africa Province since December 2020, said and continued, \u201cThis is the first universal preference that we have as Jesuits given to us by the Holy Father.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ugandan-born cleric reminded the ordained priests to make God present in people\u2019s lives and people\u2019s experiences through the Spiritual exercises.<\/p>\n

\u201cGather the forgotten and those at the margins of the society. Do that in the choice of apostolate you will make and because you are missioned by the Spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius we are celebrating today,\u201d Fr. Kiyimba said adding that, \u201cmotivated by the same Spiritual exercises, accompany the young,\u00a0 the lost and the forsaken.<\/p>\n

In conclusion the Provincial reminded the clerics to take care of mother earth and leave the world a better place than they found it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA The Apostolic Nuncio in Kenya has cautioned newly ordained priests…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12810,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amecea-news","category-kenya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12849,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12848\/revisions\/12849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}