What Counts

What counts is the Mystery of the Lord's Mercy, Love and Presence. While the whole Catholic Church in Tanzania was gathered in Mwanza for the installation of the new Archbishop of Mwanza, Rt. Rev. Bishop Yuda Thaddeus Ruwaichi, I was going about my pastoral duties in Kiabakari. First - two regular Masses in the shrine, then off to Isaba outstation, the northernmost village in my mission. I love to go there. The community is minute, the chapel is built of mud bricks with a thatched roof, dust inside, no church pews. Confessions done under a tree outside in the dust, sitting on a wooden chair. But I love. The Presence of the Lord is felt so powerfully, so intimately, I can't experience the same somehow in modern, better equipped chapels and churches. It feels as if I celebrate the Mystery of the Presence in Bethlehem crib....