Safari Njema!

Marjanna and Marija are at the Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam, checking in for their flight back home to Split via Doha and London. On behalf of the whole community here in Kiabakari I wish them safari njema (bon voyage), safe flight and happy reunion with their families back home. May God reward them hundredfold for their selfless service and wonderful time we shared together here in Kiabakari and may their work bear long lasting and abundant fruit. Asanteni sana na Mungu awabariki sana! Kila la kheri!

The Most Precious Blood of Jesus

 Today is the last day of the month of July, which - following the old tradition of the Catholic Church - is dedicated to the devotion of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus, yet so few of us remember this or are aware of this fact. The Precious Blood which we worship is the Blood which the Savior shed for us on Calvary and reassumed at His glorious Resurrection; it is the Blood which courses through the veins of His risen, glorified, living body at the right hand of God the Father in heaven; it is the Blood made present on our altars by the words of Consecration; it is the Blood which merited sanctifying grace for us and through it washes and beautifies our soul and inaugurates the beginning of eternal life in it.

No Need

The Gospel of the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) narrates one of the miracles of Jesus of multiplying bread and fish in the wilderness. The disciples wanted to send the crowd away to look after their food. But "Jesus said to them, “There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves.""(Mt 14)...

The Connection

The liturgical commemoration of St. Martha is celebrated annually on July 29th. Today. The connection between St. Martha and Christ, the High Priest of the New Testament fulfilling the prophecies of the Old Testament, struck me particularly hard this morning when I was celebrating the weekly Mass at sisters' convent...

The Dwelling

The First Reading of today's Liturgy. The first part of it describing in detail construction process of the Dwelling of the Lord. Moses busy with myriads of things, putting them together exactly according to the Plan given to him by God. And then, once God has taken the possession of the Dwelling, Moses was unable to enter it again...

Two Months

In exactly two months I will be back to Tanzania. Well, I am still in Tanzania as we speak, but in the meantime, there will be long list of things to do including a relatively short trip to Poland, mainly because of a need to go through a solid medical checkup, trying to get down to roots of my recent glitches and finding a suitable remedy to keep me going further on...

Bibi Kizee

This Swahili term means 'old woman'. This is a name my old truck Toyota Hilux should be named. Having served me and others for eighteen years faithfully, she is coming to the retirement age...

Empty Desks

After consultation with MM, seeing the point they made after observing our school for almost two months and after meeting with sisters, I clearly see that our educational adoption efforts must be directed for the time being (especially with our sponsors' donations for the next year) to the procurement of school books for our students in primary school.

Switching Focus

Time to switch my focus now. MM on their way back home after fruitful and intense two months in Kiabakari, and I have three weeks left before leaving Kiabakari for six weeks trip to Poland, to hospital, to family, friends and business matters. As it has been always before leaving the mission, some tough days ahead of planning and making sure the parish stays safe and everything is going well when I am away.

Long Goodbyes

I don't like them. Don't like the outbursts of emotions, teary eyes, sobs, long stares and inability to let people go... So it was brief yesterday, to not let my emotions, tears and sadness to show. Just a few words and a quick embrace, and they were gone into the check-in in Mwanza airport.

Offer

"The LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.”"(1Kgs 3:5). This is the first sentence of today's First Reading. What an astonishing offer! God gives Solomon a total freedom to ask anything from Him. As I sat yesterday afternoon reflecting upon this Sunday readings, I questioned myself what I would do if God came to me with the same offer. What would you ask Him of, knowing He will not deny it nor refuse?

Discretion

What rose my eyebrows and drawn my interest in tomorrow's Gospel, as I was in the process of working on my Sunday homily was the behavior of the person who found the treasure in the field and hid it again...Then went and bought the field without hinting to anyone what he found in that field. Why?
 

LUKU

Feeling good and proud of myself as I was able to figure out all by myself how to buy electricity units via mobile M-Pesa service. Tried the whole afternoon yesteday in vain as the network was busy and the service not responding, but eventually I succeeded and was able to purchase kilowatts via Vodacom M-Pesa. Then I waited for like half an hour before the confrimation sms came in with the code to punch in the meter. So I went and did punch the numbers and the code was accepted. New balance appeared on the display and we were spared of power cut home-made (by running out of units). Amazing how technology can ease our daily lives.No need to drive to Musoma to pay bills or to buy LUKU units. Just doing all this in the privacy of the home. Great!

Peas And Cabbage

Today is a day like in the Polish saying - 'peas and cabbage'. Everything thrown together, not fitting or complementing each other. Real organized chaos...

Be There

Just a rough reflection as I was celebrating the Holy Mass this morning at sisters' convent chapel on the liturgical commemoration of St. Mary Magdalene. It stroke me that her feast is all about the Resurrection of the Lord, the readings, Gospel acclamation, Mass formula... She was rewarded by the Lord the very first audience with Him after He rose from the dead. Why she?

Old Is Not Always Gold

My old truck is refusing to obey me recently. And today she started to fall apart. When I was on my way from Bunda Carmel, after regular confessions of Cloistered Carmelite nuns, I heard a strange noise. For a moment I thought it was a chain dangling from the spare tyre below the pickup area, but then it became stronger and louder. So I stopped to see what was wrong.

Darkness Rationing

The call it power rationing, load shedding. But in fact it has become such a nuisance, such a pain in the backside that I cannot but call it 'darkness rationing'! Tanesco does not even follow their own power cuts schedule anymore. The power goes off at any time now, and we have just a few hours of electricity on average in a period of 48 hours. I don't want even think or count anymore how much this situation cost me money in terms of burnt out appliances and petrol and maintenance of the generator I run from time to time when really in need. Total failure. I don't want to think about economy implications of this state for all Tanzanians especially those who depend totally on power. I read somewhere that only 40% of all Tanzanian companies, big and small businesses run on generators these days. The rest sits and cannot do anything, they just cry and count losses. God help us all!

Primus Inter Pares

The first among equals...This ancient Latin sentence I can proudly use in a special, personal context, as on last Saturday, the Apostolic Nunciature in Poland announced that the Holy Father raised two priests of Archdiocese of Krakow to the episcopal dignity. One of them is my classmate, Rev. Father Grzegorz Rys, with whom (and more than sixty other colleagues) I studied for priesthood in Krakow's major seminary from 1982 till 1988 when on May 22 we were ordained as priests. Our ordination class of 1988 has been specially blessed with this choice of a great priest and illustrious scholar, current rector of the same seminary we were studying in years back... I am very happy and proud and must say that this choice is excellent and very correct. I admire my classmate, his qualities as a human being, Christian, priest and professor. God is great and our archdiocese is lucky to have him as its auxiliary bishop. And I think this is not the end for him. He will go to greater heights. I am honored to share the same class with him and pray for him to Merciful God that he may be richly blessed in his episcopal service for the benefit of the People of God of Krakow and the whole Church.

Who Is Who

The seventeen day long peregrination of the Jubilee Cross in my mission cast a divine light on my understanding of the parochial community. This unique experience has become like an opening of a book of life held in God's hands in which He allowed me to have a good look. The Cross has brought out what was hidden in people, good and bad. To me, this period has become nothing less than a reenactment of - or if you will - a reliving of the Paschal Triduum, where each one of us personified someone from the main actors of that traumatic time in Jerusalem... The Jubilee Cross showed us who is who in Kiabakari parish...

It Is Done

Two vehicles vanishing in the distance, carrying the Jubilee Cross and the representatives of Mugango Parish which is the next stop in the itinerary of the Cross in the Centenary Year of Christianity in Diocese of Musoma. Whispering to myself - 'it is done...'

Touchdown

I feel so relieved and overwhelmed. The Jubilee Cross has come back home from the safari lasting from July 3rd till today, visiting all districts and outstations of the parish. This evening the Cross came to my house. We had a short liturgical service with solemn blessing of the Holy Water, blessing of the house (which I renew annually) and sung Divine Mercy chaplet for all the intentions we prayed for since the very first day till now. Then we had an agape, a supper I prepared for all who helped in the successful outcome of the peregrination of the Jubilee Cross. The dinner is over now, I'm dead tired but happy and satisfied. I will use this evening time for private prayer and a Holy Mass which I will offer for all my private intentions and for the intentions of my loved ones, relatives and friends. Tomorrow the last day. Two Masses, first at 7am with sacrament of marriage for three couples and baptism of 19 children; the second at 10am - the farewell Mass of the Jubilee Cross. People of Mugango will have their turn to welcome the sign of our salvation in their midst. We wish them all God's blessing they need and deserve!

Operation Sambusa

Mama Sambusa is coming over to prepare some 150 samosas (sambusa in swahili) for tonight private dinner on the occasion of welcoming the Jubilee Cross in my house. I have invited some 100 people who were directly involved in the preparation of the peregrination of the Cross and the proceedings. It is a gesture of gratitude for their selfless service and commitment. Mare&Mare asked me to invite Juliana  (Mama Sambusa) to come over so that they can learn how to make them. Will get some picture of the sambusa making process and hope to post them here whenever I get my macbook back to live.

Finale

Being bit quiet this week, no posts since Sunday. Apologies for not fulfilling my hope and promise that I would post lots of pictures from the peregrination of the Jubilee Cross in the parish, but efforts of my specialist who was trying to resurrect the charger of my macbook did not bring any results so far, and I will have to wait for a fruit of the genuine generous gesture of help of one of my best friends from California. Thank you, Lou, for your spontaneous response to this crisis situation!

The Seed

When we communicate with God, we tend to ask Him for prefabricated goods, final products, toys that do not demand much input or effort on our part, but bring us instant pleasure and gratification. Unfortunately, God has only one thing to offer. The seed...

Hard Blow

This is beyond our comprehension - us, missionaries and volunteers in Tanzania, that the government decided to suddenly rise residence permit class C fee (this is our class) more than any other class of expatriates, even those who come to work here and get paid for it. Our fee jumped more than four times from 120$ per two year permit up to 500$. Just like that. This is a bigger jump in fees than for any other class of foreigners working in Tanzania...

Unfair

Yes, we felt so disappointed last evening when we came back from the Holy Mass in Nyamongo district in Kiabakari, where there was a heavy downpour just before the Mass, messing whole setup altogether and soaking it wet completely - and here in the Kiabakari center, and Divine Mercy Hill area there was not a single drop of water. Just dust everywhere. This was unfair!

From Army Camp To Prison

The last day of the second part of the peregrination of the Holy Cross in my mission. The first part was dedicated to the communal celebrations on the parochial level, with an exception of the visit of the Cross at Sisters' convent. The second part which started last Sunday right after the Holy Mass of the Parish Feast ends today with the celebration of the Holy Mass at the last district of Kiabakari township and the handover of the Jubilee Cross to the first outstation...

Images

Just a quick info that I will post a lot of pictures from the peregrination of the Holy Cross in the parish once the charger of my macbook is working again (it is being rewired at the moment in Musoma and hopefully will work). So, God willing, by the end of this week or on Monday I will post a special photo report of the visitation of the Cross in our districts and outstations.

The Impact

As I suggested in my yesterday’s post, it’s time to gather together thoughts and reflections on what we have witnessed during the peregrination of the Holy Cross of the Centenary of Christianity Jubilee in Diocese of Musoma so far…

The Cross

The seventh day of the peregrination of the Jubilee Cross in my mission. Time flies fast indeed. Too bad my macbook cannot be used for the time being until I get my burnt charger repaired or replaced (which will take time). I will write more on what has been going on during those first seven days of an intense pastoral  program. But, I can say already in this quick post that the impact of this spiritual exercise has exceeded my optimistic expectations. I pray only that its fruits lasts...Here is a handful of pictures taken in the past days...

Setback

For a few past days I have been quiet and no new posts appeared on my blog. There are two reason. First, the charger of my macbook pro went up in smoke when Tanesco restored power on Saturday. I have no spare. I type this post on my mobile. The second reason is the peregrination of the Jubilee Cross in my parish. Tight schedule and no ample time to sit down and write something sensible. Bear with me, please, as I am trying to sort this out. Praying for you always!

On The Mountain

We spent the whole day on the mountaintop with the Lord in the Mystery of His Sacred Heart. Challenging day for me pastorally as a retreat master and the only confessor available for today. Thanks be to God, everything went as planned, people attended very well the second day of the peregrination of the Jubilee Cross in the parish.

House Of Wonders

The Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is an open invitation day for all to enter the House of Wonders - the Human Heart of Jesus, True God and True Man. On the second day of the peregrination of the Jubilee Cross in our parish, we will spend the whole day at the feet of the Cross, meditating on the Wonders of the Sacred Heart of the Lord...