Retreat - Corpus Christi Solemnity - Fifth Day Texts

Today the Holy Mother Church is celebrating the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. The Solemnity of the Most Holy Eucharist. Here is today's text of the homily and four short reflection at four altars during the Eucharistic Procession this afternoon in our parish. Please, continue praying for me and for the whole community taking part in this important spiritual exercise in the parish. Thanks in advance!

Holy Thursday

My silver and golden jubilees logo. Created by Mr. Florian Kaija Ludovick

Holy Thursday of this year carries in itself a special meaning to me.

In four weeks time I will turn fifty. Half a century of life behind me. God only knows how long I will live more. I am not worried at all and I do not give this thought much attention. What is important is to live my life to the fullest and continue to be a tool, though poor and insufficient, but still a tools in God's hands.

Apart from the golden jubilee of my birthday, in two months time I will celebrate golden jubilee of my Baptism and then together with my classmates - our silver jubilee of priestly ordination in Wawel cathedral in Kraków. Twenty five years have already passed and I do not know how? Out of these twenty five, twenty three served in Tanzania - in Kiabakari and in Musoma cathedral a bit as well.

This evening I will The Holy Mass of the Last Supper of our Lord with my heart and soul filled to the brim with infinite gratitude to Almighty and Merciful God for the gift of life, Baptism, faith, priesthood and missionary all; gratitude of my Parents who not only gave me earthly life but also brought me to the Baptismal font and raised in Catholic faith and morals and taught life with their wisdom and love; gratitude to so many wonderful people I met in the course of my life - relatives, friends, colleagues, who shaped me and my life in many ways.

I will offer this evening Holy Mass for all of us, immersing us anew in the Ocean of Divine Mercy. Thank you for all you have been to me throughout these past fifty years of Christian life and twenty five years of priesthood! May Good and Infinitely Merciful God be your reward here and in heaven!

Dziękuje! Asanteni! Thank you!

Second version of the jubilees logo. Can you find number 25 in the picture?

The Grave

A few days ago a man came to my office asking for advice what to do in a case when the family members of a deceased elder decided to renovate his grave paying their respect to him. The man was buried 28 years ago in a family plot adjacent to the Divine Mercy Hill, just on the other side of the road that runs around the hill...

In The Presence

The Holy Hour this evening gave us all participating unique opportunity to enter KAIROS. The time full of Christ Crucified and Risen... I explained the meaning of the this term in my other post (read here). But this is something else to understand this term and something else completely to enter its realm...

Sahara

I read once somewhere about the people traveling from one location in Sahara desert to the other, and when they car broke down, they were found dead several days later. They died of dehydration, though they forgot that they had enough water to survive in the radiator of their car...

Two Signs

Just a while ago I have finished the Holy Mass of the Solemnity of the Birth of Saint John the Baptist. As today is Friday, this Mass was the last event of the recollection day in the shrine, which dates back, as I wrote on my occasions, to 1994 when we were about to begin the construction of the parochial church, and has been continuing for 17 years now on each and every Friday of the year without interruption till today...

No Tap

Celebrating Holy Mass on Thursdays, though every Mass in a pilgrimage in time and space to the Upper Room in Jerusalem, gives a special meaning as it is the same day on which Jesus Himself celebrated His first Mass with the Apostles and instituted the Eucharist and the vehicle to bring Him to people in three sacraments of His unique love and mercy...

Orphans

Two keywords of this Sunday Liturgy of the Word - "The Spirit of Truth" and "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you"."The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live." (from today's Gospel of Jn 14:15-21)

Streams Of Water

The First Thursday of the month. As on every thursday, todays as well, and indeed - more so, more intensely, our thoughts and heart travel to the Upper Room in Jerusalem, where Jesus, the King of Mercy, instituted two Sacraments of Mercy and the third one which makes sure that the first two sacraments never run dry and are always available to us...

Elevation

Tonight, during Consecration Prayer, as it has been a tradition for me for the past twenty three years since I became a priest, in the Holy Mass of the Last Supper of Holy Thursday, I will elevate all my Loved Ones, Relatives and Friends and all intentions dear to their and mine hearts - up to the Lord together with the consecrated Bread and Wine. I will elevate all readers of my blog and everyone I was blessed to meet in my life as well. So, take courage and lift up your heart and spirit knowing that there is someone somewhere in Africa, on the top of Divine Mercy Hill, who thinks about you and embraces you  fondly in the Eucharistic Prayer and Sacrifice, elevating you, your life, worries and joys, thoughts and intentions up to the Lord... My prayers are with all of you... Happy Easter!

The People Of The Three Mountains

Christ's path of life and salvation restored for us led through three mountaintops - Tabor, Mount of Olives and Golgotha. The time of Lent puts us on the same route, reminding us that we, followers of Christ, must follow the same path - through the same three mountaintops...

Intention

It gives me immense pleasure and warms my heart to be asked by my relatives, loved ones and friends - from all over the world - to offer a Holy Mass for the intentions dear to their hearts. This noble and holy task entrusted to me - raising to the Lord their worries and hopes, their persons and families, the matters of their lives - is a holy duty I gladly accept. It is a pure honor to do so and I feel privileged, through the power vested on me by the sacred order of priesthood, to be able to elevate them and their intentions in my hands and in my heart up to the Lord in the Holy Eucharist, in this most sublime and the most powerful prayer the world of faith knows...

The Encounter

Every Saturday, if only I am in Kiabakari and there is no school break time, gives me unique opportunity to  meet with our catechumens and children preparing for their First Communion. We begin with morning prayers and Holy Rosary, proceeding with the Holy Mass and - most of times - the Eucharistic adoration. This liturgical encounter allows me to share with them my faith and to pray together the best way there is - through the Eucharist...

Silence

I do hope you kept Christ in your Christmas celebrations. And met Him in the silence of your heart, peaceful in right balance of your conscience cleansed by Advent preparations and the sacrament of reconciliation. I am not into writing Christmas cards, sending decorated emails or passing smses with fancy 'Xmas' pictures and texts. If you are into this kind of Christmas communication and wishes, I am sorry to disappoint you by keeping silent. But what I did is this: I said breviary in silence for you and for the intentions dear to your heart. Then while elevating the consecrated Hosts during Christmas Midnight Mass and today in all Christmas Masses I whispered to Him to keep an eye on you and make sure you stay safe and blessed and your worthy prayers are answered by Him in due time and manner. Then I sat close to the Christmas crib in silence and thought about you asking silently the Holy Family to watch over you and help you the way They deem necessary to hep you...

We Walk By Faith, Not By Sight

2 Corinthians 5:7. Very challenging text. As if walking with our eyes closed, believing what we are being told and accepting it at face value. Walking by faith, not by sight. As if landing in a thick fog, guided only by ILS, knowing that the instrument landing system will guide me correctly at a right glide slope path to the center of the runway. As if walking along the edge of a cliff, guided by a voice of someone else, trusting that person completely. As if looking at the valley covered in thick mist, seeing nothing and being told that there is a beautiful valley with picturesque village on the curvy river meandering through the valley towards the horizon...

The Holy Hour

Thursday before the First Friday of each month is a day for a very special liturgical service - A Holy Hour. As the name of this devotion says itself, this is a hour long adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament, of Jesus Himself in the mystery of the Eucharist... The more I grow in years and become more and more absorbed with spiritual, pastoral, administration, development and other activities, the more I long for this special hour spent on knees in front of Jesus in Eucharist among the liturgical assembly of my fellow Christians in Kiabakari...

The Presence

Every day in the retreat we celebrate Divine Mercy Hour – Eucharistic adoration at 3pm, at the hour of Christ’s death on the Cross. We follow the request of Jesus He gave us through St. Sister Faustina Kowalska of the Most Holy Eucharist to meditate on His passion at the hour He called Himself – a Divine Mercy Hour to the whole world. He promised us to grant us anything we ask in faith and trust in His Mercy if only our petitions comply with His Father’s Holy Will.

Touch of Love

Yesterday evening a week-long retreat for sisters has begun with the Holy Hour, Eucharistic adoration which lasted from 8 to 9pm. I really put all my heart into this opening of our journey into the wilderness where the Lord by the power of His Holy Spirit will speak tenderly to our hearts in the holy silence of our seclusion and detachment from the noise of the surrounding world.

Lauda Sion Salvatorem!

Lauda Sion Salvatorem

Lauda Sion Salvatórem
Lauda ducem et pastórem
In hymnis et cánticis.
Quantum potes, tantum aude:
Quia major omni laude,
Nec laudáre súfficis.

Laudis thema speciális,
Panis vivus et vitális,
Hódie propónitur.
Quem in sacræ mensa cœnæ,
Turbæ fratrum duodénæ
Datum non ambígitur.

Sit laus plena, sit sonóra,
Sit jucúnda, sit decóra
Mentis jubilátio.
Dies enim solémnis ágitur,
In qua mensæ prima recólitur
Hujus institútio.

In hac mensa novi Regis,
Novum Pascha novæ legis,
Phase vetus términat.
Vetustátem nóvitas,
Umbram fugat véritas,
Noctem lux elíminat.

Quod in cœna Christus gessit,
Faciéndum hoc expréssit
In sui memóriam.
Docti sacris institútis,
Panem, vinum, in salútis
Consecrámus hóstiam.

Dogma datur Christiánis,
Quod in carnem transit panis,
Et vinum in sánguinem.
Quod non capis, quod non vides,
Animósa firmat fides,
Præter rerum ordinem.

Sub divérsis speciébus,
Signis tantum, et non rebus,
Latent res exímiæ.
Caro cibus, sanguis potus:
Manet tamen Christus totus,
Sub utráque spécie.

A suménte non concísus,
Non confráctus, non divísus:
Integer accípitur.
Sumit unus, sumunt mille:
Quantum isti, tantum ille:
Nec sumptus consúmitur.

Sumunt boni, sumunt mali:
Sorte tamen inæquáli,
Vitæ vel intéritus.
Mors est malis, vita bonis:
Vide paris sumptiónis
Quam sit dispar éxitus.

Fracto demum Sacraménto,
Ne vacílles, sed memento,
Tantum esse sub fragménto,
Quantum toto tégitur.
Nulla rei fit scissúra:
Signi tantum fit fractúra:

Qua nec status nec statúra
Signáti minúitur.
Ecce panis Angelórum,
Factus cibus viatórum:
Vere panis fíliórum,
Non mittendus cánibus.

In figúris præsignátur,
Cum Isaac immolátur:
Agnus paschæ deputátur
Datur manna pátribus.
Bone pastor, panis vere,
Jesu, nostri miserére:

Tu nos pasce, nos tuére:
Tu nos bona fac vidére
In terra vivéntium.
Tu, qui cuncta scis et vales:
Qui nos pascis hic mortales:
Tuos ibi commensáles,
Cohærédes et sodales,

Fac sanctórum cívium. Amen. Allelúja.


Sion, Praise Thy Savior

Sion, lift thy voice and sing:
Praise thy Savior and thy King;
Praise with hymns thy Shepherd true:
Dare thy most to praise Him well;
For He doth all praise excel;
None can ever reach His due.

Special theme of praise is thine,
That true living Bread divine,
That life-giving flesh adored,
Which the brethren twelve received,
As most faithfully believed,
At the Supper of the Lord.

Let the chant be loud and high;
Sweet and tranquil be the joy
Felt to-day in every breast;
On this festival divine
Which recounts the origin
Of the glorious Eucharist.

At this table of the King,
Our new Paschal offering
Brings to end the olden rite;
Here, for empty shadows fled,
Is reality instead;
Here, instead of darkness, light.

His own act, at supper seated,
Christ ordained to be repeated,
In His memory divine;
Wherefore now, with adoration,
We the Host of our salvation
Consecrate from bread and wine.

Hear what holy Church maintaineth,
That the bread its substance changeth
Into Flesh, the wine to Blood.
Doth it pass thy comprehending?
Faith, the law of sight transcending,
Leaps to things not understood.

Here in outward signs are hidden
Priceless things, to sense forbidden;
Signs, not things, are all we see:-
Flesh from bread, and Blood from wine;
Yet is Christ, in either sign,
All entire confessed to be.

They too who of Him partake
Sever not, nor rend, nor break,
But entire their Lord receive.
Whether one or thousands eat,
All receive the selfsame meat,
Nor the less for others leave.

Both the wicked and the good
Eat of this celestial Food;
But with ends how opposite!
Here 'tis life; and there 'tis death;
The same, yet issuing to each
In a difference infinite.

Nor a single doubt retain,
When they break the Host in twain,
But that in each part remains
What was in the whole before;
Since the simple sign alone
Suffers change in state or form,
The Signified remaining One
And the Same forevermore

Lo! upon the Altar lies,
Hidden deep from human eyes,
Angels' Bread from Paradise
Made the food of mortal man:
Children's meat to dogs denied;
In old types foresignified;
In the manna from the skies,
In Isaac, and the Paschal Lamb.

Jesu! Shepherd of the sheep!
Thy true flock in safety keep.
Living Bread! Thy life supply;
Strengthen us, or else we die;
Fill us with celestial grace:
Thou, who feedest us below!
Source of all we have or know!
Grant that with Thy Saints above,
Sitting at the Feast of Love,
We may see Thee face to face. Amen

29 May 1986 - Corpus Christi procession in Kraków - I served as a thurifer (a thurible bearer)

I will come back to this post after today's celebration of the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. Just one question? Why in so many parishes we've decided to left out of Corpus Christi Liturgy this beautiful and so rich in meaning Sequence? It is beyond me...Do not  tell me there is no time for this! We do have time to spend hours on silly things, but to abandon this Eucharistic catechesis condensed in a pill in our Liturgy is a big mistake in my humble opinion. aaaahhhh!

I'm back. Monday afternoon already. No internet connection since yesterday afternoon. Just now it came back, so quickly before it goes again, a few pictures from yesterday's celebration of our Eucharistic faith. I asked our pastoral sister, Sr. Jennifer, to take a few photos for me, and then I edited them a bit. Here we go.

 Misty morning on Corpus Christi Sunday in Kiabakari, as seen from top of Divine Mercy Hill

Incensing the altar and Divine Mercy picture at the beginning of the Liturgy

52 young Catholics received their First Holy Communion, among them two Anglicans were received officially in the Catholic Church first

Corpus Christi procession on its way to the first station

 Kids throwing flower petals - but...straight at the monstrance! 

 My altar servers - 'fire brigade' keeping fire alive in portable charcoal stove during procession

Third station in the procession

 Kids enjoying the colorful procession

 Some of the parishioners came from afar - like Mr Deusdedit (an old man in the front) who walked 13 kilometers from Isaba outstation and went back home by foot as well

Fourth station - an altar server awaits procession to arrive

St. Gemma Galgani Choir members dancing and singing welcoming Jesus at the fourth station

Shortly before the final prayer and blessing at the fourth station

Up the Divine Mercy Hill on our way back to the shrine with incoming rain the background

It was fantastic proclamation of Eucharistic living faith of my people. I'm so proud of them. Moments like these are greatest reward for times of stress and frustration. May God reward all those who participated and prepared this beautiful solemnity!

Toughest Day of the Week

You think, for a priest like me, it must be Sunday, huh? You are wrong.

Not at least in my parish / mission! Actually, Sunday is the community celebration day. The Lord's Day. The Easter of the week. Though I wish I had only Mass on Sundays for the entire parochial community, gathered as God's family at His table on the day of His only Son's Resurrection, even if - in fact - I have three consecutive Masses, two in the shrine and one in the one of nine outstations, constituting Kiabakari parish, still it is not as tough and physically and psychologically demanding as the Toughest Day of the Week, which is for me, surprise, surprise - Saturday!

You would expect 'normal' people to take it easy on Saturdays after demanding working week, Friday evening 'folly' for some, for many a day when you can at last sleep bit longer (which for some of people I know may be quite a big bit!).

For me though, Saturday is the most versatile in demands, toughest in variety of challenges and the beloved day for so many who think that on Saturday i have nothing else to do but to sit and wait for them to come and care for their 'shidas' (shida in Swahili means problem, trouble but also an agenda someone wants to share with you, a goal to achieve, issue to solve).

Today is the best example of toughness of TDW (Toughest Day of the Week). Waking up early to get ready for confessions before the morning Mass which on Saturday starts half an hour later than on Mondays to Thursdays to allow school kids, altar servers and all others coming for Saturday morning to arrive to church on time. A lot of confessions as usual, taking from time to time more than half an hour to hear them all. Then Holy Mass with Eucharistic adoration. Right after Mass people would come to the office with their shidas. Quick coffee and something to accompany it (to avoid a despicable type of breakfast called here chai ya mkono mmoja - which means one hand breakfast haha! Funny expression and describing a really poor situation - to have just a cup of tea, coffee with nothing else to munch on!). Pity! Executive Committee of Lay Parish Council arrive at their office in pastoral center to deal with other issues that do not need my attention. Then I would normally go for meetings - with altar servers, vocation group, Holy Childhood, catechumens from primary schools, sometimes meetings of parish lay council etc. Till lunch time or longer. In the afternoon I would hear confessions (as I am alone in the parish, I cannot do it on Sundays, time does not allow me to hear confessions before two Masses in the shrine, only before the Mass in the outstation) if there is no wedding Mass or something else like a Vigil Mass etc.

Today though, right after morning confessions and Holy Mass, I sat in the office for an hour, then drove to Isaba outstation for Baptismal Mass for a handful of catechumens, around ten only, and just two school kids who were prepared for their First Communion.

The Holy Mass started at 10.30 preceded by confessions as usual in outstations, then I was asked to rush to a dying person. I managed to get to an old lady, a godmother of one of the catechists their. She was fighting for her life. I was able to give her plenary indulgence in the hour of her death and the Sacrament of the Sick. Then suddenly rain came. I think the Lord was pleased with the service rendered to a godmother of the catechist. The Lord never fails to take care of their chosen ones...I saw it so many times in my life! The priest will be their for them  when he is needed most. I was so glad and relieved that the lady was safe, whatever awaited her from then on...

Drove back home with my altar servers, got something to keep me alive and kicking, then on 2.30pm I begun hearing confessions of the school kids who will receive their First Communion tomorrow, during Corpus Christi solemn Mass and will follow Jesus in monstrance walking behind the Eucharistic Tent. All of them on my list (51 altogether) showed up and were truly very well prepared. We had last catechesis yesterday afternoon along with practical exercises of how to confess and also how to receive properly a host.

It took me three hours to hear all confessions (theirs and some other parishioners who came to prepare themselves for tomorrow's Solemnity). I pity them that they are forced to come to me, as they have no choice of priests. I'm the only one around. I would really love to have an assistant parish priest (or curate as they called in other countries), but that's how it is, we are still very few and most missions in this diocese are served by single priests.

Just came back from the church, making sure all is ready for tomorrow. And decided to share these few lines with you.

So TDW is what it looks like here in Kiabakari. But it feels special when I sit just like this, after finishing all things since early morning till dusk, feeling kind of satisfaction that is very rewarding and making the physical and psychological exhaustion a blessing rather than a cross.

Happy and blessed Corpus Christi Solemnity to you all!