Congratulations and blessings to Fr. Norbert Mukabwa SAC and Fr. Stephen Lwebuga SAC who were ordained Pallottine priests on July 8, 2017 in the Parish of Our Lady Queen of Apostles, Dagoretti, Nairobi, Kenya. Click on the image to view more photos
Summary of The Sermon of Bishop David Kamau
There would never be a more special day for Norbert and Stephen than the 8th of July, the day that the two confreres were elevated to the order of presbyterate. During the homily, the Auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Nairobi Rt. Rev. David Kamau, explicitly touched the beauty of priesthood and its distinctive work of evangelization. It is because of the nature and meaning of the vocation to priesthood that its ministry stands and there are no grounds of comparison to any occupational career. A priest who is a priest of Christ and for the church, has to be an exemplary minister who discharges his duties of sanctification with love and the character of his moral life.
As the bishop called the newly ordained priests ‘my children’, he emphasized that as they are coming from their respective families, they now form a new family of a clerical state which has its own mode of life and behavior, inspired by good conduct and the Gospel. They are now under the fatherhood of the local ordinary or superior. And in that sense of family, the bishop asked: ‘who will be happy if your family is interfered with or disturbed by those who want to erode your family’s discipline and values?’ Jokingly warning the lay faithful of that disturbance, and speaking to the newly ordained priests he asked them not jeopardize the meaning and values of the clerical life and state.
To enrich themselves in their priestly life, the bishop insisted to the newly ordained priests that they follow Christ with whose priesthood they have been entrusted. It wasn’t true that they were worthy of that sacrament, but it is because of God’s grace. They are to deduce from the mysteries they celebrate the strength and the grace needed to live a determined and faithful life of priesthood. If they are to continue to be good priests, faithful and of a sound character, they are to embrace also the life of prayer.
Indeed, the bishop never forgot to thank the parents and the family members of Frs. Norbert and Stephen. It was because of their commitment to good Christian values that a vocation was brewed and nurtured in the hearts of the newly ordained priests. He extended the same gratitude to the Pallottine Community for further caring through formation and thus contributing to what today they have become. He encouraged more families to take care of their son’s and daughter’s vocational calls to serve in the Church.
Courtesy of Fr. Emmanuel Msuri, SAC.