REFLECTIONS OF A KENYAN PRIEST

During his Wednesday General Audience on 9th of November 2022 at the Vatican in Rome, Pope Francis asked the gathering to give an applause for the newest Blessed: Maria Carola who was beatified in Meru, Kenya on 5th November 2022. The Pope called Blessed Maria Carola Cecchin " an example of a good and wise woman who is an encouragement for many who labor so hard for the spread of the Kingdom of God." On Sunday, 13th of November 2022, the feast day of the new blessed and the day of her D ies Natalis, Kenyan families, Priests, religious and seminarians living and working in Rome gathered for a Mass of thanksgiving for the New Blessed at the Basilica of SS. Sylvester and Martin ai Monti' where the applause of Pope Francis for the new blessed was extended keeping with the Italian tradition.  The Kenyan Community in Rome called the beatification of Maria Carola as an incentive to deepen the call to holiness. " It means a lot today, especially for our religious sisters, it...

Di don Casmir Odundo Beata Maria Carola Cecchin "Fiorina" “ D'ora in poi sarà chiamata beata. ” scrive Papa Francesco, nella Lettera Apostolica dichiarando ‘ Beata’ suor Maria Carola Cecchin “Fiorina” che è stata letta a suo nome Sua Eminenza il Cardinale Antoine Kambanda, Arcivescovo di Kigali, Ruanda. Il Cardinale ha presieduto la beatificazione e la celebrazione della Messa a nome di Papa Francesco.   Suor Maria Carola Cecchin è nata il 3 aprile 1877 a Cittadella, Padova, in Italia. Fu battezzata il giorno dopo e chiamata “Fiorina”. Fin da giovanissima Fiorina sentì il desiderio di offrirsi tutta a Dio. A 19 anni entra nella Casetta della Divina Provvidenza (Suore Cottolengo) a Torino. Quando divenne novizia prese il nome di Maria Carola . Nella solennità dell'Epifania del 1899 ha fatto la prima professione religiosa. Dopo la professione ha lavorato con i poveri in Italia e lì è stata ispirata dai missionari che tornavano dalle missioni e desideravano andare anche...

By Fr. Casmir Odundo Sr. M. Carola Cecchin 'Fiorina' “ Henceforth she shall be called blessed. ” wrote Pope Francis, in the Apostolic Letter declaring that Sr. Maria Carola Cecchin “Fiorina” Blessed, which was read on his behalf by His Eminence, Antoine Cardinal Kambanda, the Archbishop of Kigali, Rwanda. The Cardinal presided over the beatification and the celebration of Mass on behalf of Pope Francis.   Sr. Maria Carola Cecchin was born on 3rd April 1877 at Cittadella, Padua, in Italy. She was baptised the next day and called “Fiorina”.  At a very young age Fiorina felt the desire to offer herself completely to God. At the age of 19 she entered the Little House of Divine Province (Cottolengo Sisters) in Turin. When she became a novice, she took the name Maria Carola . On the Solemnity of Epiphany in 1899 she made her first profession.  After her profession she worked with the poor in Italy, and it was while there that she was inspired by the missionaries who retur...

Today in St. Peter’s at the Vatican Pope Francis will canonize two new Saints. Two more saints. Two additional examples. One of them, a lay person, Atemide Zatti  was a Male nurse who though could not continue with his call to become a priest, devoted himself to the sick in Argentina. The other one is Giovanni Scalabrini, bishop of Piacenza who founded the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo. He promoted devotion to the Eucharist and the Apostolate of the Catechism.  What does it mean to be a saint? From the etymology, a saint means a holy person.  St. Atemide Zatti Recently, I listened to a homily by His Grace Mario Delphini, the Archbishop of Milan, that he had preached during the feast of St. Josemaria Escriva, this year. I thought it was beautiful, a wonderful exposition on Sanctity, so I translated it into English for my friends who might be interested. While translating I might have omitted or added some words to make sense of the speech.  Archbishop Delp...

By Fr. Casmir Odundo   “For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and of love, and of self-control.” 2. Tim 1: 7 The Priesthood is a great gift and a great mystery. God has a reason why he called men and not angels into the priesthood. A priest is first of all a human being. He is a man. A citizen of a nation, he may even come from an ethnic community. But over and above that he is a man of God. A man of the church and a father of all. Jesus, the model of our priesthood, also belonged to a nation and a tribe. This belonging to a certain community though it may seem like a disadvantage, is a great advantage to the priest and to the life of the church. It means that the priest like Jesus is “incarnated”, fully human and shares the burdens of the people.  The situation in Kenya is quite unique because different dioceses have different demographics and different political dynamics.  Many Kenyans still vote on tribal lines and sometimes that affects how the...