On Sunday morning at breakfast I asked Fr. Denis where he was celebrating Mass. Last Sunday he was the main celebrant for the Sunday morning Mass in the Seminary chapel, which is where I went to Mass. Fr. Denis told me that this weekend he was going to say Masses for the Consolata Sisters and asked if I would like to go with him. I told him that I would definitely like to go and drove with him to the Consolata Sisters Flora Hostel, which is about a twenty minute drive. The hostel provides accommodations for missionaries and their family and friends and is run by the Consolata Sisters. Next to the hostel is a fairly large chapel where Masses are celebrated daily. A different Consolata Father goes to the Flora Hostel every Sunday morning to celebrate two Masses – one in Swahili and one in English. Each Mass lasts almost ninety minutes and there is about thirty minutes between Masses. Fr. Denis celebrated both Masses and I attended both. Following the Mass in Swahili is still a challenge for me. I can follow the prayers of the Mass fairly well, but struggle with the readings, homily and songs (with which I am not familiar). Swahili is not Fr. Denis’ primary language as he from Uganda, where English is the official language. He “picked up” Swahili on his own while living in Kenya. As Fr. Denis has worked, spent time and also studied in Latin America, he speaks a number of languages. He is urging me to immerse myself to learn the language, which is why I try not to pass up opportunities to participate when Swahili is being spoken. However, as pretty much everyone in Nairobi speaks English, it’s a challenge to be completely immersed in Swahili here.
The Masses in Kenya are very inspiring. The church or chapel is typically full for a Mass and the people are very engaged in the celebration of the liturgy. This is especially true of the music where people will not only sing, but also clap and move their bodies in praise and worship. There is much more music incorporated into the Masses in Kenya, which is why the Masses tend to be closer to ninety minutes rather than the hour that most of us are used to.
Fr. Denis’ homily centered around the second reading, which was taken from St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians – St. Paul’s well known Body of Christ metaphor. In his homily, Fr. Denis urged the congregation to be active participants in the life of the Church, which is the body of Christ. Fr. Denis stressed that we are all individually integral parts of the Body of Christ. Of course, I understood this from the English version of Fr. Denis’ sermon, not the parts in Swahili! Hopefully in time …
To me, Fr. Denis’ homily and the reading from St. Paul fits very nicely and is a continuation of what I thought about last week and wrote about in my last blog post. St. Paul’s reading tell us that God has designated different roles for each of us. He has endowed each of us with different gifts, but not necessarily the same gifts to each and every person. As St. Paul tells us, if the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? This reading has so much to offer, even though I’ve probably heard or read it several hundred times in the course of my life. St. Paul goes on to say that the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are all the more necessary and that if one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy. If only we could all live this teaching out more fully – me especially included.
We got back from Flora and Fr. Denis drove straight to the building where we have our meals so that I could eat. He knows that I leave with Francis to go to Kibera at 1:30 PM to do pastoral work and we didn’t arrive back at Consolata until a few minutes after 1 PM. The trip to Kibera is always interesting as it is too far to walk to, so we take a matatu – the privately owned minibuses that are ubiquitous in Kenya. A typical matatu seats about 8 – 12 people packed in. I still have not gotten the hang of them yet. I’m never sure of which one to get on, where they will drop me off, how much it costs, … They are always crowded and hectic. It took a long time for a matutu which went in the direction of Kibera to come along and when we go on, we were all crushed together. Luckily the matatu stop is right up the road from Consolata, next to the Galleria shopping mall that is easily walkable from Consolata. However, there is still quite a bit of walking involved on the other end – getting from where the matatu lets us off to the entrance of Kibera and then making our way through Kibera to get to the location of the week’s meeting.
The meeting this week was again very uplifting for me. It was held in the place where one of the members of the small Christian community lives. She has recently lost a son and part of the meeting, after praying the rosary and reading the Mass readings for the next week, was to pray for her and offer words of condolence. She spoke some in English so I could understand and I said a few things in English. This woman now has one remaining son. She is not surprisingly still coming to terms with her loss, but spoke so beautifully about her trust in God even though she doesn’t understand the reason why something tragic like this happened. The members present were all so inspiring. Their intense love of God shines forth from them. There is no complaining, just praise for our Lord.
Although I practice speaking and listening in Swahili with the seminarians on my way to and from the meeting, I do resort to a lot of English to ask questions. I’m going to force myself to only use Swahili at Kibera with the residents there. It will definitely limit what I can say, but I want to keep pushing forward. I see some improvement in my ability to pick out Swahili words and phrases from week to week, but I’m still a long way from being able to understand a lot of things. I can follow along with prayers like the rosary and the Mass in Swahili, but other than that, learning Swahili is definitely a work in progress. In Swahili they say ‘pole pole’ which means slowly, slowly. I’ve only been here a month. When I look at it from that perspective, I’ve learned a lot.
We got back to Consolata from Kibera around 5:30 PM, which gave me time to take a shower and get ready for dinner. Dinner is late here – around 7 PM. I’m pretty used to eating dinner late now and am able to make it from lunch to dinner without a problem. I eat a lot less here and really don’t snack between meals. I don’t eat desert often, but will partake when it is available, which only happens on special occasions. Unfortunately, I don’t get much in the way of exercise with the exception of a little bit of walking. I’m not starving and I arrived in Kenya with a few extra pounds that I could easily afford to shed. I think I’m making some progress in that respect as I feel my clothes are generally looser fitting now. I guess that is a good thing.
Today is the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord. In celebration of the feast there was a special Mass this morning in the large chapel. The Mass was celebrated by Fr. Geoffrey, the superior and rector of the Seminary, along with five other Consolata Fathers. We – Fathers, Seminarians, Sisters, and some students – gathered at the flog pole in the courtyard for a few prayers and for a candle lighting to recall the light of Christ in us. With lit candles in hand, we processed to the chapel for Mass. The Mass was very nice. The seminarians are very vocal and engaged in the liturgical music. In his homily for the Feast of the Presentation, on which we also celebrate the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin (according to the law of Moses), Fr. Geoffrey talked about the ways in which the Lord touches and purifies us in our lives – whether through suffering or graces that He gratuitously bestows on us. May our Lord continue to purify us and shine brightly in each of us so that we may be a light to others.
