Msiogope kupokea Sakramenti ya Mpako wa Wagonjwa!

Kwa mpako Mtakatifu wa Wagonjwa na Sala za Makuhani, Kanisa lote huwakabidhi wagonjwa na wazee kwa Bwana aliyeteswa ba kutukuzwa ili awainue na kuwaokoa. Na kwa hakika, Kanisa linawahimiza wajiunge kwa hiari na mateso na kifo cha Kristo ili kutoa mchango wao kwa mafao ya Taifa la Mungu.

Mama Kanisa anapenda kutafakari mang'amuzi ya ugonjwa na mateso mintarafu huruma ya Mungu inayojionesha kwa Yesu ambaye ni kielelezo cha Msamaria Mwema. Mama Kanisa kwa kuiga mfano wa Msamaria mwema katika kufundisha na kuponya kwa njia ya Mpako Mtakatifu wa Wagonjwa."Mtu wa kwenu amekuwa hawezi? Na awaite wazee wa Kanisa, nao wamwombee, na kumpaka mafuta kwa jina la Bwana". Hivi ndivyo Mama Kanisa ameendelea kutekeleza utume wake kwa wagonjwa kwa njia ya sala ya Makuhani na Mpako Mtakatifu.

Sakramenti ya Mpako Mtakatifu wa Wagonjwa, ndiyo mwendelezo wa Katekesi iliyotolewa na Baba Mtakatifu Francisko, Jumatano tarehe 26 Februari 2014 kwenye Uwanja wa Kanisa kuu la Mtakatifu Petro mjini Vatican. Anasema, kwa njia ya Maadhimisho ya Sakramenti ya Mpako Mtakatifu wa Wagonjwa, Kanisa linawasindikiza waamini wake ili kukabiliana na Fumbo la Mateso na Kifo.

Baba Mtakatifu anawaalika waamini na watu wenye mapenzi mema kutambua na kuthamini Sakramenti ya Mpako Mtakatifu wa Wagonjwa hasa katika tamaduni ambazo zinashindwa kuzungumzia kweli hizi ambazo zinagusa maisha ya binadamu.

Waamini watambue na kuthamini Sakramenti hii kama kielelezo cha mshikamano wa maisha ya kiroho na Kanisa zima, kwa kutambua uwepo endelevu wa Yesu anayewaimarisha wafuasi wake katika imani na matumaini, akiwakumbusha kwamba, hakuna kitu kinachoweza kuwatenga na nguvu yake inayookoa, si dhambi wala kifo.

Baba Mtakatifu ametambua uwepo wa wajumbe wa mkutano mkuu wa SIGNIS unaoendelea mjini Roma. Hiki ni kikundi cha Wanahabari Wakatoliki 300 kutoka katika nchi 80, kinachotafakari kuhusu "Vyombo vya Habari katika Utamaduni wa amani: kutengeneza taswira na vijana wa kizazi kipya".

Baba Mtakatifu amewasalimia wanafunzi na marafiki wa Chuo Kikuu cha Kipapa cha Canada kinachoadhimisha kumbu kumbu ya Miaka 125 tangu kilipoanzishwa. Anaendelea kuwahimiza waamini kuhakikisha kwamba, wanapokuwa na mgonjwa au mzee ambaye yuko katika hatari ya kufa, wasisite kumwita Padre ili aweze kumpatia Mpako Mtakatifu wa Wagonjwa. Kwa njia hii, Yesu Kristo Mkombozi na Bwana wa maisha, atakuwa karibu na wagonjwa hawa.

Yesu yupo katika kila Sakramenti ya Kanisa na kwa njia hii anawashirikisha waamini maisha na huruma yake. Waamini wajitahidi kumfahamu ili hatimaye, waweze kumhudumia kwa njia ya wagonjwa. Tarehe 27 Februari, Kanisa linafanya kumbu kumbu ya Mtakatifu Gabrieli mteseka, changamoto kwa vijana kuwa ari na mwamko wa kutaka kuwa kweli ni wafuasi wa Kristo.

Baba Mtakatifu anawaalika wagonjwa kutolea shida na mahangaiko yao huku wakijishikamanisha na Kristo. Wanandoa wapya wajitahidi kuhakikisha kwamba, Injili inakuwa ni dira na mwongozo wa maisha yao.

Ash Wednesday - March 5, 2014

The first day of Lent

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent. It is a season of penance, reflection, and fasting which prepares us for Christ's Resurrection on Easter Sunday, through which we attain redemption.

Why we receive the ashes

Following the example of the Nine vites, who did penance in sackcloth and ashes, our foreheads are marked with ashes to humble our hearts and reminds us that life passes away on Earth. We remember this when we are told

"Remember, Man is dust, and unto dust you shall return."

Ashes are a symbol of penance made sacramental by the blessing of the Church, and they help us develop a spirit of humility and sacrifice.

The distribution of ashes comes from a ceremony of ages past. Christians who had committed grave faults performed public penance. On Ash Wednesday, the Bishop blessed the hair shirts which they were to wear during the forty days of penance, and sprinkled over them ashes made from the palms from the previous year. Then, while the faithful recited the Seven Penitential Psalms, the penitents were turned out of the church because of their sins -- just as Adam, the first man, was turned out of Paradise because of his disobedience. The penitents did not enter the church again until Maundy Thursday after having won reconciliation by the toil of forty days' penance and sacramental absolution. Later, all Christians, whether public or secret penitents, came to receive ashes out of devotion. In earlier times, the distribution of ashes was followed by a penitential procession.

The Ashes

The ashes are made from the blessed palms used in the Palm Sunday celebration of the previous year. The ashes are christened with Holy Water and are scented by exposure to incense. While the ashes symbolize penance and contrition, they are also a reminder that God is gracious and merciful to those who call on Him with repentant hearts. His Divine mercy is of utmost importance during the season of Lent, and the Church calls on us to seek that mercy during the entire Lenten season with reflection, prayer and penance.

Daily Reading for Thursday, February 27th, 2014

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Reading 1, James 5:1-6

¹ Well now, you rich! Lament, weep for the miseries that are coming to you.
² Your wealth is rotting, your clothes are all moth-eaten.
³ All your gold and your silver are corroding away, and the same corrosion will be a witness against you and eat into your body. It is like a fire which you have stored up for the final days.
⁴ Can you hear crying out against you the wages which you kept back from the labourers mowing your fields? The cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord Sabaoth.
⁵ On earth you have had a life of comfort and luxury; in the time of slaughter you went on eating to your heart's content.
⁶ It was you who condemned the upright and killed them; they offered you no resistance.

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Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 49:14-15, 15-16, 17-18, 19-20

¹⁴ They are penned in Sheol like sheep, Death will lead them to pasture, and those who are honest will rule over them. In the morning all trace of them will be gone, Sheol will be their home.
¹⁵ But my soul God will ransom from the clutches of Sheol, and will snatch me up.Pause
¹⁶ Do not be overawed when someone gets rich, and lives in ever greater splendour;
¹⁷ when he dies he will take nothing with him, his wealth will not go down with him.
¹⁸ Though he pampered himself while he lived -- and people praise you for looking after yourself-
¹⁹ he will go to join the ranks of his ancestors, who will never again see the light.
²⁰ In prosperity people lose their good sense, they become no better than dumb animals.

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Gospel, Mark 9:41-50

⁴¹ 'If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, then in truth I tell you, he will most certainly not lose his reward.
⁴² 'But anyone who is the downfall of one of these little ones who have faith, would be better thrown into the sea with a great millstone hung round his neck.
⁴³ And if your hand should be your downfall, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell, into the fire that can never be put out.
^44
45 And if your foot should be your downfall, cut it off; it is better for you enter into life lame, than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.
^46
47 And if your eye should be your downfall, tear it out; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell
⁴⁸ where their worm will never die nor their fire be put out.
⁴⁹ For everyone will be salted with fire.
⁵⁰ Salt is a good thing, but if salt has become insipid, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.'

St. Leander of Seville

February 27

534 - 600

St. Leander of Seville, Bishop (Feast - February 27th) Leander was born at Cartagena, Spain, of Severianus and Theodora, illustrious for their virtue. St. Isidore and Fulgentius, both bishops were his brothers, and his sister, Florentina, is also numbered among the saints. He became a monk at Seville and then the bishop of the See. He was instrumental in converting the two sons Hermenegild and Reccared of the Arian Visigothic King Leovigild. This action earned him the kings's wrath and exile to Constantinople, where he met and became close friends of the Papal Legate, the future Pope Gregory the Great. It was Leander who suggested that Gregory write the famous commentary on the Book of Job called the Moralia. Once back home, under King Reccared, St. Leander began his life work of propagating Christian orthodoxy against the Arians in Spain. The third local Council of Toledo (over which he presided in 589) decreed the consubstantiality of the three Persons of the Trinity and brought about moral reforms. Leander's unerring wisdom and unflagging dedication let the Visigoths and the Suevi back to the true Faith and obtained the gratitude of Gregory the Great. The saintly bishop also composed an influential Rule for nuns and was the first to introduce the Nicene Creed at Mass. Worn out by his many activities in the cause of Christ, Leander died around 600 and was succeeded in the See of Seville by his brother Isidore. The Spanish Church honors Leander as the Doctor of the Faith.

 

from Wikipedia

Saint Leander of Seville (Spanish: San Leandro de Sevilla) (Cartagena, c. 534–Seville, March 13, 600 or 601), brother of the encyclopedist St. Isidore of Seville, was the Catholic Bishop of Seville who was instrumental in effecting the conversion to Catholicism of the Visigothic kings Hermengild and Reccared of Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula, comprising both modern Spain and Portugal).

Contents

• 1 Family
• 2 Life
• 3 Works
• 4 See also
• 5 References
• 6 External links

Family[edit]

Leander and Isidore and their siblings (all sainted) belonged to an elite family of Hispano-Roman stock of Carthago Nova. Their father Severianus is claimed to be according to their hagiographers a dux or governor of Cartagena, though this seems more of a fanciful interpretation since Isidore simply states that he was a citizen. The family moved to Seville around 554. The children's subsequent public careers reflect their distinguished origin: Leander and Isidore both became bishops of Seville, and their sister Saint Florentina was an abbess who directed forty convents and one thousand nuns. Even the third brother, Fulgentius, appointed Bishop of Écija at the first triumph of Catholicism over Arianism, but of whom little is known, has been canonised as a saint. The family as a matter of course were staunch Catholics, as were the great majority of the Romanized population, from top to bottom; only the Visigothic nobles and the kings were Arians. It should be stated that there was less Visigothic persecution of Catholics than legend and hagiography have painted. From a modern standpoint, the dangers of Catholic Christianity were more political. The Catholic hierarchy were in collusion with the representatives of the Byzantine emperor, who had maintained a considerable territory in the far south of Hispania ever since his predecessor had been invited to the peninsula by the former Visigothic king several decades before. In the north, Liuvigild struggled to maintain his possessions on the far side of the Pyrenees, where his Merovingian cousins and in-laws cast envious eyes on them and had demonstrated that they would stop at nothing with the murder of Liuvigild's sister.

Life[edit]

Illumination in a 12th-century manuscript of a letter of Saint Gregory's to St. Leander (Bibl. Municipale, MS 2, Dijon)

Leander, enjoying an elite position in the secure surroundings of tolerated Catholic culture in Seville, became at first a Benedictine monk, and then in 579 he was appointed bishop of Seville. In the meantime he founded a celebrated school, which soon became a center of Catholic learning. As Bishop he had access to the Catholic Merovingian princess Ingunthis, who had come as a bride for the kingdom's heir, and he worked tirelessly with her to convert her husband St. Hermenegild, the eldest son of Liuvigild, an act of court intrigue that cannot honestly be divorced from a political context. Leander defended the new convert even when he went to war with his father "against his father's cruel reprisals," the Catholic Encyclopedia puts it. "In endeavoring to save his country from Arianism, Leander showed himself an orthodox Christian and a far-sighted patriot."
Exiled by Liuvigild, as his biographies express it, he withdrew to Byzantium — perhaps quite hastily — when the rebellion failed, from 579 to 582. It is possible, but not proven, that he sought to rouse the Byzantine Emperor Tiberius II Constantine to take up arms against the Arian king; but in any case the attempt was without result. He profited, however, by his stay at Byzantium to compose works against Arianism, and there became acquainted with the future Pope Gregory the Great, at that time legate of Pope Pelagius II at the Byzantine court. A close friendship thenceforth united the two men, and some of their correspondence survives. In 585 Liuvigild put to death his intransigent son Hermenegild, who is a martyr and saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Liuvigild himself died in 589. It is not known exactly when Leander returned from exile, but he had a share in the conversion of Reccared the heir of Liuvigild, and retained an influence over him.
Catholic sources aver that it is not known exactly when Leander returned from exile, but it is extremely unlikely that it was during the old king's lifetime. After the death of Liuvigild, Leander swiftly returned to Hispania to convoke within the very year (589) the Third Council of Toledo, where Visigothic Hispania abjured Arianism, and Leander delivered the triumphant closing sermon, which his brother Isidore entitled Homilia de triumpho ecclesiae ob conversionem Gothorum a homily upon the triumph of the Church and the conversion of the Goths. On his return from this council, Leander convened a synod in his metropolitan city of Seville (Conc. Hisp., I), and never afterwards ceased his efforts to consolidate the work of extirpating the remains of Arianism, in which his brother and successor St. Isidore was to follow him. Leander received the pallium in August, 599.