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| Bishop Joseph Mlola (right) in group with Bishops Montfort Stima of Malawi (centre) and Bishop George Lungu of Zambia during the workshop in Nairobi |
In an exclusive interview with AMECEA Online News in Nairobi, Bishop Mlola said, “Priestly vocation is not without cross and suffering, but all these experiences help to unite us with Christ who suffered more for the sake of humanity,” he said.
Bishop Mlola who was in Nairobi attending a workshop on the Assessment of the Effectiveness of the Performance of Priests in Eastern Africa, offered his consolation to many of the priests who have fallen off the right path of their priestly vocation. “My brother Priests in the AMECEA Region, I would like to encourage you to take the Words of Christ who assures us that he is with us until to the end of time. So be it in moments of difficulties and challenging situation; the proper way is to come back to Christ and ask him for help and direction. In whatever situation you might find yourself in, just labor with Christ without despairing,” he said.
He said, “Christ is merciful to anyone who comes back to him. Remember the example of the prodigal son, which is teaching us that, it is never too late to come back to the Father, let us admit our faults and sincerely ask for his pardon. Christ is eagerly waiting for all those who have gone astray, like the father of the prodigal son; His arms are outstretched reaching out to receive us in mercy; we only need to ask him,” Bishop Mlola advised.
“This is my humble appealing to Priests in the AMECEA Region who might be facing certain challenges, certain personal problems in the cause of exercising their ministry, to go back to their father, let them go to their Bishops and to their Superiors, let them go to their fellow Priests and try to explain their situation and they will be able to draw comfort from each other and in the end Christ will receive them, he will give them mercy and grace to begin anew.”
He urged the Priests to unceasingly pray for one another because the ministry in which they are called to serve needs a lot of self-sacrifices, with many challenges and many temptations and due to human weakness, one can easily be lured to the wrong direction.
By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News