cross connections

  My Dearest Friends On the 30 th of April 2015, I will celebrate my 20 th Anniversary of priestly ordination. Allow me to share something personal. I want to give thanks to God for the gift of the priesthood of Jesus Christ that I have been privileged to share with you for the past twenty years. In the greater picture of things, 20 years is small amount of time. However in today's world and context, every single day of priestly fidelity is cause for thanksgiving and prayer. My context, a priest evangelizing in an Islamic country for twenty years - A diocesan clergy living in a war zone country like Sudan.   All in all these years has gone very fast. Every year whenever I celebrate my ordination anniversary I ask myself these questions: What was the highlight of the these past   years ? what was my most significant moment?   The great highlight of my priestly life is the cross. I learned about the meaning of the way of the cross. The cross repres...

BULL OF INDICTION OF THE EXTRAORDINARY JUBILEE OF MERCY FRANCIS BISHOP OF ROME SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD TO ALL WHO READ THIS LETTER GRACE, MERCY, AND PEACE 1. Jesus Christ is the face of the Father’s mercy. These words might well sum up the mystery of the Christian faith. Mercy has become living and visible in Jesus of Nazareth, reaching its culmination in him. The Father, “rich in mercy” ( Eph 2:4), after having revealed his name to Moses as “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” ( Ex 34:6), has never ceased to show, in various ways throughout history, his divine nature. In the “fullness of time” ( Gal 4:4), when everything had been arranged according to his plan of salvation, he sent his only Son into the world, born of the Virgin Mary, to reveal his love for us in a definitive way. Whoever sees Jesus sees the Father (cf. Jn 14:9). Jesus of Nazareth, by his words, his actions, and his entire person [1] r...