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Tanzania: A guest is a blessing (African saying) |
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Scritto da Mandla Makhanya, Joachim Credo & Thomas Mushi
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 We, fathers and seminarians together, as a community residing at Allamano seminary Morogoro (Tanzania) feel honored and blessed to have been visited by the General councilor in charge of formation: Fr Pacco Lopez. Sincerely we would like to extend our heartfelt happiness to have had him among us and to share with him some days of his visit in Tanzania. It’s part of his work as our father in charge but we feel honored particularly for leading us in a three days retreat as we were beginning the year after holidays.
We can’t forget the sincere patience he showed us in the dialogue he had with each of the twenty four seminarians and the four fathers staying at Allamano seminary in Morogoro and later with regional superior Iringa. To be frank, such a visit is of great importance to us young seminarians today and future Consolata Missionaries (though Fr Pacco insisted that we are already Consolatas!) and so we have every reason to feel proud and privileged.
Coming back from holidays we knew that we will start our academic year with the annual spiritual exercise but we didn’t know who our retreat master would be. It came as a nice surprise that Fr. Pacco would be the one. This was a blessing for us because it helped us start our academic year with a new vision. He helped us recognize the active call of God within us. Really, this is a positive spirit to start with. He reminded us that we are part and parcel of The Consolata family as mentioned above as well.During his visit we talked about our community as not just a community but also a family; everyone must feel the sense of belonging and practice it. At the end of the spiritual exercise Fr. Pacco left for Mafinga, Iringa where he met seminarians at the Consolata minor seminary. He celebrated mass with the students and shared some time with them.
Returning from Mafinga he had a personal dialogue with each student first and with the priests later. Dialogues made us feel more special and valued. Moreover it was like a healing moment for us. We had a chance to express ourselves freely to him and he was more than ready to listen to us.
 The community of the Allamano Seminary in Morogoro, thank God for such an opportunity. The two weeks with Fr. Pacco were really special to us. They really brought light to our family. We wished he could stay longer and we are hoping he will come back as soon as possible.
Since it was at the beginning of the Academic year we also prepared ourselves for the new year. We spent some time preparing our community project of life. We decided that in this year of 2007/2008 we will be focusing in our community as a family. So, our theme of the year is: “Our journey together”. The journey we are taking together is through freedom and co-operation.
We acknowledge the fact that our community is growing. We received five new members to begin the pre-philosophy program (propedeutic). We have 18 students in philosophy, 3 are in the first year, 6 are in the second year and nine are in the third year. Four priests are also with us.
It’s our hope and prayer that this year will be a year of blessing just as we have started it. We hope to grow in faith and love of Christ, through co-operation since we need each other in order to continue with this journey of Christian life. |
