On December 10, 2024, the formators, students, seminarians, relatives and friends of the International House of St. Augustine Convent in the city of Nairobi, Kenya, celebrated with joy the dedication of the Chapel of Our Mother of Good Counsel. Miguel Angel Orcasitas started the plan, landed stone by stone by Cardinal Prevost and concluded with the consecration of its altar in the last year of the government of the current Prior General, Father Alejandro Moral.
“Some consider them as his children”
The rites were presided over by Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost OSA, Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and former Prior General of the Order. Joining him blessing the Altar and the Tabernacle, the Marian route and the place dedicated to perpetual Eucharistic Adoration, were the Prior General and Fr. Edward Daleng, Assistant General for Africa and Procurator General of the Order. Franz Josef Klein, Bursar General and Fr. Robert Karanja Ireri, Regional Vicar of Kenya, who together with numerous priests, religious, donors, benefactors and lay people present there, wanted to share their joy for this milestone that sees its happy conclusion two decades later.
“People came from our parish of Badabobo with a very good choir.” “Two and a half hours of celebration, praying, singing, dancing with great passion and great dedication in this chapel that gave us the opportunity to celebrate the event.
‘People from our parish of Badabobo came with a very good choir. ‘Two and a half hours of celebration, praying, singing, dancing with great passion and great dedication in this chapel that allows us to live more concentrated on the mystery of faith and the mystery of God’, says Father General on his return to Rome.
Regarding the faithful who joined in the celebrations, the Prior General was captivated by the religiosity of those who support and benefit from the work that the Augustinians carry out in the country. ‘The faithful participated very actively in this day of celebration’. ‘The people are very appreciative of our seminarians, they feel involved’, Father Alejandro points out. ‘Some of them consider them as their own sons. ‘They understand how important it is to have a chapel like this in Africa, with the saints of the Order of St. Augustine, and for the life of the seminary itself’. Father General was able to confirm this first hand during the days he spent in Kenya accompanying the 19 professed, five of them from the Congo, who are currently following their formative journey as Augustinian religious. ‘It is important for the people to see that we do not only attend to social works but that here there is a space for prayer and for the exercise of charity as St. Augustine taught us. I am convinced that without charity we cannot live what we are called to live in fullness with our brothers and sisters’.
Cardinal Prevost, during his homily, proposed Christ to those gathered there as ‘the door that leads all to enter through Him into the holy dwelling of God’. Reflecting on the Gospel text of Matthew 16, 13-19, the Cardinal pointed out ‘the centrality of the new chapel as a place of worship where the Augustinian community expresses its living faith, which is rooted in Peter's confession of Jesus as “Christ, Son of the living God”. ‘In Jesus and through Jesus, all who enter the chapel encounter God the Father, who is perpetually present in the midst of his people through the Holy Spirit, and offers them relief, solace and consolation’.
A sacred space to pray together towards God
The Prior General, for his part, acknowledged to the assembled community that ‘I have long wanted to come to Kenya’. ‘I am proud to be able to take up the inheritance I have received and I welcome with great affection your gratitude for what we all do here together,’ said the Prior General before going on to speak about the significance of this new place of worship. ‘God is found in the unity of mind and heart and this chapel conveys that. In this sacred meeting place to pray together, as brothers, and individually, there is an atmosphere suitable for growing in interiority, trust in God, discernment, forgiveness and humility.
He thanked Cardinal Prevost for his service to the Holy Father Francis and to the Church. He showed his gratitude to the Dutch Augustinian Province for their generous donation for the construction of the new place of worship, to the members of the convent community for their good work and witness, and to all the faithful for praying and supporting the friars.
On behalf of the community, its Prior, Fr. James Wambugu, joyfully highlighted the importance of this day as ‘the celebration of the wonders of God's boundless grace through the intercession of our holy Father Augustine’.
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