Advent Sunday I: Catholic Bishops in Angola Call for Vigilance, Peace in Families

Luanda, 06 December, 2023 / 8:56 PM

On the First Sunday of Advent marked on December 3, Catholic Bishops in Angola have called for vigilance, and called on the people of God in the Southern African nation to pray for and foster peace in their respective families.

In his homily at the Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral of Malanje Archdiocese, Archbishop Luzizila Kiala said peace and good relations within families are conditions that allow the Lord's mercy. 

“Create good relationships within yourselves; live in peace in families and establish good relationships with everyone,” Archbishop Kiala said, and added, “To be vigilant is to be awake and in prayer.”

He continued, “Vigilance means living responsibly in relation to Christ, being responsible for knowing that he will come, knowing how to respond on the spot.”

“To be vigilant is to be able to detect everything that can affect us on the way to the Lord, that can spoil our journey with the Lord,” Archbishop Kiala further said.

The Angolan Catholic Bishop invited the people of God to “think about how we pray at home and in our families.”

He described personal prayer as “having a moment of intimacy with the Lord”, and emphasized the need to “thank the Lord when you wake up, when you go to work in the evening, knowing how to say thank you Lord for everything he has given you throughout the day.”

“Ask the Lord for forgiveness, because we don't do everything well, so we can have the Lord's mercy,” the Local Ordinary of Malanje who started his Episcopal Ministry in August 2013 as Bishop of Angola’s Sumbe Diocese said.

He emphasized attentiveness to the second coming of the Lord, and added, “Christians must always be attentive, watch and analyze day-to-day events.”

On his part, in his December 3 homily, Bishop Vicente Carlos Kiaziku of Angola’s Mbanza Congo Diocese said, “A community that is passive or asleep loses the power of the Gospel, and has nothing to say to the world; it betrays life and the word of its Master and this community needs to be shaken by the word, watch!”

“We must be vigilant so that we don't fall into routine, resignation, accommodation, and drowsiness. These are temptations that lurk around Christians and communities of all times,” Bishop Kiaziku said during Holy Mass at Our Lady of Fatima Parish of  Mbanza Congo Diocese.

Meanwhile, in the Diocese of Cabinda, Bishop Belmiro Cuica Chissengueti challenged the authorities to make surprise visits to institutions under their care, in order to take a closer look at the quality of the services provided.

Bishop Chissengueti said that in sensitive places, “we always have to put someone on guard, which is why in all institutions there is always someone to watch out for someone in bad faith who might destroy what has been built.”