“Consecrate your lives to Christ through Mary”: Catholic Archbishop at Ordination in Kenya

He continued, “As Mary guides and points you to Christ, choose to remain in Christ and with Christ. Serve him in the people of God the way He Himself served them.”

“Serve with a heart of mercy, love, and concern as a way of imitating Jesus through the consolation of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” Archbishop Anyolo told the 10 members of the Religious Order that was founded in 1845 in France by Fr. Emmanuel d'Alzon.

Jesus Christ, the Kenyan Catholic Archbishop said, “took care of the weak ones in the society. Those who stood in the peripheries of their lives, Jesus Christ was always there with them because He had also learned it from the immaculate heart of Mary.”

Having known suffering in her own life as exemplified in the seven sorrows, the Blessed Virgin Mary understands the challenges members of the Clergy undergo, he said, adding that she intercedes for the Clergy in their ministry, including during the Eucharistic celebration where her name is invoked.

“The church is very wise and very inspired to have Mary as the mother of God and the mother of Priests. We lose nothing, but we gain the whole world for God, in the name of God, through God and by God Himself when we respect Mary,” Archbishop Anyolo emphasized during the June 20 ordination celebration.

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He went on to acknowledge with appreciation the role that the parents of the 10 AA members he was ordaining played in their journey of faith, adding that they were not just handing over their sons to Jesus Christ, but to the Holy Trinity and the Church through the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“Mary will take care of your sons just as you used to take care of them. Enter into the company of Mary and serve the Church by taking care of your sons through your prayers for them that they may be good Priests,” the Kenyan Catholic Church leader who started his Episcopal Ministry in February 1996 as Bishop of Kenya’s Kericho Diocese said.

Silas Mwale Isenjia is a Kenyan journalist with a great zeal and interest for Catholic Church related communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communication from Moi University in Kenya. Silas has vast experience in the Media production industry. He currently works as a Journalist for ACI Africa.