Every priest must be well aware that he is bringing to the world, God. Secondly, the mission is communal because it carried out in unity and communion with the Church. Moreover, these derive essentially from that divine intimacy in which the priest is called to be an expert, so that he may be able to lead the souls entrusted to him. Lastly, the mission is hierarchical and doctrinal. The two last dimensions suggest reaffirming the importance of discipline training and theological and continuing formation. After recalling briefly one of the Pope’s points of talk on “the Year of the Priest”, let’s get back to our main subject, which is the “10 Years” of Priesthood of our confrere, Fr. Kinfemichail Gabriel. Actually, Fr. Kinfemichail Gabriel is an Ethiopian; born in Addis Ababa. He did his philosophical studies in Addis Ababa; novitiate in Kenya and then theological studies in Colombia. He was ordained on October 24, 1999. After his ordination, he was appointed to Colombia where he spent some more years for missionary work. Currently, he is a full member of the IMC Ethiopian region. On Saturday 24 October, 2009, he celebrated his “10 years” of priesthood. Taking advantage of the above-mentioned celebration, we are all invited to know that being ministers of the Gospel; we are commanded by the Gospel to be merciful. “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”(Lk 6:36). The priesthood is the indescribable mystery of divine mercy. How often the apostles must have meditated upon it, remembering their Master, his words and parables, his gestures and prayer for them. God’s mercy must flood our lives, beginning with our thoughts, and the interior attitudes that give rise to the exterior ones. “Let us then rediscover our vocation as ‘mystery of mercy’. In the Gospel we find that Peter receives his special ministry with precisely this spiritual attitude. His experience is indicative for all those who have received the apostolic task in the different grades of the sacrament of Orders” (Dives in Misericordia, n.7). We can all realize now that Peter like Paul and the other Apostles, was the perfect work of God’s infinite mercy. He himself understood well the mystery of mercy of his priestly vocation. Priesthood is a service. Such a service is accomplished with the help of prayer. I always and personally believe that all the initiatives which have taken birth and have grown in prayer have blossomed and borne much fruit. Prayer is “our first duty” (SL 438). Furthermore, the Sovereign Pontiff, John Paul II, in Redemptoris Missio emphasized the role of intercession in effective evangelization: “Prayer should accompany the journey of missionaries so that the proclamation of the World will be effective through God’s grace” (Paragraph 78) . Thanks be to God for the gift of life and vocation. Courage and avanti in domino Fr. Kinfemichail Gabriel!
May the protection of Our Founder, Joseph Allamano and Our Mother, Consolata, accompany you for ever! Amen.
