Maiden Eucharistic Congress in Kenyan Diocese Focusing on Living “as one family of God”

“In our Diocese, there are so many challenges that overwhelm us and we cannot prevail without Christ. We have issues like conflict in Kerio Valley and this has greatly affected us as a Diocese because almost every day, people are losing lives,” he said.

Bishop Kimengich added, “We have tried as human beings; even the government has tried but the problem is still there. We feel it’s appropriate that we should involve Jesus Christ so that He can help us to have an everlasting peace in Kerio Valley.”

He went on to say that Jesus Christ can be invoked for personal challenges during the maiden Diocesan Eucharistic Congress that is set to conclude on Thursday, June 16 with Holy Mass at St. Patrick’s Parish of Eldoret Diocese.

The 61-year-old Catholic Bishop who has been at the helm of Eldoret Diocese since February 2020 said that the Eucharist is essential in strengthening families and entire communities as long as people live fully according to their Christian calling.

He said, “The Eucharist strengthens us at home, at our workplace, in our communities and in our parishes.”

Speaking further on vocations, Bishop Kimengich reflected on Jesus’ words from the Gospel of Luke on the need to pray for vocations. Echoing Jesus’ words, he said, “The harvest is rich, but the laborers are few, so pray for the lord of the harvest to give us more laborers.”

He continued, “People should also adhere to their marriage vocation, because most problems in marriage are as a result of spouses not fully living their vocation. Through the Eucharist, marriage should be holy.”

Bishop Kimengich said that the maiden Diocesan Eucharistic Congress has been organized in memory of late Sr. Anna Ali who was very instrumental in adoration of the Eucharist in the Kenyan Diocese.

Recalling his encounter with Sr. Ali in Rome, the Kenyan Catholic Bishop said that the Congress is also held to celebrate 10 years since she passed on.

“I also say that we are celebrating this Eucharistic Congress in the memory of late Sr. Anna Ali who was very instrumental in adoration of the Eucharist in our Diocese. She really promoted the adoration of Jesus in the blessed sacrament,” the Kenyan Bishop who started his Episcopal Ministry as Auxiliary Bishop of Lodwar Diocese in May 2010 said.

“She really wanted Jesus to be known, to be adored, to be praised, to be given His rightful place in our hearts,” Bishop Kimengich said in reference to the Kenyan Nun who died ten years ago, and added, “So it is wonderful that we are celebrating her death or rather let us say her passing from this world to the next.”

The Catholic Bishop recalled the encounters of Sr. Ali with Jesus saying, “We all know that Jesus appeared to her and He kept appearing to her, on Thursdays.”

“Every Thursday, she would shed tears of blood and that has been testified; many people have seen that. The blood she was shedding was not her own, but of Jesus,” Bishop Kimengich said on June 14.

According to the book, “On The Eucharist a Divine Appeal” published by the late Bishop Cornelius Korir, Sr. Ali, a member of the Pious Union of the Daughters of Jesus the Good Shepherd had her first vision of Jesus in early August 1987 while in Rome.

“On Corpus Christi Thursday 1988, Jesus appeared to Sr. Anna in tears of blood. On both occasions, she requested Jesus if she could photograph Him since she could not draw,” reads part of the book.

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Sr. Anna, who was born in December 1966 to a Muslim father and Christian mother shed tears of blood every Thursday for 25 years till her death, the book recalls about the Kenyan Catholic Nuns who died on 6 June 2012.

“This phenomenon started after her vision of Jesus in tears of blood,” the book further details about Sr. Anna who was buried at St Patrick's Catholic Parish of Eldoret Diocese.

In 2015, the late Bishop Korir formed a task force to collect information about the life history of Sr. Anna following her miraculous ways of worship.

“The Church has already formed a task force to collect information and testimonies from the congregation across the country on the Sister. The information will then be analyzed and presented to the Vatican headquarters in Rome, for further analysis by a special team,” the then Vicar General of Eldoret Diocese, Fr. William Kosgei, was quoted as saying in the November 2015 report by Kenya’s Standard Newspaper.

During the opening of Diocesan Eucharistic Congress on June 14, participants in a 42-km walk from the Sacred Heart Cathedral of Eldoret Diocese to St Patrick's Burnt Forest Catholic Parish, where Sr. Anna was buried were selected.

"The Bishop has blessed the pilgrims who are supposed to walk from here (Sacred Heart Cathedral) to Burnt Forest, about 42 Kilometers...these are people with experience in walking long distances and have participated in walks to Namugongo Shrine in Uganda and Kibeho in Rwanda," the Director of Communications in Eldoret Diocese, Fr. Fredrick Njoroge said on June 14.