Pretoria, 20 June, 2023 / 11:23 am (ACI Africa).
Members of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC) have been called upon to look to the Blessed Virgin Mary’s “shining example” for inspiration in their Episcopal Ministry as “ambassadors for Christ”.
In his homily during the closing Mass of SACBC members’ Ad Limina visit on the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Archbishop Dabula Anthony Mpako said the example of Mother Mary can inspire Bishops the much needed “prayerful listening and pondering” amid busy schedules that characterize the Episcopal Ministry.
“We are invited to keep the shining example of Mary ever in mind and to respond to God’s call as she did,” Archbishop Mpako said during the June 17 Eucharistic celebration at the Patriarchal Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome.
The Local Ordinary of South Africa’s Pretoria Archdiocese added, “We constantly face the real possibility and temptation of being simply caught up in the maze of these activities and schedules and of simply drifting from one thing to another, without much prayerful listening and pondering.”
“Mary shows us how to respond to God’s call by, first and foremost, listening to the words the Holy Spirit speaks to us in the depths of our hearts,” Archbishop Mpako told SACBC members who comprise Catholic Bishops in Botswana, Eswatini, and South Africa.