January a Month of Multifaceted Moments
By Eric Mwaniki, SJ
Peace of Christ!
January has been a month filled with many activities as the first semester of the 2023/24 academic year is about to wind up in mid-February. After resuming classes early this month, we were honored to receive Fr. Rigobert Kyungu, SJ the Provincial of this province, and Fr. Benoit Mbuyi, SJ the delegate of formation who accompanied him. During this canonical visit, the Provincial met with the formators and the finalist scholastics of ACE province. The Delegate of formation, on the other hand, met the non-finalist scholastics. The visit began with a community meeting whereby the provincial gave us news about the Society at large, the Assistancy, and the province. To crown the visit, Fr. Provincial instituted 52 Scholastics to the ministry of Lector and 25 among them to the ministry of Acolyte.
The weekend was also full of events that form our mind and our spirit. On Saturday, we, members of the faculty of philosophy had a conference on “De la science à la Sagesse.” The conference was animated by Fr. Dieudonne Mbirimbindi, SJ aimed to provoke the thoughts on how to rise from knowledge, by the use of knowledge, towards wisdom. It was an interesting shot into the metaphysical world, beyond the realms of the daily experiences. On the evening of the same day, we started our monthly recollection. It animated by Fr. Christian Ndoki, SJ the Secretary of ACE province. The recollection drew its inspiration from the ‘who are we’ part of the De status. The animator invited us to be ‘Simple and Joyous Jesuit. We continued to savor the fruits of prayer through spiritual conversation in our small communities.
Beyond the intellectual and spiritual world, we also have physical activities that help us keep fit. It is in this line that we had a friendly football match against the Congregation of Immaculate Heart of Mary (CICM), some of whom study philosophy here. The match, played at the Estade St. Pierre Canisius was a hotly contested one, akin to the ongoing African Cup of nations. At the final whistle, the score read 3-2; Je CICM had gotten better of the us this time. We shook hands, and went home smiling, knowing that it had been a good match, despite the narrow loss.
We are grateful for the blessings of January and hopeful for a better February as we approach the end of the semester.
