MISSIONARIES TO CELEBRATE EASTER WITH CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES IN FAR-OFF CORNERS OF SOUTH SUDAN

April 3, 2017 comboniss

03 April 2017 – Fr. Fernando Galarza, a Comboni Missionary working in South Sudan has begun an Easter missionary programme in one of the most isolated areas of the country. He wrote to say that on Saturday 1^st April he and his colleagues have set on a pastoral journey to visit Christian communities over the next three weeks.

The missionaries will celebrate the end of Lent, Holy Week and the mother of all feasts in Christianity: the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“We are also going to administrate the Sacraments of Christian Initiation: Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation to many people”, said the missionary priest.

Fr. Fernando and his colleagues are asking people to accompany them with prayers so that they may be instruments of God’s grace for God’s people in that distant zone of South Sudan.

“Sticking to our missionary style, we will walk from one community to the next for about 200 kilometres both ways. Everywhere we visit people will gladly welcome us, come to meet us on the way and will share with us not only their joy but also food and hospitality. The Nuer people are very generous and hospitable, especially with us missionaries. Their hospitality is something remarkable”, added the priest.

Fr. Galarza also asked people to keep on praying for peace in the Republic of South Sudan. “People are suffering a lot, but we believe that lasting peace will come and we shall live in peace. God never abandons his children and, despite the harden hearts of some people, peace will come”, he said.

In his letter Fr. Fernando wishes all a good experience of conversion in this Lenten time and that the Easter celebrations may mark the beginning of a new life in love and service to all with Jesus Christ.

Dozens of other missionaries and local priests are engaged in preparations of an Easter programme to be celebrated with hundreds of Christian communities across South Sudan.

Photo: Fr. Fernando visiting Christian communities in Nyal, South Sudan