St. Martin De Porres Day: 72 Baptisms, 48 First Communions

Fr. Peter Ben Louis, Dennis Kiyimba, a local doctor, five youth and I made the journey to Katire this morning to celebrate the village’s patronal feast: St. Martin De Porres. It was a glorious day: 72 children and youth were baptized; 24 were infants, and all the rest received their First Holy Communion. It was one of those days when I really felt like a priest, and was very happy to be one.

It was very moving for me to watch the blessed water taken from the stream that runs through the village, pour over the smooth black skin of the shaved heads (both boys and girls) of all the catechumens as the name of the Most Holy Trinity was invoked, and know at that moment they were being recreated, becoming children of God and my own brothers and sisters. Feeding a child for the first time with the Bread of Life is an overwhelming experience for any priest.

The offeratory was beautiful, too. I saw ears of corn, sugar cane, Sudanese pounds and a ball point pen put into the sheet held by two women. I couldn’t help but feel that God was pleased.

After Mass, making use of a portable generator, we showed a video on the life of St. Martin De Porres. It was in Spanish with English subtitles. I had misgivings about trying something like this until last week when I saw in one of the shops of the market a film in English with a voiceover in Arabic done by a single man with perhaps the worst sound quality and distortion I had ever heard. And people were watching it. So, translating from the Spanish dialogue and following the subtitles I paraphrased the film in English while the doctor translated my comments into local Arabic over the microphone. All in all it wasn’t so bad. The best thing about it is that the newly Baptized and First Communicants had the concrete example of “Martin the Charitable” placed before them as a model of how to live the Sacraments they had just received.