info@dioceseofarua.org
+256 781 - 480 - 953
info@dioceseofarua.org
+256 781 - 480 - 953
Hundreds of Christians gathered at St. Charles Lwanga Mundru Rwe Chapel in Maracha Parish to witness the consecration of the new church building and the installation of a new Eucharistic Center at the new church. This was on Saturday, 30th April, 2022. During the celebration, ten couples received the Sacrament of Matrimony and 13 adult Christians were confirmed into the Catholic Faith.
Rt. Rev Sabino Ocan Odoki, who performed the act of consecration called upon the faithful to embrace the gift of the new Church as the sign of God's love. He said that the consecrated altar shall become a covenant between God and the people of Mundru Rwe. “When you see the altar, you are seeing God’s presence. The altar is a covenant that unites the people. And this is exactly what is happening to us today as we consecrate this church. We are entering into a covenant with God. A covenant is an agreement with God. God never fails. He is always inviting us into His life. Today here in Mundru Rwe, we are responding to that invitation to enter into a covenant with God. So, you people of Mundru are lucky and blessed. When God enters into union with men great things happen.”
Consecration is an act by which a person or a thing is separated from secular or profane use and dedicated permanently to the sacred by prayers, rites, and ceremonies. Consecration of a Roman Catholic church includes anointing the walls with chrism, the places of anointings being indicated by 12 crosses. It means “to make holy.” When one makes an act of consecration, it is ultimately made to God with the understanding that our consecration is a serious commitment on our part to respond faithfully to God’s grace at work in our lives. Canon law required that a new church be solemnly consecrated, or at least dedicated to God by a blessing, before divine services could be held.
Within the Roman Catholic Church, the act of consecration typically can be applied to a bishop, a fixed altar, an altar stone, a church, and a chalice and paten. The ordinary minister of a consecration is a bishop, while the ordinary minister of a blessing is a priest. At a consecration, holy oils are normally used; at blessings, customarily holy water.
In the Old Testament, which has served as the basis for many kinds of consecrations in Christianity, among the persons consecrated were priests (Exodus 39), kings (1 Samuel 10), and prophets (1 Chronicles 16). Among things consecrated are the pillar or stone of Bethel (Genesis 28); vessels of the Tabernacle (Leviticus 8); the altar of holocausts (Exodus 29); and the second Temple (Ezra 6), the consecration of which is commemorated at Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication.
