Benedictine Monastery Launches Golden Jubilee Activities

A special mass to kick start the celebration took place yesterday, December 1, 2013 in Yaounde.

Activities to commemorate 50th years of monastic experience on the hill of Mont-Febe that started yesterday December 1, 2013 at the Benedictins Monastery of Our Lady of Mont-Febe Church in Yaounde will end on November 30, 2014. The special mass service saw the solemn consecration of the first Benedictine Anglophone Monk in Cameroon, Brother Peter Nillong, OSB. Both events were presided over by Father Christian Meyer, OSB from the Engelberg Church in Switzerland which is the mother church of the Mont-Febe Monastery.

The first reading was drawn from the book of Isaiah 2:1-5, while the second reading was from Romans 13:11-14. The gospel of the day was taken from Matthew 27:37-44 in which Father Christian Meyer urged the congregation to stay awake, because they do not know when the master of the house is coming. In his homily, Father Christian Meyer focused on the light of God revealed by Prophet Isaiah (2:1-5) in which he called brethren's to walk in the light of God.

Father Meyer said whatever people do each day, they should walk step-by-step into the future with the light of God. "You must be the light of Jesus for the growth of the Church and for everybody on earth not only for catholic faithful", Father Meyer told the congregation.

The service was a great moment of joy for Father Meyer to join in activities to mark the 50th anniversary of the monastery which will take place through the year of 2014. He said the mother house in Engelberg is happy to join those at the Mont-Febe Monastery to commemorate 50th years of independence.

After the mass, dignitaries made a visit to the carpentry workshop at the Monastery as well as a display of products from the Christian community at the Monastery. Events are taking place under the patronage of the Apostolic Nuncio to Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, S.E Mgr Piero Pioppo.