Fr. Thomas Kagumisa was ordained as a priest on August 3, 2008, for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bukoba in Tanzania. After six years of dedicated service within his local diocese, he moved to the United States and became affiliated with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix in 2014.

During his time in the Diocese of Phoenix, Fr. Kagumisa has held several roles: he served as Parochial Administrator at St. John Vianney Parish in Sedona from 2014 to 2015, before transitioning to the position of Parochial Vicar at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish and School from 2015 to 2018.

My Dearly Beloved in Christ;

It is with great delight that we celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi this Sunday. (the full name of the feast is Corpus et Sanguis Christi or The Body and Blood of Christ.) It is also a special day for us as a Parish community, given that our beloved Parish is named after this great gift of God – The Blessed Sacrament Parish!

My Dearly Beloved in Christ;

You may have heard the famous story of St. Augustine and his efforts to fully comprehend the mystery of the Blessed Trinity. He was trying to understand the mystery of the Trinity; “a Tri-unity” which states that God is both one and three; one essence, three persons. How can there be three persons in one God?... So, Augustine went to the bank of the river and was contemplating this mystery. As he walked along the bank of the river, he saw a small boy who was trying to empty the river into a small hole he had dug.

My Dearly Beloved in Christ;

It is the birthday of the Church! So, I guess it’s safe to say Happy Birthday to you all!

Today’s celebration of Pentecost Sunday reminds us of a historical event that occurred almost two thousand years ago. Before then, Pentecost in the Old Testament was a Jewish harvest festival known as the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Harvest (Exodus 34:22). It is celebrated 50 days (seven weeks) after Passover, hence the name “Pentekoste” in Greek which means “Fiftieth”.