Musician Priest, Fr Lawrence Mota, Releases New CD

by Admin · September 28, 2021

Fr Lawrence Mota CMM has released a new CD titled Isihlangu Sami, which means “My Shield”

The musician priest of Mariannhill has released a new CD which he hopes will encourage people in troubled times.

Fr Lawrence Fabian Mota CMM has titled his latest album Isihlangu Sami, which means “My Shield”. Apart from evangelising through his music, the Mariannhill Missionary hopes to encourage the People of God in the many challenges they are facing today.

He listed those challenges: “The scourge of unemployment, family-life instability, our youths being involved in substance abuse and misleading relationships that damage their future, political instability and turmoil, the Covid-19 pandemic and economic damages that have left people experiencing not knowing what tomorrow will bring, and so on. Such human experiences are unbearable and they have given birth to stress and despair.”

Isihlangu Sami “is a call to us all to hold hands so that we become beacons of hope and encouragement to each other,” Fr Mota said. “It doesn’t matter to which religion or political party one belongs — we are all the children of God, Our Father who created us all. This is the message Isihlangu Sami is bringing across to the entire nation: the message of hope, emphasising that despite of all these challenges, Jesus, our Shield, is always present, since he is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6).”

The songs on the album communicate “the message that Jesus came on earth to bring us life — not just life, but life in abundance, Fr Mota said. “That message is a challenge for us all: for civil leaderships, Church leaderships, the People of God, parents, traditional healers, doctors, nurses, teachers, professors, guardians, police, soldiers and the citizens to hold hands with a commitment to heal our nation, thus putting into practice the voice of God from the Gospel of Luke 4:18-19,” he said.

The Gospel passage says: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

“The message in this CD further reminds us that God has called us all to be healers of our nation,” Fr Mota said. “It is our responsibility; look around you and you will see. Isihlangu Sami still emphasises that despite all these happenings, we should not lose hope at all. There is still light, and for that light of hope to be revived, we need to be together as one nation so that the face of the risen Lord, the Lord of hope, is revived to shine among his people.”

In this way, Fr Mota said, the album is a reflection of Romans 8:35-37, which says: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For thy sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

Isihlangu Sami can be purchased from the Mariannhill Monastery Repository at R50, or contact Sandile Dlamini at 031 700-1031.