Bishop John Selemela: How Mother Teresa Guides Me

For Bishop John Masilo Selemela, St Teresa of Kolkata is a constant companion as her example inspires and guides him, he told Lucy Moll.

A couple of months ago, a quiet bishop visited our parish — and made a big impression. Bishop John Masilo Selemela, the auxiliary bishop of Pretoria, came to the church of the Beatitudes in Zwavelpoort for baptisms and to bless us, the parishioners. But he is a special blesser, not the kind who walks down the centre aisle while sprinkling a few parishioners and nodding to the rest. Bishop Selemela circled the entire church, which is considerably large, and made sure that every person at Mass that day was acknowledged.

The 51-year-old bishop’s ministry is marked by this sense of inclusivity, and his ministry has been profoundly formed by the example of St Teresa of Kolkata, or Mother Teresa, the saint who included everyone on the margins of society, and whose feast day we mark on September 5.

Mother Teresa used to say the “Fragrance Prayer” by St John Henry Newman every day. It includes the lines: “Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel your presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus! Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as you shine, so to shine as to be a light to others”.

In September 2016, then-Fr Selemela travelled to Rome for the canonisation of Mother Teresa, having previously also attended her beatification by Pope John Paul II in 2003. “Not given any privileges,” the bishop stresses. He was there as part of a Southern Cross/Radio Veritas pilgrimage, alongside three other priests. The group joined some 350000 people from around the world to witness the Church’s formal declaration of Mother Teresa as a saint. “Some of the crowds were literally sleeping on the streets to get a place for the next day,” he recalled.

As part of the programme, the group visited the room in which the saint of Kolkata stayed when in Rome. “It was quite overwhelming: the quietness of her room in contrast to the masses gathered in St Peter’s Square.”

Acts of mercy in celebrations

Pope Francis had ensured that works of service would be the theme for the canonisation ceremony. He bussed in 1500 homeless people from around Italy, arranged their accommodation, and gave them seats of honour at the occasion. A local pizzeria was asked to do the catering, so all these guests of honour were fed. This was in the spirit of Mother Teresa, the tireless worker of acts of mercy.

As many thousands of others did, Bishop Selemela and his fellow pilgrims walked past the relics of Mother Teresa, encased in a reliquary. He was struck by a realisation about the saint’s great achievement: From nothing to 14000 workers in 144 countries, all in one lifetime.

At another time, he was a part of the doctoral programme in Rome, and the students were called to a three-day retreat to understand better the life and works of Mother Teresa. “I had a profound experience of understanding her purpose. There was this presence in her humble, bare room near the Colosseum. We visited this room and spent time there in prayer,” Bishop Selemela recalled.

“Nearly every day in Rome I used to walk past the place where the Missionary Sisters of Charity, which were founded by Mother Teresa, housed and fed the homeless. To actually go inside and spend time in prayer and reflection was quite a life-changing experience for me,” the bishop recounted. “What impressed me was Mother Teresa’s criteria for service of Christ. The Eucharist — remaining close to the Eucharist — was essential in keeping her going in her type of work. In this communion we are given discernment also as to who is best able to endure while being given the sustenance to endure. That was how she would choose new members of her congregation.”

The Eternal City also made an impression on the future bishop. “Rome itself has a great sense of the preservation of a cultural and Christian heritage. It communicates a living history to and for the future. It’s a history that I serve, and I was changed by the experience.”

Forming our future priests

That experience found application in Pretoria, where the alumnus of the Pontifical Urbaniana University, who was ordained for the diocese of Tzaneen in 1999, was appointed vice-rector of St John Vianney Seminary, and then rector of the institution in 2019. He had served the seminary since 2011 as formator. Part of that task was to guide seminarians in discerning their vocation. As formator and as rector, Fr Selemela drew inspiration from Mother Teresa and her example of service.

The bishop insists that one cannot join the priesthood if one aims for power and influence. This is why his emphasis is so much on Mother Teresa’s discernment of vocations, and the daily sanctifying grace of prayer, adoration and the Eucharist.

When Archbishop Dabula Mpako of Pretoria requested an auxiliary bishop, Pope Francis appointed Fr Selemela, giving him the titular see of Nachingwea as he was ordained a bishop on September 3, 2022.

“My life has changed in many ways. From being in community with 14 priests every day, I now live on my own,” Bishop Selemela said. The Eucharist still plays an important part in his life. “Perhaps more so than before. I do treasure the time for meditation and prayer. The Eucharist is very important for one’s spiritual life and essential for making decisions.”

The bishop celebrates Mass daily. “Every day or evening, I offer the Eucharist with parishioners in Waverley — and as Mother Teresa wished, I spend an hour before the Blessed Sacrament. By doing this, I am sustained in my work, however significant or insignificant it may seem.”

Published in the September 2023 issue of The Southern Cross Magazine