MISSIONARY SISTERS OF OUR LADY OF AFRICA - GENERAL CHAPTER 2011

CONVOCATION OF THE GENERAL CHAPTER

WHICH WILL TAKE PLACE IN ROME

FROM THE 13th JULY (morning) TO THE 3rd AUGUST (midday) 2011

Dear Sisters,

With this letter of convocation, we invite you to take part in our forthcoming General Chapter, each one of you as a member of the Congregation, and some as capitulants.

May the theme chosen continue to inspire our being apostles and encourage us to live by it.

God’s love is birthing a reconciled creation:
what an incredible challenge!
He sends us to hasten the coming of that longed-for day.
MSOLA, how shall we respond?

THE CHAPTER-EVENT: A COVENANT CONTINUALLY RENEWED

A Chapter is indeed part of the history of the People of God. It all began with Abraham  who, urged by his faith, set out to follow a way that the Lord showed him. Such is the covenant of God with his people. It is continually renewed over the centuries revealing to us a God who is always beyond our definitions. This God leads us to be a covenant community that lives in interdependence, shares its treasures fairly, recognises the dignity of all its members, gathers the strong and the weak in a common joy and task.

During the preparatory phase, we contemplated a global world, taking to heart God’s project. We have let ourselves be questioned on our Vision of the Mission and we opened ourselves to a wider horizon: from the community context to the region, from the region to the province, from the province to the Congregation, from the Congregation to the world...

“God’s love is birthing a reconciled creation: what an incredible challenge!” As Congregation, we are sent to “hasten the coming of that longed-for day”.

THE CHAPTER-EVENT: A WAY OF DISCERNMENT

During the Chapter, we will have to discern what answer to give today. In a rapidly changing global context, in a consecrated life that questions its future, in a Congregation that, given its limitations, seeks new ways, it is more vital than ever to live this Chapter as a way of discernment, as it is defined in our Constitutions, n° 102:

“Its purpose, under the Spirit’s guidance, is to renew the fidelity of the Institute to its specific mission in the Church.” – “The General Chapter is the highest authority within the Institute; it acts collegially and has legislative power. Through it, all the sisters express their responsibility and participate in the life and mission of the Institute” (Const. n° 101). –

“The Chapter takes place at a particular time in the history of the world, the Church and the Institute, and this is the context within which our apostolic vocation lies. Therefore, the Chapter’s task is to discern, in the light of the Gospel, how to express and live our charism today under new circumstances” (Government Directory, p. 8).

To prepare ourselves to live this discernment, we suggest you to read the article of Walter Brueggemann, “The Covenant: a subversive paradigm”. Going through the Salvation history, he makes us feel in communion with God’s deep desire to make a covenant with us. How then, in the depth of our heart, can we not agree to this? It is from this source that our attitude of discernment will flow and be strengthened; it is from there that will flow the answer for today.  Therefore, we invite each one of you, personally and in community, if possible, to read it and to pray about it.

THE CHAPTER-EVENT: A PROCESS WHICH IS COMMITTING US

This Convocation to the General Chapter is addressed to each one of us as a member of the Congregation and therefore responsible for its Mission. Through our personal and community reflection, through our commitment in the pre-capitular meetings, we have already started. We remain all of us fully concerned by this Chapter-event and we are invited day after day, and in a particular way:

• to renew our MSOLA commitment within our own personal context
• to reread and verify the interaction between our funding charism, the Church and the people to whom we are sent
• to pray the Spirit that He may continue to guide us in our common search for God’s will for our Congregation in the global world where we live. May He grant us to give our response to the Mission which is entrusted to us.

Several among you have expressed the desire to have a common prayer so as to live together this Chapter-event. You find it at the beginning of this document.

When the Chapter will have taken place, we will then receive and study the Capitular Acts, and to seek how to implement the different orientations.

IMMEDIATE PREPARATION TO THE CHAPTER

On 14th January 2011, the General Council met with Sr. Christine Anderson, fcj, moderator of our Chapter, together with the preparatory committee consisting of Srs Madeleine Bédard, s. Victoria Munyerenkana Chiharhula and  Gertrud Glotzbach.

This encounter defined the roles of the General Council, the preparatory committee as well as the one of the moderator.

Together, we have looked on how to prepare, from the reports of the regions and the provinces, a document which will be put at the disposal of the capitulants.

The drawing up of a document for the reflection during the Chapter underlies the constant concern of making as accurate as possible the picture of the reality of the Congregation at this particular time of its history. To write this document is a service to the truth in love to help to open hearts and minds to what the Spirit says to the Congregation and to each sister in view of the Chapter.

The preparatory committee also has the responsibility to present an agenda to the General Chapter.

The Chapter cannot touch every aspect of the life of the Congregation, some of these are matters for the province.

The preparatory committee, in close link with the General Council, bears the responsibility to listen with its whole being to what is said about it. Beyond words, they will have to discern the various movements of the Spirit and point out the essential elements and the relevant issues which are the concern of the General Chapter.

THE CAPITULANTS

Having been elected for the Chapter by the sisters of her province, every capitulant has to be conscious to exercise her responsibility towards the Congregation and its Mission. It is understood that she has to be imbued with the context in which she lives and that her participation in the Chapter will be marked.

Thus, to help each capitulant to look beyond her own province, the preparatory committee suggested to send to each one beforehand, the reports of the provincial Chapters. The attentive reading in a spirit of discernment will allow each one to feel with the whole Congregation and to be receptive to what the Spirit says to the whole Body.

During the Chapter, all the capitulants are on an equal footing. The Spirit speaks to each one. We are therefore personally responsible for developing a listening attitude. It is also important to prepare ourselves to speak openly, remembering constantly the rules of a respectful communication that is meant to be constructive.

If we want this Chapter to be a renewed covenant with God and humanity, each one is strongly invited to be well-informed of the present-day problems and the movements of the current culture. The preparatory document for the Chapter and the article of Brueggemann, helping us to enter into a dynamic vision of the mission, are a good preparation for it.

The Chapter is the highest authority of the Institute; it will have to give orientations for the next six years, to make decisions which commit us all and are a response to the Mission entrusted to us. Throughout the Chapter, and more particularly in the inevitable moments of tension, it will be good to refocus on the Mission. This alone can unite and motivate us. It will give us courage to be daring, with realism and hope.

On this feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, let us ask the Lord to come to us and to give us his light. With Mother Marie-Salomé, we also turn to Mary with confidence and ask her to keep her small Congregation faithful to the charism that the Cardinal has passed on to us.

Your sisters of the General council,

 Rome, 2nd February 2011