logo english transparent 500px
  • About US
    • Who we are
    • Our Spirituality
    • History
      • Cardinal Lavigerie
      • Mother Marie Salomé
      • Our Lady of Africa
      • Our first sisters
    • Past & Present
      • Bicentenary of the birth of Caridnal Lavigerie
      • Our Lady of Africa family
      • General Chapter
      • 150th Anniversary
    • Contacts
  • Mission
    • Women with women
    • Education
    • Pastoral work
    • Justice & Peace
    • Health & social work
    • Our Apostolic Orientations
      • Interreligious and Intercultural Encounter -Dialogue
      • Migration, refugees, and internally displaced persons
      • Modern slavery and human trafficking
      • Care of the environment
    • Our Projects
  • Vocation
    • Missionary vocation
    • Join us
    • Stages of formation
    • Forms of belonging
  • Agenda
  • Resources
    • Extraordinary life stories
    • Prayers
    • Library
    • Jubilarians
    • Entered into eternal life
    • Links
  • French
Menu
  • About US
    • Who we are
    • Our Spirituality
    • History
      • Cardinal Lavigerie
      • Mother Marie Salomé
      • Our Lady of Africa
      • Our first sisters
    • Past & Present
      • Bicentenary of the birth of Caridnal Lavigerie
      • Our Lady of Africa family
      • General Chapter
      • 150th Anniversary
    • Contacts
  • Mission
    • Women with women
    • Education
    • Pastoral work
    • Justice & Peace
    • Health & social work
    • Our Apostolic Orientations
      • Interreligious and Intercultural Encounter -Dialogue
      • Migration, refugees, and internally displaced persons
      • Modern slavery and human trafficking
      • Care of the environment
    • Our Projects
  • Vocation
    • Missionary vocation
    • Join us
    • Stages of formation
    • Forms of belonging
  • Agenda
  • Resources
    • Extraordinary life stories
    • Prayers
    • Library
    • Jubilarians
    • Entered into eternal life
    • Links
  • French
Search
Close this search box.
Youtube

Day 18 – The Journey Done

 

During the morning check-in we were reminded again of the phrase of Mahatma Gandhi “Be the change you want to see in the world” and we add “in the community and in the MSOLA.”

This time and the atmosphere of trust created in the chapter-community have allowed us to deal without fear with issues coming from deep levels, dreams, but also important and difficult issues, in an atmosphere of intense listening.

 

All through this chapter we have gone through a deep experience of transformation. The experience lived here tells us that we can create an environment where truth can emerge, be listened to without judgment and be healed. We have seen that repressed anger is a big issue that does not allow life to circulate, and we need to deal with it, as we all carry wounds, and we all need to be healed. Then we will become the “wounded healer”, courageous, truthful, transparent, accountable… A vulnerable adult, able to expand our tent and pump life-giving energy into ourselves, to those around us and to the world.

 

We have also learned that when in a discernment process, I present what I see, I give my vision/idea to the group/community. It is a gift I offer to the group, so it doesn’t belong to me anymore. It belongs to all who have listened to it, so there is no reason for me to defend my point of view because now it has become “ours”. In the same way, I received the others’ opinion, as their offering and as a gift.

 

The group welcomes with gratitude all that is happening among us and within us and expresses it in different ways to one another with different gestures.

As Jesus asked the disciples “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” followed by “What about you—Who do you say I am?” Today He is asking us: Who do you say you are, MSOLA? What is your ID? What is unique, distinctive, beautiful without which you cease to be who you are called to be? What makes you what you are that distinguishes you from any other group? What is the difference you are bringing to the world? What are we here and now as a microcosmos of MSOLA?

Attentive to the here and now, we are experiencing new things in the midst of our interculturality, our different generations. We were invited to get in touch with what we sensed till we will recognize: YES, that is us, MSOLA; that is our call.

 

A tentative answer to these questions was found through an exercise. All the capitulants in community-groups, expressed – on a huge blank sheet of paper where the border of the 5 MSOLA letters were drawn -the uniqueness of the MSOLA. While a community drew in silence filling one letter, the other communities followed them, supported them, accompanied them… while in turn going to fill another letter. At the end all together finished the whole picture of MSOLA, and all went around to contemplate the picture. It became obvious that our charism is needed in today’s world and Church, and that the Spirit keeps calling us to live it in new places and circumstances, with our own reality, and yet inviting us to expand our tent.

All during the chapter we have had the certainty of walking together, of being transformed together, even if differently.

We are experiencing what Pope Francis calls “the most wonderful experience we can have: belonging to a people who walk, who go through history with their Lord walking among us.” (Assisi, 4 October 2013).

 

In his final word for the day, Fr. Dave said that the vulnerability we often speak about, is an empty space which God can come and fill with “the treasure in earthenware jars” (2Cor), even with cracks, but which continue holding this treasure. This embracing our vulnerability and our fragility is what the vow of poverty is about. Our response to God loving us must be to allow ourselves to be transformed. We will be like the leaven in the dough living our own transformation.

 

  • June 1, 2023
  • 7:34 pm
  • Actualities, The General Chapter
  • General Chapter, Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, MSOLA, White Sisters
Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
RELATED POSTS
14th May 2025 with Cardinal Lavigerie
May 13, 2025
13th May 2025 with Cardinal Lavigerie
May 12, 2025
Ecology Prayer May 2025 N° 32
May 12, 2025
The treasure of love shared
May 12, 2025
12 May 2025 with Cardinal Lavigerie
May 11, 2025
11th May 2025 with Cardinal Lavigerie
May 10, 2025
Copyright 2022 - All rights reserved
Privacy Policy
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Facebook