Our recently professed Sisters wanted to share with us how they understand the novitiate was an experience of lived synodality.
For us, synodality means a journey traveled together through attitudes of listening and discerning the will of God. Walking together is the call
that the bishops invite us to live. In this same sense, the theme of our general chapter of 2023 invites us to walk together without fear, to expand our tents in collaboration with others. Our journey together has been marked by several things.
First, we all felt one day the Lord’s call to follow him in a radical way following the example of the first disciples. We have been on this
journey on a personal level and as a group. We also did this discernment with our accompanists who helped us to better understand the Lord’s
call.
Then, during our journey through the novitiate, we learned to know each other with a view to walking together, especially since we came
from different communities. Through each person’s openness, we were able to walk together despite our different personalities. We built
mutual trust among us because we understood that without trust, walking together would be difficult.
We were guided by the community project that we formulated together while listening to one another. This has been a great way for us to
experience collaboration and mutual correction while reminding us of the purpose of our being together.
We have been beneficiaries of one another’s gifts and talents. It was an opportunity to realize how much in our congregation, cultural difference becomes a richness. Thanks to this difference, we have deepened our intercultural life in community by trying to learn about one another’s culture.
We also experienced moments of misunderstanding. A Moaga proverb (of the Mossi in Burkina Faso) says:
“wa tid nzindi, ya wa ti zaaba”
literally means: “when we are together, we love and understand one another but we also fight.”
There were times when one wanted the other to have the same ideas and behaviors as herself. We have understood that each one is unique and we are called to walk together, each according to our own way of being and acting. It is this difference also that makes the beauty of living together. We had a great experience together and it makes us want to meet again.
We understood that if you want to walk quickly, you walk alone and if you want to go far, you walk together with others (popular proverb).
Our walk together helped us recognize our growth in community life, the steps taken on a personal and community level.
This is why our joy was great on December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the day of our first commitment in the congregation of
the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa. We were happy to see all our sisters who came to support us and witness our commitment. We also acknowledge the support of members throughout the congregation and our families who were united with us in prayer. We thank you with all our hearts!
Finally, we thank the Lord who trusted us by associating us with his mission. We always count on your prayers and your experiences to
accompany us in the mission entrusted to us all.
May the Lord continue to kindle in us the desire to walk with Him and with our brothers and sisters to whom we are sent. This would become
for us an expression of a real synodality. May Mary, Our Lady of Africa and our sisters who have gone before us intercede for us!
Your sisters Alice Koné, Ancille Ugabinema, Nadine Nana and Rehema Kimisera
