Day 6 – Listening to the inner source.
The prayer of the day put the capitulants in an atmosphere of listening, calling them to listen to the inner source that speaks of love and to the Spirit of God guiding them on the way to transformation. During prayer each person received a seed of an oak tree at different stages. Some seeds were just the oak acorn, hard and whole. Others already had some cracks; others had sprouted and several had a few leaves and roots. There was a moment to contemplate the seed received, seeing how the seed had to be broken open and destroyed to be transformed into a tree. The seed reminded us that it is only in the dark and humidity of the soil that the process of transformation to become a tree may happen; and how the inner strength of this small seed is able to break the hard shell to make…
Cast our nets wide
Sr. Bijundi Bashige, of the community of Kinshasa, in D.R. Congo, shares with us her exeprience of a General Chapter I will begin with this song by Robert Lebel that I love: Let’s take the road together, it’s God who leads us, Let’s walk the road together at the sign of the Spirit of God May S/he come and teach us to read what emerges for today Between the lines of the Gospel, the road where Jesus leads us (Prenons la route ensemble…) I had my first General Chapter experience in 1993. We were only two Africans. I trembled wondering how I was going to live this chapter and what I could bring. The first thing was to see that we had all prayed and reflected in all the provinces before coming to the chapter. Meeting our sisters from all walks of life was a great joy and opened my…
A Quest, a Test and an Adventure
“Life” said the well-known writer G.K. Chesterton, “is a QUEST, a TEST and an ADVENTURE!” Sr. Marie MacDonald shares her experience of taking part in 7 general chapters. This sentence could well be applied to that experience! Yes, it is a QUEST a searching together for the way forward – not necessarily a radical change of direction but of finding the next right step on our journey as a Congregation. A TEST because, although it is usually a wonderful and life-giving experience, it is also challenging and as capitulants we are all entrusted with a big responsibility. It is an experience of being in labour and of giving birth: to the Capitular Acts and to the General Council composed of those who will form the leadership team for the next 6 years. Then there is the experience of internationality and interculturality which can be a test not only because…
“Updating” our Consitutions
Sr. Suzy Hadermann, from Belgium share with us her experience of the Chapter of 1981. It was the Chapter which responded to the desire of the Church (expressed by the Second Vatican Council) to see that Congregations rewrite their Constitutions, “updating” them (“aggiornamento” in Italian). The 1981 Chapter was therefore devoted mainly to this task, which is very important since it was a question of saying again what we want to live, how we feel the Lord is calling us to participate in his Mission. Two aspects in particular touched me during this chapter: – Our Constitutions are the fruit of the participation of all the sisters of the Congregation – The Spirit accompanied us and worked with us throughout this process The participation of all the sisters: The work to rewrite our Constitutions began several years before the Chapter. We were all invited to re-own our charism…
Our chapter in the light of the Scriptures
The Acts of the Apostles recorded a conflict which will be solved at the “Council of Jerusalem”, under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Starting from the “Council of the Apostles in Jerusalem” as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, Sr. Celina Natanek offers us a biblical reflection that she hopes can inspire the process of our next General Chapter. The experience of the transforming love of Christ transformed the small community of disciples, frightened and locked in the cenacle, into courageous witnesses, open to others, filled with the Spirit who sends them to the ends of the world. This is what the Evangelist Luke presents to us in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1). This book can inspire us in our chapter context, in particular the account of the meeting, called the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15, 1-29) between Paul, Barnabas and their companions sent…
Preparation for the 26th General Chapter 2023
From left to right: Fr. Yago Abeledo, Sisters Franceline Hien, Juliana Karomba, Selina Wavinya, Maria Carmen Ocón, Maamalifar Poreku, Carmen Sammut, Mapendo Masirika and Jocelyne Morin From January 23 to 27, 2023, the Preparatory Commission for the General Chapter met in Rome with the objective of discerning important topics or points that concern the life and mission of the whole congregation. The chapter theme: “The transforming love of the risen Christ calls us to walk together without fear, to deepen our charism in collaboration with others and to widen our tents to give birth to a new creation.” The commission included Sisters Maamalifar Poreku, Jocelyne Morin, Franceline Hien, the General Council and the co-facilitators, Father Yago Abeledo, M.Afr. and Sister Selina Wavinya of the Sisters of Mercy from Kenya. For the first three days we worked to identify the subjects to be treated from the reports of the pre-capitular…
Decoration
On January 31, 2023, Sister Vickness N. Muleya, in charge of the Delwendé Center in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, was decorated for her commitment and dedication in the apostolate with vulnerable women. The Burkinabé State thus wanted to express its gratitude to the Church for its participation in the development of the country and the Burkinabé people. Sr Vickness was made a ‘Knight of the Order of the Stallion’. The ceremony took place at the Grand Chancellery in the presence of His Eminence Cardinal Philippe Ouedraogo, Metropolitan Archbishop of Ouagadougou. The decoration was presented by the Chancellor. The Cardinal thanked the State and all its collaborators for having recognized the effort of the Church throughout the history of the country. He is grateful to the daughters and sons of Lavigerie for their role in the evangelization of the Burkinabe people: he recalled that it is thanks to them that the Church…
A time of Grace – Juniorate 2022 – 2023
Picture taken at the end of the closing Eucharist: the juniors with Sr. Carmen Sammut, Superior General and the animators of that formation period. From left to right: Srs Mapendo Masirika (animatrice), Carmen, Béatrice Badini, Redempta Kabahweza, Aurélie Dushime, Maamalifar Poreku (animatrice). At the end of the juniorate which was held in Rome from September 2022 to February 2023, we, the juniors Aurélie, Béatrice and Redempta, want to express our gratitude and appreciation for this time of grace that the congregation has given us. We are grateful to God the Father for all the graces received. We borrow the words of the psalmist “How shall I render to the Lord all the good he has done me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord” (Ps 116:12-13). The facilitators of the sessions spared no effort to accompany us. The sessions have…
You are precious in my eyes and I love you
The MSOLA as experienced by a young woman in a silent retreat in Lublin Poland. The White Sisters in Lublin, Poland, started December quite busily! On Friday evening 2nd December, we 3 young women made ourselves at home in their house, beginning a 3-day retreat in silence. The theme of the recollection was taken from the 43rd chapter of Isaiah, in which the Lord explicitly says – “You are precious in my eyes and I love you!” Shortly after our arrival, in order to better prepare ourselves for the upcoming meditations, we familiarised ourselves with the retreat schedule and, later that evening, we were invited to enter into silence. Of course, the norm in this situation is to completely disconnect from all electronic devices and other appealing things such as books or the on-going World Cup. We greeted Saturday morning with a breakfast in silence, after which we…
Accompanying Refugees
The community of Missionaries of Africa and MSOLA sisters at Lavigerie’s house in Karlsruhe, is formed by a Nigerian, a Rwandese and a German Missionaries of Africa and two MSOLA. Our Mission is to live and promote interreligious and intercultural Dialogue, and to accompany the refugees who are our sisters and brothers. We contact families, single persons, and some victims of human trafficking: accompany them to offices, to doctors and hospitals and help them to fill out their many papers and even to participate in social activities. Every Thursday and twice on Saturdays we have a cooking program with refugees from the camps. They are very happy to cook their own food! One of us helps in the Caritas fabric shop selling cheap clothes or even giving them free of charge. During the interculturality week we opened wide our doors and invited refugees for a culinary feast. Refugees from…