Day 3 – Change and transformation are not the same
The Recollection As the theme of the Chapter is “The transforming love of the risen Lord calls us… to give birth to a new creation”, the continuation of the recollection the morning of the 3rd day, was dedicated to the meaning of transformation. Change and transformation are not the same. While change happens at a point in time, transformation happens over time. While change is a new beginning, transformation begins with an ending. Just when the caterpillar thought her life was over, she began to fly… While change is observable, transformation involves patterns, structures, worldviews and soul. While change is an exterior event, transformation is an interior journey. Transformation implies a shift in perspective, which means to look at the world through different windows. To start this process, we need courage to risk and harness creativity and imagination. (The picture will be bigger). Presentation of the report…
Day 2 – A Day of prayer, reflection and sharing
As athletes train hard before a big competition, the sisters prepared for the General Chapter with a day and a half of silence, prayer, reflection and listening to the Spirit speaking through reality through the others, the inner calls, to discover God’s call for us today. Brother Emili Turu, a Marist, led the reflection. He invited the sisters to be open to the reality of the world, the Church, the congregation and of religious life and to enter the contemplative space of the world realities which he presented in a slide-show. Despite the fact of the world being “upside down” with the difficulty of seeing God’s signs in it, he asked the sisters to search God’s presence in the meaningful images representing both good and bad current realities, and then to share with their neighbours what they saw. The periods of the whole life-cycle of cultures and…
1st session of the MSOLA Chapter
Our General Chapter is taking place from 30thApril to 20thMay. It is facilitated by Fr. Yago Abeledo M.Afr. and Sr. Selina Mbuli, Sister of Mercy. Our spiritual companion of the Chapter is Fr. David Sullivan, M.Afr. During this time delegates and representatives from the different continents will evaluate what the Institute has lived since the last Chapter in 2017, prepare the future of the Congregation, and elect the Superior General and her Council who will implement the decisions and orientations taken in the Chapter. Throughout Saturday, 29thApril, the capitulants and the team accompanying them arrived at Sacrofano, near Rome. What a joy to be able to greet and hug sisters who had not seen each other for a long time and meet others who we had only seen via Zoom. On Sunday, 30th April, the feast of Our Lady of Africa, the capitulants gathered in the…
Final vows of Sr. Redempta Kabahweza
The 16th of April 2023, the day of final commitment of Sr. Redempta Kabahweza, was a great day of joy in our MSOLA family, in the family of Sr. Redempta and the entire church center of Kabata, Fort Portal in Uganda. It was a joy of participating in the event of a young woman who took the step to give herself totally to God and to God’s service until death! It was a celebration of Sr. Redempta’s final “YES” to the Lord’s call, to leave her country and proclaim God’s love to all the people she encounters. After listening to many people, the simplicity of Redempta in choosing the local church center for her feast was impressive. During her speech, she shared that it was in that vary church that she experienced her first encounter with God, where she came to know God and fell in love with Jesus…
Seeing the bigger picture
Sr. Angela Kapitingana, from the Nairobi community in Kenya, shares her experience of the last two General Chapters Looking back at my experiences of the past two chapters of 2011 and 2017, I realize how the Congregation has been attentive to the needs of the time, the calls of the Church and the reality of the Congregation. Our mission experience has been a guide in our communal discernment to find the best way to live our charism in a changing world. Actually, these realities are well expressed in the four apostolic orientations (Capitular Acts 2017, page 12) and the theme itself of the 2017 Chapter: “Bearers of Hope, listening to the voice of the Spirit moving forward together towards the peripheries”. As MSOLA we desired to live this in the present situation of the Church and the globalized world. The theme for the forthcoming chapter is…
Prayer for compassion
God our Creator, we pray to you: To us who are far from those we love, that we are reminded to find ways to be your love and tenderness for our neighbor. May the restrictions we know remind us of the daily challenges to human dignity, life and fundamental security that so many women, men and children in our world go through. We who are healthy, Let us remember those who do not have access to basic health care. We who restrict our movements, let us remember those who have no refuge to go to. We who have a social safety net, let us remember our sisters and brothers whose situation is getting worse. That the concern we feel for the lives of our elders encourage us to love and cherish every person that we meet every day. In the face of fear, let us choose love, peace and hope.…
A Chapter in turmoil
“Having participated in 8 chapters, oh so different, it is not easy to point out a chapter experience.” Sr. Marguerite-Marie Luc, from Villeurbanne, France, shares the first chapter in which she participated, that of 1969, chapter of aggiornamento, chapter which took place in 2 sessions. The first session lasted 11 weeks and the second, 4 months later, lasted 9 weeks. 1969, a period still in turmoil after the riots of 1968, a period of disputes where everything was called into question: Religious life, the Church, family life, authority, our societies themselves. We were not unscathed by this wind of protest. It should also be noted that the vast majority of the capitulants were between 30 and 40 years old! The spirit of openness given by the Superior General at the time was not really recognized at first. We began the chapter by rejecting everything that had been…
Happy Easter!
So let us always be willing to let ourselves be accompanied by the Risen Lord as he explains to us the meaning of the Scriptures. May he make our hearts burn within us; may he enlighten and transform us, so that we can proclaim his mystery of salvation to the world with the power and wisdom that come from his Spirit. Pope Francis, Message for The World Mission Day 2023 Easter Day is the day of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, but also symbolically, it is a day of light, of hope for a better world. May you and your families receive God’s blessing on this joyous Easter day! Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa
The prayer against human trafficking
Let us pray: Saint Josephine Bakhita, you were sold into slavery as a child and endured unspeakable hardship and suffering. Once liberated from your physical enslavement, you found true redemption in your encounter with Christ and his Church. O Saint Josephine Bakhita, assist all those who are entrapped in slavery; Intercede on their behalf with the God of Mercy so that the chains of their captivity will be broken. May God himself free all those who have been threatened, wounded or mistreated by the trade and trafficking of human beings. Bring comfort to survivors of this slavery and teach them to look to Jesus as an example of hope and faith so that they may find healing from their wounds. We ask you to pray for us and to intercede on behalf of us all: that we may not fall into indifference, that we may open our eyes and…