150 years of the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa
The Rector of the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa, José Maria Cantal Rivas, asked us to join in the Basilica’s 150-year jubilee in 2022. “We would like to show the impact and influence of the basilica throughout the world and to update the links between it and different places.We “White Sisters”, the MSOLA have contributed the letter which we share with you below: Dear friends, We are happy to join in the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa! Although we are known as “White Sisters”, the founder, Cardinal Lavigerie gave us the name which expresses both dedication and devotion to Our Lady of Africa: Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa. When the founder no longer believed in the possibility of life for the young congregation, Mother Marie-Salomé and her sisters went to pray at Notre-Dame so that the congregation…
To do what God wants
Mother Salomé spoke very little of herself, wrote even less, and shortly before her death most of her writings were destroyed at her request. On the day of her First Communion, young Marie-Renée prayed “to be a great saint by doing what God wants.” Even at the end of her life, it was still the same desire. Her nurse told her, “I think the good Lord is coming to get you.” And Mother Salomé repeated her favorite saying: “When He wants … I am not afraid.” During the day, she often repeated this request to the holy Virgin: “Through your example, may the constant cry of my heart be that of Jesus: ‘Father, may your will and not mine be done.‘ ” From this comes her devotion to daily duty, to ordinary actions. She writes: “We must work without ceasing for our sanctification. However, we cannot do it by extraordinary…
Mother Marie-Salomé and Breton Spirituality
Over the centuries, Breton Spirituality has venerated Breton personalities known for their exemplary life from a Christian point of view. Few of them have been recognized as saints by the Church’s canonization procedure, but they have been honoured by the people, their very existence not always being historically attested. From 2021 another statuette has been added to this demonstration of ancient popular spirituality, that of our Venerable Mother Marie Salomé, who was carried on the pilgrimage by Danielle Burthier and 3 lay people from the Lavigerie family. An article by Danielle will follow on Sharing Trenta Aprile with details of this experience. According to a late literary and hagiographic construction forged from the eleventh century, the seven founding saints are traditionally reputed to have founded the seven bishoprics that existed in the late Middle Ages. Because of their precedence to any canonical procedure, these saints have not been officially recognized by…
Refreshment in Mother Marie Salome’s country
On April 6 and 7, 2019, seventeen Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa went on a pilgrimage to Plouguerneau, in Brittany, France, where our first superior general Mother Marie Salomé (Renée Roudaut) grew up.
Blessing of the stone bearing the names of our sisters
Today we come to remember our sisters who lived their consecration to the end and died a violent death. We want to be inspired by their fidelity and the gift of their lives. Pope Francis during the ceremony to commemorate the modern martyrs at the Church of St Bartolomeo in Rome in April 2017, said: “How often, in difficult moments of history, have we heard it said: ‘Today our country needs heroes’? Likewise, we can ask, ‘Today, what does our Church need?’ Martyrs, witnesses, that is, everyday saints of ordinary life, lives lived coherently.” We are all called to this. “But we also need those who have the courage to accept the grace to be witnesses until the end, until death. Martyrs are the witnesses who carry forward the Church; those who witness to the fact that Jesus is risen, that Jesus is alive, who witness…
Word of Lavigerie : God is light for humanity
1 – God is light for humanity (1856-1857) Extract from a course given by Lavigerie at the Sorbonne during the academic year 1856-1857. “Doubtless, humility is the first and most essential of our virtues. We cannot by ourselves acquire any right to the celestial gifts, but we can nevertheless work with this help from God which never fails to render us less unworthy. If then there are among you some who do not believe yet feel the desire for a faith which you lack, rather than seeking to get hurt instead seek to place your soul in a higher and more serene region. God is light, and it is not in darkness that we must seek. The great men of the early days of the Church have shown us by their example a different path. They teach us that in order to prepare ourselves…