A child’s prayer
From Sister Clémentine Mukampabuka in Oran, Algeria In my catechism class, there are around twenty children, aged 6 to 12. For the most part, these are children born in Algeria to parents in an irregular migration situation. For catechism, the most advanced join the youngest to form a single class. During a session, I offer them the opportunity to pray out loud. One of the prayers caught my attention: Lord, I ask you to release my dad from prison and give him a lot of money to come home to us!” A concrete prayer: I recognized this child. He is only 7 years old. He was born in Algeria to a Nigerian and a Cameroonian. I ask myself Where is home for him?” I visited his father in prison. I can list many things that I recognize; whatever, the Lord knows him. He answers our prayers, especially those…
MSOLA on the road to Integral Ecology: Gitega experience
Sr. Maite Oiartzun and Fr. Bernard Lesay, MAfr. By Sr. Maite Oiartzun, Gitega Community, Burundi I’m delighted to share with you that in Gitega (Burundi) we continue the project to plant Artemisia, a medicinal plant to prevent and cure malaria. I’m working in collaboration with Fr. Bernard Lesay, MAfr., agronomists and farmers in Gitega. I’m also part of a network called “La Maison de l’Artemisia” www.maison-artemisia.org which runs awareness-raising workshops in 28 African countries. In Gitega, I’m involved with the “Ecole Sociale” and the “Ecole d’Art”, where the students are boarders. The entire education community is involved, and they’ve given us plots of land to cultivate. Every school year, together with the students and teachers, we plant the Artemisia plants prepared by the farmers. In 4 months, we harvest plenty of Artemisia for the whole year. Students and teachers take the tea 3 times a week to boost the…
News from Morocco
Sr. Rehema Toiwoki Kimesera (left) and Sr. Maria Carmen Ocón Moreno next to her with their classmates in Rabat, Morocco. At the centre Mrs Amina A letter from our sisters Rehema Toiwoki Kimesera and Maria Carmen Ocón Moreno in Morocco Dear sisters, We finally found a bit of time to share with you some news since our arrival in Rabat. Rehema arrived on 21st January coming from Tanzania. It was a stressful trip as she had to wait until the last minute at Dar-es-Salaam’s airport before they allowed her to board, wondering why she was to go to Morocco. Her arrival in Rabat was good, only that due to a misunderstanding of the hour of her arrival she was stranded for three hours before the sister picked her up. Maria Carmen arrived on 22nd coming from Spain. She took a ship from Tarifa to Tanger and the train…
Silver Jubilee at the Delwende Center
From our sister Vickness Muleya in the community in St Julien Ouagadougou Cathedral One day, I went to the African Press to ask for information. At reception, I asked to see the priest, responsible for the African Press. Arriving at the office, when he saw me, he said: This is how good God is! It was you I was looking for, but now you found me!” This is how a beautiful Thanksgiving experience began for the silver jubilee of Father Mathurin Ouangrawa at the Delwende Center! Father Mathurin Ouangrawa, director of the African Press, chose the Delwende Center to celebrate his Silver Jubilee of Priesthood. His motivation being: “to bring joy to the residents of the Delwende Center by sharing my joy with them.” He also insisted that, “it was also to bring many other people to discover the Center and to put their hands in the reality…
World Youth Days in Senegal
From sisters Elyse and Olive of the community in Nouakchott, Mauritania From January 26 to 28, 2024, World Youth Days in Senegal were held around the theme Those who hope in the Lord walk without tiring.” Isaiah 40.31. Thousands of young Catholics from the various dioceses of Senegal and other countries in the sub-region participated in this event. Our diocese of Nouakchott was officially invited to participate in this very important event. Thirty people from our diocese responded to this invitation. Our sisters Elyse and Olive left with the parishioners. They share with us their joys experienced during this meeting: What a joy to participate in this meeting of young people in Senegal! Meeting others is one of the values of our congregation. Openness, interculturality, dialogue are values that we experienced, first with the group of people coming from Nouakchott and then with the young people coming from…
There is desert and desert!
From our sister Clementine Mukampabuka There is the desert I visited for the first time in 2004 in Ghardaïa and El Golea and where I sang the hymn of creation; where I met Blessed Charles de Foucauld; where I met Jesus of Bethlehem, Nazareth and Galilee through the presence of our sisters and brothers on mission there! There is another desert, the one where I meet my brothers and sisters detained in the different places of incarceration here in Algeria. They are truly in a desert which deprives them of certain freedoms including that of going where they want, of seeing who they want. In this desert, the angels who feed them are the authorities of the penitentiary establishments and we who share the Word of God with them. We print it and leave it with them as an appointment for the week. These moments of prayer in prison…
Accompanying the Youth: Our Future and Our Hope
Sharing from Sr. Carol Garcia Murillo, Madrid, Spain I keep thinking how essential prayer is in our lives. And I have seen in the parish that the families of the children and young people who are part of my community, are not used to this important moment of the day. I found a small image of the Holy Family: Joseph, Mary and Jesus, in a tender representation. I proposed that a child take this figure home for a week. I asked him, with his parents and siblings, to get together to ask or give thanks to God, all together, for something they wanted. Then, during the Sunday Eucharist, after all the people who wish to have received Holy Communion, this child shares in front of the whole parish community what he prayed or thanked God for with his family. Then, when he finishes, he hands the image of the Holy…
Journey towards Integral Ecology
Sr Lucy in her garden Our older sisters in Germany show us the way towards Integral Ecology The Cologne-Klettenberg community continues to take small steps in our journey towards integral ecology: wasting neither water nor energy, for example, using the elevator with several people whenever possible, avoiding plastic waste, choosing meat-free menus, planting flowers that are useful for bees, collecting cigarette butts to protect the groundwater etc. As Jesus taught us, we believe in the power of small things. Although almost all of us are in our 80s and 90s, we can still take a few steps in the congregation’s journey towards Integral Ecology. Behind our house lies a small garden where we admire flowers and fruit trees all year round. Those of us with balconies create our own tiny gardens and we give preference to flowers that attract bees and other insects. Plates filled with water or seeds…
End of year session 2023 in Nouakchott, Mauritania
From our Community in Nouakchott Every year, between Christmas and New Year, the pastoral agents of the diocese of Nouakchott come together for a time of training, meeting and relaxation. The theme of this year’s session was “Discovering current Mauritania through its religion, cultures and traditions” because of the importance of the number of pastoral agents newly assigned to the diocese, and because of the complexity of Mauritanian society. We were 48 pastoral agents of 23 nationalities. Among us 11 new people who participated in the session for the first time. We had two speakers. Mr Gabriel Hatti is one of the faithful Christians, former official of the Mauritanian administration, and currently president of Caritas-Mauritania. He spoke about his life in Mauritanian society where he held important responsibilities which led him to a unique experience of Christian life in this land of Islam where the Lord sends us to…
The experience of JPIC-RD in the Novitiate
From Bobo-Dioulasso Community, Burkina Faso For us at the novitiate, JPIC-RD is a process of transformation that first touches us personally and then invites us to develop the right relationship with God and with all creation. Day by day, we discover that JPIC-RD begins with ourselves, with why we were created. The principles and foundations of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius help us to deepen our mission on earth. In the novitiate, we insist on a personal relationship with God Triune and with ourselves, in order to live just and peaceful relationships with our brothers and sisters and all other creatures. This is lived out daily in our personal prayer, in our work on ourselves and in all our interactions with people, animals and other creatures. We realize that whenever we are at peace with ourselves and with God, we become peacemakers and witnesses to justice. The…