Season of Creation Resources
Here is the link to the website with all the resources for the preparation and implementation of the Season of Creation activities: promotional, liturgical, etc… Deepen your Season of Creation experience by taking advantage of these free resources. Your event will have a bigger impact if the community is engaged and inspired. We invite you to use these resources to share the word with your church, invite the bishop or other regional authority to join the celebration, and even take the word to audiences outside your church by reaching local news outlets. Please feel free to use and adapt these materials any way that suits you. Resources
The art of collaboration
From Sr. Maite Oiartzun – Nshimirimana, Burundi Based on my experience, collaboration is an art. In the Trinity, source of inspiration and creativity, we are invited to contemplate the collaboration between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The bond that unites them is Love: “As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my Love… so that you bear fruit and your fruit endures.” John 15:9-16 Collaboration solely focused on human strengths is faced with fatigue, discouragement and sometimes the temptation to resign because collaboration can become a difficult mission. To persevere, I need to be rooted in the collaboration that Jesus of Nazareth developed with the disciples and with all of Creation. I note that three conditions are important for good collaboration: having a common objective, personal and group motivation and the deep desire to engage in a dynamic of giving…
Meeting on trafficking in Nouakchott
On Saturday June 8, in Nouakchott, we invited some of our friends, collaborators and parishioners to our community to participate in a meeting to share and raise awareness on migration and human trafficking. We were 22 participants. There were also 17 children who were present with their parents and one of our parishioners took care of them with games and songs. We had two resource persons: Ms. Fofana Dikel, migration project manager at Caritas Mauritania, spoke to us about migration, starting by defining this word, giving the different types of migration and ending with some concrete examples of what is experienced in Mauritania and all the dangers of illegal immigration. Our Sr. Begoña Iñarra, who intervened by Zoom from Spain, highlighted the general aspects of human trafficking: how to detect possible victims of trafficking, how to act towards them, what organizations work against trafficking in the destination…
“Bare feet, bare hands” Collaboration in mission
From Sr. Mariette Macozi, Kinshasa, DR Congo Since 2001, our Kinshasa community has collaborated with the SVD Fathers (Divine Word) in the mission of supporting children living in the street. This bond was forged thanks to three of our sisters who preceded us in the work of Reclassification and Protection of Street Children (ORPER in acronym). Sister Anosiata Keneema and I continue the apostolate initiated by our Sisters in this structure which has been in existence for more than 43 years. We are welcomed and fully integrated in this. Arriving in Kinshasa in 2021, I was sent to work at ORPER where I easily integrated into social work serving street children. At the local level, collaboration takes place as a work team where each educator makes their contribution to the success of the mission which we carry out together. The center manager, who is like the eye…
A Tree Planting Holiday
The children in the Pope Francis Home were excited about planting trees (Their faces cannot be shown in order to protect their identity) From the Malindi community, Kenya The Kenyan government announced a surprise public holiday on 13 November 2023 for a nationwide Tree Planting Day. In a gazette notice dated November 6, Prof Kindiki said President William Ruto would lead the country in the tree-growing exercise in line with his administration’s ambitious plan of growing 10 billion trees by 2032. This is a government’s response to the climate change crisis which is a global issue and which is, in particular, causing worsening droughts in the Horn of Africa, including Kenya, where rains have failed for five seasons in a row. Kenya has lost nearly half of its forest cover since independence. Several factors, including agriculture, logging, and charcoal production, drive deforestation. The loss of forests has contributed to…
Eid el-Fitr: The end of Ramadan in Bobo
Our novice, Divine Cyrisma, shares her joy for the End of Ramadan Feast April 10, the date marking the breaking of the fast in the month of Ramadan, was a day of celebration for our Muslim brothers and sisters. I learned that for Muslims, Eid el-Fitr is, above all, a celebration of sharing and solidarity, and this is what our Muslim friends’ families concretely confirmed by inviting us to share with them the joy of this celebration. That day, in our community, we divided ourselves into two groups to join all the families who invited us for the occasion. Being invited by Muslims to their celebrations for us Christians, especially for us the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, is very significant. This desire reflects the relationships of proximity, respect for the faith of others that exist between people of different religious faiths. It was an…
Celebration Guide to Laudato Si week
This Laudato Si’ Week and Pentecost, let us gather in community to contemplate and nurture seeds of hope for our “suffering planet” (LD 2). Laudate Deum is a reminder about the urgency of the Laudato Si’ message and the need for both personal and cultural transformation amidst our ecological and climate crises. This year’s Laudato Si’ Week theme is inspired by the symbol for Season of Creation 2024, “firstfruits.” Let us be seeds of hope in our lives and our world, rooted in faith and love. “There are no lasting changes without cultural changes … and there are no cultural changes without personal changes” (LD, 70) Inspired by Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’, this eight-day guide seeks to motivate tall people of good will to protect our Common Home through concrete actions and simple changes in the way we live. Here is the link to download the…
Integral Ecology in Nouakchott
As part of our tree planting action, in collaboration with the Association Soleil des Enfants d’Arafat, a new formula was found by the president of the Association, and our friend, Yahya. In fact, he approached the Mayor of his commune to offer him a collaboration contract, which had a positive result. Yahya has designated 10 state schools that are ready to educate students about ecology and plant trees in the school grounds, in collaboration with students and teachers. This is how on March 15; we began this beautiful adventure in the first school. The Director was very involved and opened the sixth year primary class to us, which has around 60 students. Yahya and our sister Mia led an educational dialogue based on a slideshow with these young people about our sick planet, but which can still be cured. Then Yahya went down to the schoolyard with them to…
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…
Knock and it will be opened to you!
The experience of our sister Béatrix Dagras The door of room 506 of the “Résidence de Bon Secours” in Paris is accustomed to discreet and unexpected knocks: questions, services requested or rendered, information… are all occasions for friendly encounters, bringing the pleasure of their balms. Even at night, a joker or a person suffering from insomnia may knock on the door a couple of times. No need to open the door: by the time you get up to see who’s there, they’ve gone! In our residence a parish-initiated reflection group was set up, for the reading of the New Testament. I took part along with other residents. When this parish activity came to an end, the comment was made: “We don’t know the Old Testament!” The group then became an in-house group, called “Biblical”, and they entrusted me with the task of leading it… Since last year,…