My mission goes on…
Top row from left: Francine Maas, Martha Grageda, Marie Heintz and Lucille Pilotte Bottom row from left: Regina Ramos, Mary Rita Kelley and Felicia Nowak ONCE A MISSIONARY ALWAYS A MISSIONARY By Sr. Francine Maas in Winoosky community, Vermont-USA After 43 happy years of ministering in Tanzania and at our General Headquarters in Rome, I returned definitively to my home country, the USA, in September 2021. After settling-in, I was soon busy with helping my sisters in whatever their needs were. At that time, we were a community of 10 sisters, living in a small care home with about 35 elderly residents, but today we MSOLA number only 7. As 4 ½ years have now passed, the details of my ministry have changed but the main areas remained the same. It is my hope that in this short article I can show you…
What is my response?
The Lilongwe community with Sr. Monique Vien By Sr. Anafrida Biro, Lilongwe community in Malawi While reading our last Sharing Trentaprile, 2026 – 1, page 30 (human suffering experienced by people in the refugee camp), I felt pushed to stop and ponder over the words “They teach us not to ask “why?”, but rather, “what is my response?” I was immediately enabled to connect to what I was experiencing with my Sisters in the community, thanks to our Sister Monique Vien from Canada, who after our congregation meeting in Dar es Salaam, came for some weeks to our community in Lilongwe Malawi, to visit her cherished Country and friends encountered through many years of her missionary life there. I had sufficient time to listen to Sr. Monique and realised that, she was blessed to work in different countries and in different places in Malawi itself such as…
Loving the poor and the reality of life
Nairobi is a city of contrasts A touching testimony from Sr. Marietha Joakim, Nairobi, Kenya When I reflect on my experience of helping the poor, I do not begin with theories or Church documents. I begin with the streets of Nairobi, with the people I meet every day with faces that are easy to pass by, yet difficult to forget. Nairobi is a city of contrasts. Tall buildings, busy roads, and signs of development exist side by side with deep poverty. In recent times, the number of homeless people and beggars has visibly increased. At every traffic stop, outside supermarkets, along major roads, and near churches and mosques there are people asking for help. Some are elderly, some are children, many are young adults who should be in the prime of their strength but have nowhere to go. So far, my personal experience of helping the poor…
Mental well-being: fostering a joyful and healthy religious life
By Sr. Linah Siabana, Ukusijoni community, Uganda Mental health encompasses our emotional, psychological, and social well-being, fundamentally influencing how we think, feel, and act. It plays a crucial role in our ability to handle stress, build and maintain relationships, and make well-informed choices. For the sisters in the MSOLA family, maintaining robust mental health is vital not only for our personal well-being but also for effectively supporting the spiritual mission we undertake and fulfilling our responsibilities within the community. A healthy mind not only fosters compassion and empathy but also improves our ability to connect more deeply with those we serve, enriching the overall religious experience for both the sisters and the society. Neglecting mental health, on the other hand, can lead to stress, anxiety, and depression, and can significantly impair an individual’s ability to fulfill their religious obligations and engage meaningfully with others around them.…
A precious gift to the Deli Health Center
shared by Sr Nathalie W. Sedogo Our Health Center in Deli is on an easily accessible axis, so we regularly receive multiple supervisions. During the month of December, we received a routine Supervision Team and we worked with them throughout the morning. We had to answer a good number of questions related to SONU activities: (Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care). This activity aims to strengthen the skills of health personnel in order to ensure quality care for the mother, and the newborn, through early screening and prevention as well as adequate treatment of obstetric and neonatal complications. The team focused on our registers and monthly reports to see the consistencies and areas for improvement. After this step, the Supervision Team asked to visit the maternity ward. When they saw our delivery tables, they were disappointed and here is the reaction of one of the team: “You work well overall…
Empathy in Action: Lessons from the World Day of the Poor
Sr. Valérie Kaboré on mission in Algeria “While part of the world is condemned to live in the depths of history, while inequalities increase and the economy punishes the weakest, while society is dedicated to the idolatry of money and consumption, the poor and the marginalized often have no choice but to continue to wait (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, n. 54). … It is us whom his grace makes shine; it is our life, imbued with compassion and charity, which must become a sign of the Lord’s presence, always close to the suffering of the poor, to soothe their wounds and transform their destiny.” Link to the PDF https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2024/documents/20241117-omelia-giornatamondiale-poveri.html I feel very inspired by this quotation from Pope Francis. He recalled these words recently, on 17 November, during the World Day of the Poor. Several events and celebrations that we have experienced in these days can be linked…
“House of Generosity”
For Sr. Valérie Kaboré, Hydra Parmentier, Algeria, collaboration takes the form of mutual aid, solidarity, partnership… I would like to share with you my experience at a day care for people with Alzheimer’s disease and related illnesses and their family caregivers. It is a work of the Archdiocese of Algiers which began in 2015. I joined the team in June 2019 and have taken charge of its coordination since 2020. It is the only center of its kind in all of Algeria. The small team is made up of a cook, a speech therapist, a psychologist and three social care assistants. We welcome sick people, members of their families and occasional volunteers during the day. We also open our doors to interns, psychomotor therapists or speech therapists and everyone else. Finally, we have a partnership with health professionals such as doctors (geriatrician-neurologist-psychiatrist), physiotherapists, associations, professionals from other professions…
Visitation Month
“Mary’s “yes” sparked the first “Hail Mary”; it was with this word that Father Pierre Tequi introduced the Eucharist on the feast of the Visitation in our “cathedral parish” of Ghardaïa, where our entire central sector was gathered for our last Eucharist in the company of Sister Maria Angeles, Pierre Tequi (French Fidei Donum) and Claude Venne (Missionary of Africa) to whom we said goodbye on that day. Mary, eagerly going to meet her cousin Elisabeth, did not know in advance what God was going to reveal to her when she met this woman who, despite her advanced age, also saw the wonders of God. “How do I have this happiness that the mother of my Savior comes to me?” Yes, when we came to this country, to this region, we did not know in advance everything that God was going to reveal to us about Him,…
Our Apostolate activities in Rwanda
One of the missions of Butare community is formation of the pre-postulants. Here pre-postulant Maria Ahok Wek, from Uganda, shares her experience of apostolate in a school for the hearing-impaired students. We are in the pre-postulate at Butare community, Rwanda. This program aims at giving a progressive entry into the formation process of MSOLA religious missionary life. We have many introductory classes which help us know more about the congregation, consecrated life, how to journey together as a group, to be aware of what is taking place within oneself and around us, to know more about the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Bible and its origin. We are also introduced and initiated to prayer and community life, Apostolate, Actualization of the Vital Human strengths, how to become a Peace builder, to solve various conflicts in a nonviolent way and many other introductory classes. I am Maria Ahok…
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…