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…
Cast our nets wide
Sr. Bijundi Bashige, of the community of Kinshasa, in D.R. Congo, shares with us her exeprience of a General Chapter I will begin with this song by Robert Lebel that I love: Let’s take the road together, it’s God who leads us, Let’s walk the road together at the sign of the Spirit of God May S/he come and teach us to read what emerges for today Between the lines of the Gospel, the road where Jesus leads us (Prenons la route ensemble…) I had my first General Chapter experience in 1993. We were only two Africans. I trembled wondering how I was going to live this chapter and what I could bring. The first thing was to see that we had all prayed and reflected in all the provinces before coming to the chapter. Meeting our sisters from all walks of life was a great joy and opened my…
A Quest, a Test and an Adventure
“Life” said the well-known writer G.K. Chesterton, “is a QUEST, a TEST and an ADVENTURE!” Sr. Marie MacDonald shares her experience of taking part in 7 general chapters. This sentence could well be applied to that experience! Yes, it is a QUEST a searching together for the way forward – not necessarily a radical change of direction but of finding the next right step on our journey as a Congregation. A TEST because, although it is usually a wonderful and life-giving experience, it is also challenging and as capitulants we are all entrusted with a big responsibility. It is an experience of being in labour and of giving birth: to the Capitular Acts and to the General Council composed of those who will form the leadership team for the next 6 years. Then there is the experience of internationality and interculturality which can be a test not only because…
“Updating” our Consitutions
Sr. Suzy Hadermann, from Belgium share with us her experience of the Chapter of 1981. It was the Chapter which responded to the desire of the Church (expressed by the Second Vatican Council) to see that Congregations rewrite their Constitutions, “updating” them (“aggiornamento” in Italian). The 1981 Chapter was therefore devoted mainly to this task, which is very important since it was a question of saying again what we want to live, how we feel the Lord is calling us to participate in his Mission. Two aspects in particular touched me during this chapter: – Our Constitutions are the fruit of the participation of all the sisters of the Congregation – The Spirit accompanied us and worked with us throughout this process The participation of all the sisters: The work to rewrite our Constitutions began several years before the Chapter. We were all invited to re-own our charism…
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…
Our chapter in the light of the Scriptures
The Acts of the Apostles recorded a conflict which will be solved at the “Council of Jerusalem”, under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Starting from the “Council of the Apostles in Jerusalem” as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, Sr. Celina Natanek offers us a biblical reflection that she hopes can inspire the process of our next General Chapter. The experience of the transforming love of Christ transformed the small community of disciples, frightened and locked in the cenacle, into courageous witnesses, open to others, filled with the Spirit who sends them to the ends of the world. This is what the Evangelist Luke presents to us in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1). This book can inspire us in our chapter context, in particular the account of the meeting, called the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15, 1-29) between Paul, Barnabas and their companions sent…
Preparation for the 26th General Chapter 2023
From left to right: Fr. Yago Abeledo, Sisters Franceline Hien, Juliana Karomba, Selina Wavinya, Maria Carmen Ocón, Maamalifar Poreku, Carmen Sammut, Mapendo Masirika and Jocelyne Morin From January 23 to 27, 2023, the Preparatory Commission for the General Chapter met in Rome with the objective of discerning important topics or points that concern the life and mission of the whole congregation. The chapter theme: “The transforming love of the risen Christ calls us to walk together without fear, to deepen our charism in collaboration with others and to widen our tents to give birth to a new creation.” The commission included Sisters Maamalifar Poreku, Jocelyne Morin, Franceline Hien, the General Council and the co-facilitators, Father Yago Abeledo, M.Afr. and Sister Selina Wavinya of the Sisters of Mercy from Kenya. For the first three days we worked to identify the subjects to be treated from the reports of the pre-capitular…
Prayer for the 26th General Chapter 2023
Triune God, Source of inspiration and communion, We praise you for sharing your boundless love for us through the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave his whole life for humanity. He leads us in his mission to be docile to the creative newness of the Holy Spirit. We thank you for our beloved Congregation which, for 153 years, has been rooted in the passion for Christ and his mission in the heart of Cardinal Lavigerie, our founder, of Mother Marie-Salomé and our sisters of all generations. We thank you for calling and sending us as women apostles, among the countless messengers of your Word, to Africa and among its peoples everywhere. We entrust to you our next 26th General Chapter. May the breath of your Holy Spirit inspire us during its preparation and lovingly guide our discernment and our journey together. Faithful to the Gospel and to our charism, may our…
Logo for the 26th General Chapter 2023
As the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa we are preparing for the 26th General Chapter to be held this year. The theme of our General Chapter is: The transforming love of the Risen Lord calls us to journey together without fear, to deepen our charism in collaboration with others, and to expand our tent, giving birth to a new creation. This theme in turn sends us to our Constitutions n° 22: “Our whole life is a participation in Christ’s Paschal Mystery as we make our own the Servant’s attitude of unconditional, self-surrendering love. To begin again each day, to endure in difficult situations, to accept suffering, partings and diminishment, all this becomes a source of life in him. Thus, in Christ, the First-born of a great multitude, we move towards the final gathering of reconciled humanity, where all will proclaim: ‘Jesus Christ is Lord to…