Missionary Month: the testimony of Sr Marcelle Gaborit
Pope Francis has proclaimed October 2019 an Extraordinary Missionary Month under the theme ‘Baptised and sent: Christ’s Church on mission in the world’. It invites all the baptised to live this time in four dimensions: encounter with Jesus, missionary witness, missionary formation and missionary solidarity. Throughout this month, we invite you to discover some of the missionary testimonies of the Missionary Sisters of Notre Dame d’Afrique. Today we present the missionary testimony of Sr Marcelle Gaborit, who worked as a teacher in Burkina Faso. She died on 26 September 2019, three days after giving us this interview.
Missionary Month: Sr. Marie André du Sacré Coeur
Pope Francis proclaimed an Extraordinary Missionary Month in October 2019 and placed it under the theme Baptized and sent: the Church of Christ in mission in the world”. He invites all the baptized to live this time in four dimensions: the encounter with Jesus, missionary witness, formation in mission and missionary solidarity. Throughout this month we invite you to discover some missionary testimonies of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa. Today, we present to you the portrait of Sr. Marie André du Sacré Coeur (1899-1988) who lived her missionary life as a woman apostle for the defense of women’s rights. Sister Marie André du Sacré Cœur had a doctorate in law when she entered our Congregation in 1922. Thinking that her studies in law would not be useful in Africa, how wrong she was! Just after her perpetual vows, she was sent to help the Missionaries of Africa understand…
100 years of life is worth celebrating!
Sr Thérèse Pagnac, Missionary Sister of Our Lady of Africa, was 100 years old in March 2018.
Encounters and places that changed my life
To announce Jesus is urgent.” Such is the cry, the call always being renewed by Sr. Finita Martinez Canovas, a Spanish Missionary Sister of Our Lady of Africa. In her testimony, she shares her journey of encounters and her inner journey where the difference between cultures and religions forces her to stay awake. My thanksgiving becomes more concrete and explicit through this reality of the Encounter. Yes, that is what I lived: invigorating energizing encounters, full of light that launched me onto new paths. The Meeting with Jesus: It was at the age of 18, it upset my life filling it with meaning, consolation and orienting it to new horizons: first my Christian vocation, then the call to religious-missionary life. What a beautiful experience! The encounter with other peoples, cultures, religions through the people around me: First it was the great Congo-Zaire. What brave people, open, frank. With this people…
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…
I am 100 years old!
Thanks for my long life! First of all I want to thank the Lord for giving me such a long life with good health. Besides this, he allowed me to be born in a very Christian family. My father had a deep faith, very obedient to the Pope and he had a great love for Africa. He died in his 100th year. From my mother I received a taste for prayer. She presided every evening at family prayer; she was also very devout. With my nine brothers and sisters, we all got along very well! My life-choice: At the moment of making a life-choice, it was very hard because I knew a young man. We cared a lot for each other but I knew that God was calling me! With prayer and God’s help, I made the right choice that I have never regretted. Before entering religious life, I…