Our only goal is to make God known, loved and served
By Sr. Xaverine Mukatabaza, Malindi Community, Kenya “Our only goal is to make God known, loved and served” (Thoughts of Mother Marie Salome, no 167) Dear sisters, brothers and friends of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, It is my joy to share with you the experience of a of a 17-year-old girl who visited our community and stayed with us for three days. I begin with her words as she was sharing with me how she had perceived the sisters and our lifestyle. Her first impression she said: “What a joy to live with you sisters!” I asked her why? She responded that she could not imagine that we are from different countries. We are four sisters: Ghanaian, Congolese, Ugandan and Rwandese. She admired our way of living. She said, “You are like sisters from the same parents because of the love that you…
Being close to teenagers in Deli
On the occasion of the Jubilee of Teenagers, Sr. Nathalie Wendata Sedogo shares the work we do with young girls interested in our congregations. In our Missionary Vocation Animation, we are always in contact with teenagers. We organize meetings to share information and in Deli we have a group of young girls who meet regularly to discern their spiritual journey. We are delighted to have established once a month, a visit to the family of each young member of the vocation group. Indeed, every 4th Sunday of the month, all the members of the vocation group spend time with the family of each young person just after mass. Each person brings a dish so that we can have a community meal. We started with our MSOLA community. All the sisters were mobilized for the reception and animation. The young people asked us questions and focused on the…
Rich harvest… few labourers
“The harvest is rich but the laborers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers to do his harvesting” (Luke 10: 2). Aware of this call from Jesus, we ask the Master of the harvest to send us workers for His mission in the Church and especially in our Congregation. For that to happen, we believe that MVA is part of our mission and we are only intermediaries. Therefore, we visit churches, schools and families to make our Congregation and it’s mission known and to share our charism through our presence and our words. We also collaborate with our sisters in Goma to follow up and do MVA in Aru, for Adjumani is nearer to that part of D R Congo than Goma. We network with the Missionaries of Africa, the friends and relatives of the Missionaries of Africa (FROMA) of West-Nile and other people…
With Mary, discerning and choosing
From our sister Nathalie, on behalf of the Deli community, CHAD This year, the MSOLA organized a vocational camp in Deli from 11 to 16 September 2023 at the Kapokier Rouge Center. Seven young women from four parishes participated. Our theme was “With Mary, discerning and choosing”. The whole community was mobilized to ensure a warm welcome and the smooth running of the camp. While other sisters cleaned up the site and the equipment, some of them transported the necessities to the Kapokier Rouge. Our sister Bernadette, who was staying with her family during her holidays, joined us to animate the camp. Each of the sisters had a time of animation, sharing, witness and exchange with these young people. On the first day we focused on the theme by looking closely at the figure of Mary. How she discerned on every occasion in the mystery of…
Experience of the world: the World Youth Day at Lisbon
A report from Sr. Lucy Nabweteme, Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa in Lublin, Poland On the 24th of July we left Lublin, Poland for Portugal for the World Youth Day. We were 20 participants, with Fr. Mateusz Wójcik who was responsible for the group. We all set off for the pilgrimage with our personal desires or mission. Sr. Victoria Gaa and I were sent by our Congregation specifically to do Missionary Vocation Animation. I also had my personal desire which was to love the people I will meet and to go to Fatima. On the 26th we arrived at Marco de Canaveses, in Porto diocese, where we spent four days. We were all touched by the love, care and generosity of the families that welcomed us. We were also very grateful for all the organisation that had been done at the parish to enable us to have…
Youth, be a witness to the hope of Christ
Sister Joselyne Nisingizwe of our Tchad community, accompanied the young people of the vocation group to the Diocesan Vocation Camp in Doguindi. Here is what she shares with us about this experience. This year we had 116 young people! The theme of this camp was: ‘Youth, be witnesses of Christ’s hope in today’s world’. I thank God for this experience with young people. After noticing the evil that invades the world, we saw together how we can live in hope. By referring to the Holy Scriptures, we have seen some characters who are models of hope. Abraham is an example. The book of Genesis retraces the significant events in the life of Abraham before the sacrifice of his son. In the New Testament, the story of the widowed woman who had only one son (Lk 7:11-12), shows us that even if evil exists in the world, it does not…
Our Vocation Club is spreading the Good News
Based on the experience I have lived with the Vocation Club, which is a group of young children aging from 7-15 years, I have discovered and I confirm that they are the best voice to evangelize the world. A concrete example is their acting the passion of Christ on Good Friday. The presentation was so touching to the extent that some of the Christians, especially the mothers and children, after seeing the main character Jesus being stripped, mocked and crucified, began to cry. They are talented kids. It was the first time for them to act the passion of Christ since the existence of Loruvani parish. And it did not even take me and my collaborator William a long time to prepare them. I personally was very touched when parents of the children and other Christians came to me asking how I had managed to prepare them in a short…
Be a witness to Christ in a broken world
In the photo the aspirants with Sr Helene on the left and Sr Anociata on the right Here is the report of a three-day session for aspirants in Kinshasa. There were four aspirants, three of whom will be presented to begin their pre-postulancy in Goma. This session brought a lot of joy to the aspirants and to us sisters because the aspirants participated actively during the session. We are grateful to our sister Hélène Kavula who accepted to animate this meeting during her home leave. For this session, we chose the theme of “discernment” in order to help our candidates discern their vocation better, before making the decision to put everything in God’s hands by handing over their documents to be studied before admission or a re-orientation. We began the session with some time for getting to know each other: we stood in a circle in our television room…
Testimonies from the “Come and see” in Rwanda
In Rwanda there were two sessions of “Come and see” and here we share three comments from the participant. The first two testimonies are from Butare and the third from Kigali. “Dear sisters! Receive our greetings from Rwanda in Butare community! We are very grateful to God for the warm welcoming we received from the sisters, the joy and happiness we have experienced with them. We were touched by their openness during the three days of session. We were also happy to see them living together from different countries, cultures and with different ages. This increased our desire to continue Journeying with the sisters and to join them. We were seven young women. We finished our S6 this year and we are waiting for the result. Care for us in your prayers. Each one of us was very touched by the MSOLA Charism and apostolic work, like working against Human…
“Come and see” in Kigali – Rwanda
The disciples asked Jesus, “Where do you live?” He said, “Come and see.” (John 1:38-39) The Missionary Sisters of our Lady of Africa, are inviting young women who finished their secondary school or university for a discerning vocational session which will take place in Rwanda at the Cathedral of Butare in the community of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa. The session will start from 25/08/2022 (evening) up to 28/08/2022 (morning). This session will give you an opportunity to pray with sisters and other young women who are discerning their call. It will help you to know more about our charisma, spirituality and our mission, it will help you to have your questions answered. Requirements : Your Desire to pray with us and discern your call; Come with your bible, a pen and a notebook. And all things needed for you during the three days. Please do not…