Day 8 – Guardian angels caring for the MSOLA on the free Sunday
After a week of hard work, Sunday, the long-awaited day of rest arrived! Sisters chose different ways to enjoy the day. The Eucharist was celebrated Saturday evening to allow those going to Rome to catch the early buses and trains… Picnics had been prepared for those going out. The day rose magnificently, with a shining sun, birds singing, and a gentle breeze caressing the many trees surrounding the property of Fraterna Domus in Sacrofano where we are holding the Chapter. After breakfast many sisters headed off to catch the bus, which would take them to the train station… It turned out that going to Rome from Sacrofano was quite an adventure… The nearest stop was crowded and the bus too small to accept the sisters. So, a few walked back the 2 km dreaming of eating an ice-cream, in Sacrofano, while others continued by foot to the…
Day 7 – Trusting the journey
The morning prayer was centered on the Transforming love of the Risen Christ. Then the capitulants looked at the journey done the evening before, regarding the MSOLA identity. Framing the Agenda on Key Area “Spirituality”, the Co-Facilitators, Selina and Yago, brought in the new insights and awareness that was integrated in the Butterfly Framework. These new insights were borrowed from the Book Paradoxology by Sr. Marie Therese Winter – Chapter on Spirituality in a Quantum Universe. The Butterfly Framework calls us to learn from nature and to normalize chaos and confusion…. darkness…. long periods of unknowing…waiting…trusting the natural process etc.…. In her book, M.T. Winter explains the quantum world. This is the world that is smaller than an atom. Things at this scale don’t behave the same way as objects that we can see. The quantum theory points towards a fundamental unity in the universe behind the observable…
Day 5 – “Yes” to transformation
On Thursday May 4th each working group chose its name in relation with nature. The names chosen were: breath of life, source, mango tree, Monarch butterfly and olive light. The groups worked at choosing the themes that will be worked on during the chapter. The “Butterfly organic model” will be used during the Chapter as a main model of discernment. This model invites us to focus on the present moment. The desired individual and organizational transformation starts with the lived experience of the Chapter. It provides a framework for broad exploration by making conscious connections between the present moment–where information resides, our past experiences and the desired future. It aims at sustainable solutions. The Co-Facilitators, Yago and Selina, presented to the Capitulants the “Butterfly Framework” and explained how it was going to be used as a tool that would support transformation processes and the implications (consequences that unfold…
Day 4 – Apostles creating newness
The General Chapter is a new beginning, an option for life which contains in itself a potentiality that we must develop, with a view to the transformation of the congregation and each of its members. On Wednesday we began the day with a sharing on what had touched each one the previous day, Tuesday: the presentation of the General Council report showing the reality of the congregation with its lights and its shadows. Then, we journeyed together into the life of an apostle: Carol, one of our sisters who lives her mission in her village in Spain. She is creating newness in herself and in those she is sent to. We heard the powerful voices of our younger sisters speaking to us. This awakened many feelings and gave us great joy. Our morning prayer was a thanksgiving for that intense time lived together and for all the new life…
Day 3 – Change and transformation are not the same
The Recollection As the theme of the Chapter is “The transforming love of the risen Lord calls us… to give birth to a new creation”, the continuation of the recollection the morning of the 3rd day, was dedicated to the meaning of transformation. Change and transformation are not the same. While change happens at a point in time, transformation happens over time. While change is a new beginning, transformation begins with an ending. Just when the caterpillar thought her life was over, she began to fly… While change is observable, transformation involves patterns, structures, worldviews and soul. While change is an exterior event, transformation is an interior journey. Transformation implies a shift in perspective, which means to look at the world through different windows. To start this process, we need courage to risk and harness creativity and imagination. (The picture will be bigger). Presentation of the report…
Day 2 – A Day of prayer, reflection and sharing
As athletes train hard before a big competition, the sisters prepared for the General Chapter with a day and a half of silence, prayer, reflection and listening to the Spirit speaking through reality through the others, the inner calls, to discover God’s call for us today. Brother Emili Turu, a Marist, led the reflection. He invited the sisters to be open to the reality of the world, the Church, the congregation and of religious life and to enter the contemplative space of the world realities which he presented in a slide-show. Despite the fact of the world being “upside down” with the difficulty of seeing God’s signs in it, he asked the sisters to search God’s presence in the meaningful images representing both good and bad current realities, and then to share with their neighbours what they saw. The periods of the whole life-cycle of cultures and…
1st session of the MSOLA Chapter
Our General Chapter is taking place from 30thApril to 20thMay. It is facilitated by Fr. Yago Abeledo M.Afr. and Sr. Selina Mbuli, Sister of Mercy. Our spiritual companion of the Chapter is Fr. David Sullivan, M.Afr. During this time delegates and representatives from the different continents will evaluate what the Institute has lived since the last Chapter in 2017, prepare the future of the Congregation, and elect the Superior General and her Council who will implement the decisions and orientations taken in the Chapter. Throughout Saturday, 29thApril, the capitulants and the team accompanying them arrived at Sacrofano, near Rome. What a joy to be able to greet and hug sisters who had not seen each other for a long time and meet others who we had only seen via Zoom. On Sunday, 30th April, the feast of Our Lady of Africa, the capitulants gathered in the…
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…
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…