The missionary heart has no boundaries
AFRICA…and then what? Sister Monique, Belgian Missionary Sister of Our Lady of Africa, returned from Burkina Faso several years ago. However, back home does not mean “retirement”! Rather, the missionary heart has no boundaries, and spontaneously she found places of work, or rather people to love, particularly the very poor. In mission at Louvain-la-Neuve “Our mission can be lived wherever we are sent,” we read in the MSOLA Constitutions. Upon my arrival in Louvain-la-Neuve, a multicultural city, I discovered that we could live the MSOLA charism in a special way. Africans are everywhere. We meet them while shopping, in parish activities, on the way to school. To share with young people what I have lived in Africa always gives me great joy: The director of a school in Ottignies (section of Louvain-la-Neuve), and a religion teacher, asked me for an animation. In the 39 high school…
Message of Pope Francis for the 90th world mission sunday 2016
MESSAGE OF POPE FRANCIS FOR the 90th WORLD MISSION SUNDAY 2016 23 October 2015 Missionary Church, Witness of Mercy Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – “Today, on the occasion of Pentecost, my Message for World Mission Day, which is celebrated every year in October is published. May the Holy Spirit give strength to all the missionaries ad gentes and support the mission of the Church throughout the world. And may the Holy Spirit give us strong young people – boys and girls, who want to go and preach the Gospel. This is what today we ask the Holy Spirit”. On Sunday, 15 May, on the Solemnity of Pentecost, the Holy Father announced the publication of his Message for the 90th World Mission Day, which will be celebrated on Sunday, October 23. Below is the full text of the Pope’s Message. Dear Brothers and Sisters, The Extraordinary Jubilee…
25 years of the Lord’s faithfulness, Srs Gisela Schreyer and Marie-Alice Terrettaz
On September 17, 2016, Sr. Gisela Schreyer and Sr. Marie-Alice Terrettaz celebrated their silver jubilee of religious missionary life in the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa. Sr. Marie-Alice had made her first profession on September 8, 1991 in Butare in Rwanda, Sr. Gisela made hers on March 15, 1992. Since both shared formation time in the postulate and novitiate and now live at the Generalate in Rome, their decision to celebrate together was not difficult. Each had the joy of welcoming members of her family who joined the sisters at the Generalate. Father Joe Buholzer member of the Missionaries of Africa presided at Mass and gave the homily on the selected text Luc 5:1-11: the miraculous catch and the call of Peter to become “fishers of men.” The first reading was taken from 2 Timothy 1:6-9a. Symbols to express…
Sister Celine Alie, pilgrim in Canada
What is this pilgrimage Marie Reine de la Paix? Set between the feasts of the Transfiguration and the Assumption, the pilgrimage Marie-Reine-de-la-Paix leaves the Montreal cathedral every year on August 6 and arrives at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Cape in Trois-Rivières on the feast the Assumption, 15 August. Founded 30 years ago, the pilgrimage has brought many benefits, including the increase in Quebec of the proposed routes. Fascinated by their experience, former pilgrims have begun journeys starting from Joliette, Nicolet, Sherbrooke, Granby, Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec and elsewhere. They all converge on the Sanctuaire du Cap where they make a remarkable entry, one that we do not see every day, hundreds of pilgrims coming from across the province! For what, for whom did I walk? We followed Highway 139 along the river during these hot summer days, the refreshing breeze from there was like the breath of the…
So That Life Might Prevail, by Sister Bibiane Cattin
Born in 1940 in Switzerland Bibiane Cattin is a member of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa. After spending three years in Guinea as a lay missionary, she lived in DRC Congo for thirty-five years as a religious sister. A social worker by profession, between 1999 and 2002 she studied at the Institute of Integral Human Formation of Montreal (IFHIM) where she was trained among other things, to Actualize and Restore vital human strengths after traumatic experiences. Bibiane Cattin shares in this book her experience of missionary life; especially the last ten years during which she worked with people traumatized by the war, especially women rape victims. With the approach of the IFHIM she was able to help “restore the strengths” of these people who had gone through traumatic events, to lift them up again. And this in a short time. The…
Beauty and feminine identity by Lucienne Brousse
“The art of tattooing as an attribute of feminine beauty was once the prerogative of North African women. As in all millennial civilizations, this pageantry which embellished the features of the face, the limbs or certain parts of the body formed the adornment of the woman following the example of its current practice in European countries with piercing, a new contemporary form inherited Hindo-Asian civilizations which today attracts casual and rebellious young people. The work which has just been published by Dar El Khattab editions looks with a corpus of signs, symbols drawn on the origins of Berber female tattoos in the regions of Biskra and Touggourt, spreading a little more in the regions of Kabylie, to provide a modest study that attempts an ethnographic understanding of the original symbolism of tattoos, often referring to testimonies of women who practiced it: “It is…
Sister Madeleine Allain and her passion for the study of language Kabyle
Sister Madeleine Allain She was a friend of Algeria who left there after having given much to the culture, especially the Berber language. She not only studied the language, but developed a Kabyle-French dictionary which was published in1982 by the SELAF Editions in Paris. The study of language Kabyle Sister Madeleine Allain arrived in 1939 in Algeria as a “White Sister” with her religious name: Sister Louis de Vincennes. From that date, she began with passion and method to study the Kabyle language in Ain El Hammam (Michelet) and Tizi-Ouzou. In 1953 she founded in Tizi-Ouzou a house of studies for young sisters (Center for Feminine Berber studies). The center later moved to Larbâa Nath Iraten (Fort National). In 1946 she helped found the FDB (Berber documentation file) that was set up with Fathers Dallet and Lanfry to collect Berber texts. In 1947 Sister Madeleine obtained…
Embracing the past and the present
On the way to Banzo It looked like 15 August would be a beautiful day for the Bobo Dioulasso novitiate community… First we had to get up earlier than usual and be on the road before sunrise. Besides the dirt road and deciding which pot-holes to avoid… After two hours of travel, well shaken, we arrived at Banzon, where this year would take place the feast of the Assumption. Also celebrated in our diocese is the feast of the Association of Catholic Women of the diocese (LAFCD). We were warmly welcomed by the parish priest of Our Lady of the Valleys, Father André Baro. He impressed us with his simplicity and openness. Under a tree, the first White Sisters to Banzo After greetings, he spoke about the history of the parish and the place of the White Sisters in it. “You see the little house below…
What did Lavigerie want when he founded the congregation in 1869?
Apostles! That is to say women having hearts burning with “a strong and ardent love” for JESUS CHRIST and belonging totally to Him. He destined these apostles for AFRICA. To proclaim the Good News of Christ to the African peoples: “Tell them that this Jesus, whose cross you show them, died on it to bring all the freedoms to the world, freedom of souls against the yoke of evil, freedom of conscience against the yoke of the persecutors, freedom of the body against the yoke of slavery.” (June 3, 1879) To achieve this goal and to prepare women-apostles dedicated to the apostolate among the women, religious life was for him the indispensable basis. Following Christ has always been the foundation of consecrated life. His understanding of religious life passed through several important phases: As a historian–professor of Church history at the Sorbonne–he was first impressed by the work…
World Day of Prayer for Creation
An initiative of Pope Francis It was Pope Francis who took the initiative in his message of August 6, 2015, to establish this world day in line with his recent encyclical Laudato Sì. “I wish to communicate to you my decision to also establish in the Catholic Church a “World Day of Prayer for the Protection of Creation. Starting this year, the day will be celebrated on September 1, as already happens in the Orthodox Church. Our common vocation, guardians of creation The annual World Day of Prayer for the Protection of Creation offers each believer and every community a valuable opportunity to renew their personal commitment to their vocation as stewards of creation, giving thanks to God for the wonderful work that He entrusted to our care and invoking his help in the protection of creation and mercy for the sins committed against the world…