Our end-of-year Assembly was held from Friday 23 to Sunday 25 June 2023 in Diébougou, Bagane Catholic Mission, BURKINA FASO, marking the end of the pastoral year. It’s a great joy to come together at the end of a year to evaluate what we’ve experienced together as a congregation, in the Vice-province and in our various communities. It was a time for fraternal sharing, laughter together, relaxation, reunions, welcoming and listening to each other, and above all a time to give an account of our missions, following the example of the disciples who returned to give Jesus an account of what they had experienced.
After the prayer and opening remarks by Silvie ROAMBA, vice-provincial, we began by listening to the report of the January meeting in Cameroon, on “the challenges of formation to religious life in our profoundly changing world”. This enabled us to understand how complex formation is, that it is an art and requires an effort of openness on the part of the young people and an effort of attention on the part of the formators.
Through the annual reviews of the various communities, the postulancy and the works, we were able to share the joys and difficulties experienced in the different missions. In fact, the services rendered, the various events experienced, the meetings of the Union of Consecrated Persons of our dioceses, the vocational outings, the visits made and received and the good collaboration with the apostolic workers have been a source of joy for us. We appreciate and salute the fraternity experienced in the communities and in our places of service, and the gift of self in our missions. With regard to the difficulties we have encountered, some proposals and suggestions have been made to help us.
After that, we received training in accounts, which gave us knowledge of how to draw up care sheets and management… We were strongly challenged through the message from the Archives service to draw up the annals of the community, the postulancy and our various works, and also to communicate, through articles, the events we are experiencing.
As for the review of the jubilee of 25 years of our presence in the Diocese of Diébougou, we greatly appreciated its Eucharistic celebration on Saturday evening (anticipated Sunday Mass): sober and beautiful, it included the comforting presence of the General Council of the Congregation – thank you for that! At the end of the day, there was a recreational evening with the singing of the jubilee song for our 25th anniversary in Diébougou.
The closing of our assembly was marked by the reading of the minutes of the Council of the Congregation and information from the Vice-Province, including the continuation of the formation of postulants and novices. It was an opportunity to express our gratitude to: – Sister Pauline MAISENSO, teacher of the postulants, sent on mission to the novitiate; – Sister OHO Lydie NOUFE, outgoing councillor; and – We welcomed Sister Eugénie PALENFO, who is beginning her term of office. Then four sisters received new obediences for the mission! We keep them all in our prayers.
We give thanks to God for all the good and beautiful things his Spirit has enabled us to experience during this year, and we entrust the New Year to him. May he give us the gift of being witnesses of his love in our different mission places, following the example of Marie Balavenne and our first sisters, and despite the context of insecurity.
Sister Eugénie FARGA. Published on 30 June 2023
