The 1st International Meeting of the Associates of the Congregation of the Daughters of Jesus took place at Kermaria (France) from the 11th to the 17th October 2015
Today there are around 500 associate members of our Congregation.
7 delegates from the groups in different countries and some of the sisters who accompany them met together in the places where the Congregation had its beginnings.
For
Jean Louis from Cameroon
Carole and Réjean from Canada
Geraldine from Chile
Omar from Colombia
Andrée and Jean from France
It was :
- A week of sharing the life of the Associates in the different countries and their engagement in their different spheres of life
- A week of searching for the characteristic traits that identify the Associates of the Congregation
- A time of deepening what set them on route and what sustains them in their life as believers
- A time for highlighting what is essential for their engagement in order to put together a reference document for all of the associates : the basis of their engagement, the attitudes and means necessary for living it, the relationships with the sisters of the Congregation …
- A pilgrimage to the Mother House of Kermaria and the places associated with the foundation of the Congregation
- A time for meeting the sisters and members of the groups of Associates in Brittany. Meeting with the associates of different countries in the world who follow in the footsteps of our precursors. They said YES to the humanisation of their corner of the country as Jesus did.
Discoveries :
- Now I know that we form a big family : we moved our tent pegs further out as we discussed together and shared the reality of being an Associate. Réjean
- The international life of the Associates is not an empty expression, but a reality and an opportunity. Andrée
- Realising that other people, who live different cultural and sociological realities, feel loved by God and responsible for the transmission of that love, fills me with the hope that a better world is possible. Geraldine
Highlights :
- The moment that particularly touched me was the visit to Bignan and Elizen. That allowed us to walk in the footsteps of the foundress and above all for me, as a builder, to see part of a wall of Perrine Samson’s house 150 years later.
Jean Louis
- The visit to the museum featuring the gestures of humanity made by the Daughters of Jesus during the First World War.
Carole
- The quality of the exchanges between us and the respect shown in listening to each other in order to move forward the work on the document. The exchanges with the sisters of Kermaria, the unimagined emotion when we had to say goodbye.
Jean
- I recognise that for me, the meeting with each Daughter of Jesus, each Associate, was an important moment : meeting together with our different cultures, our diverse realities, our different ways of expressing ourselves, at the same time deeply united in our humanity.
We felt deeply what it means to “honour the Sacred Humanity …” in the joy, the attentive listening, the beaming face of each person and we were able to translate that in our actions throughout these meetings.
Omar.
I am happy to have participated in this very rich meeting which allowed us at the end to lay down the foundations of a reference document, all of this with a great quality of exchange and respect of differences.
Andrée
Convictions re-inforced :
- As we share the same charism, I have come to realise that we share in the same acts of humanisation whether we live in France, Africa, Latin America or Canada.
Carole
- Follwoing the witness of our founders, I have only to add my own grain of sand and to help in my own way to make the world around me a better place; also to make the commitment to always continue to live as Jesus did, as an Associate of the Daughters of Jesus …
Geraldine
- The meeting allowed me to shape my attachment to the spirituality which unites all of us to the community of the Daughters of Jesus. We form a BIG FAMILY in all its diversity and seen from all angles. I find it marvellous to hold you in my prayer, full of the Life and Joy of the Resurrected Christ.
Réjean
- Each one of us, there where we live, will be sustained by the big family that we form. It is a great comfort. Thank you again for the confidence that animated this week of spirituality, of sharing, of friendship, of exchange, of listening, of the hope too that inhabits us despite the great turbulence that we are presently living. The Holy Spirit must have relished being with us!
Jean
0 Comments