Closing speech by Sister Micheline Cormier,

superior general,

at the end of the Eucharistic celebration

Mgr Centène, Father Ignacio, Abbot Jean-Pierre,

My dear Sisters Daughters of Jesus, dear associates and friends of the Daughters of Jesus :

I would first of all like to say to you “my heart-felt thanks” for your presence here today. Thank you because your presence means a lot to me, to the new general council, and also to the council who are handing-in their aprons of service.

Your presence says to us “We are together” as we continue our route.

From one six years to the next, the Lord leads us from one stage to another, like Abraham from one encampment to another. Taking down the tent, leaving, always going on further, is not easy but it is full of life, it is very dynamic.

You have prayed very much for the General chapter, we have very much felt

your prayer offered each day, and I thank you very much for it. Each Daughter of Jesus has participated in the preparation of this Chapter and the facts of life which were sent to us have made present there our peoples and places of insertion, our Churches, our Daughters of Jesus communities throughout the entire world. Without this great spiritual support, we would not have been capable of letting ourselves be guided by the Spirit, in un-thought of directions. And at this moment, can we not also feel the presence of our founders and of all the Daughters of Jesus who have proceeded us and who have let themselves be guided by the Spirit in the difficult moments in the history of the Congregation? … Letting ourselves be guided by the Spirit has always given life to our Congregation despite passages that have been difficult to live. And it is always the same call that we hear to “be born today of the fire of charity”.

The Chapter has demanded great sacrifices and disappropriations on the part of the Provinces. Here, in France-Belgium, we have called your Provincial without leaving her the time to begin! Thank you to each one of the Provinces for having welcomed what has been the fruit of a discernment for the good of the whole Body. More than ever we are conscious of the Congregation-Body that we form and of our complementarity as members of this Body. We “all” have need of one another to be “born today of the fire of charity”.

We are « all » important, one for another. In a special way I want to say again to our elderly or sick sisters how muchthe offering of their prayer and suffering is important within the Body that we are. Like Teresa of the Child-Jesus you are missionaries and we have need of you to hold high the flame of the missionary spirit in our Provinces and insertions. We carry at the heart of our Congregation-Body a great treasure : JESUS CHRIST. It is true that we carry it in earthen-ware vessels, but we carry it together. And it is this treasure that still makes of us Daughters of Jesus today and tomorrow. In the months to come you will receive the orientations of the Chapter 2016. There where-ever we may be, whatever may be our situation, these orientations concern all of us and unite us in a same missionary spirit : that of our charism rekindled by the passages that are difficult to live in our today. I end with this little expression very typical of Cameroon, and which I like very much : “We are together”.

“We are together” then, for this new stage in our history as Daughters of Jesus!

I thank you!