The strength of Christian charity is to be able to love those whom we judge to be impossible to live with and who, in turn, consider us impossible to live with as well. - Emmanuel d'Alzon
At the beginning of 2015 the Assumptionists opened a new international community in Colombia, consisting of two Chileans, Fr. Esteban Monsalves and Br. Juan Nuñez, and one Congolese brother, Jean-Aimé Kakule Virivusiga. After settling into their various new responsibilities (Esteban as superior of the community and regional delegate of the provincial for Colombia) and Juan and Jean-Aimé as students in theology, they decided to spread their wings this past Christmas and get involved in a heavy dose of pastoral ministry in rural settings. Juan traveled to our community high in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador where he lent a hand at our parish. Jean-Aimé accompanied a group of missionaries to two farming villages in the mountainous region of Boyacá (central northeast Colombia bordering Venezuela) and Fr. Esteban to northern tip of the country. What follows is a short description of Fr. Esteban’s experience.
"We arrived on December 13 in the state of Riohacha bordering the Caribbean Sea. We thought we would be working along palm-lined beaches with salty breezes. Wrong! In fact we ended up in an arid inland region known as Guajira where the diocese hoped that we could help a fairly underserved population to prepare for Christmas.
The Assumptionist Center in Brighton recently hosted its first “Conversations…” of the semester. The topic “Called to Witness As Who We are: A Conversation for Helpers, Lovers, and Evangelizers,” was addressed by Sam Keffler (a resident at the Center), Jennifer Verkamp and Gabriela Seufferheld who shared their perspectives on evangelization in the field of social work. All three of them are pursuing their Masters in Social Work at Boston College.
The over- riding inspiration was the quote from St. Catherine of Siena, “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”
In facilitating a very inter- active discussion, the community, residents and guests were first asked to address the ‘Who’ in this process of evangelizing by getting in touch with their own self- identity as persons in relationship with self, others and God. After a few minutes of reflection and sharing, the group moved on to the ‘Why’ and the motivation, the passion, the driving force of their vocation and/ or preparation for a career. What is it that gives us joy? What are our God-given gifts and talents? And lastly, what does the world need of us? In what way can we make a difference, no matter how small? It was most interesting to note that everyone in the room has already chosen a life of some kind of service to others or is preparing to do so in the future.
WORCESTER, MA (January 14, 2016)—This month, two separate groups of Assumption College students will head to Washington, D.C., and Atlanta for hands-on educational experiences.
Twenty Assumption students will travel to Washington, D.C., from January 21-23 to participate in the annual March for Life, an organization whose mission is to provide all Americans with a place to testify to the beauty of life and the dignity of each human person. The event brings together pro-life leaders and groups to organize, unite and strategize around a common message. After the Jan. 22 march, the group will attend the Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life at Georgetown University on Jan. 23. This year’s conference will focus on the paradigm of the current debate surrounding issues of life, which revolves around the opposition between the pro-life and pro-choice positions.
Every eighteen months the general councils of the Assumption Family (The Religious of the Assumption, the Augustinians of the Assumption/Assumptionists, the Little Sisters of the Assumption, the Oblate missionary sisters of the Assumption, and the Orants of the Assumption) meet at the mother-house of one of the congregations. This year the pleasure of hosting this event fell to the Assumptionists and so the members of the general councils of the four sister congregations all traveled from Paris to the Eternal City.
Usually the meetings focus on three themes: (1) important news updates; (2) discussion of collaborative efforts (joint international formation sessions, apostolic projects, training workshops etc.); (3) an in-depth treatment of a topic of general interest dealing with our common spirituality. This session focused on the vow of obedience, both as it was taught by our founders and how it is to be understood at the beginning of this new century. Each congregation prepared sometimes quite imaginative, and always thoughtful, power-point presentations to convey the thought of their founders. So as to foster a fruitful discussion on the understanding of obedience today, the steering committee invited two religious stationed here in Rome to share their reflections with us, each of them also members of their general councils, Sr. Kumudini Dassanayake, a Sri Lankan sister from the Sisters of the Holy Family of Bordeaux, and Fr. Paolo Archati, an Italian Oblate of Mary.
