- Brother Antoine, could you introduce yourself briefly?
- Brother Antoine (BA): I am an Assumptionist, born in Alsatia (France), from a peasant family that was deeply Catholic. I made my first vows in 1955. As a young religious I pursued a dream of becoming a missionary --- first in Ivory Coast and then in Madagascar.
- You were a missionary in Madagascar for 30 years and here you are again a missionary, this time in Burkina Faso. What keeps you going?
For the past year, I have had the privilege of serving on the editorial board for Lumen et Vita, a student-initiated and facilitated academic journal at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. This often requires a lot of so-called 'grunt work'; this includes planning events, drafting flyers, the long process of selecting and editing submitted articles and finally producing a finished product which appears online. What motivates me and the others on the editorial board is the purpose of our efforts: to provide a space for students at our school to share their ideas about theology and ministry within the community of the school itself, but also with the larger community of those interested in these topics.
The Triduum of prayer and reflection that preceded the Commemoration prepared us well for the solemn celebration on Sunday presided by our Bishop, Mgr. Christo Prolkov. This year, the parishioners from Kuklen joined those from Plovdiv. This helped to create a true spirit of family and unity.
The Divine Liturgy is an event characterized by a place and rites whose purpose is to bring us to encounter God so as to be transfigured by Him. The chants, the icons, the incense, the candles, the Word from the Holy Scriptures, are all meant to open our hearts so that God can touch them and make them more “holy” by the gift of his grace.
In honor of the 200th birthday of Fr. Emmanuel d’Alzon, Assumption College released a festschrift titled, Teaching after d’Alzon: Essays on Education Today, about the power of the Assumptionist founder and educator’s ever-present influence on today’s classroom. In the publication, Assumption community members reflect on how their own teaching lives have been formed in the tradition of d’Alzon.
