Reflections by Br. Didier Remiot, A.A

Father Superior General had asked me to be, among the five members of the General Council, the one who would more closely follow the activities of the "North America/Philippines" province. The new Provincial Superior of this province, Fr. Miguel Diaz Ayllon, requested as well that I become a member of the Assumption College Board of Trustees and attend the February meeting. These were the two main factors which led to my visit of the Assumptionist communities in Mexico City and Massachusetts last February.

I had never been to Mexico. Just to reach it was exhausting: as a result of a stop-over at JFK, it took me some 26 hours of traveling to reach my destination! The one week I spent there was barely enough to begin to discover the many dimensions of Assumptionist life in this capital city. I had repeatedly read that Mexico City was a huge city, a nightmare of traffic jams and heavily polluted. If there indeed were traffic jams, I must say I have seen worse in Asia. Is it because I was there during the winter , I did not notice any heavy pollution and I actually found the city quite pleasant… Soo much for preconceived ideas…

But I did not have much time for sightseeing. A week-long stay gave me barely enough time to spend two days in each of the three Assumptionist communities:

- the "Emperatriz" parish, historically the first place where the Assumption was launched in Mexico, now a parish in a well-to-do area of the city;

- the new "San Andres" parish of which the Assumption took responsibility just three years ago, with its very large territory on the outskirts of the capital;

- the "Casa Manuel" community, with its large and vibrant membership of young candidates, aspirants and postulants, most of whom exercise some form of pastoral work in the two parishes.

I also had an opportunity to visit the two "community centers" which the Mexican Assumptionists have created and are still in charge of: centers where the local population can, at reduced prices, find a considerable variety of psychological help, self-help workshops and spiritual counseling.

The Assumptionist presence in Mexico was initiated by American Assumptionists but there is only one of them still present at this time. I am happy to have been able to meet each and every one of my brothers who is living and working in these three communities, including three from the Congo who have adapted very well to the local culture. Even though my own Spanish has been completely destroyed by Italian (I am in the process of learning it to survive in Rome where the General House is located), I was able to get by… gracias a Dios.

One lasting impression I will keep with me is that there is a great desire from all to foster new vocations and that, because there indeed are new vocations, a great atmosphere of hope permeates Assumption life in Mexico. In addition to four Mexican Assumptionists who now bear most of the responsibilities, there are four temporarily professed Mexican brothers, two soon-to-be novices (who have just arrived in Worcester, MA, where they will attend the one-year novitiate program beginning in August) and quite a few postulants and candidates.

Among the challenges the Assumption is facing in Mexico, the most important surely are:

- to find enough well-trained formators to accompany all the young men who are interested in Assumptionist religious life ;

- to find the financial resources needed to sustain the life and development of the Assumption in Mexico;

- to start thinking about new pastoral fields where the young religious may work at extending the Kingdom after completing their formation years.

After these much too short days, I had to move on and leave for Worcester in the USA.

There I was on more familiar territory (I spent several years of my life in the US). Based at Emmanuel House on the Assumption College campus, I had a week to renew and update my knowledge of the Assumption in Massachusetts.

These few days were devoted to meeting and sharing with the Assumptionists of the four communities which are based in this state. I made sure I could at least share a meal with the Assumption communities I was not staying at (the parish community in Fiskdale/Sturbridge and the retirement community at 50 Old English Road). But these days also gave me the opportunity to work on financial topics with the Provincial Treasurer and his team, including some accounting matters, to work with Assumption College on the Rome campus project, but also to talk about the possibility of the Editorial Department of Bayard Press Inc. being relocated to the campus from its present location in Connecticut. Of course, I also attended my first meeting of Assumption College Board of Trustees. I found it very interesting: a whole new world for me, the world of higher education in Catholic liberal art colleges in the US. Fortunately, I discovered that reading the some 150 pages (!) of preparatory documents beforehand had given me quite a good knowledge of the topics covered by the Board during the meeting!

Assumption College seal

Emmanuel House, the community of Assumptionists active on campus at the College, is bristling with life. Quite a few new faces are living here with Assumptionists I had known since I did my novitiate in the Boston area (back in 1986-87!): postulants and candidates from various countries and venues. That is also the case for the Brighton community (in the suburbs of Boston) where I spent the last 32 hours before my flight back to Rome; that community houses over 20 people, most of them post-grad students of theology in the nearby universities. They're quite a diversified lot: among them, two religious from the Edmundites, a New-Zealand priest, a Benedictine monk, a young man from Singapore, another from Guatemala, and one from the Philippines. I am told that some of these students might have an interest in Assumptionist life. It makes for a lively and interesting community where, beside the common prayer and meals, there is always something happening.

One word of conclusion: be it in Mexico or in Massachusetts, our Assumptionist communities are full of life and projects. May the Lord accompany them and help them grow at the service of the Kingdom.