This month’s Sunday “Conversations…” in Brighton saw a different format. Beginning with the liturgy for the First Sunday of Advent, the community, residents and guests celebrated the 60 years of priesthood of Frs. Roland Guilmain, A.A., Aidan Furlong, A.A. and Theodore Fortier, A.A. and anticipated Fr. Norman Meiklejohn’s 60^th anniversary next year. Fr. Roland was the principal celebrant and Fr. Claude Grenache, A.A., superior of the house, was the homilist.

Following the liturgy, everyone gathered in the living room for a grand toast and a few shared memories.

For the last one and half year, Bro Cristian Santana (from the Chile-Argentine Province) has been one of us in this territory (US). He first came for his Novitiate Year which ended on August 6, 2013, the day when he made his first profession in the Assumption. Then, he was interested in improving his English. So, instead of returning to Chile after his profession, Bro Cristian stayed on and enrolled in an English class at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.

On Monday, November 11, 2013, several hundred people gathered in the chapel of the Assumptionist retirement community of Espirito Santo do Pinhal (Brazil) to celebrate the hundredth birthday of the oldest living Assumptionist, Fr. Lambert van de Leemput, a Dutch missionary who arrived in Brazil over 65 years ago.

My name is Moisés Urquizo and I am a young Assumptionist candidate belonging to the Assumptionist parish of San Pedro of Licán, in the city of Riobamba, in Ecuador. I have represented our diocese in many national youth encounters which have strengthened my love of the Lord and my desire to follow him.

This summer, for the first time, I attended a World Youth Day, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This experience helped me to open my horizons even more to the reality of Christian young people around the world, their enthusiasm, hopes, and potential. On our arrival in Rio, the Assumptionists of the parish of Santísima Trinidad, received us with such open arms that, personally, I immediately felt at home; everyone was so welcoming, including all the lay-people that work at the parish and so many of the young people.