Interview conducted by Fr. Lucas Chuffart, A.A.

St.Peter in Gallicantu

A former military officer, Pierre had been stationed as a military observer in Lebanon, and then in a similar position in Jerusalem for the U.N. So it was that the Duchon family lived in Jerusalem some 20 years ago; the parents wanted to return because St. Peter’s had become a second family to them.

They say that "to sing is to pray twice" and that is what has inspired a 35 year old tradition at the Assumptionist shrine of Lourdes in Santiago. On Saturday, February 4, 1977, more than 35 singers came to sing at the feet of the Virgin.

They came from small towns from Valparaiso to Curicó. They had been invited to this well-known shrine to mark its 70^th anniversary. "There were two women and a young man, Arnoldo Madariaga, who planted the seeds of a tradition that would last to this day," recalled Br. Ramón Gutiérrez, A.A., one of the organizers of the 1977 event.

Campus Ministry Center

Campus Ministry plays a vital role in the pastoral, liturgical, academic and social life of Assumption College. The Campus Ministry staff is committed to the development and transformation of our students through many programs; and yet, as with the faithful in the Old Testament, they have wandered in search of a permanent home since a fire destroyed the original center in 1993.

In order to prepare for the annual Assumptionist pilgrimage to Lourdes, known simply in French as "Le National," a meeting was held in Lourdes from January 20 to 22 under the supervision of the new director, Fr. Fabien Lejeusne, A.A.

Fr. William (Willy) AQUIJE-MATTA, A.A., was ordained on September 11, 2011. He is currently living with the Assumptionist community which serves the neediest and is located on a string of barges in the Seine River near Paris. Here he is "in his own words."

When I was 6 years old, I used to be an altar boy always ready to open the doors of the church. Already at that young age·I had a desire to become a priest. But such a desire needed to be concretized.

Thanks to the sabbatical year I'm enjoying, here I am, after visiting Athens and Plovdiv, in another of our Near Eastern missions, Istanbul-Kadiköy.

In spite of the political tensions perceptible in the country (above all, questions concerning the Armenian genocide), the economic and social activity in Turkey is surprising, especially for one who comes from a country like France where there are crises of every order taking place.

In the 1970s, an Assumptionist religious, Fr. Mutien Lambert, was leading a Bible study group. Over time he was drawn to the Charismatic Renewal and to its develop-ment in the United States and Europe. The Scripture group gradually became a prayer group in the style of this new movement. Visiting various similar groups outside the country and the arrival of young people to share this new experience led to the formation of a prayer group which took the name Maranatha. Three principal aspects define it: prayer and praise, fraternal life, evangelization.

I was born on July 18, 1988 in "the land of integrity," that is to say, Burkina Faso. I can trace my vocation back to the various organizations I joined at my home parish of Barsalogo: altar servers, vocation awareness group, Christian scouts know as CV-AV… After finishing grammar school, I entered St. Cyprian's minor seminary in the diocese of Kaya in 2001 and later, in 2006, transferred to St. Augustine Seminary in Koupéla. Afterward, as I was doing my humanities at St. Irenaeus Seminary, I discovered the Assumption, which attracted me by the simplicity of life of the religious, their ministry, especially their collaboration with lay people. So it was that I began my postulancy in October 2010  and was accepted to this year's novitiate. I have tried to make my own the prayer of the Dominican priest, Louis-Joseph Lebret, "O God, send us madmen who do more than just speak; who are authentic and are so for a lifetime. We need madmen of today, taken up with a simple life, lovers of peace, untouched by deceit, committed never to betray; mild and strong. O God, send us madmen." I want to be one of these!

Round and round we go in our search,
Looking for God here and there,
In places we know he is not
Through the experience,
Of desperate lives
Here below.

Round and round we go in our search
Through many trials and errors
Forgetting the true place
Ofhis real presence,
In our center:
Our heart.

The carousel of search finally stops,
With no more whirling rounds,
To entrap us in motion.
Our life can be still:
For he is found
In our heart.

By Eugene V. LaPlante, A.A.
December 11, 2011