a place where we learn together, a place where, together, we discover what it means to be Church.
In order to help that to happen, we need to think and talk together.
And so, we are happy to announce this semester’s
CONVERSATIONS AT THE CENTER on SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2015
Consecrated Life: The Cloistered Contemplatives
Being the Year of Consecrated Life, the Assumptionist Center will be hosting three conversations this Spring semester around the distinct forms and traditions of consecrated life in the Catholic Church.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity this year in vites all Christians to drink at Jacob’s well.
How many times, when I was a child, driven by thirs t, did I go to the well to fetch water for me, my family, and our animals. And in summer, there was n ever enough water. Even the garden, with all its vegetables and flowers, was thirsty!
Hiking in the foothills of the Alps near the Center
Recently the Assumptionists assumed responsibility for the "Chalet des forêts" ("Cottage in the Woods") near Lake Léman, nestled in the mountains not far from Lyon, in Haute Savoie (France). Young Assumptionists act as chaplains there organizing activities for young people from throughout the country and the world.
The Chalet des Forêts is a recreation/vacation center for children and young adults founded in 1921 by Fr. Raphanel, pastor of St. Bonaventure's in Lyon. At that time he acquired an old hotel located in Haute-Savoie where he could bring young people from his parish.
On November 20, 2014, Father Richard Lamoureux, A.A., gave this year's D'Alzon Lecture at Assumption College, Worcester, MA. He spoke about "Michelangelo's Thoughts on the Body," with special attention to the unfinished Rondanini Pieta the artist worked on in the last years of his life. It was a remarkably erudite and engaging explication of a mysterious work. Please enjoy it.
Four members of the Assumption College women’s soccer team are traveling this month to help impoverished children in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, as part of the Hands Together organization. The students are senior Nikki Brady of Rockland, Mass.; junior Meg Campbell of Springfield, Mass.; junior Katie Bealka of East Freetown, Mass.; and first-year student Nikki Sloan of Stow, Mass.
Springfield, Mass.-based Hands Together is a nonprofit organization devoted to educating, inspiring and encouraging people to understand the importance of responding to the needs of the poor and disadvantaged. The organization has several project locations, including Hands Together Catholic Schools.
Campbell—whose father, Doug Campbell is executive director of Hands Together—introduced the idea of a trip to Haiti to Assumption Women’s Soccer Head Coach Kevin Meek and the rest of the team. She has traveled there several times to help the children served by the organization.
"It's had a profound effect on me and expanded my view of the world and of people,” Meg Campbell said of her experiences in Haiti. “Assumption is quite small and relatively protected, and I know that there is a world out there that is not at all like Assumption.
I spoke with Assumptionist Fr. Donald Espinosa, one of the founders of the house, about this frontier in lay and clerical formation. Here are some thoughts gleaned from our conversation.
- Father Donald, could you share a bit about your own background?
Fr. Donald Espinosa: My mother used to tell me about Father Mollard, the pastor, who would make sure he visited every home regularly. It seemed perfectly normal to everyone. He'd stop people and say, "I'm going to your house tonight," and they'd go home and make a special meal and clean the house and shine up the kids, and Father would come in and eat with them, get everyone in front of him, give them a blessing, and then take the donation envelope. Everyone had their place -- but there was something reassuring about that. You didn't exactly feel embraced by the church, but you felt like you belonged to something, and you knew who you were.
Residents in front of their current home, with Br. Jean-Baptiste
(In the bustling and sprawling metropolis of Saigon, the Assumptionists run an orphanage that resembles a big family. The experience has been so positive and the needs are so great that the Congregation is considering building a new house as soon as possible, larger, more functional, and more welcoming.)
It's early morning in Saigon. Frosted light with bluish tints rises over this southern city, re-baptized Hô Chi Minh City since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. An overwhelming swarm of motorbikes fills the maze of the city's by-ways. Only a few narrow back streets, still asleep, escape this deafening invasion.
Peter Li Inc. of Dayton was recently acquired by Bayard Inc., a Catholic media company owned by the Augustinians of the Assumption/Assumptionist. Founded in 1971, Peter Li Inc. serves the K-12 market. Its two divisions include the Peter Li Education Group, publisher of Catechist and Today’s Catholic Teacher magazines, and the Pflaum Publishing Group, publisher of Catholic religious education programs and supplemental materials. Bayard’s periodicals in North America include Catholic Digest, Living with Christ, Today's Parish, Exploring the Sunday's Readings, and children's magazines, Owl, Chirp and Chickadee. Bayard, Inc. also owns the Novalis and Twenty-Third Publications trademarks.
WORD OF SUPPORT AND REASSURANCE FROM THE PLENARY GENERAL COUNCIL TO THE RAVAGED POPULATION OF BENI AND BUTEMBO IN NORTH KIVU/ DR CONGO
To Bishop Paluku Sikuli Melchisedech To the Assumption Family To the Entire Population of the Diocese of Butembo-Beni (DR Congo)
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Peace be with you!
The Superior General of the Assumptionists and his Plenary General Council met in Rome from December 1-10, 2014. All of its work took place under the cloud of the daily massacres that are rocking your region, especially the territory of Beni. Every day we prayed for all the families put to the trial by these events and for the entire Church in the Diocese of Butembo-Beni.
On Friday, December 5, 2014, in the magnificent Palazzo Bonaparte in Rome, the home of the French embassy to the Vatican, an all-day colloquium was held to honor a unique Assumptionist priest on the occasion of a recently published biography by French historian, Ms. Françoise Paoli, who had also become a friend of Fr. Wenger in his later years. The colloquium, co-sponsored by the French embassy, where Fr. Wenger served as a cultural attaché, and by the Assumptionists, brought together an array of scholars, journalists, diplomats, and fellow religious.
