As the Assumptionist Center in Brighton, MA continued its Sunday ‘conversations’ series, the most recent topic explored media and Assumptionist publications as a ministry serving the Church.

Historically, Church leaders have always had a special mandate from Jesus to proclaim, “that the Kingdom of God is at hand,” in every possible way, including and especially for us through the printed word. In today’s world of rapidly expanding means of technological communication, the publishing world is facing very difficult challenges.

The Assumptionists have always had a strong commitment to the ministry of the press in communicating the Good News. Since our earliest beginnings in France, our own publishing house, Bayard Press, has grown throughout the world, including here in the U.S.

WYD took place in Madrid this year. It was an opportunity for young people associated with the Assumption Family to gather around the Pope with other young people from around the entire world. All branches of the family were represented. We’ve contacted some of them to give us their impressions by way of a personal testimony.

On Sunday, October 30^th, a meeting of lay and religious Assumptionists took place in Mexico. hirty-four participants, lay men and women and religious came together from Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Spain, the United States and Mexico.

The main goal of the meeting was summarized in the following terms: “With the decisions of the 2011 General Chapter regarding the Lay-Religious Alliance as our starting point, we would like to provide guidelines appropriate for our Latin-American context that would help us to become men and women of faith and communion, in solidarity with the poor”.

“Sing and play music in your hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Ephesians 5:19-20)

Good and gracious God, we set aside this day to celebrate in a special way with all  who give You thanks for your many blessings, both spiritual and physical.
You have graced us abundantly during the past year and throughout our lives.
You have given us life to enjoy and to share in service to our brothers and sisters, especially with those who are in most need of Your blessings.
And so it is fitting that we give you praise and thanks today and everyday.
We pray this in the name of Jesus, Your Son.
Amen.

By abp. Charles J. Chaput

My theme focuses on Catholics and the American future. But sometimes the best way to look at the future is through the lens of the past.

One of the most sacred symbols of the Roman state was an altar to the goddess Victory. It stood in the Roman Senate for nearly 400 years. In a.d. 382, a Christian emperor removed the altar as idolatrous. Two years later, after his death, the pagan prefect of Rome—Quintus Aurelius Symmachus—wrote one of the most interesting letters of Late Antiquity. Addressing the new Christian emperor, Symmachus asked that the Altar of Victory be restored.

On Saturday, October 8, 2011, Most Rev. Gonzalo Gracía de Cortázar, bishop of Valparaíso, celebrated Mass in the parish church of Our Lady of Lourdes founded by the Assumptionists in 1911.

The Assumptionists arrived in this port city in February 1911, led by Fr. Gunfrid Darbois (brother of the first president of Assumption College, Fr. Thomas Darbois), and settled into the neighborhood known as Cerro de los Placeres which, at the time, had a small population  that had just begun to return because of the huge earthquake that occurred in 1906.

As it is every year, the feast of our three Assumptionist  Bulgarian martyrs is an opportunity to stop to reflect on the heritage that they have left not only to us who are called to work today in the Mission in Eastern Europe, but to every brother and sister of our Assumption Family and the Church at large.

Keeping alive their memory means rendering present among us these brothers whom the Church, by means of their beatification, considers to be a gift for all of Christianity. Praying to them, invoking their intercession, allows us to receive the spiritual support we need to make Christ alive in us and around us.

Some Initial Reflections

By Fr. Jean-Paul Sagadou, AA, superior

The Assumptionists  in Ouagadougou staying with the Religious Sisters  of the Assumption

Some years ago the Religious of the Assumption help us get settled in Togo giving us living space in one of their houses in Sokode and where one of our two communities still lives today. Here in Ouagadougou, in Burkina Faso, it is they again who have rented us space in a building that they recently vacated in order to take up residence in another neighborhood of the city closer to their work.

This past summer Fr. Vincent Leclercq, who recently completed a doctorate in theology at Boston College and who currently teaches at the Catholic Institute of Lille, made a presentation on education at the Collège Stanislas in Paris. Why this school? Quite simply because Emmanuel d'Alzon, the founder of the Assumptionists,  atttended classes there from 1824-1828 and it was there that he began to reflect on the kind of education that individuals must receive to be transformed themselves and to transform society.