For many people, Thanksgiving is the most truly American of our national holidays, encompassing in its simple and beautiful traditions the highest  ideals and greatest aspirations of our country. We believe that these ideals include the need to give thanks to our Creator and so we pray:

O Loving God, your gifts to us are countless and your goodness is without limit. As we come in thanksgiving to You, teach us to use wisely the riches of land and sea and to be forever grateful for all the blessings which come from You. Open our hearts to notice the needs of others that we may give as freely as we have received from You.

With grateful hearts we also thank You this Thanksgiving Week for the many ways you sustain and nourish us, through the gift of life itself, our faith, family and friends with surprises of joy, growth and unconditional love. We make this prayer through Jesus Your Son and the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

On All Saints Day 2014, our brother Hervé Stéphan returned to the Father’s house. Hervé, the seventh superior general of the Assumptionists, left us after 89 years, of which 70 were spent as a religious.

He was a genuinely free man who lived his Assumptionist vocation in all its depth and who knew how to share it with his fellow travelers in the Congregation, but also with the lay-people he met. Superior general from 1975 to 1987, he led our « little religious family » along the ways of brotherhood. Hervé had a passion for Jesus Christ, true man and true God. He inherited his faith from his Breton family and strengthened it at our minor seminary of St. Maur. He had a fierce love for and attachment to his homeland of Brittany. He relished walking along its coast, windswept and drizzly. During his walks he would often gather pebbles of varied shapes that he would convert into little works of religious art: Virgin and Child, a Last Supper, etc. Yes, Hervé was an artist by temperament.

On October 6, 2014, my friend Ronda Lamoree and I flew out of Logan Airport to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).  Our purpose was to meet the sponsored children who are part of Kids in the Congo, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization co-founded by Congolese Assumptionist Fr. Salvator Musande and myself.

Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Assumption Family

We are celebrating the feast of Fr. d’Alzon as we do every year. Just about everywhere in the world, our communities and our lay friends are gathering to honor the memory of this man of God. Emmanuel d’Alzon remains a model for each of us and for all who desire to draw near to the God of Jesus Christ with a heart that is open and ready to serve. I believe, as I have said many times, in the holiness of our founder. He was a man given over to the cause of the Kingdom, a generous man who discovered that « for me, life is Christ ».

By former editor-in-chief, Yves Pitette
(Mr. Pitette recounts how, throughout the publication of 40,000 issues, this Assumptionist daily newspaper has tried to maintain fidelity to the tradition of its Catholic identity and editorial freedom.)

La Croix through the years

If one were to judge solely by the numbers, La Croix is not the oldest French daily: Le Progrès of Lyon has it beat, having published 52,000 issues since 1859. But if you take into account the fact that since its first issue, which appeared on June 16, 1883, it has maintained the same title, the same owners (the Assumptionists) and has never swayed from its mission as a Catholic daily, the newspaper can certainly defend its position as the dean of French newspapers. But that is not what really matters.  At an annual rate of about 305 issues, it takes more than thirty years to produce 10,000 issues.

Worcester Housing Authority Apartment Complex Gets Spruced Up Thanks to Assumption College Volunteers

By Tyla Wade ‘15

Assumption College students love Worcester— so much so that more than 200 of them returned to the city before the start of fall semester to help out at a Worcester Housing Authority (WHA) apartment complex on Lakeside Street that provides affordable housing for low-income residents. Wearing gray T-shirts emblazoned with “Assumption Loves Worcester,” Assumption students worked alongside WHA staff to clean hallways, sweep walkways, and rake leaves.

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.

By Fr. François Kambale Nzanzu, AA
September 2014

Assumption is spreading its wings as the Congregation officially assumes responsibility for the new parish of St. Charles Lwanga in KYABAKKADE, Uganda, some 25 kilometers from the capital city, Kampala.

« My sons, spread your wings » !

As I write this article, after my brief stay in Kyabakkade, a week after the official launch of this parish dedicated to St. Charles Lwanga, I can hear inside of me this invitation of our founder, "My sons, spread your wings ».

THE ASSUMPTIONIST CENTER...

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 the second of this year’s

CONVERSATIONS AT THE CENTER
on SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 9

The Church outside of Boston:
Perspectives on Mission in East & Southeast Asia

At this conversation, we are delighted to have Fr. Joseph Zhang, AA and Sr. Ashwena C. Apao share with us their experiences of what it means to be on mission in China, in the Philippines and in Myanmar.