See the photos here
Coming together to strengthen communion and fraternity!
The health and security crisis that the world and the countries of West Africa have been experiencing for the past four years has made the traditional meeting called "Provincial Assembly" impossible. This year, the Provincial Council took the difficult decision to convene this assembly in spite of the security challenge in the sub-region and particularly in Burkina-Faso. It was with faith and confidence, in spite of the fear, that each community set out on 29 July towards the novitiate of the Religious of the Assumption in Bobo Dioulasso, in the south of Burkina. You can't imagine the joy of the reunion, and for good reason: many sisters had not seen each other for four or five years. The joy was therefore at its height.
Before entering the annual retreat planned for August 5-14, we took the time to welcome each other and to re-read our history as a province through the theme: "Return to the sources to consolidate our Assumption identity and celebrate our history". Indeed, "No one has the right to erase a page of the history of a People, for a people without history is a world without a soul". To celebrate our provincial history is to appropriate it in order to better transmit it to future generations. We therefore gave thanks for the mission of our sisters in Spain, France, the Philippines and elsewhere. Blessed be the name of the Lord!
For about a month, we experienced great moments during this Provincial Assembly, among others the retreat, initially planned to be preached by our sister Sophie Ramond. Because she was prevented from attending at the last minute for health reasons, we lived it with a Xavière sister Monique Lorraine who came from the North of Ivory Coast. An Ignatian retreat based on our five senses and each day with spiritual exercises for the body, an experience much appreciated by all. The great feast of the Assumption on 15 August was an opportunity to go and meet the vocational sisters in the different parishes of the city and to live in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who have been displaced internally because of terrorism. But it must also be said that on the eve of this beautiful feast, we celebrated the silver jubilee of our sister Georgette Danon.
All's well that ends well. On 21 August, we dispersed with a twinge of sadness, because we had lived well together! May the pastoral year that is opening before us be a time of peace and joy!
Sister Marie-Madeleine AGONOU