It was a joy meeting with leaders of the Assumption Volunteer projects from 13 provinces and the congregational youth team on Sunday 17th January 2021. The group spent time learning about AMA and the challenges in the provinces of Spain, West Africa, Madagascar, Central America, Asia Pacific (Philippines), Rwanda-Chad, Mexico, India, France, the USA, Ecuador and Europe.
There was time for discussion in the different language groups, and we were struck by the richness of the different projects and the shared charism that is expressed in a beautiful variety across the Congregation. While Covid-19 has halted many of our projects, we look forward to discerning new ways for the future – new ways and opportunities to serve, and building new links between the provinces, in the hope of a greater solidarity and interconnectedness to carry out our mission.
We are strengthened in the conviction that we have something unique and valuable to offer young people: we can accompany them to discover their Christian vocation through missionary service and support their spiritual and human development in the AMA programmes.
We plan to continue meeting regularly (online) as coordinators to find ways to work together more closely, share knowledge, experiences, and resources between the provinces. Our internationality and our charism is a treasure – it is a great joy and responsibility to share this treasure with young people around the world!
"I believe that each of us has a mission on earth. We have to seek where God can make use of us for the spread and the realisation of His Gospel".
(St. Marie Eugenie of Jesus)
On Sunday, January 17, we had the meeting of AMA delegates, to which I was invited as representative of our Province of Ecuador.
Those of us who are Assumptionists know that we are part of a large family, but sometimes we are not aware of it until we have the opportunity to participate in meetings where the participants come from all over the world in which the Assumption is present and we look for general guidelines to help us continue to build the Kingdom from our reality.
This time, the meeting was a sharing on the AMA projects of each Province. Each one made known their process over the last 10 years and the challenges faced in continuing with this vocational desire. As we listened to each other, I was struck by the fact that most of the challenges were common, that the limitations that we had reviewed as a Province found an echo in other Provinces, which gave us the opportunity to feel accompanied in the process, recognising that each Province has its own path and its own rhythm of work according to its own reality.
A gratifying moment was the sharing with the Spanish-speaking Provinces, since this was the period in which we were able to fulfil the expectations generated by the general meeting, being able to make known to the steering committee the more extensive desires to unify the criteria of what it means to be a Missionary of the Assumption.
This meeting, in particular, filled my heart. It was a reminder that we are on this journey together. That the God of Love, in whom I believe, has put us in the right place at the right time with the mission, as Mother Marie Eugenie says, of uniting prayer and action and inviting others to know Him, to love Him and making Him loved. I remembered all the good that this experience of service and of going out of one's comfort zone in life does, which becomes a way of being and of being in the world, with a more humane, more Christian, more faith-filled vision. Today we continue to be invited to share with others and to create stories that generate life where the Kingdom is built from small, daily, simple things.
I can only be very grateful for this opportunity, as I said at the beginning. To be Assumption is to recognise ourselves as part of a big family and a family that together sets out on a journey and that invites us to listen and to be attentive to the calls that are made to us from today's reality in order to give a response that contributes to the building of the Kingdom.
We continue on the way,
Ma. Fernanda Garnica B. Laywoman, Province of Ecuador