The Assumption has a missionary countenance. From the first years of its foundation, St. Marie-Eugenie and the first Community had a special attraction and a great zeal for the extension of the Kingdom and for crossing borders. For our Foundress the world is not big enough for her love (Marie-Eugenie, Intimate Notes, n° 160/01, May 1837) nor for all the good that the Church and this new Congregation can do.
It was thus that the Assumption gradually spread within Europe itself and to other countries further afield. Even before the death of St. Marie Eugenie, the Sisters founded in Nicaragua, the Philippines and El Salvador. (The Beehive and the Boat p.47).
As a result of this great passion of which we are heirs, from 1954 M. Marie Denyse, then Superior General of the Religious of the Assumption, gave the Congregation a new missionary impulse and sent her Sisters to Africa, America and Asia. In the course of her many travels, she became aware of the diverse realities of these countries and noted the enormous needs that required hands and hearts willing to serve. That’s when she launched the AMA Project (Assumption Missionary Associates), “she will thus offer hundreds of young people, throughout the world, but especially in France and Spain, the possibility of giving two years of their life benevolently to the service of a mission. It is to one person, living in Auteuil, that M.M. Denyse entrusts the administration of this amazing work: Mademoiselle Demay will carry out this charge, until her death, with great delicacy.” (M. Marie Denyse Du Saint Sacrament “For me to live is Christ” p. 53, M. Hélene Marie)
Since then, various Provinces have embraced this way of opening spaces of encounter and free commitment for many young people who are enriched by the experience of service and of interculturality and who, by offering their qualities, their time and their formation, have done much good over the decades, finding at the same time an expression of their vocation within the Church. There are truly beautiful testimonies of these experiences around the world!
We are certain that today more than ever, we are invited to go with others to the frontiers. Our international and missionary Congregation is committed to Education and to the transformation of society. We wish to continue to be a bridge to offer oncrete spaces, times, places and meetings to make us be in solidarity with those who we know suffer most today.
Sister CARMEN LÓPEZJCvivit Secretariat
A testimony...
My name is Marie-Laure. I’m 23 years old. I come from the south of France, from Bordeaux to be exact. I’m a law student and am currently an AMA in Mexico!
Only a year ago I would never have imagined being here today, but God’s ways are impenetrable... I knew that I wanted to take time to do something else, to put myself more at the service of others and to deepen my faith. I didn’t know the Community or what it meant to be an AMA but I was lucky enough to meet one of the Sisters of the Community who told me about it and I thought it was perfect! It is a project that I thought through personally but above all in close collaboration with the Sisters. In fact, I met them several times, spent some time in the Community and discussed in depth the reality of the mission, Community life and how my personal profile and desires fit in with what it means to be an AMA in concrete terms.
My desire to go to Latin America and, in particular to Mexico, became a reality. I am delighted, as I would have been if it had not been possible. My mission was decided on with the Sisters, who always asked me if I wanted to do what they wanted to do, and it was refined when I arrived and began to live with them. So my mission was to teach French in a school and help the Sisters with their catechism classes. But AMA’s mission goes beyond that and I discovered it as I went along. Having come to teach French, I never imagined that I would help simply by listening and offering a friendly smile, praying the rosary with a grieving family, in fact not “doing” anything special. Above all, I never imagined that this mission would move me so much and make me look back on my journey, both in my joys and in my pains, which is essential at this crucial stage of my life and which has become a solid springboard for me.
What I mainly retain from this adventure is my relationship with the Sisters. I have developed a very strong bond with them, and that is what I will miss most. But the Assumption is a big family, whose spirit I have been able to feel since I have known the Community, and even more so since I became an AMA, and I know that these bonds will not be lost. In fact, it is the Sisters of the Community who will do us the honour of blessing our commitment in Mexico. They brought me to their family, so bringing them to mine seemed natural.
MARIE LAUREAMA