As part of the Provincial Plan, we wanted to concentrate on vocational ministry. So, as a Province, we had three vocational gatherings during the year, wherein young people from different communities, who were concerned about finding the meaning of their lives, participated. Some were students, others alumni and others young people from the parishes where we work.
The gatherings were organized throughout the year with the desire to provide continuity and support to the young women. Although they were virtual, the aim was for the young women to reach the community that accompanied them and have the experience of getting in touch with a Sister, in the hope that, after living together, they could reap the benefits of what was in the heart of every young person.
The topics that linked together the gatherings of this year 2023 were the poles of our life. Therefore, in our first meeting we shared our life and experience of prayer, which enables us to have an intimate encounter with Jesus, with the young women. Through the Sisters' testimonies, the young women came closer to our prayer life - personal and communitarian -, to adoration, the liturgy and how important it is for every Religious of the Assumption. Each young person was invited to visit the chapel of the Community where they were and identify the elements they found there. Thus, after a few minutes they were able to share with the other young people about what they had seen and experienced. They were invited to enter into the dynamic of prayer with God - from their daily realities - to cultivate the encounter with a God who is good and who loves them.
In the second moment of living together we shared our Community Life where they were able to discover how fraternal and Community Life allows us to encounter God, ourselves and others, and how this encounter allows us to follow Jesus, who calls us. He makes us sisters to one another and invites us to commit ourselves to His Kingdom.
We shared with them our experience, the responsibilities that each one has, how we organize ourselves within the Community, the activities we carry out, so the young women were able to get to know us more closely in view of their realities, with the difficulties that human relationships entail.
In the third gathering we were able to share our mission with them, how we live our educational mission in the different schools of the Province, and how we also provide support in the different insertions where we are, for example, the support towards the Q'eqchí women in Petén, Guatemala.
Several Sisters, who, with their testimonies of dedication, service and fidelity, participated in the different gatherings and shared their life experiences with them. In addition, they were told about the international character of the Assumption, how God calls us from our specific realities and contexts, making of us sisters uniting love for Him, the desire to be artisans of His kingdom and to give ourselves in joy and fidelity.
Thanks to the meetings and accompaniment by the Sisters, we were able to accompany a young woman at the beginning of her aspirancy on November 23, after an experience in the Community of Sayaxché-Petén.
At the end of this year's gatherings, they were invited to continue the path of searching for what God asks of each one. They were encouraged to begin - or continue - vocational accompaniment to be able to discover every day the project that God has in store for them. They are also urged to continue the meetings next year, when we will share with them the vocations of the Church, giving emphasis to the vocation to Consecrated Life in the Assumption.