October 2013 n no 10 ligious and lai News Re ty th AAof the Assumption e same mission EDITORIAL Prophets for today We are prophets when we live fully religious poverty. >> Official Calls, nominations, arrangements... Father Benoît Grière, Superior General ■ EXTENSION OF THE MANDATE OF With his council has called THE PROVINCIAL OF SPAIN ■ TO PERPETUAL Profession Fr. Benoît Grière, Superior General, in his ordinary 1. Bro. ANDRIAMAHENINARIVO, Richard council, has extended the (Africa) (09/10/2013) second mandate of the 2. Bro. NKWER, Valentin-Junior Provincial of Spain, Fr. (Africa) ( 09/10/2013) Niceto Calle. It will finish 3. Bro. KASEREKA MASUMBUKO-KOMBI, Jérôme at the end of the Chapter (Africa) (09/11/2013) of the Province of Europe foreseen for May 4, 2014 and the establishment ■ TO ORDINATION TO THE DIACONATE of the sole Province of 4. Bro. MUTULIRANO LWAYIVWEKKA, Jean-Marie Europe. (Africa) (09/11/2013) 5. Bro. BARASA Jacob WELIKHA (Africa) (09/12/2013) 6. Bro. KAKULE MBOKANI, Jean-Marie (Africa) (09/12/2013) 7. Bro. KAMBALE MASINGO, Isidore (Africa) (09/13/2013) 8. Bro. MASTAKI BUTANA, Deogratias (Africa) (09/13/2013) 9. Bro. SEKERAVITI KAMBALE, Willibrord 1 2 3 4 (Africa) (09/14/2013) 10. Bro. TSHIAMALA KATALAYI, François (Africa) (09/14/2013) 5 6 7 8 ■ TO ORDINATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD 11. Bro. KAKULE KOMANDA, Gaston (Africa) (09/16/2013) 12. Bro. KATEMBO VUSEGHESA, Floribert 9 10 11 12 (Africa) (09/16/2013) 13. Bro. DIADIA MAYOKO, Fabien (Africa) (09/16/2013) Bro. KAKULE PAKA, Moïse 14. 13 14 15 16 (Africa) (09é17é2013) 15. Bro. KAMBALE KATSYOTO, André (Africa) (09/17/2013) 16. Bro. KAMBALE TASI, Augustin (Africa) (09/17/2013) 17 18 19 20 17. Bro. MBUSAKATUSI, Joseph (Africa) (09/18/2013) 18. Bro. MUMBERE KANZIRA, Jackson (Africa) (09/18/2013) 19. Bro. Cezar ANDREI (France) (09/19/2013) 20. Bro. Duc Long (Pierre) TRAN (Africa) (09/19/2013) 2 Octobre 2013 n no 10 Editorial << Prophets For today n Rome we are living in the joy of ourselves to be stripped to become a having a pope who stimulates us new man. There is still in us to much Iand pushes us to be more faithful of the old man that paralyzes us and to our Christian vocation. There is a prevents us from living in the fidelity perceptible change of atmosphere in to the spirit of Emmanuel d’Alzon. The the wings of the Roman administration. re-foundation is thus a way of allowing The clerics who are at the service of ourselves to be called upon by the the papacy get closer to the people and Spirit of God to go forward towards the are more attentive to their requests. new world that awaits us. The clear will not to favor careerism In this effort of re-foundation, there that the pope insists on very forcefully is in the first place the work the has begun to show in Vatican City. congregation has undertaken many Pope Francis, with his habitual modesty years ago already to improve the quality and gentleness, plows his furrow and of Assumptionist formation. We have a P. Benoît Grière moves the Church. We have in him beautiful Ratio Institutionis and many General Superior a determined pope who leads the texts on religious life that were written of the Augustinians of Catholic community in a return to the by my predecessors. We must resolutely the Assumption essentials of the Gospel. put them into practice. This summer, In his interview with La Civiltà at the General House, was held a Cattolica, the pope broaches the formation session for formators. Even question of religious life. He says “the if it is a modest enterprise, its ambition religious are prophets”. In the Church is important. It concerned giving to “the religious are called in particular to those in charge of formation or who be prophets who witness to the manner will be shortly, to acquire the essential in which Jesus lived on this earth, and elements of our charism to transmit who announce how the Kingdom of them to the younger religious. God will be in its perfection.” The experience was international and The effort that the whole of the it allowed us to build an understanding congregation is beginning is an beyond the linguistic and cultural effort of re-foundation. As I wrote barriers. The stakes are high: we have in the preceding bulletin, we are a challenge to face so that the religious called to work to fashion in a new be always more faithful and rooted in way our religious family. We have a Christ. Soon you will receive the letter Founder and it is our venerated Father that I wrote on religious poverty. Pope Emmanuel d’Alzon. He is the source Francis will very shortly publish and of our inspiration and his life defines encyclical on the subject. My letter will us yet today in our fidelity and our therefore be modest, but it seeks to be a action. But the times have changed and contribution to allow each one to place we must face other challenges. The oneself in conscience before this vow. Assumption is not done and we can, as We are prophets when we live fully Pope Francis invites us, live as prophets religious poverty. n to proclaim the spirit of the Gospel. To be prophet is to accept to allow 3 >> Official (continued) Agenda ● 26 October Preparation for the General Councils of Ordinary General Councils the Assumptionist Family in Paris ● 28 October-2 November International Commission ● 11-16 November 2013 on Formation in Paris ● 11 and 12 December, 2013 ● 27-30 January, 2014, Commission on Europe ● 3-7 February, 2014 ● 3-7 March, 2014 ● 19-28 June, 2014 Didier ● 27- September-20 October, 2013, Didier and Benoît Agenda of the Plenary General Councils in East Africa ● 25-27 October, 2013 Board of Trustees at ● 30 November-9 December, 2013 Assumption College (Worcester-USA) ● 7-16 June, 2014 ● 7-8 November Council of Consultors (Paris) ● 16 March-1 May, 2014, In Latin America Travels ● 9-10 May, 2014, Board of Trustees at Assumption College (Worcester-USA) ● Meeting of the General Councils of the Assumption 20-22+23 January, 2014 (Paris) for the Superiors General John ● 9 October-22 November 2013, in Latin America Benoît ● 27 September-October 20, 2013, Didier and Benoît Marcelo in East Africa ● 27-29 November, 2013, USG (Rome) ● 14-21 November, 2013, in Moscow, Russia ● 14, December to the end of the month: Chapter of the Province of Madagascar Other Meetings Emmanuel ● Session of the Masters of Novices, May, 2014 ● Chapter of Europe, 27April-2 May (Valpré) ● 12-17 October, Commission on Europe at Leuven (Belgium) Letter of the General on religious poverty The second letter of the works of charity. This cries, the Lord hears” (Ps. THIS POOR ONE CRIED OUT AND THE LORD HEARD that Father Benoît letter is intended to be modest 33/7) has six parts: a reflection Psalm 34 :7 addresses to the because of the expectation of on poverty in our Fathers Congregation is on the imminent publication of Augustine and d’Alzon, a recall religious poverty. an Encyclical on the subject of the Rule of Life and of the This 41 page by Pope Francis. Besides General Chapter of 2011, and document is ready. this encyclical that is being the last three sections aim For the moment it prepared, the Pope will also to be practical and concrete is being translated. undoubtedly publish a post- propositions to change our It has the symbolic synodal exhortation on the behaviors and set us in the date of September new evangelization for the school of the Beatitudes to 27, the feast day transmission of the Christian grow the Kingdom. Letter to the Congregation on Religious Poverty of Saint Vincent faith. The document of Father de Paul, patron General entitled “The poor 4 October 2013 n no 10 Spirituality << John reveals the freshness of the meditations of Father d’Alzon to the novices of the United States t was in the atmosphere of a value. That was verified in In North American society tol- great forest that surrounds the reflection of those retreat erance has been set up as a na- Ithe Benedictine commu- days. When we speak today of tional virtue, yet there exists a nities monasteries of Saint the eclipse of God, we find in legitimate intolerance, that of Mary’s that the retreat of the d’Alzon a similar expression: wanting to defend the rights novices of Augustine House “the immense obscurity of the of God… This retreat was an of Worcester took place. The faith” nourished by indiffer- occasion to re-appropriate the communities of monks and ence, ignorance and unbelief texts that are part of our genet- nuns supported the meditative (2). It is the result of relativ- ic heritage in the Assumption atmosphere of these days of ism. Today aggressive indiffer- and to discover the essential retreat with their liturgy and ence seems to have given way freedom that fosters living the Gregorian chant. to a generational indifference obligations of religious life to- All retreats are a return to the of the “whatever” and a com- day. n essentials. Profiting from his monplace “lowest common de- contributions to the translation nominator”. of the writings of Fr. d’Alzon, it was obvious that the preach- er chose to start from the texts of Father d’Alzon to nour- ish his talks and which he of- fered to his listeners the scoop on his translation.(1) Of the eight meditations he had se- lected, there was the one on the solitude necessary to enter a retreat and on the attitudes of Christ that can inspire, those on prayer and meditation, on the evils of the present times to be fought against and the remedies for them, those on the vows and the dispositions one must have to enter into religious life and in the ob- servance of the Rule.