Sisters Mariana, Violaine and Jeannette gave a presentation on this theme. Their fine introduction began with the inspiration of Sister Marie-Marcelle who says, “charism is in the person non in the works.” We immediately understood that on that day we would be working on ourselves.
We very much appreciated the way our sisters presented the theme; it was practical rather than theoretical. There were times of reflections that allowed us to dig deeper within ourselves in order to answer the questions asked of us. For example: What does charism mean to me, and how do I live it in relation to Marguerite Bourgeoys? Through in-depth and personal reflections, we found many answers to these questions. In our own lives, we found concrete experiences of which we are proud and which are in keeping with the charism of Marguerite Bourgeoys.
Greetings to all of you! What a joy to be able to take time to share with you some news of our Visitation 2019 gathering in Japan.
On Sunday, July 21, 2019, we went to Mass with the Japanese CND sisters at their parish church in Tsukuba where they usually go every Sunday.
We walked together to the church. While we were walking, we chatted and enjoyed the surroundings. We listened and admired the quiet, neat streets. The bicycles scared us when they passed near us. However, bicycling is part of their customs and culture.
The home stretch is upon Libby as she begins to make her way back to Visitation Province. These weeks of grounding have been hopefully helpful to her personal integration in religious life as a Sister of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame. The month of June has been and July will continue to be filled with significant preparation opportunities.
For the first two weeks of June, Libby was part of an Upper Room experience in White Plains. We were graced with the presence of Sister Catherine Walker from Visitation Province and Sister Maryann Calabrese from Norwalk who held this sacred space of the Upper Room. Together we formed an Upper Room community, holding the space for Spirit to nurture and guide Libby into the future. The discerning questions for us were “How have we integrated our lives as a CND, given who we are? And, what has nurtured and continues to nurture our lives as we move into the future?”
