REAPING THE HARVEST
Colette Raheliarisoa, m.i.c.,
For more than 50 years, women from Quebec, Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, have travelled to Madagascar. They lived among the people, with the families, caring for the sick, and setting up schools. Inconspicuously, they were casting seeds. Years and workers followed one another... Now, the time has come to reap the harvest : in the Canadians' wake, many young Madagascans are involved in our religious Institute, sharing the same mission.
Educating young people requires significant preparation, and several of our young Madagascan sisters are now studying. In Tsaramasay, a poor quarter of the capital where we teach primary school, pastoral education, literacy, health care and vocational training for women, Monique Joseph is defending her thesis : Creation of a Centre for Human and Christian Formation. Meanwhile, at the National Institute of Teacher Training in Mahamasina, a village in the capital region, Erika Jeanne is completing three years of training to work as a pedagogical adviser in our schools. As for Marie-Angele, she just recently obtained a bachelor's degree at a French college.
Presently, seven young women are at the postulate level, the first stage in the process of discerning the authenticity of a religious missionary vocation.
In the novitiate, the second stage of professing the religious life, Edwige, Emilienne and Christine welcomed Canadian Josée Martineau last July. Through prayer and reflection, study and work, they pursue and deepen together their experience of fraternal life.
Last September 8th, four young Madagascans pronounced their first vows : We, Daniele-Fréderice, Marie-Anne, Marie Eudoxie-Eva, Josiane-Georgine, take our first vows. Drawn to Christ who invites us to follow Him, we wish to give ourselves to Him.
For Monique-Robine, taking her final vows last August was the happy ending to a long journey. With great joy, she committed herself definitively. Scattered around the world, twenty-or-so other Madagascan sisters work in various activities of the Institute.
Some sowed... others watered... still others will harvest. Madagascans, Chinese, Cuban, South American, Haitian, Canadian, Japanese, Philippine, African - coming from many different cultures, our sisters make the Good News known to all the world : Jesus Christ came among us to say, "You have a Father and He loves you all, each and every one of you."
Louise Pagé, m.i.c.
MIC MISSION NEWS
January-February-March 2006