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Happy feast of the Assumption!
Message from the Superior General on the occasion of August 15
I'm writing this message from Lourdes. Even if the main objective is to wish you a beautiful and joyful Assumption Day, it's impossible not to share with you my very first experience in Lourdes. The Assumption in Lourdes, an expression that can evoke several things at once. But the most important is the feeling of joy at experiencing, for the first time, the solemnity of the Assumption in a place whose name, history and connection with the Augustinians of the Assumption awaken precious memories.
Having arrived in Paris three days earlier to experience the Paris-Lourdes train with the sick, I was impressed by the arrival of brothers at the provincial house from Togo, Romania, Jerusalem, Chile, Ecuador, Spain, Belgium and elsewhere. The Assumption in Lourdes is also this gathering of brothers and sisters of the Assumption family around the one our founder offers us as our Mother and model. " Mary is both my model and my mother . My model: I must seek to imitate her as much as a religious dedicated to perfection is capable of imitating the Queen of heaven and earth; my mother: I must have the most absolute trust and tenderness for her." (E.S. p. 32)
More than once I have met and listened to certain Assumptionists say that "we are not a Marian congregation". At first, I seemed to understand what they meant. But then, when I came into contact with Father d'Alzon's writings and discovered the place he gave to Mary in his life and for his congregation, and after witnessing the devotion of several brothers and sisters who came here to Lourdes for the occasion, I now have some reservations, to use the same expression. Mary has a place of honor in our spirituality, which is, of course, Christocentric.
In Lourdes this year, the Assumption family is well represented, as usual, with brothers and sisters, religious and lay, of all ages, cultures and colors. The departure is already quite an event. At the Gare de Paris (Montparnasse), boarding is spectacular. Members of the Hospitalité Notre-Dame de Salut, volunteers, the sick, the community of carers, religious and others, all with the desire to reach Lourdes, not for tourism, even if it is summer, but motivated by faith and hope. It gave me the impression of a "little city of God", where fraternity and caring for others are lived out with uncalculated generosity.
May the virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary inspire us in everything we do to bring about the Reign of her Son. Let us turn to her with love and tenderness, as Father Emmanuel d'Alzon said: "Our tenderness for the Blessed Virgin has no limits" (E.S. p. 134).
You can be sure that I carry the life and mission of our congregation every time I turn to our Mother to intercede for us. Above all, the life and mission of our brothers and sisters in places where faith and hope are being put to the test by events: in Eastern Congo, in the Middle East and elsewhere.
To conclude this message, allow me to take up these words of our founder for our meditation:
"At the end of this retreat, and in the mood I'm convinced you're in, nothing seems more opportune than to speak to you of the mystery under whose idea our Congregation finds itself placed. We didn't choose it; it was, as it were, self-imposed. The stone on the front door of our house was engraved several years before we came to take possession of the cradle of our religious family. It could be said that it was not we who chose Mary triumphant in heaven as our protector; it was Mary, from heaven, who seems to have said: This house has been given to me, and I in turn give it to you. Grow in the thoughts that my glory should inspire in you, and be true sons of my victories, of my triumph, of my crowning." (E.S. pp. 1024-1025)
In Mary's Assumption, we discover our own vocation: heaven. I hope you're all celebrating this solemnity of the Assumption. Some of our brothers and sisters already did so last Sunday. May heaven's desire accompany us in what we undertake as a community and as individuals.
Happy feast day to all Assumptionists!
Fraternally
Ngoa Ya Tshihemba, a.a Supérieur Général