In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for pastoral reasons, the Solemnity of All Saints is celebrated on the Sunday following November 1 and therefore this year 2024, the feast fell on November 3. It was on this day that six Congolese girls entered the Postulancy, joining the other four already present.
The joy shared was great: the young women expressed it with songs and dances typical of African culture, accompanied by the community that includes, in addition to the Sisters of Perpetual Vows, also five Juniors.
They come from very different realities and experiences, but in their hearts there is one great desire: to follow the Lord as Canossian Daughters of Charity, with the great mission left to us by the Foundress St. Magdalene of Canossa: “Above all, make Jesus known and loved”, the only one who can give meaning and fullness to life.
These six young women have already spent a year together in the residential Aspirando in Aru, in the north-east on the border with Uganda and Sudan and are now in Kinshasa in the south-west of the R.D. Congo, a country almost eight times the size of Italy. This great extension leads to different climates and cultures: so from the beginning the Postulants form themselves to grow in a missionary style, available to go where the needs of evangelization are most urgent.
They will follow the formation courses proper to the stage they are experiencing and, little by little, they will become part of the Canossian community life by offering their apostolic service in the parish with children and young people, contributing, even if only with their presence, to discern the plan that God has for each of them.
Let us accompany these new Postulants with prayer; may their witness help other young people, boys and girls from all over the world, to hear and accept Jesus’ joyful invitation to John and Andrew: “COME AND SEE!”.