CELEBRATION OF OUR MOTHER FOUNDRESS

Very dear sisters:

We hope that you are in good health and in good spirits in all the communities.

In this privileged time in which we prepare to celebrate our XXI General Chapter, recalling our Foundress takes on an even more special significance.

The person of Ascension Nicol has within herself a testimonial force that always pushes us forward. Deepening in the traits of her rich personality, has in us a reillusioning and vivifying effect that contributes to keep us in a dynamic of permanent revision of our options and congregational priorities.

This year we have a very rich, profound and creative material prepared by sisters from different continents. Although it is prepared in the form of a triduum, it seems to us that it can accompany and help us in this week in which we already have “our hearts in celebration” as we approach the celebration of our Foundress’ feast day.

We transcribe below the letter shared with us by Sister Estebanía Felipe, from the Province of San José, who coordinated the preparation of this Triduum.

Our deepest gratitude to each of the sisters who have collaborated in the elaboration of this Triduum, putting their gifts and inspiration at the service of the whole Congregation so that we can celebrate this Feast with enthusiasm and overflowing joy.

“May the God of hope fill your faith with joy and peace so that with the power of the Holy Spirit you may overflow with hope.” (Rom 15:13)

A loving embrace   

Sister Raquel Gil

General Coordinator

A warm greeting sisters.

Around the feast of the Ascension Nicol Goñi, we are receiving this proposal for a triduum. Behind this document there is a lot of experience, so much that another document could be written on the richness of the process. In drawing up the triduum, the saying “happiness is not at the end of the road, but along the way” has come to pass. It has been a surprising experience for me because all the sisters were willing to collaborate, for the gratitude they expressed for having been able to count on them, and the passion with which they did it.

Hence the writing is a collective work. It has been written by a dozen sisters; six of us appear on the cover and the other six are behind, in the middle and even in front of the text, as the cover was made by one of them. I thank these “anonymous” sisters for their collaboration in the discussion and definition of the outline, contributions to the content, correction, suggestions, final revision, editing and technological support. Among them, my sisters in community, thank you all! When reading the document, they will feel that they are there and reflected in it.

As for the sisters who wrote, I would like to tell you a curious fact: each one was only given the theme and was given a general orientation as to where the transversal axis of the document would go, and none of us agreed on what to say, what to express. However, the harmony in the reflections and proposals has been God-given; there are common cries and yearnings, even though we are geographically and culturally so distant from each other. This is only given by the Spirit from the sense of belonging to this family and from some needs and congregational projections detected as common. We are grateful to the sisters who contributed with their reflections on characteristic aspects of our Foundress.

Another fact to share: among the sisters who wrote, I did not know two of them. I was very moved and my heart was filled with something I can’t explain when I communicated with them. In the same way, it was exciting to be able to talk to one I knew when I was an aspirant, and once again we met over the phone. This has given me much food for thought about our affective closeness as Dominican Missionaries, which is not diminished by geographical distances, frontiers, cultures and languages.

Sister Estebanía Felipe

Nicaragua