INTERCULTURALITY MDR

I am Sister Rufina Helena Matamba Lucamba, 32 years old, from the Province of Our Lady of the Rosary – Angola/Mozambique. I am in Manila, Philippines, to participate in the accompaniment course and am currently learning English. I would like to share with you, dear sisters, my experience in the Asian novitiate and about the English classes with Sister Consolación A. Santa María, OP.

First, I want to begin by sharing my experience with a reflection on the passage from the book: *The Roots*, on The Foundation of Life, Topic 1: “The Holy Fathers, reflecting on the mystery of the Trinity, asked themselves: How is it possible that three can be one, that the multiple can become one?

Is there perhaps an interaction, connection, and interpretation in what is lived, or is it mere imitation?

And they answered that this is only possible through love, through the experience of being one with the other.”

Today, I ask myself the same question: How is it possible that, being so different in age, culture, origin, race, language, etc., we have come to form a community, to choose and carry out a common project?

The explanation can only lie in the fact that we have been driven by a Trinitarian love. By a God who touches my humanity and ours. This means that, since I said yes to God’s plan of salvation, I am open to living interculturally, willing to enter into a dynamic of constant transformation and renewal, and despite our differences and limitations, we can always move forward with a sense of belonging to our origins.

The days I spent in the novitiate made me feel very good; it was a time of renewal for me and a reminder of my own novitiate. I am very grateful for the sisters’ openness and the opportunity they gave us to spend time in the novitiate, to share the vocational life and the missionary experience with the sisters of the formation community. I want to highlight the welcoming atmosphere, the attention, and the affection; The sisters’ and some of the novices’ openness and simplicity helped me experience moments of inculturation. I understood that the Missionary Renewal in the Dedication of the Village (RMD) should have no borders; the world is its home. By sharing Vietnamese and Timorese culture with the novices, I discovered many values in these two peoples, such as humility, simplicity, respect, cultural preservation, and strength.

I learned that our differences should not be an obstacle to learning, living, and opening ourselves to new things, because respecting, accepting, and welcoming difference is one of the fundamental elements for learning, interacting, and integrating.

It was a moment of great joy for me, comparable to that of a thirsty pilgrim who finds an oasis.

The English classes have been moments of discovery, learning, and unlearning. In fact, the first week was very difficult, but Sister Consolacion St. Maria, OP, has been a great help in class, using an engaging approach that greatly facilitates learning, especially the methodology for forming sentences. The secret lies in knowing that a sentence must have a subject, verb, and predicate.

The other secret is:

“Listen, speak, write, and read” without fear of making mistakes.

We walk like babies taking their first steps, eager to stand up and start walking, with little balance and therefore prone to falling, but always with a positive attitude and a desire to keep going.

“That’s just how I am.”

I am immensely grateful to the General Council, to the Province that welcomes us, and to the community that is always ready to help us.

May our Founding Fathers accompany us.

Blessings to all the sisters.

Sincerely,

Sr. Rufina Lucamba, OP

Manila, 2026