Experience of 3rd year 2022
2022-12-13Dear sisters,
With great joy and Lots of love receive greetings from Rome. I am so privileged to share with you a little of my 3rd year experience.
On 29th August 2022 we arrived here in Rome, we were warmly received by our formators and the sisters from Madagascar and Panama who had already arrived. I was very happy to meet the sisters I had met during my novitiate 19years ago and also meet the sisters I had not met before. The house was filled with warmth and joy. We also received greetings and prayers from all our sisters across the globe. I felt a lot of love, care, confidence from the sisters. The whole congregation is holding each one of us in their heart like a mother does to her children. I felt a strong sense of belonging and the sense of body.
Each one was directed to her room. There I found the time table, a welcoming note with the words “SMR SCHOOL OF THE HEART”. This attracted my attention and I asked myself what could this mean? After a few weeks of the 3rd year program, I begun to understand that it is an invitation for each one of us to enter deep in her heart, create space for personal encounter with God. I am very grateful to God who has made it possible for me to experience his love for me and for the entire world through the SMR school of the heart.
We were presented with different themes about the SMR lifestyle, interculturality, the Spirit of Emilie in the world today, Ignatian spirituality and the 30days retreat etc. We also visited different places and churches where Emilie lived and prayed. Each theme presented to us and the places we have visited have had a significant mark in my life. They have opened up my mind and I now have a different and more positive way of looking at life and different situations of our realities as we live the charism of reparation with Mary.
I was over joyed to have visited the castle in Florence from where our mother foundress passed on and the church where her body was kept before her burial.
The theme of the Spirit of Emilie, by Sr. Dolores Diez de Revenga, was so heart touching. The way she presented it to us was simple and natural. I felt as if Emilie was speaking to me now and she was challenging me at the same time. I realized that her spirit is so alive in the world as well as in us and it has re-awakened in me the yearning to live more the spirit of Emilie according to my reality.
Ignatian Spirituality by Sr. Elizabeth chaateau woke me up from sleep and gave me the taste of Ignatian spirituality. The way she offered the dynamic of the spiritual exercises, and discernment was flowing from her different lived experiences which helped me to situate myself in the spirituality and to understand better the importance of discernment in my daily life and the treasure we have in the Ignatian spirituality which nourishes our Charism. The 30days retreat was a moment of grace for each one of us.
I am very grateful to God who has kept us alive to experience his love in a very special way. My sincere gratitude to the general council who planed for our third year 2022 and the formation team who have worked tirelessly to see to it that we receive the best out of it. A big thank you to all the sisters for your prayers love and words of encouragement. You really placed us on the top of the World. Thank you and may the good Lord bless each one of you abundantly.
Stephania Kokumanya smr