Superior General
Franciscan Missionaries of Mary
Via Giusti 12
I – 00185 Rome
Nº 10
16th April 2001
“There, coming to meet the women, was Jesus, who said:
Do not be afraid, go and tell my brothers
that they must leave for Galilee;
there they will see Me.”
(cf. Gospel of the day, Easter Monday)
Dear Sisters,
At the end of these two months in council, I would like to announce to you the convocation of our General Chapter which will be held in Grottaferrata during the months of September and October 2002. According to article 173 of our Constitutions, the convocation of a chapter takes place one year before its opening. However, on 12th December 2000, the Sacred Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and for Societies of Apostolic Life responded positively to our request to advance this convocation in order to permit the chapter members to commit themselves fully, and as soon as possible, in the process of preparation for the General Chapter. The experience of preceding meetings also has shown us the importance of sufficient mastery of one of the three languages of the Institute in order to be able to participate fully in the life and development of a chapter. Thus the opening, from now, of the process of election of the delegates of the provinces will leave those who need it the time necessary for this study.
However, this preparation commits all of us. The Spirit who guided Mother Foundress continues to speak in the heart of each one, inviting us – as members of the same body – to take a new look at the world around us. In fact, it is the whole Institute which is called to place itself again in the privileged situation of listening, dialogue, welcoming and discernment in order to grasp the new responses to be given, while confirming and affirming the choices and orientations which are still meaningful today.
Together, at our last Enlarged General Council, we chose the theme of our Chapter: “Gospel Women, let us rekindle the gift of God received for a new world”. In council, during this special time which we have just finished, we worked with the animating team of the Chapter (Sr. Dairne Mc Henry RSCJ, Sr. Elvira Dizon, Sr. Justina Fanego and Sr. Nzenzili Mboma) and the team for Sending and Receiving (Sr. Nzenzili Mboma, Sr. Mary Motte and Sr. Gemma Rigau), also Sr. Merlyn D’Sa, secretary for the Chapter. Our exchanges were fruitful and enabled us to give form to the theme. The sharings and reflections of the provinces on Sending and Receiving evidenced the close links that exist between this study and the theme of the Chapter. Is this not, in some way, what we have just meditated on this Easter Monday?
During these days when the Church invites us to penetrate even more into the greatness of the mystery of Easter, another Gospel woman, Mary – the friend of Jesus – accompanies our journey of faith. She reveals to us the deep meeting that exists between her and her Lord, a mystery of communication and communion. Her fragility is her salvation. She opens it up to pardon and reconciliation with herself, with her Master and with others. Her personal experience of Christ, that of the Risen Christ in her life, He who calls her by name, makes her one sent: “Go … tell them…” (cf. John 20: 17, Gospel of Easter Tuesday). Henceforth her life is founded on her meeting with Christ, a meeting which has transformed within her that which before seemed to her to be vital and essential; then Christ confers a mission on her. She is invited to go to the others, in order, in her turn, to reveal to them a facet of the face and heart of God, a mystery of Christ and of his Kingdom. She becomes a woman of hope because God can express Himself in her.
In fact, God, in his loving plan, has a project for each one of us as also for the Institute. He offers us a unique way of incarnating his Word, his Word made flesh in us so that it may be Good News. The forthcoming Chapter invites us to reappropriate to ourselves our unique way – our charism which is a gift of God for us – in order to resay it for the world of today and tomorrow. The Institute offers us a rich, multicultural and multiracial history of these Gospel women, our sisters, who bear within them fidelity to the gift received, a welcoming of the signs of the times and missionary daring. There are numerous sisters who marked our lives and still journey with us today on the same human paths, testifying to the ongoing newness of the Gospel. Strengthened by them, we are invited to find once more the first intuition of our disponibility, that which Mary of the Passion desired for us, in order to continue the mission of Christ, the One sent by the Father. In taking an extra step in the deepening of our missionary identity which we are called to live, each one, wherever we are and no matter what our condition and our situations, we reaffirm our way of being and acting as sisters sent and, by that very fact, as sisters who welcome one another. Thus, together, we rekindle the gift of God – the riches of his grace which overflows even to us (cf. Eph 1) – for this new world.
To be Gospel women in order to continue Christ’s mission, is to turn towards Mary, the Gospel woman par excellence, whom Mary of the Passion gave us as “the way within the way” (cf. “He speaks to me” Nº 233). Prototype of the Gospel missionary, Mary reveals to us her secret: a meeting with the God of her life for a mission which makes the goodness, tenderness and compassion of God possible in our world. From Nazareth to Pentecost, passing through Cana and the mystery of the cross, Mary is always listening, that is, turned towards God. She reminds us that the history God writes with us is not done without our collaboration to which we have consented. With the Spirit who covered her with his shadow, Mary received a mission, a sending which was progressively uncovered and revealed. In the home of her cousin Elizabeth, “the first time she carried Our Lord through the world”, as Mary of the Passion wrote in her correspondence of 2nd July 1898, she is wonderment and praise, she proclaims God’s work. In Cana, a discreet presence but also urgent and insistent, she accompanied her Son who reveals Himself to the world and she is associated with his mission. At the Cross, as at Pentecost, Mary takes her real place. Mother of God, she becomes Mother of Humanity and Mother of the Church, because a community is born, a universal community, a community which in its turn is sent: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to all creatures” (Mark 16: 15).
On receiving this letter, the provincials and their councils will see how and when to begin the process of election of delegates to the General Chapter. This will be done according to the methods described in the provincial statutes. The communication given below fixes the number of delegates per province, according to what was established at the last Enlarged General Council 1999, and the statistics of the Institute on 31st December 2000 (Const. 172). Be that as it may, the results of the elections should reach the general secretariat by 10th October 2001 for confirmation.
Before finishing this letter, I would like to express our deep gratitude on the part of all to Sr. Nzenzili Mboma, Sr. Mary Motte and Sr. Gemma Rigau. Since the last general chapter, they have prepared the different studies on the government of the Institute and on Sending and Receiving. They gave themselves to it with great generosity, competence and creativity. Through what they proposed to us in the different stages, they have shared the best of themselves, their convictions and their joy in being FMM.
During these last days of work in the council, we were able to confirm the election of provincials. Sr. Bridget Kyere was elected provincial of the province of Ghana-Liberia, replacing Sr. Helen Yob who died on 1st October 2000. Sr. Fidelia Manriquez Sarabia has been renewed for a second mandate. On 25th March 2001, Sr. Ana Maria Campos Barraza replaced Sr. Josefina Arrieta Argote as provincial of Bolivia-Chile. At this moment, two provinces, France and Angola, are still in the process of elections.
A general chapter is a call to renew our Covenant. These days as we give thanks to Christ, the New Covenant, let us welcome with renewed hope the Life which is given to us in Him. Is this not the mission He confides to us, to be Spouse, Sister and Mother(cf. St. Francis, 1 Let 50), to bring Life and to give it in abundance. All of us are invited to this as we begin the preparation for the General Chapter and as, on the 6th January 2002, we will celebrate 125 years of the foundation of the Institute.
Christ is Risen! Yes, He is truly Risen!
With my deep and sisterly affection,
Christiane Mégarbané,
fmm Sup. Gen.
PRACTICAL ORIENTATIONS
in view of the election of delegates
to the General Chapter 2002
References
Constitutions art. 172
Booklet: “For better participation in elections in the Institute today”.
. Chapter 1 – on discernment
. pages 23, 24 – those who have the right to vote
. Annexe 1 page 39 – Official Statement
Provincial statutes – for the method to be followed in each province
Number of delegates (cf. CS 172)
Each province sends one or more delegates
Generalate House 1 delegate
Mission of Russia1 delegate
The Enlarged General Council of 1999 fixed the criteria for sending a second delegate. With reference to these decisions, and according to the statistics of 31st Dec. 2000, (without counting the pre-novices), the following provinces will send two delegates to the General Chapter:
provinces with more than 400 sisters:France; Spain;
provinces with more than 100 sistersBelgium, Faeroes,
and comprising more than 3 countries:Holland, Iceland;
Near East
provinces with more than 100 sisters China(Hong
and whose average age is less than Kong, Macau,
50 yearsMainland China);
Congo-Kinshasa;
Korea;
Myanmar;
Vietnam
The provincials are asked to communicate the names of the delegates to the General Secretariat, as soon as they are elected and not later than 10th October 2001, with the Official Statement of the election.
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