Today we come to share with you the experiences of the young
women who participated in a “Come and see” session in our community of
Butare. The session started on 26th
August 2023 with 16 young women from three different dioceses: Ruhengeri, Nyundo and Butare, and ended on 29th
August 2023.
It was a great joy for
our community to share with them the history of our congregation, its charism,
spirituality and mission. It was also an opportunity to empower them in various
aspects on their daily journey of discernment.
The young women shared with the community their joy of being warmly
welcomed and of meeting friends. They were grateful for being given time to
express themselves and being listened to.
All of them are still in the fourth or fifth year of secondary school. Let us hear their witness as we keep them in
our prayers.
Amani, for the community.
Ruhengeri Diocese
We were five young women from Ruhengeri Diocese: Angelique
Yambabariye, Angelique, Brigitte, Denise and Josiline. 
We were so much
enriched by the session. We now understand that a vocation is a call from God
and we understand the difference between a vocation to religious life and a
vocation to married life. We were happy to discover that all vocations are good
and important. As Christians, we are
called to follow Christ by virtue of our baptism. After seeing what discernment
is and its importance in our searching, we looked at different means which can
help us students to know and discern our vocation in daily life such as,
prayer, spiritual direction, listening to Christ through people and our daily experiences and knowing our personal talents.
Butare Diocese
Eight of us from Butare Diocese namely: Seraphine,
Devotha, Clementine, Claude, M. Jeane, Felicite, Fabiola and Emelyne,
participated in the MSOLA “Come and see” session.
During prayer in the
evening, we were touched by the word of God in Jn 1:38-39, where Jesus asked
us: “What are you looking for?’’ and invited
us to “Come and See”. His invitation awakened
and deepened our desire to know Him and follow Him. We were touched by the fact that Jesus wants
us to be missionaries, to spread his Good News to our brothers and sisters in
Africa. We discovered that even now God is still calling us to continue his
mission. And we are convinced that we
are the ones who are going to spread this Good News, first to those we live
with and to other young people, reminding them that: “The harvest is plentiful,
but the workers are few. So pray the Lord of the harvest to send out workers
into His harvest ‘’ (Mt 9:37-38).
Nyundo Diocese
We were 3 from Nyundo
diocese: Placide, Joselyne and Sylivine. We all had an extra-ordinary
experience at the MSOLA community.
The experience of the
disciples with Jesus in Jn 1:38-39 helped us to understand the importance of
having a dream, a vision in life. God meets us in our dreams and works with us
through them. When Jesus turned and saw
them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him,
“Rabbi, where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.”(Jn 1:38-39).
This word of God nourished, invited and called us to remain with Jesus in order
to know Him well.
It was also very important for us to understand that we could
get in touch with our dreams through daily reflection, knowing how to take time
in order to see the traces of God in our lives. We learnt also to stand firm
and trust God in our lives as we continue the journey with Him.
As a way of spreading the Good News of Christ, We all
(from the 3 dioceses) feel sent by Jesus to other young people who did not manage to come
for different reasons, so that they open their hearts and hear Jesus near them asking “ What are you looking for?”, “Come and See”.
Our mission today is to encourage our friends, most especially those from our
dioceses, to love Jesus who is everything for us, and to desire to know
Him.
We are going to motivate our friends by sharing with them the
importance of participating in the MSOLA “Come and see” sessions, even if they
don’t desire to become religious, because it is first of all in order to build
our lives as human beings and Christians so as to prepare for a good future and
become good lay persons, or religious who love the Church. We understood that
those who are married also have the responsibility to help God create, and form
good religious who spread the word of God to our brothers and sisters.
We thank you all dear
sisters for your love and dedication and for enriching us during this session
of “Come and see”.
Aspirants of Butare Community, RWANDA