Prisca Chiwowa

We join our brothers and sisters in Malawi in mourning the loss of Mrs. Prisca Chiwowa, wife of Mr. Israel Chiwowa.  Prisca was a member of the newly elected Council for East Africa (Education). Those who attended our Kenya meeting will remember Israel as one of our delegates from Malawi. May we unite in prayer and love across the many miles for the Chiwowa family and all who mourn the loss of our sister.

Josephine Njeri, MLC Kenya President, shares the following memories:

Greetings and peace of Christ to you all.

It’s so painful to accept the death of Prisca. I spent a considerable amount of time with her in our Regional council meeting. She kept us (Ladies) awake up to the late hours of the night, all laughing our hearts out even when we were already so exhausted. I sat with her and came up with a wonderful document on Spirituality. I walked with her in the Faustino garden sharing uncountable number of things.

Dear friends, I am urging you to remember Mr.Chiwowa. Not so long ago he lost his mother, and now his wife- the two most close women in his life. He needs your prayers and company. To my sisters and brothers in Malawi, may you find it in yourselves some moments to be with Mr.Israel Chiwowa. And the Marianist family at large, let us join our brother in mourning this beautiful and wonderful gift God had given us. Let us also have some moment of silence in honor of Prisca.

I cannot explain how I feel right now. All I have to say is that I thank God that I had a chance to share moments with Prisca. I will miss her.

She had a responsibility in the education office to make sure that we have a regional members’ register.  I knew she would do a perfect job, but look at what God has done, He chose her at this moment in time. It is painful my friends, painful.

May God rest her soul in eternal peace.

Together with Jesus and Mary.

Josephine Njeri

MLC- Kenya President

Dear friends,

I have just completed a circular for our Marianist Lay Communities around the world. It’s called “Being Marianist, Being Family“. Our family spirit is an important aspect of our charism. It is also one of our greatest challenges. We are an ecclesial movement that spans the globe with a diversity of languages, cultures, gifts and needs. We are also part of a larger spiritual family that includes the Society of Mary, the Daughters of Mary Immaculate, and the Alliance Mariale. How do we take the inspiration of our family spirit and live it in practical ways? The circular, of course, does not provide all the answers. But, I hope that it will be useful for our present conversation and efforts to live more deeply our family spirit. I firmly believe that our Marianist Family is a model to be shared with our Church and our world!

Thank you to Carol Ramey, the Director of the North American Center for Marianist Studies (NACMS), for her guidance, advice, support, and help with the references. Carol is a long time friend and mentor whose deep knowledge and wisdom of Marianist things have helped to form and nurture me over the years.

Muchas gracias to Izaskun Arias. Izaskun has been a translator for the international team, the World Council, and our international meetings for many years. Her wisdom and insights come from observing first-hand our journey as a global Marianist Family. Her friendship and support are a real gift to me, and to all of us.

And mérci beaucoup to Mary Harvan Gorgette, my friend and OLRT community member. Mary provided the French translation and helped me to edit and polish the final draft with her scholarly mind and Marianist heart. Both Izaskun and Mary showed such care and commitment to ensure that the message remained true in the translations. For this I’m so grateful!

“Ser Marianista, Ser Familia“

“Être Marianiste, Être Famille“

Our CLM in México have just completed their 7^th National Meeting in Puebla de los Ángeles. Juan García Jiménez, the out-going National Responsible, shares the following report. We thank Juan García for his leadership service to the Marianist Family and welcome Sra. Mireya as the new National Responsible. Click here for photos from the meeting.

Nuestro VII encuentro nacional de la CLM fue realizado los días 1,2 y 3 de mayo de 2010,en la ciudad de Puebla, en la Casa de Retiros Villa Estela, los animadores de los sectores: Juan García Jiménez, Paloma Aylin Bañuelos Estrada y Ausencio Flores Carreón, fueron los responsables de organizar el encuentro. En dicho encuentro nos acompañaron como ponentes de los temas los religiosos marianistas: P. Quentin Hakenewereth, José Nicolás Castilla, Gobi Torres Nazario, José de Jesús Ruiz Santillán.

Debido a la situación actual que vive nuestro país al celebrar el bicentenario de su independencia y centenario de la Revolución Mexicana, compartimos un tema sobre las características de nuestra cultura mexicana y a través de esta cómo es possible encarnar el carisma de la cultura marianista.

El número de laicos marianistas ha ido creciendo, actualmente somos alrededor de 200 personas aproximadamente en el país, de ahí nace el interés de saber cómo organizarnos y de cómo llevar a la práctica la forma de gobierno en la familia marianista mediante los 3 oficios, por ello, el Hno. Jesús Ruiz nos dio una conferencia sobre la importancia de llevarlos a la práctica desde las pequeñas cosas que como familia vivimos cada día.

Otra aportación de suma importancia al encuentro fue el hablar sobre la espiritualidad de la oración de las tres que es parte de nuestra vida marianista en el mundo, el P. Quentin, nos habló sobre la importancia del dialogo que se da en el calvario en el evangelio según San Juan de donde nace nuestra oración de las 3 al pie de la cruz.

Nos reunimos con mucha alegría, fue un placer volvernos a ver después de dos años, nos dimos a la tarea de convivir, de orar y de celebrar con alegría el encuentro con Cristo a través de la Eucaristía. Compartimos nuestro folklor, nuestras canciones, fue un encuentro hermoso y esperamos que cada encuentro sea lleno del amor de María y de su Hijo Jesucristo, que nuestro trabajo durante estos próximos dos años nos lleve a compartir con más personas

el don de nuestro carisma.

Fraternalmente :

Juan García Jiménez

(Top left) Isabella Moyer (Canada), Marceta Reilly (USA), Pati Krasensky (USA), Christine Suriano (USA), Joanne McCracken (USA), Lorna Mueni Kilonzo (Kenya), Julie Aherne (Australia), Mary Harven Gorgette (France), Susan Buckley (Ireland)

I belong to a ‘cyber’ Marianist Lay Community called Our Lady of the Round Table. The original members met online in May 2005, during the North American Center for Marianist Studies (NACMS) online course on Marianist Community, facilitated by Carol Ramey. We felt a strong bond of community through our online discussions and wanted to build on the experience. I had been sharing my daily lectio prayer and reflection by email with a dear Benedictine friend, Sr. Grace Kowolski, OSB. We used the daily liturgical readings. The format was simple. We posted a line from the readings that would be our inspiration for the day. We shared briefly why these words spoke to us – what was God trying to say to ME? And we shared the prayer that was the result of our meditation. This worked very well for Grace and me. We wondered if this format would work for our new community. Well, almost five years later, we can say that it’s working rather well! J

Our community became more global over the years. We remained faithful to our daily practice, although we all share times of being a ‘lectio cheat’! These are the days when we are unable to post a prayer, yet are nourished, supported and inspired by the prayers of others. Our global membership and diverse time zones also means that prayers pop in to the computer throughout the day. We have had a window into different parts of the world as we have shared our local reality and culture. We have embraced the prayer needs of family and friends around the world, and have been blessed with many prayers answered. Although we meet online, we are truly a community.

Tomorrow I’m travelling to Ireland for our first OLRT retreat! Some of us have met before, but this will be the first time we will all be together. (Pati is unable to be with us, but we’re planning to have a Skype call on Wednesday.) It’s going to be a grand reunion!

Two very special people will be with us in spirit. Bro. Walter Oberster, SM was a founding member of OLRT. He died January 11, 2006. We were blessed to share his last days through his prayers. We felt his spirit with us when we decided to be an intentional Marianist Lay Community on February 2, 2006. And my dear friend and mentor, Sr. Grace, died on July 4, 2009. I still miss her daily, expecting her lectios to pop up in my email box. How I wish I could share this experience with her. She would be tickled by it! I know that the love and prayers of Walter and Grace will be with us. They will surely be smiling in that great communion of saints!

If I can, I’ll try to send some wee updates from Ireland.