XX Ist General Chapter will finally open its doors…
Bagamoyo welcomed the Capitulants, Officials and Guests of the Spiritans General Chapter with open arms. The Hotel Stella Maris, owned by the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit was the venue chosen, just as it was in 2012.
All Participants in this General Chapter are vaccinated, have had PCR test and will comply with the covid protocol rules issued by the Ministry of Health. Everyone feels very safe to live an intense month of General Chapter.
Feast of Poullart des Places
The feast of the first founder of the Spiritans, Claude Poullart des Places, was celebrated in Bagamoyo. The central moment was the Eucharist, presided over by Fr. Bede Ukwuije, 1st Assistant General. On the liturgical day of the Holy Guardian Angels, Fr. Bede said in his homily:
“Claude made himself simple and poor with the poor in order to show them God’s tenderness and love. He writes later in his Rule: The society…has the purpose to educate poor clerics in ecclesiastical discipline, zeal and love of virtue, especially obedience and poverty, who will be ready for everything in the hands of their superiors, to serve in the hospices, to evangelize the poor and the infidels, and not only to undertake but to love wholeheartedly and to prefer to everything else the meanest and most toilful duties for which ministers are found with difficulty”. We thank God for the wonderful gift he gave the Church through the person and work of Claude Poullart des Places. By coincidence, we are celebrating this feast on the eve of the opening of the 21st General Chapter of our Congregation”.
First Sunday
This Sunday’s Mass was presided over by Philip Massawe, Provincial of Tanzania, who welcomed all the participants. He ended his homily with a word of encouragement: “Now as we share in these moments before God, let us acknowledge that what we are about to enter into is not a human thing, but divine. In this Chapter, we continue to enter into a deeper relationship that is sanctioned by the Bible and that is a fulfilment of the deepest desires of the human heart. Let us all turn to God in prayer so that our work these few weeks will be filled with divine blessings…”
Upcoming events…
The Auditorium, transformed into the Chapter Hall, opens its doors to the first session, with the General Assembly at 5:30 pm.
Monday is Retreat day, guided by Fr. Eamon Mulcahy. The Opening Eucharist will be at 5pm, presided over by Fr. John Fogarty, Superior General.
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