SSSiiisssttteeerrrsss ooofff OOOuuurrr LLLaaadddyyy ooofff AAApppooossstttllleeesss SSSIIISSS SSS iii sss ttt eee rrr sss ooo fff OOO uuu rrr LLL aaa ddd yyy ooo fff AAA ppp ooo sss ttt lll eee sss SSS III SSS TTT EEE RRRSSSSSSIIISSS AAAccctttsss ooofff ttthhheee GGGeeennneeerrraaalll CCChhhaaapppttteeerrr 222000111333 SUMMARY Introduction 3 OPENING ADDRESS 5 F G C INAL DOCUMENTS OF THE ENERAL HAPTER Charism and Mission 9 Mission ad extra 11 Collaboration with the SMA 12 Collaboration with theLaity 12 Specific discernment: Botswana-Algeria 13 Argentina 14 Community life 15 Missionary Vocation Animation 16 Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation 17 Child safeguarding 18 Formation Initial Formation 19 On-going Formation 20 Structures 21 Finance 23 CLOSING ADDRESS 25 1 2 THE 16TH GENERAL CHAPTER OF THE INSTITUTE OF THE SISTERS OF OUR LADY OF APOSTLES Introduction WOMEN APOSTLES, ROOTED IN THE WORD OF GOD, DARE TO BE SEEDS OF COMMUNION AND HOPE In July 2013, we OLA sisters from all Provinces and Districts gathered together as one family in Monte Cucco, Rome to celebrate the life force of our Institute and evaluate our experiences during the past five years. At the beginning of our 16th General Chapter, we were all invited to reflect on the questions: 1. Where have we come from? - our history, through a look into some aspects of our beginnings; 2. Who are we? - our present reality, statistics, our apostolic activities in all the places where we are; 3. Where are we going? - our future in the next five years. The greater part of the Chapter period was spent discerning together the answer to the question where are we going using the information we had gathered from the first two questions as guidelines. During the Chapter, we felt called to a religious life that is authentic as well as prophetic. There was a strong desire to do our mission differently, committing ourselves concretely to the poor and the marginalized at the periphery of our society, paying particular attention to women and children in difficulty in our different entities. Our Chapter Logo and the input we had on topic Prophetic Religious Life in Our World Today, challenged us to move towards being prophetic religious women who are not only rooted in the Word of God but are ready to take the risk to go to the broken of this world and share what we have received. We were challenged to get off our high horses and help the wounded in our world today, bringing the compassionate face of Christ to all especially women in difficulty and children in distress. In these Acts of the General Chapter 2013, we have put together proposals, recommendations and decisions we hope will help us live a life of prophetic religious women, trying to make a difference in a world that is broken almost beyond recognition. These proposals, recommendations and decisions include the following:  CHARISM AND MISSION The Chapter recognizes the great needs of our world today including violence, the plight of refugees and immigrants, the growing number of the marginalized in our society, women and children in distress, and inter-religious dialogue. We have identified three priority areas on which to concentrate for the next five years. In this document, proposals have been 3 made to help us deepen our commitment to mission ad extra and live our internationality and inter-culturality to the full.  COLLABORATION WITH THE LAITY AND SMA We affirm the positive contribution this can bring to our mission of Evangelisation. We are called to be open to this collaboration and study how this can be done effectively.  BOTSWANA, ALGERIA, ARGENTINA The Chapter recognizes the importance but fragile situation of these mission territories and calls for a strengthening of our presence in Algeria and Argentina and the opening of a second community in Botswana.  COMMUNITY LIFE Live in Unity and they will believe In order to be authentic and prophetic religious women, our communities should be a sign of the love of God for all humanity. “ our apostolic effectiveness derives its strength from the authenticity of our communal relationships” (Const. 43). Our communities marked by racial and ethnic diversity, proclaim by their very life, that God makes no difference between persons. We are all members of one and the same family. (cf. Synod of Bishops, Special Assembly for Africa, Proposal 42). In our document, the Chapter has made proposals to help all communities live in harmony and in peace, listening to and forgiving one another, for it is in living this community of love that we will draw people to the love of God that we witness to.  FORMATION The Chapter affirms the various steps the Institute has taken over the years to ensure the OLA One Body in the area of Formation and has proposed deeper commitment to formation at all levels. This will enable the whole Institute live a prophetic religious life capable of making visible the presence of God in our multicultural world.  STRUCTURES As Institute, we continue to review our structures. This Chapter has made decision to change the juridical entities of Francophone African Province and Tanzania. We pray for a smooth organization and transitional period for all. Other proposals and recommendations made include those on Mission and Vocation Animation;Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation;Child Safeguarding and Finance. In our Provinces/Districts, whatever our options are, whatever activities we are engaged in as we try to make concrete these proposals, recommendations and decisions, prayer should be our mainstay. “Our prayer life should change our own hearts and lives so as to make us more centred in God,… prayer should be the beginning and end of all our activities, for with God at the helm of our affairs, we have everything”(Gen. Chapter2013, Opening Address, p. 4) Let us endeavor to bring to fruition the proposals and recommendations of our General Chapter 2013, and He the Master Builder, will enter and do the rest. 4 General Chapter 2013 OPENING ADDRESS Good afternoon, Sisters. Iam happy and feel privileged to welcome you all to the 16thGeneral Chapter of the Institute of Our Lady of Apostles. Looking round the hall, I see some sisters who are not new to the proceedings of General Chapters but then there are also many of you who are here in a Chapter for the first time; I say a special welcome to you. I know you will bring all your rich experiences, your different skills and your expertise to bear on our deliberations here together. Some of you have travelled long distances and may be tired from your journeys; there may be others who have come away from burning issues that need attention and may be a bit stressed by them. Whatever situations you may be in at this point in time, we ask the Spirit to give us the grace to let go of them in order to be present to one another, sharing our gifts, our strengths, our challenges and our difficulties as one family. The General Chapter is an assembly which collegially and directly represents the Institute. It is convened for reflective evaluationof what we have lived since the preceding Chapter; it is a special period set aside to research and discern the way forward under the guidance of the Spirit who is continually at work in our history. The General Chapter is a celebration of the life force of the Institute and its aim is to give to all the sisters new impetus and dynamism in a fuller consciousness of their mission in the Church.(Constitutions Art.99). The period of the General Chapter is also a time when we give thanks to God for the life shared in the Institute, the graces bestowed on us and for the gift of the mission entrusted to us as Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles. During the General Chapter of 2008, we committed ourselves to doing everything possible to make going on mission ad extra the norm in the Institute, and we, as Congregation, have taken some steps in that direction. However, our efforts have involved mainly newly professed sisters. There is a group of young sisters who are waiting to go out, to contribute their quota in our effort at evangelizing the peoples. As missionary Institute, we have to continue what our early Sisters began and contribute to the Church’s mission of evangelization. When we have received the Word, we cannot but share it.The woman at the well ran back and told the people of her village what Jesus had told her – proclaiming Him to all who would listen. Mary of Magdala ran back to tell the brethren what she had seen and what the Lord had said to her. There is always the zeal, the haste to proclaim and let others share in the good news. As a missionary Institute, let us not be seen as inhibiting the enthusiasm and zeal our young sisters who want to go out beyond their geographical boundaries to proclaim the good news and witness to the reign of God by their way of life. Our Logofor this General Chapter depicts a world that is fragmented almost beyond recognition. Our world is in a state of contradictions. While international meetings and peace talks are going on, we maintain armed conflicts; while people are dying of hunger and illness, there are nations who enjoy over-production and flourishing multi-national companies continue to exploit the poor and the vulnerable. A few months ago, in Bangladesh, the collapse of a building, housing garment factories, apartments and several shops, killed more than a thousand people. The garment workers 5 had been ordered to go and work in the same building that was showing signs of collapse and warnings had been issued. These poor workers, mostly women, who received less than $50.00 a month for the work they did had been in the employ of multi-national clothing companies in the West who prefer to use cheap labour in the poorer countries rather than that in their own countries where they would be required to pay just wages. Raging wars with uncountable number of deaths and their concomitant refugee situations continue; a threat of nuclear war looms over the world; socio-economic and political disturbances which sometimes lead to armed conflicts between citizens and their governments; terrorist attacks – religious and political; poverty and misery in certain situations. The young people who find themselves in this situation are always fleeing, fleeing to greener pastures that may not be that green and as a result, find themselves in all kinds of difficult situations (drugs, prostitution, trafficking in humans), thus creating more hardships and suffering. It is one big vicious circle that is difficult to break. Some of us here have had direct or indirect experience of these situations–Egypt, Lebanon, Nigeria, Chad, Ivory Coast, to name but a few places. It is in these global hardships and difficult situations that we OLAs and indeed the Church as a whole, have an important role to play. Our mission is to the people of today living in our world that is so fragmented almost without recognition. How do we do our mission? How do we make a difference in our world today? Concerning mission and evangelization in the Church and in the world today, Pope John Paul II said the world needs “… heralds of the gospel who are experts in humanity, who know the depths of their human hearts, who can share the joys, hopes, agonies and distress of people today, and who are at the same time contemplatives who have fallen in love with God.” In other words, the world and the Church need evangelisers who are very human and understand human needs, who know the meaning of and can share in the joys and sufferings of others. As religious and Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles, in the daily activities entrusted to us, we bring knowledge to children, we help the sick, we bring help to orphans and the needy; we do many good things to help alleviate poverty and misery in the larger communities where we live and work. What is the object of all the wonderful activities we are engaged in? Do they remain only activities that fulfill our ego as high achievers? Do we do them because they put us in a position of power since we are the ones who have something to give others? Or through our activities we are trying to be heralds of the good news of Jesus Christ?I believe it is the latter that we are called to and therefore as people who bring the good news to others, our lives must radiate the good news that we carry in us. We have to know the depths of our own human hearts; we have to be people who “can share the joys, hopes, agonies and distress of people” in our world today. We have to be compassionate as our heavenly Father, with whom we have fallen in love, is compassionate for as Karen Armstrong says in her book,Twelve Steps to Compassionate life: Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of the world and put another there … treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect. (Twelve Steps to Compassionate Lifeby Karen Armstrong, 2010) Compassion should be inseparable from our everyday life – in our communities with our sisters, as leaders of our entities, as teachers, nurses, doctors –in whatever activities we do. We should be 6 contemplative, prayerful people, who not only have fallen in love with God but radiate this wonderful love and offer it to all with whom we come in contact each day. As missionary sisters, our mission is not to bring God to the places where we think He is not present, but as Michael Amaladoss SJ says, it is to help people to discover and listen to God who is there perhaps hidden or dimly perceived or seen differently, but who is calling them all the time for a dialogue leading them to fuller life.(Mission Today,Michael Amaladoss, SJ. 1988) We do not bring God to places where we are sent because God is already there before us. He created the world and all its peoples. In trying to help people and cultures, we go to rediscover and listen to God who is already there with them in their situation always beckoning to them to come closer. We therefore have to get accustomed to the concept of collaboration in the mission of the Church which we are a part of. We should collaborate with other groups, congregations and lay people in the local Church. In so doing, the universality of the Church will be made manifest in her communion in mission and our missionary activities will not end with our departure. Again in our Chapter Logo, we have the bible and the cross that bring our focus unto God’s Word and prayer. As women contemplatives in action, who have fallen in love with God, prayer should be our mainstay in the life God has called us to. Joan Chittister, in her book The Monastery of the Heart,beautifully sums up the essence of prayer in our lives as follows: - Prayer restores the soul that is dry and dulled by years of trying to create a world that never completely comes - It heals the wounds of the day and reminds us who we want to be at the deepest, truest part of us. - Prayer lightens the load. It gives fresh direction and new energy. It fixes the eye of the soul on the real ends of life, when the real goals of real time seem unattainable. Our prayer life should change our own hearts and lives so as to make us more centred in God, and aware of our own limitations. Prayer should be the beginning and end of all our activities for God is our refuge and our strength and is present in every part of our life. Sharing the Word of God and living the gospel values in community should be our main focus, for the psalmist tells us that those who trust in Chariot and horses will collapse and fall but we who call on the name of the Lord will hold and stand firm.(Ps. 19) With God at the helm of our affairs, we have everything. Our prayers and spiritual exercises should therefore not be regarded as chores but they should be our life, lived with joy. Remember, we are contemplatives who have fallen in love with Him who strengthens us. Our Venerable Founder had this to say to a sister in 1885: Having Jesus Christ in our heart is the secret of happiness, the way to perfection, the interior life. If any other thought wants to dominate the thought of Jesus, quickly put it in its place, after Jesus.(Père Planque, 1885). He asks us to “always seek Our Lord Jesus Christ …” He will teach us how to behave in all circumstances. Let us keep God in view all the time and work diligently as we endeavor to spread His reign and proclaim His glory. We are in this world only for a short period of time; we must work on our personal sanctification and do the little things we have to do very well and leave the rest to God. 7 Perhaps this little prayer attributed to Archbishop Oscar Romero but which in fact was composed by Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw will resonate with us as we go about our apostolates and doing mightily well at winning souls for God. A Step Along The Way It helps now and then to step back and take a long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of themagnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection Nopastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the Church’s mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything. This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they holdfuture promise. We lay foundations that will need further development We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do itvery well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers,not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own. (Bishop Ken Untener) Sisters, as prophets of a future we do not own, as workers of projects whose end results we may not see, let us continue to work diligently in God’s vineyard trusting that He, the Master Builder will enter and do the rest. On this note, I declare the16thGeneral Chapterof theInstitute of Our Lady of Apostlesopen. Sr FeliciaHARRY OLA Superior General July 3rd2013 8