Recollection at Good Shepherd Peace Center

Award to sister in South Sudan.

On March 7, 2019, Sr. Orla Treacy will be presented with a Women of Courage Award in Washington, D.C. Every year, the award recognises ten women from the around the world who have shown leadership, courage, resourcefulness, and willingness to sacrifice for others, especially in promoting women's rights. Sr. Orla was nominated for this award by the De La Salle Brothers through the US Embassy to the Holy See. 

The award acknowledges the work of Sr. Orla and the Loreto Sister's Mission in Rumbek, South Sudan, which was started with a girl's boarding school in 2006. Today, the mission has a thriving secondary school for more than 300 girls from all over the country, a local primary school for boys and girls, and a health care unit, with a focus on vulnerable women and children. There are 3 Loreto Sisters working in the mission – from Kenya, India and Ireland, who partner with many other missions in the area through the local Diocese of Rumbek, including the De La Salle Brothers.

Sr. Orla is humbled to be receiving the award, noting, "This award belongs to the young women of South Sudan with whom I have the privilege of working. Our students embody all that is courageous – they are young women of vision, strength and hope. Young women who dream of a better country for themselves and their families, who are prepared to challenge old structures and work towards making South Sudan great. I am grateful to all who have made this possible. Our work in South Sudan is not possible without the ongoing support of our partners, our wider Loreto family, past pupils, students, staff and our local community in Rumbek. Our Church leaders, community leaders and local government leaders have all played a significant role in supporting our mission."

For more information about Loreto Rumbek and the young women of courage that this mission supports, please visit www.loretorumbek.ie.

Pope's message for Lent 2019

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS 
FOR LENT 2019

 

"For the creation waits with eager longing 
for the revealing of the children of God" (Rm 8: 19)

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters

Each year, through Mother Church, God "gives us this joyful season when we prepare to celebrate the paschal mystery with mind and heart renewed… as we recall the great events that gave us new life in Christ" (Preface of Lent I). We can thus journey from Easter to Easter towards the fulfilment of the salvation we have already received as a result of Christ's paschal mystery – "for in hope we were saved" (Rom 8:24). This mystery of salvation, already at work in us during our earthly lives, is a dynamic process that also embraces history and all of creation. As Saint Paul says, "the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God" (Rom 8:19). In this perspective, I would like to offer a few reflections to accompany our journey of conversion this coming Lent.

1. The redemption of creation

The celebration of the Paschal Triduum of Christ's passion, death and resurrection, the culmination of the liturgical year, calls us yearly to undertake a journey of preparation, in the knowledge that our being conformed to Christ (cf. Rom 8:29) is a priceless gift of God's mercy.

When we live as children of God, redeemed, led by the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 8:14) and capable of acknowledging and obeying God's law, beginning with the law written on our hearts and in nature, we also benefit creation by cooperating in its redemption. That is why Saint Paul says that creation eagerly longs for the revelation of the children of God; in other words, that all those who enjoy the grace of Jesus' paschal mystery may experience its fulfilment in the redemption of the human body itself. When the love of Christ transfigures the lives of the saints in spirit, body and soul, they give praise to God. Through prayer, contemplation and art, they also include other creatures in that praise, as we see admirably expressed in the "Canticle of the Creatures" by Saint Francis of Assisi (cf. Laudato Si', 87). Yet in this world, the harmony generated by redemption is constantly threatened by the negative power of sin and death.

2. The destructive power of sin

Indeed, when we fail to live as children of God, we often behave in a destructive way towards our neighbours and other creatures – and ourselves as well – since we begin to think more or less consciously that we can use them as we will. Intemperance then takes the upper hand: we start to live a life that exceeds those limits imposed by our human condition and nature itself. We yield to those untrammelled desires that the Book of Wisdom sees as typical of the ungodly, those who act without thought for God or hope for the future (cf. 2:1-11). Unless we tend constantly towards Easter, towards the horizon of the Resurrection, the mentality expressed in the slogans "I want it all and I want it now!" and "Too much is never enough", gains the upper hand.

The root of all evil, as we know, is sin, which from its first appearance has disrupted our communion with God, with others and with creation itself, to which we are linked in a particular way by our body. This rupture of communion with God likewise undermines our harmonious relationship with the environment in which we are called to live, so that the garden has become a wilderness (cf. Gen 3:17-18). Sin leads man to consider himself the god of creation, to see himself as its absolute master and to use it, not for the purpose willed by the Creator but for his own interests, to the detriment of other creatures.

Once God's law, the law of love, is forsaken, then the law of the strong over the weak takes over. The sin that lurks in the human heart (cf. Mk 7:20-23) takes the shape of greed and unbridled pursuit of comfort, lack of concern for the good of others and even of oneself. It leads to the exploitation of creation, both persons and the environment, due to that insatiable covetousness which sees every desire as a right and sooner or later destroys all those in its grip.

3. The healing power of repentance and forgiveness

Creation urgently needs the revelation of the children of God, who have been made "a new creation". For "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away; behold, the new has come" (2 Cor 5:17). Indeed, by virtue of their being revealed, creation itself can celebrate a Pasch, opening itself to a new heaven and a new earth (cf. Rev 21:1). The path to Easter demands that we renew our faces and hearts as Christians through repentance, conversion and forgiveness, so as to live fully the abundant grace of the paschal mystery.

This "eager longing", this expectation of all creation, will be fulfilled in the revelation of the children of God, that is, when Christians and all people enter decisively into the "travail" that conversion entails. All creation is called, with us, to go forth "from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Rom 8:21). Lent is a sacramental sign of this conversion. It invites Christians to embody the paschal mystery more deeply and concretely in their personal, family and social lives, above all by fasting, prayer and almsgiving.

Fasting, that is, learning to change our attitude towards others and all of creation, turning away from the temptation to "devour" everything to satisfy our voracity and being ready to suffer for love, which can fill the emptiness of our hearts. Prayer, which teaches us to abandon idolatry and the self-sufficiency of our ego, and to acknowledge our need of the Lord and his mercy. Almsgiving, whereby we escape from the insanity of hoarding everything for ourselves in the illusory belief that we can secure a future that does not belong to us. And thus to rediscover the joy of God's plan for creation and for each of us, which is to love him, our brothers and sisters, and the entire world, and to find in this love our true happiness.

Dear brothers and sisters, the "lenten" period of forty days spent by the Son of God in the desert of creation had the goal of making it once more that gardenof communion with God that it was before original sin (cf. Mk 1:12-13; Is 51:3). May our Lent this year be a journey along that same path, bringing the hope of Christ also to creation, so that it may be "set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Rom 8:21). Let us not allow this season of grace to pass in vain! Let us ask God to help us set out on a path of true conversion. Let us leave behind our selfishness and self-absorption, and turn to Jesus' Pasch. Let us stand beside our brothers and sisters in need, sharing our spiritual and material goods with them. In this way, by concretely welcoming Christ's victory over sin and death into our lives, we will also radiate its transforming power to all of creation.

From the Vatican, 4 October 2018
Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi

 

Francis

© Copyright - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Invitation to conference

Dear all,

The Institute for Justice and Peace Studies at the Catholic University
of South Sudan warmly invites you to a public lecture we are
co-organising with the Dutch Embassy in South Sudan under the theme
'Bishop Paride Taban: Lessons from a Lifetime of Peacemaking.'

The theme of the lecture reflects a lifelong dedication by Bishop
Paride Taban to local peacebuilding and marks the awarding of the Four
Freedom's Freedom of Worship Award to Emeritus Bishop Paride Taban in
May 2018 in Middelburg, the Netherlands by the Roosevelt Foundation.
The public lecture aims to deepen understanding of and draw lessons
from a lifetime of peace work and inspire future generations of
peacebuilders and educators.

Date: 21 February 2019
Time: 11.45 am to 15.00 pm
Venue: Catholic University of South Sudan, Juba Campus, Juba Na'Bari/Thongpiny

We are very pleased to announce that Bishop Paride Taban will be
present with us.

The lecture is open to the public and will be held at our Juba Campus,
down Kololo Road in Juba Na'Bari/Thongpiny. For more information,
please contact iarco.cuofss@gmail.com or go to
https://www.facebook.com/IJPS.CUofSS.

We look forward to your participation.

We would be glad if you can share this email with your wider network.

END

To all the Sisters in South Sudan

To All Congregations Leaders of Religious Sisters In South Sudan

Greetings and blessings of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all . I am happy indeed to write to you after our meeting last year at Good Shepherd Peace Center Kit during the RSASS Assembly. based on the presentation about  ASEC last year , I am hereby announcing to you all that the recruitment for the Sisters is on going  , I am kindly asking you

to send the names of your Sisters to ASEC office at Sacred Heart or by e-mail:veronica.othow@asec-sldi.org .

The number of Sisters  is Not limited so you can send from Five onward .....this training is a capacity building for the Sisters at all levels.

please take not of this :

1 - The  training will last  for  one Month ( 4weeks )

2- Technology Cohort 1 will take place in May 2019

3-Technology Cohort 2 will take place in August 2019

4- Feeding and Board is the responsibility of ASEC

5- Transportation of Sisters is the  responsibility of Congregations

I am looking forward for your positive answer .

Thank you

Sr.Veronica Daniel Othow

ASEC Country Director South Sudan

+211925364132

+211912673834

2nd of February - Feast of Consecrated life

Dear brothers and sisters,

It is now a tradition that for the 2nd of February, on the day of the
Consecrated life, we meet for a simple gathering.

This year RSASS excecutive body is inviting all the Religious present
in Juba to come to the Good Shepherd Peace Center - Kit - for a
morning together.

The program is as follow

09.00 am Arrivals
09.30 am Conference by fr. John Puodzuna, the general bursar of the
Order of the
Friars Minor, on "the use of money and goods in
religious life"
10.30 am coffee break
11.00 am greetings from Rev. Fr. Mark Kadima, the pro nuntio to all
the religious and a word
from fr. Nicolas.
11.45 am Holy Mass presided by Rev. Fr. Mark Kadima

12.30 pm Lunch

After lunch departures.

Please confirm via email your presence so that we can better organize the day!

May God bless you all

fr. Federico
RSASS Chairperson


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www.rsasouthsudan.blogspot.com

Bishop Paride Taban's speech for Peace Day Celebration