Thursday, July 5, 2018

FIFTH DAY

THE ADMINISTRATION OF MATERIAL GOODS

The morning session was dedicated to this theme and was animated by Sr. Daphne Alphonso.  She started by reminding us how God entrusted to us everything and gave us the responsibility to be good stewards. 

Sr. Daphne Alphonso

Together we expressed the words that come to our mind when hearing management and administration:
  • Take care
  • Responsibility
  • Accountability
  • Organization 
  • Human and financial resources
  • Commitment
  • Stewardship
  • Economy

We shared how in reality nothing belongs to us, everything is a gift, starting by our own lives, and all is entrusted to us in order to manage it. This is why we cannot spend more than what we have and we have always to think of the future. The importance of developing a strong sense of belonging to the Congregation. 

We were reminded at the light of our Constitutions, numbers 144 and 145 how from the beginning Cardinal Lavigerie envisaged that all we have is for the service of the Mission and that is why nothing belongs to the individual or to the community, but all belongs to the Congregation. 

We really expressed gratitude for this great insight and for the good management of our common goods by all the sisters who had preceded us. 

We also shared the joys, challenges and difficulties in doing personal and community accounts.

Some of our Joys:
  • The transparency of each sister when they give all their expenses with the receipts;
  • It is a service to the community and we rejoice when other sisters in the community are helpful in guiding us;
  • It helps us grow in our sense of belonging and in responsibility of what is used in the community.


Some challenges and difficulties:
  • Not to get the accounts in time;
  • To balance the accounts and not knowing very well the use of the Excel program; 
  • When sometimes community expenses are mixed up with apostolic expenses;
  • In certain cases, the respond of final vows sisters in front of some situations like over-expending is not always easy to understand or to manage.


In silence with only one pen, the two sisters had to draw together a flower,
a ladder and a cow

Sharing on how we lived this experience:  
  • The first difficulty was to agree which thing to draw first, which size and which position. We understood how communication is important to give direction, to keep order and to help each other.
  • The main challenge was the silence. Each one was pulling on any side. We lack planning, organization and common goal. 
  • We saw a link with community life, interculturality and common good.  If there is no communication, there is no life.
  • We valued the complementarity


We spend the afternoon having an open conversation with the General Council on some questions we have previously asked them by writing. It was interesting not only because of the issues we shared about (accompaniment, annual evaluations, and the use of the apostolic fund…), but because we ourselves were invited to answer the questions and in most cases, we did it and we did it rather well. 

We concluded the day by remembering our expectations from the first day and we shared the fruits we have gathered from this session:
  • New skills for community living and the confirmation of the place of community in our lives;
  • The importance of sharing and keeping an openness that leads to growth;
  • To look in our own cultures and see what need to be evangelized;
  • Keep openness to myself, to God and to others;
  • A time of personal renewal;
  • A strong sense of unity in our diversity as we walk together;
  • The realization that the future of the Congregation depends very much on me, on the steps we take today, on our commitment;
  • Energized and increased our love for the Congregation. Being grateful and proud of our Congregation;
  • To re-read our history in order to work on ourselves;
  • To be more aware of where we are today as persons and as a Congregation; 
  • The challenge to be accountable and responsible of the things entrusted to us.

We thank God for this time we have spent together as temporary professed sisters and we are very grateful for the possibility given to us to have such meetings.

As an editorial team it has been was our joy to render this service of prepare the material for the BLOG. It was a learning experience. We have really learnt a lot. We would like to thank the sisters who have participated by giving their experiences and those who have supported us in different ways for the success of this work.


The editing team: from left to right:

 Marie Sakina, Amani Anwartite and Edith Yendaw 

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