“ After this I looked: there was a great multitude… from all nations, tribes, peoples and languages…” (Rev 7:9)
Eymard’s dream was to inflame the four corners of the earth with the Eucharistic spark. The SSS family is in the six continents of the world. On the one hand, it exists in the north-western zone (Europe and North America), where there is much secularization, “old” Provinces living out the phases of aging of personnel, decreasing in missionary commitments and seeing a continuous drop in recruitments of new vocations. On the other hand, in the eastern and southern zones (Asia, Africa and South America), we have young Provinces/Regions in full growth where candidates to the SSS life are numerous. Some are in countries where Catholics are a minority and are living with difficulties of religious freedom.
Now more than ever the Province of Our Lady of the Assumption (Philippines-Uganda-Hawaii) feels deeply and understands the internationality of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament. By merely looking at the 145 members composing POLA, with eight nationalities – Filipino, American, Ugandan, Vietnamese, Pakistani, Chinese, Sri Lankan and British, we are already growing internationally even just within our own Province. The call for collaboration, the need for personnel, the debt of gratitude and the desire to witness to the charism and spirituality of the Eucharist in foreign missions are just some of the motivations why the Province has started seriously considering ad gentes. While the Province is encouraging its perpetually professed members to be ready for assignments abroad, it is also preparing our young SSS in initial formation to be future Eucharistic missionaries. In fact, part of the formation program for our scholastics is exposing them to foreign mission (in Uganda, for example) during their pastoral year. Moreover, learning a foreign language is now a program in the initial formation of our candidates. POLA even created another Provincial Commission, the Commission on Mission and Inter-Provincial Collaboration, during its Provincial Chapter in 2011, recognizing the significance and the challenges of missioning. The commission has framed a formation program for those leaving for mission (Sent-forth) and coming back from mission (Re-entry).
More recently, the Province accepted the three newly professed religious of the Region of Cardinal Emile BIAYENDA in Congo-Brazzaville (Republic of the Congo) who will study Theology in the Philippines. They are: Br. Ephege BALOULA, SSS, Br. Ange MAYITHEMIAYOUKOU, SSS and Br. Ceti-Cesaire BANSIMBA MOUKANZA, SSS. They arrived last November 29 and were accompanied by their Regional Superior, Fr. Brel MALELA DAOUDA. Br. Ephege studied Electronics Tehnology, Br. Ange took up Biology and Br. Cé studied Literature. The country’s official language is French; thus, there are plans to enroll them in an English Course at St. Louis University in Baguio City in January 2018. In the meantime, they have lessons on Basic English.
(L-R) Br. Ceti-Cesaire BANSIMBA MOUKANZA, SSS, Br. Ange MAYITHEMIAYOUKOU, SSS and Br. Ephege BALOULA, SSS
We are Three Religious of the Blessed Sacrament from Congo-Brazzaville who will be taking our Scholasticate program in the Philippines.
It is our first experience as Brothers from Brazzaville to be sent to Asia for Scholasticate program. Usually, we do our Scholasticate in Kinshasa, all Africans. This change is the result of the General Chapter, which was held in June 2017 in Chicago, where the internationality of our SSS was emphasized as a Congregation. The three of us did 2 years of Postulancy and Philosophy concurrently in Monseigneur Georges Firmin SINGHA Seminary of Brazzaville. We then proceeded for Novitiate in Senegal for 2 years (2015-2017). We made our first Profession of Religious Vows on September 8th, 2017.
We left for Philippines on November 29th, 2017. We will be having our English Sessions in Baguio for 5 months, before we begin Theological Studies in August at Maryhill School of Theology (MST) here in Quezon City for 4 years.
The Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament was implanted in Brazzaville at Saint Pierre Claver de Bacongo by Canadians Fathers in 1959. We have four houses. At Brazzaville we have Saint Pierre Claver de Bacongo Parish, Saint Benoit de NgangaLingolo Parish, and the community of Sebastien MPAHOU, the postulate house. We are also at Pointe-Noire in Saint Esprit de Mpaka Parish. Now, we have twenty-two priests, one French Priest: Fr. Aime Joseph PORRET, SSS, one Nigerian: Fr. Cyriac ONOUHA, SSS and Fr. Carlos CORREA of Angola. We have also received Father Louis BUNGA, SSS, of Isidore BAKANDJA Province for the mission. He is working at Pointe-Noire. The region has eleven Scholastics; there are eight in Kinshasa and three here in Philippines. We have Seven Novices in Senegal, Five in the second year and Two in the first year. In Postulancy there are Eight Postulants; Two in the second year and Six in the first year. Among the Six Postulants in first year, there are Two from Cameroon because our region has a Community in Yaoundé in Cameroon with Three Religious in the region. Among them, there is Father Nicaise MILANDOU, the first Regional Superior from 2011 To February 2014. He is the Superior of the Community there. We have Twenty-Two Aspirants. Six of them are in our Communities for the Community experience before being accepted for Postulancy. There are two in Saint Pierre Claver, two in Saint Benoit and two also in Saint Esprit. In Africa, in general, there is only One Community of the SSS Servants Sisters, which is in Congo-Brazzaville at Pointe-Noire. On the Eighth to Eleventh of February next year (2018), there will be a Third Regional Provincial Chapter.
General Situation
The Cardinal Emile BIAYENDA Region of Congo-
Brazzaville will celebrate its sixth year of existence in August 2018. It is composed of 21 perpetually professed and 11 temporary professed, or a total of 31 religious priests and brothers, whose ages range between 24 and 80. The Region has four houses: three in the Archdiocese of Brazzaville and one in the diocese of Black Point (the Congo s economic capital is located 500 km from Brazzaville). There are also several communities, namely, the Saint Pierre Claver Community (1959), the Sébastien Mpahou Community, which is a house of formation of postulants (2003), the Saint Benoît de Nganga-Lingolo House (currently being set up), and the Community of Mpaka with Point-Black (2005).
A life In The Eucharist
Our Mission Base as a Region is to foster communion and heal division by propagating a truly eucharistic life. Indeed, we continue to look further into Fr. Eymard and the Gift of Self in our apostolic commitment to help us make more progress in the mission. There is a family-like atmosphere in our Congregation in the Congo, which is admired by the faithful and highly regarded by the ecclesiastical authorities. Thus, our religious carry out their ministry and pastoral work with confidence in the tradition started by our Canadian Fathers.
Our parishes are among the largest in the Congo, not only because of the land area but especially because of the pastoral needs involved, particularly the celebration of the Eucharist. We try as much as we can to share our spirituality and our charisma with the faithful. We have Eucharistic celebrations (3 masses per day with at least 200 people at each celebration and 5 masses on Sundays with at least 1,500 people at each celebration), not counting the masses for burials and weddings; adoration of the Blessed Sacrament; celebration of lauds with the faithful; accompaniment of the different groups and parochial movements; accompaniment of the sick; care for the poor with the support of Caritas; catechesis and the celebration of the sacraments; the pastoral care of the youth; animation on the eucharist and the liturgy in Catholic Radio; giving recollections and seminars; etc. In short, these are the ways we relit passion for the Eucharistic mission.
The Life Of The Communities
Speaking about the community, it is like a small family. Religious of the Area visit the various communities and live dimensions of renewed Eucharistic spirituality: fraternal life, life of prayer, and life of service. Each community has a local council composed of a superior, a vicar and a treasurer of the community. Each community follows a life plan where the members engage in the overall activities of vespers and lauds, the meals, the community meetings, the recollection during the key periods of Advent and Lent, the days of relaxations or community outings. The communities stabilize themselves more and more in the testimony of life and mission, although there still remain efforts required on behalf of certain religious.
Formation
Formation remains a priority.
For Aspirants, each community is a favorable place for vocation animation (R.V 47). The young people in our large parishes and in schools where we do pastoral work show interest in our charism. Thus, a commission on vocation was established for the accompaniment of candidates. Currently, we have 23 candidates, and 5 will begin the first year of postulancy, including 2 from Cameroon.
With regards postulancy, applicants take their Philosophy course at the seminary in Brazzaville. Currently, we have 7 applicants.
The novitiate is inter-African and is done in Senegal. We have a total of 7 beginners: 5 will be in their second year and 2 will begin their first year.
The Theological College is also inter-African and is located in Kinshasa. We currently have 8 scholastics. With the orientations of the General Chapter, 3 scholastics left for the Philippines for their Theological studies.
We are conscious of our SSS mission, so we send our brothers for training and see to it that they are strongly rooted in the Eucharist. Thus, the Area gives priority to the accompaniment of the young people aspiring to enter novitiate and to consolidate its collaboration with the African Conference in the common structures of formation.