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| Sister Victoire Niyonzima, MSOLA |
It
was on Wednesday last week that Lavigerie community was privileged by the visit
of Sr. Victoire of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa (MSOLA). It was
such an enthralling occasion that the students had a chat with her soon after
the common evening prayer, a chat that some members described as
extra-ordinary, explicable by no terminology yet essentially noticeable by an
unalloyed attention by the audience. It was such a joyful moment that one could
not be reminded of a section of this academic year’s community project,
‘actively present’/listening community per se! I could sense that we are not
just living the community project in Platonic form/idea; we are actually living
to it aristocratically!
In
order to be at par with protocol, it will be necessary to have a brief
knowledge of who Sr. Victoire is. She is a Burundian by nationality who joined
the MSOLA family way back in 1993. This is 23 years down the road. She has had
a wide missionary experience, and she is currently a co–superior in the Entity
of Eastern Africa Province and presently based in Nairobi. Being curious to
know about her vocation, she only smiled and said that her vocation was a
mysterious one, a thing she had never expected in her life. Of course
everyone’s vocation is a mystery, but Sr. Victoires’ was mysterious in that her
anxious fear turned into a feast! It was a feast in that; the family was not a
hindrance to the call to preach the Good News about the imminent Kingdom of
God. She significantly appreciates the role of her family in her vocation even
amidst difficult moments in her life. In fact, “it is in difficult moments that
we should see God more,” she said. To her, the MSOLA community members have
further been a motivation in her missionary life.
Being
a community of 29, each one of us could make his own detailed account of this
precious encounter with Sr. Victoire based on what inspired him. In these few,
lines I would like to re-echo two aspects that sister shared with us namely,
friendship and principle. I hope this will rekindle in us something new. I know
many have written, others are writing and some will be writing Essays on
friendship. However, I beg that at this point of departure we keep Aristotle
and principles of science in philosophy in the fridge. Sr. Victoire spoke about
the role of friendship. She said that friendship is a way of building the
Kingdom of God. Without friendship, there is no love and without love, there is
no God because God is love. In fact, friendship should help us in community
life. It adds value to the quality of life in the community. We should remember
the words of Jesus, “I call you friends because I have made known to you
everything I learnt from my Father.” Outstandingly, sister informed the
audience that in addition to friendship, we need principles. These principles
should help us discern the kind of friendship we are involved in; they should
be the light to remind us of the boundaries of friendship because some
friendships may not necessarily lead us to the choices we are undertaking. We
have to be aware that the choice we are making is not an easy one, but it is
the best!
Longoli
Michael