On Saturday, October 26, 2024, our Sister Jeanne-Bienvenue made her Perpetual Profession at the Motherhouse. Originally from Congo, our Sister made her first steps in religious life in the Congregation at the novitiate in South Africa before moving to France in 2023.
Father Jean-Marc Grand presided the ceremony at the request of our bishop, who was detained in Rome for the synod.
At the beginning of his homily, the celebrant returned to the origin of the name that our Sister received at the moment when she started her noviciat, receiving the religious habit and a new name. “Welcome” which reminds us, forever, of the trust of your parents even in the adversity of life. And Jeanne, who reminds you and us of Sr. Jeanne-Agnes, from whom, in the early days of your religious life, you learned so much. So, Sister Jeanne-Bienvenue, we can, with you, go through the Word of God this morning and let it renew us.”
Our Sister has chosen the Gospel of the Beatitudes, which allowed the preacher to develop these words left to us by Jesus: “The Beatitudes are the adequacy between the will of God and our own will, the free human action that flows from it.” He thus developed each of the beatitudes and the interieur dispositions of the meek, the hungry for justice, the pure in heart, the persecuted for righteousness’ sake… “The Beatitudes do not only set up a kind of model of the disciple or religious who commits herself… but a portrait of Christ. The beatitudes show us who Jesus is. This Jesus who makes Saint Paul say: the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ remains my only pride. What matters is to be a new creation. Let us allow ourselves to be renewed by the breath of the Beatitudes.”
Father Grand thanked Sr. Jeanne-Bienvenue for her energy that made her overcome obstacles. He also thanked her parents and continued: “Thank you, my sisters, for the path of holiness that your congregation has been tracing, inventing (in the sense of discovering a treasure), for so many years in our soil of Champagne and Aube and under so many places under other skies.”
“The times that are ours invite us to remember that religious life is not primarily significant through the activity of men and women religious, even though this activity is as necessary as it is useful. Religious life is worthwhile, above all, for the meaning it proposes. It is a sign given to the Church, to believers and to the world of that universal call to holiness to which, since our baptism, we have all been called to respond. … There are many paths, but the call is unique. It is the call to take seriously, the cross of Jesus and the promise of happiness offered by the Beatitudes.”
He ended his homily by evoking the abandonment that God asks of his children: “God is that Father who asks for nothing other than that trust that allows us to sleep in peace, having placed in his hands the burden of the day.” He concluded with a vibrant “Good life!”
The ceremony took place during a weekend “Reveal yourself!” for students and young professionals.
