Sister Kinuyo Anzai celebrated her 100th birthday on December 3, and a Mass was held at Palais Luce with Father Charles Aime Bolduc, SME,  as the Eucharistic celebrant, and Sister Kyoko Terashima, Sister Kiyoko Kurihara, Sister Yumiko Furuyama and Sister Akiko Matsukawa from the  convent also attended the celebration. Sister Anzai was happy to be able to celebrate Mass for the first time in a long time, and she was also grateful for the visit of the Hanazono sisters.

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Congregation de Notre-Dame INVITATION GROUP Since April of this year, some Sisters and Associates have met several times to consider how best to proceed with “vocation ministry” in our province. We have come to recognize that the form this ministry should take among us is not recruitment to a specific lifestyle, but accompaniment of those who are discerning the direction their lives will take. We see this as an urgent need, particularly for young adults. At the same time, each of us has found that being a vowed Congregatrion de Notre-Dame member or an Associate is a precious and fulfilling way of living as a Christian, and we hope others will join us in doing so. So, we have no intention of being shy to speak of our experiences! One of our more challenging tasks has been naming ourselves as a group in a way that expresses this expanded sense of our mission. “Vocation committee” doesn’t do so, and we thought that Invitation-to-Discern-What-Direction-Your-Life-Will-Take Group was a bit too long; hence the name: CND Invitation Group. As you may know, every year we receive the names of individuals who have completed a survey indicating interest in religious life and possibly our congregation through Visions Network. Although some of these people are unlikely to pursue this interest, we have decided as a group to be sure that all of them receive a response that invites them to engage further. We’ll do so using a new account--askcnd@cnd-m.org--where we can see the requests and respond directly from the account. This is a beginning, and we hope to hear from young (and not-so-young) adults with no interest in religious life but who are looking for companionship on their spiritual journeys. Who knows where that quest will lead them? Please help us by sharing the address with those who may be interested, and feel free to write to us yourself! In other developments, we’re encouraged to hear that CND Sisters will be participating in World Youth Day in Lisbon next summer, and we are hoping to become a sponsor of the on-line A Nun’s Life Ministry, which embraces our goals. Check out https://anunslife.org/ Maco Cassetta, Jean Cooper, Eileen Dorney, Kathleen Dorney, Peggy Doyle, Mary Anne Foley, Mary Jo Hoag, Judy Laffey, Cathy Molloy, Ann Perrin, Ann Marie Strileckis

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“The Struggles of Waiting: Meeting Jesus in our Fragility this Advent.”On a cold sunny day in Advent, on the shores of the Lake of Two Mountains, twenty-three associates and religious from three Montréal religious congregations came together at the new Villa St. Martin Retreat House for an Advent silent retreat. This year our Montréal Congrégation de Notre-Dame associates wanted something different for their annual Advent retreat so we decided to go “away” for the day. In the process of organizing the day, it quickly became apparent, that perhaps this was the time to realize another one of our long-held desires – that of bringing together associates and religious of other congregations for a joint activity. We started with two other congregations where we had contacts and perhaps this new relationship will grow and blossom into other shared initiatives. The theme of our retreat day was “The Struggles of Waiting: Meeting Jesus in our Fragility this Advent.” It was led by Father Kevin Kelly, S.J. and Holy Name Associate Dina Amicone from the Ignatian Centre of Montréal. During our retreat time, we explored the concepts of chronos vs. kairos (God’s time) reflecting on our experience of time, our kairos moments in the midst of our busy lives. In the afternoon we were invited to embrace more deeply our vulnerability and humility as we wait during this Advent time. In between sessions, the brave could go for walks in the frigid temperatures to pray and reflect on the questions while the wise stayed in and contemplated from chairs looking out on to the lake. The day ended with a beautiful spiritual conversation where we were able to share the fruits of our prayer. Charles Taker, Associate

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