Mozambique. On 27 November 2021, at the Parish of St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe of Inharrime, Inhambane, Sr. Digna Pedro Manhenze, Daughter of Mary Help of Christians of St. John Bosco Province (MOZ), made her perpetual vows in the Institute of the FMA.
The Eucharistic Celebration with the rite of Perpetual Profession was presided over by Msgr. Adriano Langa, Bishop of Inhambane, in the presence of family members, FMA, friends, and parishioners. Sr. Digna made her vows in perpetuity in the hands of the Provincial, Sr. Zvonka Mikec. Perpetual Profession is a public and ecclesial act, a definitive consecration which commits the Daughter of Mary Help of Christians to give herself totally to God, loved above all else, in joyful service to young people, according to the spirit of the Preventive System of St. John Bosco and St. Mary Domenica Mazzarello.
Sr. Digna prepared for her “Yes forever” with the month of formation, a 2nd novitiate, which began on 1 November 2021 at the Community of St. John Bosco in Namaacha, where she was able to re-read the experience of consecration as an FMA, comparing herself with the life of the Founders. Perpetual Profession was preceded by the Spiritual Exercises.
On 12 December 2021, in the parish of St. Isabel of Chiúre in Cabo Delgado, where Sister Digna Pedro is engaged in the mission, a Mass of thanksgiving was held for her perpetual vows. The Mass was presided over by the parish priest, Fr. Aristides Lucas Bolacha, and concelebrated by the parish vicar, Fr. Osvaldo da Silva Roda, by Fr. Eusebio Mauaie-Palotino, and Fr. Frederico of the Diocese of Pemba. In addition to her community, St. Maria D. Mazzarello of Chiúre, there were also the FMA of the Community of Mary Help of Christians of Pemba and an FMA of the Community of St. Francis di Sales of Nacala.
The celebration was a hymn of thanksgiving to God for the gift of the vocation of the newly perpetual and of the consecrated persons present, and also an occasion for vocational animation for the young people. During the homily, the priest invited Sr. Digna to tell her vocational story and she in sharing, called the young people to be attentive to the voice of the Lord and not to be afraid to say yes, like Mary, when the Lord calls them. The Holy Mass was followed by a recreational moment with the group of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which ended with a moment of conviviality.
