Reception of young women – Novitiate CIB – CICSAL

San Paolo (Brazil). On 6 January 2022, in San Paolo, Brazil, the Interprovincial Novitiate Community “Our Lady of Grace” of the Interprovincial Conferences of Brazil (CIB) and the Southern Cone of Latin America (CICSAL) welcomed six young people in formation who are preparing for entry into the Novitiate, coming from Brazil, Chile, and Argentina.

The young women, accompanied by the formators, had the opportunity to visit the Provincial House of Our Lady Aparecida Province, where they were welcomed by Sr. Nilza Fátima de Moraes, Councilor for Formation of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. In the chapel of the Provincial House, praying a Hail Mary with them, she entrusted the vocational journey of each of the Novices to Mary, Our Lady of Aparecida and Help of Christians. Between the 1^st and 2^nd year, there will be ten novices and they will be followed in the formative journey by Sr. Rosângela Maria Clemente of the BAP Province.

On 8 January 2022, in Mairoporã, São Paulo, the Novitiate Community began the annual Spiritual Exercises and on 14 January it will celebrate the entrance to the 1^st year of the Novitiate, the period of initiation into religious life, “in which the young women learn what living as an FMA entails within the spirit of the covenant, of following Christ, according to the charismatic identity outlined in the Constitutions (Rooted in the Covenant, p.131).”

To the young women who are preparing to live this important stage of their formative journey and to the novices of the 2^nd year, the wish that they feel accompanied by Mary Help of Christians, especially in this year in which the FMA Institute celebrates the 150^th anniversary of its foundation, and walk together with joy on the way of the evangelical counsels and in the footsteps of the Founders, to be a sign of God’s love among young people.

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