On October 17, on the feast of Saint Margaret Mary, secondary patron of the Sister Adorers, the French Cardinal Dominique Mamberti gave the habit to five postulants in their convent church in Naples.
Among these new novices is Sister Claire-Marie of Christ the King, the first religious vocation coming from our missions in Gabon. She gave us a beautiful testimonial on this occasion which we share with you below:
Deo gratias. In this blessed day for my humble person, I am filled with sentiments of great gratitude toward Divine Providence. From now on clothed with the religious habit, here I am completely given to God, “a spouse of Christ,” to use the beautiful words His Eminence Cardinal Mamberti used in his sermon, who, at the invitation of our Superiors, came to present the holy Habit of the Sister Adorers to me and to our other four sisters.
In this day of joy, how can I not thank Divine Providence for guiding me up to this point with so much care and goodness. One often says that our divine Master writes straight with crooked lines. I look back on my childhood in my native country, Nigeria, where I had my first exposure to religious life. Then the providential discovery of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest and its female branch, the Adorers of the Royal Heart of Jesus Sovereign Priest.
This discovery was deepened for me by the two years I spent in preparation in Mouila, Gabon, in the heart of the mission run by the Canons of the Institute of Christ the King, before I joined postulancy. Our vocation of adorers, centered around adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, also aims to be a life offered for those who are configured to Christ in a special way: the priests of Jesus Christ. In Mouila, I had the grace of seeing good priests who comforted me in my vocation and in my desire to give myself to Jesus for the fruitfulness of their ministry. Their endless devotion edified me, and I am moved to think of our good and late Canon Fragelli, so devoted to the souls of Mouila. His successors continue in his footsteps despite real obstacles: the climate that does not spare the body, the spiritualism that doesn’t spare the souls, the polygamy and lack of fathers that enfeebles the family structure, but also difficulties with people, such as teachers, volunteers, and others whom the Canons trusted, but who came here with the aim of exercising power or imposing their views, sometimes testing the charity in the mission and trying to create division in our little family. Nothing by force and all by love, in the joys as in the sorrows – they truly live their motto. I thank the Canons of Mouila for their patience and their kind listening, knowing how to charitably accommodate all cultures, which eased by adaptation to community life with the sisters. What consolation to see divine grace transform the weaknesses of our nature wounded by sin into occasions to grow in virtue and holiness! -- Sister Claire-Marie of Christ the King
