Peramiho Priory Newsletter Nov. 2015 - Jan. 2016 Be merciful, just as your father is merciful Lk.6,36 Silver Jubilee of Sr. Hildegard Sr.Hildegard Fuli had her 1 st profession on 1. Oct. 1995. On the same date last October 2015, Sr. Hildegard and the sisters in her community in Uwemba where she is the Superior had a simple celebration. As the custom of our priory, however, on 22 nd November 2015- the Solemnity of Christ the King when all the jubilarians are honored with a festive celebration - the whole community, her family members and acquaintances had the opportunity to greet and congratulate her. Abbot Anastasius Reiser, OSB presided over the solemn Holy Mass. In his homily, he preached about Christ who is our king, and acknowledged Sr. Hildegard s 25 years of professed life that must have been made of many ups and downs. It is clear that when we rely only in Christ who is the victorious king over evil and our failures, we can continue our spiritual journey towards the right way as a disciple of St.Benedict. After the Holy Mass, we moved to the hall in the Abbey. There, we enjoyed a well prepared lunch, followed by joyful entertainment numbers in honor of Sr. Hildegard. Our sisters, brothers of St. Benedict abbey, her friends and relatives- all enjoy the time as we together join hearts in rendering songs, dances and a skit. May God continue to bless her till her Golden jubilee.
Welcome New Year 2016 In welcoming the New Year, the parish held a vigil at 6:00 p.m. where parishioners, sisters and monks gathered together in prayer. After this, we had the Solemn Vespers, and a festive supper prepared by our expert cook, Sr. Gabriela Mkulu, OSB. It is a custom in Peramiho to have adoration till midnight to pray to God for our different needs while waiting for the New Year. This year, since it is the Jubilee of Mercy, the main theme was to ask for God`s Mercy to dwell in our priory, congregation and to thank Him for the blessings we received during the previous years. The adoration started at 9:00 o clock and the Sisters carried the theme in their different groups for an hour of adoration. Ten minutes before midnight, the Sisters and Formandees danced before the altar, singing and thanking Jesus for his wonderful deeds during the past years. When the Peramiho Parish bell rang to mark the end of the year 2015 and to welcome the year of Grace 2016 almost all the sisters were in the Chapel to sing the Te Deum. The deposition of the Blessed Sacrament by Mother Ruth culminated our prayer. We thank our Sisters all over the world for supporting us with their prayers to be able to go through the challenges and demands of the past year. Be blessed for what you did to support our priory. May our Good Lord be with us all! 60 years and 70 years Jubilee of Profession On 7 th February, our dear Sr.Maria Goretti had her 60 years jubilee of monastic profession as a prelude for her diamond jubilee celebration. This year is so meaningful for her and for all of us because, last year, she celebrated her 50 years in the mission as a popular dentist here in Peramiho. Sister shared with us her monastic and missionary journey during the common recreation. She said I ve never experienced homesickness since I came here because I felt at home from the beginning. Two days later, on 9 th February, we had special celebration - our dear Sr.Fromunda s 70 th jubilee! She made her first profession in 1946. Because of her age she will be 93 this year and health, the community decided to celebrate her jubilee ahead of the other jubilarians. Sr. Fromunda and all sisters were excited and looking forward to this day. It was very impressive and touching to hear her
renew her vows in German and, afterwards, showing us her pre-signed card which she marked with the sign of the cross. Fr. Dieter, OSB and Fr. Lucius, OSB all long-time missionaries of our neighboring abbey - concelebrated the Eucharistic celebration and were invited to have breakfast in our refectory. We were happy to have them together for this celebration. Fr. Lucius, who regularly visits Sr. Fromunda, congratulated her but humorously expressed his doubt whether Sr. Fromunda will not think of leaving the convent. He spoke of her admiration of Sr. Fromunda s dedicated service to the orphans and lepers (more than 50 years) and also for her love of reading, which is an aspect of our Benedictine life. Indeed, we can always find Sr. Fromunda holding a book and welcoming us with an angelic smile whenever we visit her in her room. We thank God for sending Sr. Fromunda and Sr. Maria Goretti to our community so that we may be enriched by their witness of commitment and devotion to our vowed life. Movement and Change! 11. Nov. 2015: Sr.Giselinde, Sr.Paula and Sr.Bernada Sr.Giselinde needed to have a thorough medical checkup in Germany. Sr.Bernada accompanied her but returned to Tanzania right away. Meanwhile, Sr.Paula was given a new mission assignment in Ndanda priory. We pray for God s grace and His presence to our two sisters wherever they are, whatever they do. 13. Nov. 2015: Sr.Monica We had to allow our dear Sr. Monica Groth to leave our community because of the call of a new mission as an archivist in Rome. Sr. Monica had served God for almost 30 years in the Peramiho priory. We could only guess that it must not have been very easy for her to say Yes to the new assignment when we consider her long years of service in this community and of her advanced age. We wondered what she might have been feeling when the car started to leave Peramiho leaving behind familiar places and faces. We thank Sr. Monica for teaching us what obedience means. We will miss her; but we will always be reminded of her whenever we pass by the places where her hands had touched the library, the archive, the decorated bulletin board, her small garden, and most all, our cemetery. God bless her and her new mission. May she continue to bear fruit abundantly!
17. Nov. 2015: Sr.Madelein While we had to say good-bye to some dear sisters and feel some kind of emptiness in the community because of their absence, we felt grateful to receive a new missionary, Sr. Madelein Yu, from Korea. Sr. Madelein arrived on 17. Nov. 2015 in Dar-es-Salaam after almost a day s journey. But the long journey did not end yet. It took her two full days to reach Peramiho because of a car problem which happened in a remote place. Sr. Madelein said that with her experience, she could now imagine the difficulties of our pioneer- missionaries had when they encountered emergency situations. Sr. Madelein works in the business office. 27. Nov/ Sr.Kalista, 11. Dec. 2015/Sr.Emma Sr. Kalista, our junior sister who participated in the IJP (International Junior Sisters Program) in Rome arrived in Tanzania with many new experiences. Meanwhile, another junior sister, Sr. Emma left for Rome to participate in the same program. 27. Jan. 2016 /Sr.M.Goretti and Sr.M.Bernadette Finally, our dear Sr. Maria Goretti Gast arrived in Peramiho from her homeleave and medical treatments which delayed her coming home. She was away for almost eight months. We were happy to see her in good health. separations. In the early morning of the same day, our dear Sr.Mary Bernadette left for her home priory, Nairobi Kenya. Sr. Bernadette had offered her selfless service for our formandees as novice mistress for two years, which made our community members, especially our novices, sad and hesitant to send her home. These were all communicated in songs and wishes during the farewell program for her. To comfort the novices, we encouraged them to take this opportunity as a learning experience for a deeper understanding of our missionary way of life which entails many We thank Sr. Bernadette for her many contributions to our community by sharing her bright ideas and gifts and talents with us. Also we thank the Nairobi priory for their generosity to allow Sr. Bernadette to serve our Priory. Till the new novice mistress is appointed, Sr. Christiana takes charge of our novices. To help her, Sr. Fortunata was appointed as member of the Formation Team.
Pe-Nyota (Stars of Peramiho: Novitiate News) 1 st year of Postulancy Concluded On 21 December 2015, six Postulants had a recollection day and were initiated into their second year in Postulancy. 2 nd Year Novices Community Exposure On 17 August 2015, Novices Theresia, Desideria, Kasilda amd Claudia had the joy to be sent for community exposure. Novices Theresia and Deresia were sent to Uwemba community, Nov. Claudia to Mjimwema community and Nov.Kasilda had the pleasure to remain in our priory house to work in our nearby mission hospital, St. Joseph Hospital. They completed the exposure and were together again in Peramiho last 31 December in good health. They said they had grown more with their many experiences.... Listening to people s problems made us improve on our listening skills, and involvement in their lives helped us to learn more about taking initiative. We learned how to cope with different situations at different times. We had the chance to know more about today s life issues. The experience helped us to be fully aware of what we might face in the near future and made us to be closer to Jesus. We felt our community s love and concern for our growth. We thank our community for giving this wonderful time. Entrance into Postulancy and Feast day of Sts. Mauro and Placid On 15. January. 2016, Aspirants Silvana, Martha and Salome were accepted as Postulants by the community. In the evening, the novitiate members had special celebration to congratulate them and to honor the day of St. Mauro and Placid. 2 nd Year Postulants Community Exposure On 23. January. 2016, 2 nd year Postulants started their apostolic experience. Their assignments are as follows: Post.Cesilia- Morogoro for one month, then Peramiho Priory kitchen, Post. Adelbertha Canteen in our Peramiho Girls Secondary School, Posts.Christiana and Adelmas Uwemba, Posts.Ester and Beatrice Mjimwema.
PGSS (Peramiho Girls Secondary School) News Godspeed Form Four Students Sixty Seven (67) students graduated from Form Four class on 14. Nov. 2015. Despite the rough time this batch and their teachers experienced with each other during their Form Four year, the batch gave their school honor by ranking first in the region in the National Examination and 41 st in the national level, out of 3,452 schools. Form Two National Examination We are happy that our Form Two students achieved well in the national examination. Fifty four (54) students got Distinction and Eight (8) students got Merit. We do hope that their efforts will sustain and help them reach their intended goal. Our heartfelt CONGRATULATIONS to our faculty and sisters who exert much effort and spend more time to help our students achieve their dream. Official Opening of School Year 2016 This year is quite challenging because of the free education system initiated by the new leadership in the government which may affect the school population in the long run. Parents prefer now to send their children to government schools instead of private schools. Here in our school, we expected a total number of Form One students to number sixty five (65) but only sixty two (62) enrolled. Although the difference is not very significant, the fact remains that the free education system poses a challenge to private schools in Tanzania. Whether the new system will work or not is still something to see. OUT- STATION NEWS Mjimwema This school year, by force of circumstance, our Montessori Kindergarten school added Standard One to the school program with fourteen (15) pupils who were promoted from our Kindergarten. This brings our school population to a total number of eighty four (84) pupils. This move was done to sustain the interest of the parents in sending their children to our school. May God bless our continuing endeavors to provide quality education to the people in Mjimwema!
Uwemba Finally, the major repairs in our St. Gertrude convent and St. Anna s Health Center in Uwemba are finished. Our convent in Uwemba has been the favorite vacation place of our sisters. The renovations in the bathrooms, comfort rooms and windows have added to the relaxing ambience in the convent. Meanwhile, the almost finished theater, and new laboratory equipments in our health center open up new opportunities to expand proper medical and health care to the patients who come to our health center. Along with these is an on-going collaboration with an international NGO called DREAM- an award winning organization for their advance and holistic approach to health care of the HIV victims. They have been providing free workshops to our Sisters in the health center. The latest of these is an all-expenses paid trip to Maputo, Mozambique for our Sr. Gloria and Sr. Agape. Kudos to Sr. Rosann and to Sr. Elisabeth, former Prioress and Sub-prioress respectively, for their initiative and collaboration in bringing the whole project into completion. Peramiho Priory Newsletter Committee: Coordinator and Lay-out: Sr. Seraphia Jeong, OSB Members : Sr. Anuarite Haule, OSB : Sr. Winfrida Msoffe, OSB : Sr. Mary Paul Chintala, OSB