austraLasia #3131

Love Beyond Time: FMA missionaries in PNG renew vows

PORT MORESBY 13 September 2012 --  The Salesian Sisters worldwide have been celebrating the 140th anniversary of the founding of the Institute. Celebrations formally came to a close in August (August 5th to be precise). As part of this, the Mother General, Sr Yvonne Reungoat, had asked the Sisters spread throughout the continents to select an appropriate occasion for all Sisters in the community to renew their vows.

The five FMA Sisters in Port Moresby chose to do this around the time of celebrations for Family Day at DBTI.  One entire day was given over to school celebrations, which included the performance of a Musical based on a script and score written by the Sisters from the Philippines-PNG province in 2001.  The DBTI version, produced by Sr Alice Fulgencia, told the story of the founding the Institute by Don Bosco with Mother Mazzarello as Co-foundress. Supporting acts included the Siassi Dance Group and DBTI's very own MIX Group, a combination of students from various year levels and technologies.

The second day, however, focused on the public renewal of vows by the Salesian Sisters in the Shrine of Mary Help of Christians in Port Moresby. There are five of them, three Filipinas, one India and a Vietnamese. It was indeed a propitious occasion for making the FMA vocation more known in Papua New Guinea. The traditional singsing dances for the Entrance, Procession of the Word, Offertory and Recessional were provided by different groups of students from DBTI and made the occasion more solemn and memorable.

The Musical, incidentally, was recorded by the National TV channel, Kundu 2, and after editing will be broadcast publicly.