Going to France for two months in order to serve at the Welcome House of l’Île Blanche was for me a great opportunity to put myself at the service of our Sisters and to live a fraternal experience within our Congregation. This stay was also to have a particular dimension: I had to participate, with other Sisters from Africa, in a time of return to the sources, to rediscover together the places that saw the birth and growth of our religious family. Unfortunately, the Sisters of Africa who were supposed to participate in this time could not come: a real disappointment for all of us!
Yet, at the heart of this disappointment, the Lord reserved a beautiful surprise for me. Several of our Sisters have made themselves available to welcome me, accompany me and help me discover some of our source places. Thanks to their availability and fraternity, what was supposed to be a group experience has become for me a personal time of encounter, discovery and return to the roots of our Congregation. I left feeling fulfilled and happy, with the feeling of having received much more than I had imagined.
During these two months at the Île Blanche, I had the joy of working with the employees of the Reception House. This collaboration allowed me to discover another dimension of service. I appreciated the work done together, the daily exchanges and the complementarity between the different people involved in the life of the House. This experience reminded me that the mission is also built with others and that each person, through their work and skills, contributes to making a welcoming place live.
Another richness of this stay was the meeting with our older sisters. I was deeply touched to see them, despite their age and fragility, continue to give generously. Some remain available for the mission, each according to its possibilities. Their testimony resonated greatly with me. They have shown me that religious consecration is a gift of one’s whole life: when strength diminishes, the gift does not stop; it can take other forms, notably through prayer, reception, presence, offering and fidelity
I also had the opportunity to visit the Mother House as well as the EHPAD (Nursing home for dependent elderly people) where some of our Sisters live. These visits were for me moments of encounter with our present history. I discovered Sisters who carry in their memory a part of the history of our Congregation. In some communities, I immediately felt at home. The welcome, the simplicity of relationships and the fraternal joy made me experience concretely that, even coming from another continent, we belong to the same family.
Among the highlights of my stay, I particularly remember the discovery of the community where Marie Balavenne lived and died. Finding myself in the places where our foundress lived her daily life, gave her life and responded to God’s call stirred deep emotion. Entering the church where she was entered was a particularly striking moment. I felt a great gratitude for this woman whose “yes” continues to bear fruit today, far beyond her time and her country.
The discovery of the places where our foundresses lived and worked allowed me to better understand that our charism is not a simple theory that we study in our formation houses. He was born from a concrete story, from concrete people, courageous choices, trust in God and daily commitment to the service of others.
The exchanges with some Sisters were also very significant. I was touched to see how the sisters look with hope at the Daughters of the Holy Spirit from Africa. They know that the future of the Congregation is also in Africa and they count on us to continue to carry the torch received from our foundresses. This trust deeply resonated with me. It is both a joy and a responsibility.
I left this experience with a grateful heart. I left for two months to do a favor at Île Blanche; I leave with the feeling that I myself was welcomed, served, and enriched by the encounters. The initial project could not be realized as we had expected, but this disappointment opened the door to another experience, more personal and just as valuable.
What I hold back for my mission.
As a formator in a house of formation, this experience invites me to pass on to the young postulants and sisters in formation much more than knowledge about the history of the Congregation. This experience invites me to transmit a living memory, a legacy and a fire. I would now like to help them understand that we are the repositories of a story that we have not begun, but that we are called to continue. Our older sisters have passed on a torch to us; it is now up to us to keep it alive and pass it on to those who will come after us. As a Daughter of the African Holy Spirit, I feel particularly challenged by this trust placed in us. It calls us to know more our sources, to love our charism, to root it in our African realities and to transmit it with fidelity, creativity and boldness.
Above all, I keep a conviction from this stay: when our projects are not carried out as we had planned, God can open another path before us. The disappointment of not having lived this return to the sources with the other Sisters of Africa was finally transformed into a personal experience of grace.
I left to serve. I leave filled and happy, with faces, places, memories and above all a new responsibility: to continue to bring to life the charism received from our founders and to help the younger generations discover, in their turn, the beauty of this vocation.
May the Lord grant that we may always keep alive the fire received, in order to transmit it faithfully to future generations and to bring together, in Africa and elsewhere, the hope of our Congregation.
Clémentine TAPSOBA, DHS – BURKINA-FASO. Published on 15 September 2026
