{"id":16102,"date":"2025-01-09T10:43:48","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T09:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fillesstesprit.org\/?p=16102"},"modified":"2025-01-09T11:03:33","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T10:03:33","slug":"35-years-of-joy-in-following-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fillesstesprit.org\/en\/35-years-of-joy-in-following-christ\/","title":{"rendered":"35 years of joy in following Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[et_pb_section fb_built=&#8221;1&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.16&#8243; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_row _builder_version=&#8221;4.16&#8243; background_size=&#8221;initial&#8221; background_position=&#8221;top_left&#8221; background_repeat=&#8221;repeat&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_column type=&#8221;4_4&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.16&#8243; custom_padding=&#8221;|||&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221; custom_padding__hover=&#8221;|||&#8221;][et_pb_text _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.3&#8243; background_size=&#8221;initial&#8221; background_position=&#8221;top_left&#8221; background_repeat=&#8221;repeat&#8221; hover_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221; sticky_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243;]<\/p>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Following the celebration in 2024 of 70 years of the presence of the Daughters of the Holy Spirit in Cameroon, Sister Monique GABANA agreed to share with us the story of her vocation in this year in which she is also celebrating 35 years of religious life.<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u2018How can we fail to give you thanks, Lord, after all these years at your service? These were the words of Sister Monique when she was given the floor at the closing Mass of the 70th anniversary of the presence of the Daughters of Saint Espri, on Saturday 21 December 2024, in Maroua, in the parish of<br \/><em>Mother Monique<\/em> <span class=\"reference\">&#8211; as we affectionately call her &#8211;<\/span> had this to say: \u2018Several things always intrigued and attracted me when I saw the Daughters of the Holy Spirit whom I met 35 years ago. They were simple women, close to people and filled with the boldness of the Spirit.Two things motivated me to be and do as they did: firstly, their simplicity of life, their closeness to the people and secondly, the popular belief at the time that the consecrated life was not for the young people of the country&#8230; But the desire to belong to the group of sisters grew every time I met one of them.\u00a0 So it was that several of us young Cameroonian girls expressed to the sisters our desire to share their charism and spirituality. After a period of discernment and formation, I was the only one admitted to take my first vows in the congregation, on 29 March 1989, in the parish of Saint Jean de Djarengol, in Maroua. Not wanting to remain the only Cameroonian in the congregation, working for more vocations was my pastoral ministry every time I met with groups of young people\u2019.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">On Saturday 25 May 2024, in the parish of Notre Dame de l&#8217;Immacul\u00e9e in Lara, Sister Monique&#8217;s home parish, a number of people joined her in giving thanks to God for her 35 years of religious life.<br \/><em>\u2018Thank you to all those who have helped and supported me in responding to Christ&#8217;s call. I firmly believe that they are with God and that they continue to intercede for us\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"reference\"><strong><em>Sister Vedette NDAOKA\u00cf, Marza-Ngaound\u00e9r\u00e9 novitiate community<\/em><\/strong><em>. Published on 9 January 2025<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"reference\"><strong>Photos<\/strong>.<\/span><br \/><span class=\"reference\">1. Sister Monique with some of the nuns at the thanksgiving mass in Lara.<\/span><br \/><span class=\"reference\">2. Sister Monique with priests, consecrated persons, friends and acquaintances at the end of Mass in Lara.<\/span><br \/><span class=\"reference\">3. Sister Anne-Marie Couloigner, Superior General, presents the dove to Sister Monique at her first appointment on 29 March 1989, in the presence of Sister Anne-Marie Renault, Vice-Provincial.<\/span><br \/><span class=\"reference\">4. Sister Monique and her father at the end of Mass, 29 March 1989.<\/span><br \/><span class=\"reference\">5. Sister Monique with her mother at the end of Mass on the same day.<\/span><br \/><span class=\"reference\">6. Sister Monique in her first community of Doukoula.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_gallery gallery_ids=&#8221;16081,16084,16087,16090,16093,16096,16099&#8243; posts_number=&#8221;20&#8243; show_title_and_caption=&#8221;off&#8221; show_pagination=&#8221;off&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][\/et_pb_gallery][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following the celebration in 2024 of 70 years of the presence of the Daughters of the Holy Spirit in Cameroon, Sister Monique GABANA agreed to share with us the story of her vocation in this year in which she is also celebrating 35 years of religious life. \u2018How can we fail to give you thanks, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16076,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"<h5 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Following the celebration in 2024 of 70 years of the presence of the Daughters of the Holy Spirit in Cameroon, Sister Monique GABANA agreed to share with us the story of her vocation in this year in which she is also celebrating 35 years of religious life.<\/strong><\/h5><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u2018How can we fail to give you thanks, Lord, after all these years at your service? These were the words of Sister Monique when she was given the floor at the closing Mass of the 70th anniversary of the presence of the Daughters of Saint Espri, on Saturday 21 December 2024, in Maroua, in the parish of<br \/><em>Mother Monique<\/em> <span class=\"reference\">- as we affectionately call her -<\/span> had this to say: \u2018Several things always intrigued and attracted me when I saw the Daughters of the Holy Spirit whom I met 35 years ago. They were simple women, close to people and filled with the boldness of the Spirit.Two things motivated me to be and do as they did: firstly, their simplicity of life, their closeness to the people and secondly, the popular belief at the time that the consecrated life was not for the young people of the country... But the desire to belong to the group of sisters grew every time I met one of them.\u00a0 So it was that several of us young Cameroonian girls expressed to the sisters our desire to share their charism and spirituality. After a period of discernment and formation, I was the only one admitted to take my first vows in the congregation, on 29 March 1989, in the parish of Saint Jean de Djarengol, in Maroua. Not wanting to remain the only Cameroonian in the congregation, working for more vocations was my pastoral ministry every time I met with groups of young people\u2019.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">On Saturday 25 May 2024, in the parish of Notre Dame de l'Immacul\u00e9e in Lara, Sister Monique's home parish, a number of people joined her in giving thanks to God for her 35 years of religious life.<br \/><em>\u2018Thank you to all those who have helped and supported me in responding to Christ's call. I firmly believe that they are with God and that they continue to intercede for us\u2019.<\/em><\/p><p><span class=\"reference\"><strong><em>Sister Vedette NDAOKA\u00cf, Marza-Ngaound\u00e9r\u00e9 novitiate community<\/em><\/strong><em>. Published on 9 January 2025<\/em><\/span><\/p><p><span class=\"reference\"><strong>Photos<\/strong>.<\/span><br \/><span class=\"reference\">1. Sister Monique with some of the nuns at the thanksgiving mass in Lara.<\/span><br \/><span class=\"reference\">2. Sister Monique with priests, consecrated persons, friends and acquaintances at the end of Mass in Lara.<\/span><br \/><span class=\"reference\">3. Sister Anne-Marie Couloigner, Superior General, presents the dove to Sister Monique at her first appointment on 29 March 1989, in the presence of Sister Anne-Marie Renault, Vice-Provincial.<\/span><br \/><span class=\"reference\">4. Sister Monique and her father at the end of Mass, 29 March 1989.<\/span><br \/><span class=\"reference\">5. Sister Monique with her mother at the end of Mass on the same day.<\/span><br \/><span class=\"reference\">6. Sister Monique in her first community of Doukoula.<\/span><\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spiritual-family"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fillesstesprit.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fillesstesprit.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fillesstesprit.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fillesstesprit.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fillesstesprit.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16102"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.fillesstesprit.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16111,"href":"https:\/\/www.fillesstesprit.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16102\/revisions\/16111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fillesstesprit.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fillesstesprit.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fillesstesprit.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fillesstesprit.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}