Rome, 24 February 2025

Dear Sisters and Partners-in-Mission,

Blessings of Peace and Joy! We are Pilgrims of Hope, indeed, and we are moved by the need to know each other more in order to love each other.

It was a delight to meet in person for the first time, as the Bicentenary Committee and CLT at the Generalate in Rome from 13-16 January 2025, to connect and to plan the program for the Jubilee Year of the foundation of the Contemplative Sisters. We were pleased to have Ms. Paula Sgherza to facilitate our meeting.

We are happy to share with you some of the plans we have for this Bicentenary year.

FORMATION AND CONTEMPLATIVE REFLECTION

Zoominars

Five Zoominars will be offered in 2025 for all in the Congregation who wish to participate. The focus of the formation sessions will be on the contemplative dimension of our lives. These sessions will be two hours each and with guest speakers.

Link for 7th March registration: https://tinyurl.com/200JubileeZoominar1

We would appreciate it if you register early to enable us to facilitate the necessary translation and to provide you with the Zoominar link early. You will receive registration links for the other
sessions in our Congregational e-newsletter.

Contemplative reflection
Reflections will be shared after each Zoominar session by a few contemplative sisters in the following week or so. These will be made available through the Congregational e-newsletter and on our website.

Creative response
In addition, we felt that to engage the spirit and heart of our Jubilee, words alone will not suffice. Therefore, to deepen the reflections, everyone in the congregation is invited to a creative response in expressing what is stirring within them. These include:

• artwork, (sculpture, painting, etc.);
• song and music;
• food recipe;
• poetry and inspiring stories;
• planting or any symbolic action.

Please send these creative responses to the following email: creations@gssweb.org

Selected creative responses will be displayed in the Generalate in November 2025 to celebrate God’s divine presence in all of our lives.

JUBILEE EXPERIENCE IN ROME

Thirty Contemplative Sisters from around the world will gather to celebrate the Bicentennial Jubilee year in Rome. We are organizing a 15-day program from 1-18 November 2025 at the Generalate. Sisters participating will have an experience of coming together, connecting with each other, engaging in formation sessions and a retreat. Their pilgrimage will enable them to enter into a deeper discernment and reflection on the meaning of this Bicentenary of the Contemplatives and the Jubilee year of the Church within the environment of the Holy City.

Eucharistic Celebration of the Closing of the Bicentenary
A Eucharistic Celebration to mark the closing of the Bicentenary Year will be held in Rome on 11 November 2025. This sacred celebration will be at 12:00 noon at Casa Domus Pastor, Via Aurelia, Rome. This Eucharistic Celebration will be live streamed.

CONGREGATION-WIDE CELEBRATIONS

The above are some of the plans we have confirmed for the year. In addition to these, many Units are organizing different activities and celebrations for the Bicentenary. We are pleased that there is active engagement among the Units to create awareness and understanding of the Contemplative Life in our Apostolic Congregation.

Mother House – Angers
We are pleased to inform that the Unit of BFMN is organizing a special celebration in conjunction with the closing of the Bicentenary. They are extending an invitation to fifteen sisters (Contemplative and Apostolic) to a Retreat and Eucharistic Celebration at the Mother House in Angers, France (26 October–1 November 2025). Fr Jean Michel, Congregational Leader of the Eudist Fathers, will direct this retreat in French with translation available. The theme is based on Pope Francis’ recent encyclical, “Dilexit Nos” – on the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ. Download the flyer with more information here.

Eudist Fathers Jubilee Celebration
This year, 2025, also marks the 100th Anniversary of the Canonization of St. John Eudes on 31st May. As part of their Celebration during this Jubilee year, they received a special Decree from the Vatican that anyone who is on pilgrimage to the chapel of the Mother House or a church anywhere belonging to the Eudists or the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd may receive a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions. Download the Decree here.

Let us continue to ground our lives anew in a life where liberation, consolation, joy and healing mark our lives where mercy and goodness is our experience each day. This is the reason and
hope of our Jubilee celebration.

Thank you and God bless!

Congregational Leadership Team

Bicentenary Committee