Very Rev. Fr. Cyprian Kuupol, the Provincial Superior of the Divine Word Missionaries (SVD), Ghana has called on members of the Ghana Province of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus (HHCJ) live by their Congregational charisma.
Preaching an eight-day annual Retreat for HHCJ Sisters at the HHCJ Novitiate, Nsoatre, Sunyani in the Bono Region of Ghana from July 16 to 23, he urged the religious Sisters to be transparent in all they did to avoid having a community of distortion and deceit.
“So, for one to live a true and sincere vow of poverty. The vow of poverty challenges us to correct the malfunctions of our present economic issues” he noted.
Adding, “Nobody is so poor that he has nothing to give and nobody is so rich that he has nothing to receive” by Pope John Paul the second.
According to the SVD Provincial, “we all have problems, we do not meet to gather around others sins but to fix our eyes on Jesus Christ”. , stating, “It takes faith o declare what God says is true about you in spite of your imperfections”.
Fr. Cyprian took the Sisters through the three categories where religious find themselves , the first being the dreamer religious who admit his/her own challenges, perceive the challenges as threats but love to attach themselves to those challenges and so they can’t give up those attachments which are a thread to their vowed life.
The Second category, he said, was the clever religious. This group admit their problems, see the danger, they like sweet and delicious things and since they love these things, they pray daily to God that the problems will not be a barrier to their vowed life but they are not willing to give up those things. They use prayer as a camouflage.
The third group is the doer group of religious who like the first two groups, admit their challenges and problems and are willing to give up the attachment.
The Retreat Director further intimated that there are many religious in the world today who do not fulfil their commitment because they do not know who they are and where they belong.
Fr. Kuupol, therefore, encouraged the Sisters to go back to their communities not as they came, (for the retreat) but as transformed HHCJ Sisters to live in solidarity, being transparent and accountable.
