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You are here:Home / Family News / NEF 2016 / Family News - October 14th, 2016 / Life of the Congregation (1)
Oct 14, 2016

Life of the Congregation (1)

New finally professed

Life of the Congregation (1)

At the foot of the glorious Cross, on September 14th, 2016, Valentin, Hermann, Armel (from the Ivory Coast) and Marie-Paulin (from Central Africa) pronounced their final vows in the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Bétharram.

These few pages dedicated to them give us the opportunity of sending them our best wishes for an exemplary life, following the footsteps of Jesus Christ, and for a fruitful and joyful ministry.

Valentin N’Zoré N'Guessan

I got to know the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Betharram thanks to the Sisters of the Christian Doctrine who have a community in our parish. They led us in a group of vocational searching. So, when I expressed to them my desire to enter into religious life, they recommended to me the Adiapodoumé Community. I began my journey in 2006. It was in 2008 that I went back as a postulant to the training house. What struck me about the Bétharramite religious life was the prayer, the simplicity, the availability and the humility of the brothers and fathers who welcomed me. Additionally, the noviciate was for me the most important time of my training, as I spent a year scrutinising the life of Jesus in the Holy Land. Moreover, the international session has come to deepen my faith, in such a way that after having experienced the country of Jesus in Bethlehem, I spent 40 days discovering the founder from the cradle to his going to Heaven.
After my perpetual profession, I was appointed bursar in the formation house at Adiapodoumé where I also exercise responsibility for the reception centre. I give thanks to the Lord for all his goodness in my life. I rely on the intercession of Our Lady of Betharram and of our father, St Michael Garicoits, to stay faithful to Christ my whole life.

Marie-Paulin Yarkaï

I am from Central Africa. I have known Betharram since I was in college in 2003. I came from the Diocesan Seminary, and I always had the desire inside me to consecrate my life to serve Christ, by serving my brothers and sisters. It’s a desire that I’ve carried with me since my childhood. It’s when I joined the JEC that I got to know Fr Mario Zappa, at that time Diocesan Chaplain of the said movement. Over time, a connection was built up between him and me. He would later become my spiritual guide until I joined the group of Community aspirants. At the end of three years of exchange, of listening and of discernment, I was called to begin my Betharramite experience in the Fatima Community in Central Africa. It was on 16th October 2006, the day after I passed my Baccalaureate. After this, I was admitted to begin the postulancy in 2007. The same year, I started my degree in Philosophy at the St Laurence of Bouar Major Seminary. On 2nd September 2008, after having taken the entry test to the St Paul of Abadjin-Kouté Inter-Diocesan Major Seminary, I tread upon the soil of the Ivory Coast for the first time, in order to continue this experience following after Christ, as a Postulant and as a Philosophy student. This ‘Here I Am’ that had urged me on and attracted me from my first contact with the community ‘like an all-consuming fire’, continued to ring out in my heart, so giving me perseverance in my journey towards following Christ. That is how, in September 2010, I was received into the noviciate at Bethlehem. On 25th March 2013, day of the solemnity of the annunciation, I took my first vows in the congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Betharram. After a Theology Degree, completed in June 2015, followed by a year off, I received the grace to make my perpetual profession on 14th September 2016 in Abidjan.I am continuing my training in nursing care in a health institute in Abidjan.

Hermann Djison Bahi

I am Brother Herman Djison Bahi of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Betharram; I am a national of the Ivory Coast, more precisely from the West of the Ivory Coast. It gives me great joy to share with you my ‘Here I Am’ to follow Christ in the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Betharram. Indeed, I started first as an altar server in the parish of St. Bernard and that’s exactly the place where I met the Fathers of Betharram. These were for me tireless missionaries always saying ‘Here I Am’ for the missions others didn’t want. This availability to the task, to the mission with gentleness, love, humility, in the service of others, was the fundamental element which created a desire in me to join the congregation in order to show others the same impulse of happiness and joy. From there I gave my ‘Here I Am without delay, without reserve, without turning back, for love’ to following Christ, in the steps of St Michael Garicoits, since 2006. Nevertheless, it is important to note that the experience that made me feel I belong body and soul to the Betharramite family is the experience of the Noviciate where I really learned the fundamentals of religious life and more importantly the fundamentals of the Betharramite life. Currently, I am working at the Tshanfeto Educational Farm on the premises of the Saint Bernard d’Adiapodoumé. Parish. Onwards as always!

Armel Daly Vabie

I was a small boy when I saw and heard of the religious brothers and fathers of Betharram. They were in charge of the parish of St. Bernard of Adiapodoumé. That is why I could visit them, and the lives of some priests, including Fr Gabriel Verley, impressed me a lot. He always gave the best of himself in his apostolate; it was with conviction that he proclaimed the Gospel message. He got close to the ‘little people’ (especially the poor and invalids); he organised the parish youth well, to whom he passed on the taste for sport. Rightly so (with the admiring look from the little boy that I was back then), these remain for me the great missionaries. Over time, I became close to the Betharramites. Their speciality, as religious brothers and fathers, more than impressed me. I found it was pretentious of them to consider themselves as mystics of the Incarnation (intimately close to the Sacred Heart of Jesus) and to want to ‘reproduce the impulse of the Word Incarnate’. But, curiously, that was what struck me most. And, in 2006, I began the postulancy; it was, from that date until today, a great adventure where I only had to discover the surprising faithfulness of God towards me. I really don’t deserve anything. All Glory and Honour to Him. A (recent) experience that left its mark on me. Last year, I was asked to follow the aspirants of the Central African Bouar Formation House. I said yes; but I had some doubts. But, I was sure that these new and demanding experiences were going to contribute more to my configuration to Christ and to my love of Betharram. My joy today, is what reinforces my convictions and makes me live out my consecrated life joyfully. I am discovering what it is to surrender to God.

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