Celebration Renewal Lay Missionary Commitment Jacinta van Luijk
Yesterday, June 3rd, Mill Hill Associate Jacinta van Luijk MHM renewed her missionary contract for an additional period of five years. The ceremony took place at St. Jozefhuis, Oosterbeek in the presence of a large number of Mill Hill Missionary Friends.
It was for the first time since the corona pandemic that well over forty former members, associates and other friends of Mill Hill answered a call from our Regional Representative, Fr Ben Engelbertink MHM, to take up the thread of what used to be called ‘Ontmoetingsdagen’ (Days of Encounter).
What better occasion to choose than to make Jacinta’s scheduled renewal part of this joyful gathering?
I, Jacinta van Luijk,
hereby express my desire to renew my association with Mill Hill as an associate member for a period of five years, thus continuing to participate in the missionary mission of the Mill Hill missionaries.
I want to commit myself to this missionary apostolate in the spirit of the Gospel.
I know what it means to be an associate member and I am willing to accept all the duties and privileges that come with it.
I request that you, Ben, as representative of the Superior General of the Mill Hill Missionaries, accept my request to renew this commitment as an associate member for a term of five years.
That is not to say that there were no other attractions and activities on the day’s menu.
A visit to the recently renovated ’95 wing of Vrijland, now rebaptised Silverhill, the opening of the Brederoc exhibition – paintings from the Kees Breed MHM collection – in the corridors of St. Jozefhuis, and a talk by by Ms Liesbeth Groenewoud on projects in the global South, all featured in the well furnished programme.
Jacinta herself gave an interesting and well-illustrated overview of her work at the Kitale Community Advancement Programme in Kenya.
Somewhere along the line yours truly also got a look-in to kindle the interest of the audience in the various channels of communication of the Dutch Region and Mill Hill Missionaries in general: our – now digital – Contactblad and the Mill Hill Missionary website with its daily digest.
And always creative Ben Beemster MHM roused the assembled guests to join in a somewhat hilarious female adaptation of the Mill Hill anthem:
- For a Mill Hill maiden-she
And she might have been a Capuchin
A Vincentian or Carthusian
But a Mill Hill maiden-she. - For a Mill Hill maiden-she
And in spite of all temptations
To join these congregations
She remains a Mill Hill maid,
She remaaaaaaaaaains a Mill Hill maiden-she.
All in all this revival of a long standing tradition proved highly successful and most enjoyable.
Fons Eppink MHM
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