CNN Interview with Immaculée Ilibagiza

Life is an Adventure in Forgiveness

Someone once said, “Life is an adventure in forgiveness”. In fact, forgiveness is the center of our relationship with Christ. It is for forgiveness’ sake that He entered the world. His greatest work of creation, was not the grandeur of cosmic spectacle, or the incomprehensible order of molecular physics. For these, God had only to make something out of nothing, which for Him, was simply to think of it, and it was. No, His greatest work was that of salvation. He came as a human being to redeem us. He did not simply wave His omnipotent hand, and wipe away our sin. He became one of us...to share our life, our loneliness, our suffering, our weeping in the night. He came to show us how much He loves us. When He was still “just God” and He told us that He loved us, how could we understand what that meant? So He came. He lived with us, and then He died for us. In His infinity as God there is no end. But in His humanity, His flesh was scourged, His head pierced, His hands and feet run through with nails….with His last breaths, He begged forgiveness for us. He loved us to the end. Before He came, there was no “end” to Him. But death entered Life Himself, so that we could know what it meant to be loved “to the end”.

Left to Tell is a story of forgiveness. It is a story of hope. It is a story of one woman’s union with Christ on the Cross...but she was pressed together with 7 other women in a tiny bathroom. Immaculee let Christ “love her to the end”...with Him, and in Him, she forgave the unforgivable. Whether we realize it or not, that is the call for each of us...to press ourselves to His Heart, and forgive. May we enter deeply this Lent, into this understanding...what we need to forgive, and how we, with Christ, may accomplish the unimaginable... forgiving the unforgiveable.

-Sally Robb

Spring One Book One Parish Book Read Begins at SJN

This spring, we are reading Left to Tell by Immaculée Ilibagiza. A Roman Catholic and Tutsi, Immaculée was born in Rwanda and studied electronic and mechanical engineering at the National University. She lost most of her family during the 1994 genocide. Four years later, she emigrated to the United States and began working at the United Nations in New York City. She is now a full-time public speaker and writer. In 2007 she established the Left to Tell Charitable Fund, which helps support Rwandan orphans. Immaculée holds honorary doctoral degrees from The University of Notre Dame and Saint John’s University, and was awarded The Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Reconciliation and Peace 2007. She is the author, with Steve Erwin, of LEFT TO TELL: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.

You will be able to hear Immaculée Ilibagiza speak at The Paramount Theatre on the evening of Saturday, May 1. Ticket information at www.immaculeeinaustin.org or www.austintheatre.org. For more information and opportunities to be involved in Immaculée’s visit to Austin, please contact Sally Robb at 512-964-6067.


Important Dates:

February 20/21 (Sat/Sun)
Book Study begins

March 27 (Sat)
Parish-wide discussion gathering, Morris Hall, 6:30-9:00pm. Bring a dish to share and bring your book (with all those great yellow highlighter marks). We will share a meal, hear a short presentation on the work and then discuss the book.

May 1 and 2 (Sat/Sun)
Immaculée Ilibagiza speak at The Paramount Theatre on the evening of Saturday, May 1 (see above).