One year has elapsed, a bright light that was André Bouillot, S.J dimmed from our world of senses. Yet at the dawn of this first anniversary of his departure into eternal rest, André caught my attention, literally through my random dreams, as I was soaked with summer superfluousness, reminding me to come back the essential.
As I recall my dream, André was calling some younger Jesuits who happened to be around his room to take out some heavy loads which were in his room. As we accomplished his demand, he gently said: “Thank you, my room is now freed.” Noticing that I was in a dream, I just checked on my phone calendar. Surprisingly it was July 3: the first anniversary of André Bouillot’s departure to eternal rest. May he rest in eternal peace. I feel somehow blessed to have gained something from his then led noviciate, our Lady of the Way in Cyangugu,Rwanda, nineteen years ago (2006-2008). A dream like this may somewhat sound strange, yet a reminder of Bouillot’s Ignatian legacy of simplicity and poverty, and perhaps a challenge to us to unload our comfort areas and share daily bread with the hungry – charitable deeds he incessantly performed towards those in need, wherever he dedicated most of his entire Jesuit life.
André, we recall you, considering your radiance of simplicity rooted in religious poverty. As we were blessed to meet you, to be received and trained by you, incarnating for us a messenger, not of prodigious proclamations, but of words brewed from the depths, away from the superfluous, just conveying the essential.
André walked amongst us as a living witness to simplicity. As a Jesuit, he was aware that religious poverty is not misery, contributing to alleviate spiritual, intellectual and psychological concerns of younger generations. In a world filled what may look excessive and disgraceful, his life was a discerned divesting away, seeking not the extreme, but meditating the just, leading towards the authentic. In his doings and philosophy, he strived for clarity that cuts across the confusion.
André taught us that true freedom lies not in amassment of things, but in liberated hearts and minds, in perpetual journeying with Christ, in a spiritual “calpe diem” – savoring the present moment and contemplating the beauty and fragility of life, noticing joyful experience of silence and solitude, in weighing the depth of honest and suitable words, in enjoying our fraternity and companionship.
A master of Jesuit novices in Rwanda-Burundi, who ministered in the Society, more than teaching, he lived Spiritual Exercises, beyond routine practices but with a vibrant rhythm of the soul in search of God. Like your friend and companion Jean-Pierre de Wilde (+2017), discipline and patience cultivation of attentive prayer, reflection and Examen were at the heart of your school of prayer.
While in the noviciate Notre-Dame de la Route in Rwanda, you guided some of us with both tender hand and tough love towards maturation rather than maturity of our vocation, not with rigid formulas, but inviting us into the sacred space of spiritual battle. You taught us to listen the whisper of the spirit in Sacred scripture, and tasting the Holy Spirit in the joys and struggles of community life. André was aware that a Jesuit formation was not about loading our minds with rigid principles but awakening our hearts to the constant and loving presence of God, discerned through faithful practice.
With multiples responsibilities you held in DR Congo and Rwanda-Burundi, your legacy remains profound. You did not just teach us about vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but you greatly embodied them. We witnessed in your daily life the fruit of a simple, regular and continuous prayerful existence. You nurtured unsettled spirits with hope and wisdom born of silence, and trusting the grace of God at work in each person. You planted seeds of prophetic life of the essential, that continues to guide the lives of those you formed.
One year on, we feel your absence. The personal calmness of your presence, and profound peace that seemed to blossom from your centered spirit- these were unique to you and are missed. Still, your prophecy of the essential endures. You continue to call us to stick to the essentials: simplicity releasing us from unnecessary burdens, poverty leading us to freedom in detachment, practice of Exercises to discern the will of God in our daily routines.
Andre Bouillot S.J, Master and prophet of the essential, our prayer is that you complete your journey of faith in fullness of light. As we remember you, we do not just mourn as we trust in the author of our faith “our sorrow will turn into joy (John 16:20). We thank the Good Lord who brought you into our lives, and we esteem your enduring witness. May your meek, humble and prophetic spirit continue to inspire us, and your soul rest eternally in the fountain of love of God.
By Laurien Nyiribakwe, S.J
