Reading, OH – Mount Notre Dame (MND) was honored to welcome New York Times best-selling author Immaculée Ilibagiza to school on October 26, 2022 for a day of interaction and conversation about her work, “Our Lady of Kibeho: Mary Speaks to the World from the Heart of Africa.” The book, which served as MND’s school-wide Common Read selection this year, focuses on the visions of the Virgin Mary and Jesus in the remote Rwandan village of Kibeho that occurred prior to the genocide in 1994. Ms. Ilibagiza is a Rwandan American author and motivational speaker. Her first book, “Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust”, is an autobiographical work detailing how she survived during the Rwandan genocide.

The MND Common Read program – MiND-fuel Reads – serves to bring the MND community together in a shared academic manner that provides authentic opportunities to explore a wide variety of topics. MND students, faculty and staff have the opportunity for discussion and reflection surrounding the read through the sharing of student projects, interacting with the author and other interesting activities.

MND Assistant Principal for Academics Mr. Ben Hunt notes, “We are so grateful to Ms. Ilibagiza for taking time to share her powerful story with our community. Her story of forgiveness and healing has inspired our entire community in our common read program. Like our foundress, St. Julie Billiart, who overcame great challenges but always maintained her belief in the goodness of God, Ms. Ilibagiza’s
story demonstrates the importance of faith.”