On the weekend of May 18-19, the CLM formation group gathered for its monthly meeting with the following theme: “Mission today: How? Why? For what? The Church in action.”
Even though the number was lower than usual, the gathering was quite rich in content. We started with the great question: Why mission? The various answers arrived to the same conclusion that it is the love of Jesus that moves us to go further out. And to help us remember that Jesus was the first missionary, the theme continued with the passage of the Road to Emmaus where the disheartened disciples recognize Jesus like the “One” who set their hearts on fire with his words.
Besides Bible passages we also reflected parts of the Encyclical Redemptoris Missio of Pope St. John Paul II over the enduring value of the Missionary Mandate, reflecting the key words about the meaning of Mission and of being a Missionary. In this encyclical, Pope St. JPII invites the Church to renew its missionary commitment, stating that “Mission is a problem of faith, the correct measure of our faith in Christ and in his love for us.”
On Saturday after lunch, we visited the house of the Comboni Sisters, who shared with us some of their experiences, and witnesses of missionary life.
After this time, we returned to our theme and moved on to the reading of the Pastoral Note of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference on the Mission Year and the Extraordinary Mission Month, inviting all Christians to live a year of constant encounter with Jesus. To be in a permanent state of mission, to live the mission and mission renewal.
That evening we saw the film “Francis and Clare,” a show that made us reflect on their lives embattled for the love of Jesus and their dedication to the emarginated.
The Sunday started with a beautiful dedication to our Mother, Mary Queen of Missions, by starting our first prayer of the day in front of an image of her outside the house. After breakfast and up to the Eucharist, we studied excerpts from the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium and we contacted by a video call Pedro Nascimiento and Carolina Fiúza who shared their experiences from their arrival in Ethiopia. Then we ended this very fruitful meeting with the Eucharist and the certainty that we were leaving with the joy of Jesus who made us and wnts us to be missionaries, every day and everywhere.
Mónica Silva
