Presentation on the Mission

On 14 November, we welcomed Br Teófilo Minga to the community of the   Scholasticate. The rhythm of our daily activities changed a little to have a meeting with him.

In a simple and spontaneous manner, Br Teófilo spoke to us about the Marist   mission at the international level, and the history and origin of the « Ad Gentes » project. He emphasized three points on this subject:

·         If the history of AD GENTES is written one day, it should refer in a special way to the Conference of Provincials held in 2005 in Sri Lanka. It was there that this Project of the Congregation, called « Project Ad Gentes », was “officially” launched.

·         It is a Project oriented principally towards Asia, but other countries were also envisaged because of the fragility of the Marist presence, countries where the Congregation wants to keep its roots.

·         All the Provincials at the time adopted the Project with enthusiasm, accepting the « sacrifice » of some Brothers of the Province to part for mission Ad Gentes.

Br Teófilo then spoke about the present situation, also under three aspects:

·         The places where there are missionaries Ad Gentes (brothers and laity); the number of brothers and lay persons and the number of existing communities.

·         The formation programs for the missionaries, lay and brother. This formation includes two components: 1) a course in English; 2) a course in missionary formation dealing especially with the situation of the Church in Asia and knowledge of the great regions of the Asiatic continent.

·         The last group has the distinction of being the first to include brothers and laity in formation. We thank God for these brothers and lay men and women. Their missionary service, not without difficulties, is a gift to the Congregation.

Finally, we had time to pose our questions and requests, also in three points:

·The creation of the new Secretariat « International Collaboration for Mission », which expresses very clearly the missionary commitment of the Congregation, in line with the last General Chapter.

·A missionary vocation must be deeply rooted in love for Christ and the poorest of our brothers; if we are not centred on Him, the initial enthusiasm and joy can rapidly evaporate.

·This visit has allowed us to know our Marist family a little better, in its missionary dimension. We finished with a simple prayer: let the fire of the  passion for the missions burn in our hearts!

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Melesio Tiscareño,
Scholastic of second year
Guadalajara, 28 November 2011