Missionaries of Hope and Joy

“As the father has sent me so I am sending you into the world” Jn. 17:18

Paying heed to Pope Francis, urging the Consecrated people to broaden their horizons and move out to the peripheries, we celebrated the mission month in a meaningful way, carrying out activities keeping to the theme, “Being missionaries of Hope and Joy”. Being aware of the missionary intention of the Holy Father we embarked our journey through the missionary month.

The special spiritual initiatives undertaken were the Study and Reflection on the message of the Holy Father for the World Mission Day, good nights on the life of Missionary Sisters who worked in our Province such as Sr. Virginia Marchetti, Sr. Walentyna Czernick, Sr. Camilla Tagliabue, Sr. Berta Sperrfechter and Sr. Gina Azzolini, Sr. Catherine Mania.

Besides this, we prepared various eatables for the mission fete organized by Don Bosco and Satpur Parishes. We offered daily animated Rosary for various intensions like peace, conversion of sinners, intensions of our Holy Father, and for our missionaries in various parts of the World. We spent time in studying the Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Missionary Activity ‘Ad Gentes Divinitus’ and viewed DVDs by Missioni Don Bosco.

We gave a thought to personal spiritual bouquet by praying entire chain Rosary, skipping mid-morning break, fruits at supper, personal mortifications and offering continuous prayers for the intentions of the Holy Father and for the missions. 

We sent E-mails to the missionary sisters of our Province working in the foreign missions. We displayed a thought on the Notice Board as a reminder to pray for the missions and also a call to be a missionary. We had a mission exposure day to Walvanda wherein we got a glimpse of what the periphery is all about and what are the needs of the poor and the needy. The Salesians, who carryout a technical school and various village welfare programmes here, opened our eyes to the reality of our poor today. Besides these activities there was something amusing as well, the creative missionary recreations organized by novices and the sisters which kept our spirits high.

This month played an important role in our lives. The missionaries who were zealous in spreading the Kingdom of God show us how we can be missionaries in our little ways, be it in our community or in our area of work. As we pray for ourselves we also pray to God to send many more missionary vocations to carry forward His mission among the people of our times.