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Newsletter for Salesian Missionary Animation
A Publication of the Mission Department for the Salesian Communities and Friends of the Salesian Mission
D ear confreres and friends of
the Salesian missions!
A cordial greeting in the middle of
Lent 2013 during the Year of Faith!
On our journey towards the Pass-
over of the Lord, as we do every
year, we make the Stations of the
Cross and meditate on the price of
our salvation. Every March 24 of
the year (the anniversary of the
martyrdom of Oscar Romero,
Archbishop of San Salvador, El Sal-
vador) we commemorate the Day of
Prayer and Fasting in Memory of
Missionary Martyrs. The Congrega-
tion for the Evangelisation of Peo-
ples publishes annually a list of pas-
toral workers killed for the Gospel.
We know that each year, many
Christians are persecuted or even
lose their lives for their faith in Je-
sus Christ. At least 100,000 Chris-
tians bear witness to Jesus Christ
every year: martyrdom in Nigeria,
Pakistan and in various countries of
North Africa and the Middle East;
several violent attacks against
Christians in India or in China.
Thanks to the moving testimony of
these martyrs we are reminded of
the price of our faith.
Could we remember specifically
the martyrs of our time this Lent,
during the Year of faith? I suggest
that we get to know (http://
www.acn-intl.org/pg/home.html)
and remember them during our
Stations of the Cross during Lent
this the year of faith!
Fr. Václav Klement, SDB
Councillor for the Missions
We are mere Workers,
not Master Builders
The text below was composed by the late
Bishop Kenneth Untener of Saginaw, USA
as a reflection on the anniversary of the
martyrdom of Archbishop Oscar Romero.
Although these words are often attrib-
uted to Romero, in fact, they were never
spoken by him. This piece, however, also
sums up the person of Pope Benedict XVI,
“a humble worker in the Lord’s vine-
yard,” whom we remember with prayer-
ful gratitude .
I
t helps now and then to step back and take a long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of
saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession
brings perfection, no pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives include everything.
This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one
day will grow. We water the seeds already planted
knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects
far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of
liberation in realising this.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning,
a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's
grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the
difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders,
ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own!
Interview with Fr. Filiberto Rodriguez Martin, Provincial of ANG with English subtitles
vimeo: https://vimeo.com/59569155
