Nome società
Titolo n otiziario
Newsletter for Salesian Missionary Animation
A Publication of the Mission Department for the Salesian Communities and Friends of the Salesian Mission
De a r
brothers
and friends of
the Salesian mis-
sions!
Cordial greetings to all, a few
days from the start of the 27th Gen-
eral Chapter! For different Provinces
the feast of our holy missionaries and
protomartyrs Luigi Versiglia and Calix-
tus Caravario means the period when
the Salesian Mission Day is cele-
brated, while for all of us, it is a way
to express our gratitude for their lives
offered totally to God.
Reflecting on the past six-year
period 2008-2014 I thank the Lord es-
pecially for having given rise to nu-
merous missionary vocations in the
Congregation and the Salesian Family.
Through the six missionary expedi-
tions (2008-2013) the Rector Major
sent a total of 206 confreres. Most of
them are from Asia (127), from
Europe (43), from Africa (22), and
from America (14). The most gener-
ous countries are: Vietnam (67), In-
dia (40) Italy (10), Poland (9), Spain
(8), Slovakia (8), Indonesia (7) and
the Philippines (5). By now all the
regions send and receive missionaries.
The missionary movement is multidi-
rectional making the Congregation
truly Catholic - universal. Moreover,
after more than 40 years, the Congre-
gation re-established the experience
of missionary aspirantates in the
South Asia region (2011 and 2012).
We expect the first missionary send
off in 2018, when the first candidates
will finish their post-novitiate. Thank
you to all!
I ask you to pray that the GC 27
may give a new impetus to strengthen
the vocation and missionary culture in
our Congregation !
Fr. Václav Klement, SDB
Councillor for the Missions
Now I understand that my mission
consists not in “doing” but in “loving”
Idid my practical training as a missionary in Albania but during my theo-
logical studies, under the guidance of my Rector, I felt and expressed
the desire to work in poorer contexts. Now, I am sharing my life as a mis-
sionary with the indigenous people in Oaxaca, Mexico which belongs to
the MEM Province.
My missionary experience was wonderful and beautiful: I arrived in
Mexico with the fervour of a new priest, full of desire to work to fulfil the
missionary dreams of the Kingdom with a personal project and brimming
with pastoral imagination. But this project could not be done for many
reasons: the mentality, the culture as well as other subjective and objec-
tive limitations ... I was sad and discouraged.
One day I reread the booklet: Five loaves and two fish of the Ser-
vant of God, the Vietnamese Cardinal Francisco Javier Nguyen Van Thuan
who wrote: “Choose either God or the works of God.” This was the
subject
of my reflection for several days. Fi-
nally, I heard the inner voice saying to
me: “Search for God not the works of
God.” I realised that God did not con-
secrate me to do some work, but to
bear witness to his loving and humble
presence, a close and accompanying
presence. At this point I asked my-
self: Who is God for me and accord-
ing to me? I looked up and I noticed
the crucified Jesus and saw that he
was suffering but happy; he seemed to
smile to me saying: have courage!
From that moment on, my missionary idea totally changed: the
missionary work that God asks me to do consists not in ‘doing’ but in
‘loving’. Because it is only love which invites me to follow him; love
drives me to share and it is love which seduces me surrender myself com-
pletely like Jesus who gave himself up on the cross out of love for the
Father and for us. He freed me from what was imprisoning me and invited
me to follow him more closely.
Now for me Jesus is supreme model to imitate; he is the only goal
and the only reason why I commit myself. This is why I neither feel
lonely, in darkness nor abandoned on the road because I am sure that He
is always with me, he is in me and I in Him; and He is the everlasting light
that lights my path.
Oh Jesus, my God! Grant me your intelligence to recognise you as
the first and absolute love so that I may love you in those to whom
you send me with the same love with which you loved me. Give me
your obedience so that your passion may be my compassion, your
death, my delivery and your resurrection, my hope. For you and I
are one for the Kingdom yet to come.
I am happy and I am contented with this mission, the mission of love and
only for love because God is love and he invites me to share his love.
Fr. Phong Vu Hoai John Baptist
Vietnamese, missionary in Mexico
