5059(I)_Salesian Cooperators Vocation journey from El Salvador to Australia
Interview with Mr. Juan Carlos Escobar and Ms. Carmen Escobar
April 10, 2019
Melbourne, Australia, 8 April 2019 -- Carmen and Juan Carlos made their promise as Salesian Cooperators at the Mary Help of Christians parish in San Salvador, El Salvador (Central America Province) on 7 December 1986, after 7 years of committed involvement, working with the SDBs and FMAs in the parish oratory, sacramental catechesis programs, Salesian Missions and youth missionary animation, youth ministry and retreats program, all part of the wider Salesian Youth Movement in El Salvador. Carmen and Juan Carlos migrated to Australia in 1988 and have been active members of the Salesian Family in Australia and the world. They are living and working in Melbourne in their professional fields.
What makes you happy as Salesian Cooperators?
Carmen: To feel that we are part of the Salesian Family of Don Bosco, engaged in the service to young people. A humbling but joyful feeling that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves, that we are bearers of this wonderful gift of the Salesian Spirit and Charism, as a gift to pass on to young people. We are very grateful to be the fourth generation in our families that have been very close to the SDBs and FMAs and helped them with many things. I am the third generation of Salesian Cooperators in my family. We have been truly blessed by having Mary Help of Christians and Don Bosco’s presence and assistance to our families for over 100 years. To remember the love, presence, prayers, blessings received from many, many holy women and men in the Salesian Family all these years is overwhelming. These spiritual gifts given to our families in all these generations make us appreciate God’s merciful love and the natural reaction is to give back in gratitude what we have received. The generosity of SDBs and FMAs, particularly the missionaries in Central America from Italy and Europe, has been and is being passed on to young people in Australia through our own generous service. In this way we are called to bring the same joyful service, presence and love as Don Bosco did, as many of his Salesian Family heirs have done over the years.
Juan Carlos: Witnessing the young people whom we have served and accompanied along the years, seeing them grow up and mature, seeing them find a place in society where they can use their talents and contribute to change the world positively, seeing them forming their own families and helping their own communities, seeing them become good citizens and committed Christians, like Don Bosco used to say.
What makes you grow in your Salesian Cooperator vocation and mission?
Carmen: The renewed love for young people, the deep wish to share the joy of God’s love in our lives as we experience it in our lives as part of the Salesian Family.
Juan Carlos: Hearing and sharing the personal stories, commitments, the struggles and miracles experienced by our brothers and sisters, Salesian Cooperators, Salesian Family members and the young people we served. Getting to know each personal journey always brings an element of encouragement, support, faith and renewal.
What are the major challenges in your vocation growth?
Carmen: True communion with the SDBs, FMAs and other Salesian Family members. The mutual, deep understanding of each other’s vocation, specially our role as lay people and shared mission.
Juan Carlos: Dealing with our own mental blocks and changing our deep set of beliefs and prejudices. To confront and challenge my sense of failure and disappointments that holds back the will and courage to change and do things differently. Also, to create the time and space for God’s voice and grace to help me transform into His instrument, to not be afraid of God’s direct intervention in my deep inner being.
How do you prepare yourself for the accompaniment of the young or eventual future Salesian Cooperators?
Carmen: To make ourselves available to be with them and accompany them in any capacity when they need us. To listen and be attentive to their needs. To make sure they know and feel we love them. So, when they need something, we are the first one they call.
Juan Carlos: By learning to listen better, to open our minds and hearts to hear what young people are saying to us and the wider society and church community. To continuously remind ourselves that we are not meant to control their lives or to always have the right answers to give to them, but rather to be channels, instruments of God’s love and grace to them.
What exchange among the EAO Salesian Cooperators do you dream about?
Carmen: Praying for each other and to help each other in their respective missions whenever is possible.
Juan Carlos: To make every encounter, every meeting and every conversation a joyful, happy encounter to share and celebrate God’s love and work through us.
What do you expect from the 2019 EAO Formators Workshop in Cambodia?
Carmen: To deeply understand the vocation of lay people in the Church, and the vocation and mission of Salesian Cooperators in this context. To move beyond the diminishing views of considering the Salesian Cooperators as just personal helpers, financial donors or fundraisers, followers of executive orders or just another social group in our mission presences. To not be afraid of embracing the full potential and wonderful manifestations and expressions of the Salesian Cooperators that are fully engaged in their missions and to support them accordingly.
Juan Carlos: A renewed commitment from all Salesian Family members to discover, uncover, understand, support and appreciate the Salesian Cooperator vocation as lived in their many forms across our region.
How do you put into practice the four pillars of formation: Know – Know how to do? – Know how to be? – Know how to live in communion?
Carmen: We learnt and keep learning to do by doing “it” together, Salesian Cooperators with the SDB’s and FMA’s and other Salesian Family members. We learn to be Salesians by “being together”. We can only learn to live in communion by actively looking for opportunities to express and live this ideal of communion.
Juan Carlos: By reminding ourselves to make time for personal and shared reflection where we allow God’s word and love to illuminate the areas that we need to change in order to fully become what we are called to be, as Salesian Cooperators and as a Salesian Family joined in love, communion and mission.
Any other free sharing?
Carmen: Every day we give thanks and praise to God to have been called to be part of the Salesian Family. We pray that we can faithfully continue being part of the Salesian Familiy, the Salesian Spirit and Charism, as a gift to the Church and service to our families and communities.
Juan Carlos: Our call and our vocation is a wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit to our families, our places of work, our civil and church communities. By being the carriers, bearers of the Salesian Spirit, we are called to love and serve young people and to be ready and prepared to give the best of ourselves to them so they get to know and experience God’s love.
Background Notes
Carmen and Juan Carlos made their promise as Salesian Cooperators at the Mary Help of Christians parish in San Salvador, El Salvador (Central America Province) on 7th December 1986, after 7 years of committed involvement, working with the SDBs and FMAs in the parish oratory, sacramental catechesis programs, Salesian Missions and youth missionary animation, youth ministry and retreats program, all part of the wider Salesian Youth Movement in El Salvador. Carmen and Juan Carlos migrated to Australia in 1988 and have been active members of the Salesian Family in Australia and the world. They are living and working in Melbourne in their professional fields.
