Cagliero 11 giugno 2015 - ING


Cagliero 11 giugno 2015 - ING

1 Page 1

▲back to top
Nome società
Titolo n otiziario
Newsletter for Salesian Missionary Animation
A Publication of the Missions Sector for the Salesian Communities and Friends of the Salesian Missions
Dear friends,
Every year new missionaries go
to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of
Jesus, in Rome. It is the home of the
Sacred Heart, constructed by our dear
Father Don Bosco with his sweat and
blood. During this month consecrated
to Him, let us all go there in spiritual
and missionary pilgrimage from all con-
tinents.
Every house of formation in the
Congregation is dedicated to the Sa-
cred Heart. He must also reign in the
soul of every missionary ad gentes. Let
every Salesian be not robbed of the
missionary fire of the Heart of Jesus! It
is the most valuable patrimony of every
Salesian Province!
Contemplating and invoking the
Sacred Heart of Jesus, many could ex-
perience the missionary call ad gentes.
In fact, he tells us: “the hour is coming
when whoever kills you will think he is
offering service to God. And they will
do this because they have not known
the Father, nor me” (Jn 16: 2-3).
Thus, the Heart of Jesus is seeking col-
laborators who want to help Him so
that He and the Father may be known
in all and "six" continents (certainly!,
including the digital one!) Take cour-
age!
Fr. Guillermo Basañes SDB
Councillor for the Missions
10 years of Project Europe
On 29 and 30 April 2015 a meeting of the Salesian missionaries present in the Province of Hungary
(UNG) since 2005 took place at Péliföldszentkereszt. Hungary was the first province to receive missionaries
of Project Europe. Ten years later, the meeting served as a good opportunity to share and evaluate experi-
ences, and to look to the future.
In their sharing the missionaries said that the initial reception by the Hungarian confreres, the pres-
ence of a spiritual guide, a confrere who served as a mediator for the newcomers and the chance to make a
serious study of the language all served to facilitate their integration into the Province. They also recog-
nised the enormous effort made by the Hungarian Salesians to make the new missionaries feel that they are
an integral part of the life and activity of the Province.
In the light of their experience, the missionaries drew up a profile of future missionaries in Hungary:
They should have knowledge of an international language, preferably English. They should arrive after the
post-novitiate because the period of practical training
helps in their inculturation and their gradual mastery
of the language. They need good physical resistance
to cold and a strong spiritual life. They also noted
that it is important that the missionaries come from
different countries so as to make the intercultural
communities of the Province a truly prophetic frater-
nity.
It was reiterated, finally, that the missionaries
should attach great importance to their spiritual life
and take care not to slip into a secularised lifestyle,
because secularised Europe has absolutely no need of
secularised missionaries!
Today in Europe Salesian missionaries work in
Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Hungary,
Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Ukraine and
Meeting of 58 missionaries in Europe at Valdocco
the United Kingdom.
from 31 October to 3 November 2013

2 Page 2

▲back to top
An Asian Missionary in Europe for a New Evangelisation
M y missionary vocation was gradually formed and nourished at various mo-
ments of my life. The seed was planted when my family migrated to Ugan-
da when I was one year old and I grew up in a foreign world and foreign culture
which left an indelible mark on me. Uganda had become a part of me.
When we returned to India 10 years later, I studied in a Salesian school
where I came to know Don Bosco and the Salesians. My missionary vocation was
nurtured from the novitiate onwards. The missionary group helped me to be in
constant contact with the missionaries through their frequent visits to the for-
mation houses to share their experiences, work and the challenges they meet.
The decisive moment was in 2006 when Fr. Pascal Chavez, then Rector Major, invited us young Salesians to
be missionaries during his visit on the occasion of the centenary of Salesian pres-
ence in India. With the help of my spiritual director to discern this missionary vo-
cation within my Salesian vocation, I finally applied to be a missionary ad exteros,
ad vitam and was sent to Hungary.
As an Asian missionary in Europe, I realised that I needed to undergo first a
personal conversion in a new country and culture. As a young Salesian I was able to
inculturate myself easily even if I struggled to learn the language and be accus-
tomed to the food and the climate. Yet, as a foreigner I struggled to establish new
relationships and to become part of a people with a culture different from mine
and make myself loved by the young. Since most of the native Hungarian Salesians
were quite elderly, it was quite a challenge to adjust to the community life. I had
to discover as well my role and responsibility in my new Province. It was like redis-
covering one's vocation within a vocation.
Surely India, where Christians are a small minority, has great need for missionaries. But Hungary, a country
deeply marked by years of atheistic communism and now by secularism, also tremendously needs people to proclaim
the Gospel in various areas of society. Today many Hungarians, especially youngsters, do not believe in anything
while others have abandoned their faith. This is our missionary work ad gentes here in Hungary.
As a Salesian I strive to help them experience the love of God and the love of a father, brother and friend
through a tipical approach of Don Bosco: loving kindness, interpersonal relationship, sports, music, theater, the So-
cial media. Missionary life in this country is studded with numerous moments of joy and satisfaction. Yet, my great-
est joy is to experience God working through me to touch the heart of a young person.
I would like to ask you, dear reader, to say a prayer for me, for no missionary can toil on his own. However,
if you feel God is calling you, then join me !
Fr. Quadros Lytton Ervanto
Indian, missionary in Hungary
Witness of Salesian Missionary Sanctity
The Servant of God Fr Joseph Vandor (1909-1979), Hungarian missionary to Cuba,
among his advices he suggests: “Delete from the mind past downfalls. Life begins
today. Live today as if it were the only day of our lives. In the morning, resolve to
control a defect, striving to attain a virtue. In the evening check what has been
positively achieved”.
Salesian Missionary Intention
For Salesian Vocations in Oceania
That Salesians in Oceania know how to build up the vocation culture through witness of
life, the courage to propose, personal accompaniment, coherence of life and prayer.
There are several challenges in building up with patience and ardour the vocation culture
in our works in the six countries of Oceania. In Australia we are challenged by the secular-
ised contexts and by vocational fragility in the Pacific Islands. As we give thanks to God
for the many vocational fruits from Samoa and the gift of the first priest from Papua New
Guinea (2013) and Lay Brother from the Solomon Islands (2010), we also pray for vocations
in Australia and for future first vocations from New Zealandia and Fiji.