Rome (Italy). From 21 to 23 February 2025, the Missions Sector of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, with members of the Global Missio Team, facilitated the online formation meetings for the Provincial Coordinators of the Missions and for the missionaries ad gentes of all the Provinces of the world, foreseen by the planning of the General Council for the period 2022-2027.
The theme of the meetings by continents was the journey of the Triennial of preparation for the 150th anniversary of the First Missionary Expedition, “Now is the time to revive the fire” (14 November 2024-2027) with the objective, “To celebrate with a grateful heart the missionary zeal of the Institute in order to revive in today’s contemporaneity the prophetic impetus of our charism as a gift to the Church and humanity.”
In these meetings, it was decided to give ample space to sharing by groups of the contents that in recent months through the Salesian Thursdays at the Auxilium, they are studying. In fact, this year, the Salesian Thursdays proposed a Study Center on the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians of the Pontifical Faculty of Education «Auxilium» of Rome, in collaboration with the Missions Sector, accompany this Triennial celebrating the first departure of the FMA to Uruguay (1877).
These are the contents:
The Catholic Missions of the XIX and XX Century and the female contribution (Sister Grazia Loparco); Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello, at the root of Salesian missionary spirituality (Sister Piera Cavaglià); The effectiveness of the Preventive System in the experience of Laura Vicuña (Sister Piera Ruffinatto); Mother Ersilia Crugnola (1892-1973) a missionary with a mystical-apostolic heart (Sister Eliane Petri).
Each participant in the online meetings, at the time of joining, had chosen a topic to deepen and share during the group work.
Sister Ruth del Pilar Mora, General Councilor for the Missions, in her opening greeting highlighted that, “It is important to reflect together on the proposals that have been made during these months through the Salesian Thursdays, to be able to receive something through these reflections to nourish our great missionary passion personally and as a community. It is not the quantity of content that we receive, but the capacity to assimilate and allow the Spirit to permeate our life, to transform it, and make us truly capable and available for the mission that the Lord entrusts to us every day. I wish that today each of you could feel the call to a simple, deep sharing that creates even more bonds between us in this river of missionary activity, to feed the passion of all the educating communities.”
Numerous and fraternally active was the presence of the Coordinators and missionaries ad gentes from every Continent, eager to share these moments that increase the possibilities of encounter, fraternity, solidarity, synodality, and of creative belonging to the Institute.
All participants expressed their satisfaction with the rich sharing that took place in the groups and many expressed gratitude for these formative meetings which help to rekindle the missionary fire.
