You are salt and light

Rome (Italy). On 6 June 2022, the group of new FMA missionaries at the end of their formation journey at Mary Help of Christians Community of the Generalate (RCG) Rome, spent a day at San Biagio House of Prayer of Subiaco, in St. John Bosco Province (IRO) with the Missions Sector Councilor, Sr. Ruth del Pilar Mora, and the Sector collaborators.

The Councilor for the Missions, with the Lectio Divina offered at the beginning of the day, led the reflection on the passage from the Gospel of Matthew, “You are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world” (Mt 5: 13-16).

In particular, she told the new missionaries:

“We are consecrated by His love and sent to a mission without borders. The characteristic of salt and light is their invisibility, salt gives life. I think it is beautiful to think of ourselves as missionaries in this capacity to give life, to lose it so that many can live and savor the joy of looking to the future with hope.

How true these words are in the light of what the XXIV General Chapter asked of us: to be a presence that generates life. To generate it, however, we are called to be constantly regenerated by the encounter with Him, who transforms the hardness of our heart into oceans of goodness that always gives us the opportunity to start over and feel inhabited by His love, which makes us always find new ways in any situation and circumstance.”

The new missionaries, immersed in the silence of nature and in the immensity of the sky of San Biagio, spent the day contemplating and marveling at the great things that God has woven into each of them in this year of preparation for the mission ad gentes.

The group experienced a particularly intense moment after the final prayer of the Eucharistic celebration, in which Sr. Ruth, calling each missionary Sister by name, communicated the day of departure for the mission or for the study of the language.

The Councilor concluded by wishing the new-missionaries a good journey:

“THANK YOU, Sr. Alessandra, Sr. Aleth, Sr. Ana Laura, Sr. Brohana, Sr. Bich Huyen, Sr. Carmen, Sr. Kelly, Sr. Marzena, Sr. Mercy, for what we have shared in this year.

To God, we now offer and entrust your new mission in: Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Ethiopia/South Sudan/Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Mongolia, Mozambique, Venezuela. ‘God bless you and protect you. May His face shine upon you. May He turn His gaze to you and give you His peace’ (Num 6: 24-26). Good journey on the roads of the world, to be salt and light of the earth for all young people, for the people you will meet.”