Assisi (Italy). From 30 October to 2 November 2022, the participants in the 24th Course of Ongoing Formation of Missionary Pastoral Care, organized by the Salesian Pontifical University (UPS) of Rome, by the Missions Sector of the Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB), and by the Missions Sector of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (FMA), lived three days of spiritual retreat in Assisi.
After a two-year suspension due to the pandemic, the Course opened on 3 October 2022. 26 members of the Salesian Family participate: eight SDBs, fifteen FMA including 6 missionaries ad gentes and nine new missionaries, two Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians (MSMHC), and a lay person, who come from various missionary experiences or who are preparing to live them. After an intense month of instruction, the Course program included this spiritual experience in Assisi, with the aim of making a believer’s reading of one’s own experience, in comparison with great witnesses of the faith, for a revival in the missionary vocation.
The participants were thus able to visit the places of St. Francis and St. Clare and were invited to make an interior journey in three stages: remembering (rediscovering the roots of one’s vocation); unlearning in order to learn (purifying oneself from self-referential tendencies to welcome God’s dream about each one); revisiting the source (allow the Lord to lead beyond oneself to rediscover the missionary impulse).
After these three days, the missionaries returned to Rome to continue the formative path, which will end on 9 December 2022, with great gratitude to the Lord and with a renewed sense of responsibility.
Source: infoANS
