San Paolo (Brazil). In the month of July 2023, the Educating Communities of the Province of Our Lady of Aparecida (BAP), present in five states in the south, south-east and central-west regions of Brazil, lived the experience of the Missionary Weeks.
The “Missionary Weeks” are a project carried out by the School Pastoral and Social Works, a tradition that has lasted for many years and which materializes in the “Salesian Missionary Youth” project. It is a process that begins with the participation of the young people, the pre-mission, the mission, and the post-mission accompaniment and is organized by the Youth Ministry Coordinator of each presence.
Sister Cleonice Aparecida Lourenço, FMA, Coordinator for the Missions of the BAP Province, accompanies the entire process, visiting the communities that welcome the experience, offering formation to young people, assistance, and presence in synergy with the teams of adult counselors both FMA and lay people, who accompany groups of missionaries.
It is a time of great discoveries and a profound experience of God in the lives of all those who participate directly and indirectly.
The students prepare all year round to live the experience as missionaries by bringing the Word of God and a prayer of blessing into homes, visiting the elderly, children, and families who can listen to a word of encouragement and joy brought by young people.
During Missionary Week, there are moments of group life, spaces for spirituality and personal organization, as well as youth protagonism in the various activities and responsibilities shared with the Councilors.
Strong moments are the visits and blessings to homes, with the sharing of the Word of God and attentive listening to people’s stories, which deeply touch the hearts and sensitivity of the young missionaries. In addition to the visits, there are activities in the oratory for the children and young people of the host community and workshops for mothers. These experiences are marked by the Salesian joy of meeting in the courtyard, where new friendships are born and the testimony of committed young people involved in life is shared.
“We realized that the young person who arrives at Missionary Week is not the same as the one who returns home at the end of the experience, because there, in that missionary space, profound transformations have taken place in their life.” Says Sister Cleonice. “Confronting the different realities encountered allowed them to review their own life, family relationships, and other values that support a life rooted in love, respect, faith, charity, empathy, solidarity, and resilience”.
Missionary Week is therefore a project that leaves a mark in the lives of young people. “These are experiences that last forever and the expression ‘only those who have been there know what it’s like’ makes it worth spending time, resources, and energy on all the preparation and accompaniment of young people,” Concludes the Coordinator. “The opportunity to allow young people to have a deeper encounter with Jesus Christ in the person of the other, the poor, the child, the elderly… makes the difference in life and in the journey of humanization”.
“Let us set out again with burning hearts, open eyes, feet on the move, to make other hearts burn with the Word of God, open other eyes to Jesus in the Eucharist, and invite everyone to walk together on the path of peace and salvation that God in Christ has given to humanity” (Pope Francis, Message for the 97th World Mission Day).
