Real Life Missionaries…
Br. Alex teaching the children about Jesus
During the formation process, mission experience plays an invaluable role! Someone making initial contact with the Community, may be asked to spend some time in one of our mission sites. We try to place young men in settings that mirror “real life” and where he can experience life as a missionary.
Beginning with the Pre Novitiate stage, each mission experience is a deliberate formation experience. The choice of mission site is based on the specific formational needs that a young man may have. As missionaries we need to be skillful in multicultural situations, so a mission assignment may take the young man to a setting that will help him develop not only pastoral skills, but also stretch his personal boundaries of emotional maturity.
Every Catholic be an apostle…
More specifically, we want to assist young men in cultivating their ability to support, promote, and develop the leadership of laity in the Church. This is of the essence of our Community’s identity. Each mission site is different, but we are actively engaged in the “making of every Catholic an apostle”. Mission sites are chosen for the novices as places where God is encountered, especially in the person of Jesus – abandoned and crucified.
Pastoral Wisdom
Helping the children with their homework
After the Novitiate and Profession of Vows, the student Brother is given several mission assignments throughout the year. This experience is an opportunity to put theory into practice: Prayer, community life, pastoral skills, need to be confronted with real life experiences in order for them to make sense. The mission experiences during this time also help discern the student Brothers’ gifts. The discovering of these gifts, and the mission needs of the Community are brought together in order to frame a first mission assignment.
During the Post Novitiate, the length of the mission experiences may vary depending on the formation needs of the student Brother. One mission experience during the approximate four year period, lasts one year.
It is with special joy at the end of the Post Novitiate, that the young religious receive their first mission assignment. This joy stretches itself in many directions and comes from the depths of God’s own heart.
One more missionary is one more laborer in the Lord’s vineyard!
