World Mission Sunday 2012 w Œuvre pontificale de la propagation de la foi World Mission Sunday 2012 w Œuvre pontificale de la propagation de la foi

We have inherited the Word of God, the message of love that God transmitted to

us through his Son Jesus, the Christ. Here are some extracts of testimonies from

people that are committed and that we have published here and there in one or

another of our publications. Through their life, these heirs to the Word of God will be

able to help us in our endeavour to serve our brothers and sisters. These texts

constitute a complement to the questions that will follow.

We talked a lot about the crisis that the Church is currently going through. I can perceive it here

among the indigenous people of Venezuela as well as elsewhere: scandals, lack of personnel,

less and less faithful at the Sunday Holy Mass, etc, as if there was no future. But it is all the

opposite for me. The Church has always experienced ups and downs and, whether we want it or

not, today, she is the oldest institution that has ever existed. We forget too easily that the Church

shout, there was the memory of my mother who, in spite of all her struggles, was always faithful

to God. This brought me to ask myself if God was the solution.”

During a retreat for young people given by a priest Charles had met before and in which he

participated, the Blessed Sacrament was exposed in the middle of the room.

“ As soon as I entered that place, I immediately thought to myself that I did not believe in the

real presence. “I do not believe in idolatry: what is it?” I asked the nuns that were there. I

questioned many persons, but their answers were not enough to me. An old couple gave me the

best answer: “We are not able to answer your question, but we would pray so that you may

encounter Jesus”. Then, I knelt in front of the Blessed Sacrament as the other young people who

were present did. And I said: “Jesus, if you exist, show it to me”. At that moment, I felt deep

within my heart that I was loved by Christ. It is as if he had answered all the questions that I

carried in me. And while I was tasting that love, present in the Blessed Sacrament, my whole

life took a new meaning. I started to cry… It was an overwhelming moment; an encounter

through the heart that words will never be able to explain. I came out of the room to get a hold

of myself before going back home. I started to cry once again and I thought about my friends

who would need to experience this love of God.”

“This encounter with Jesus is the pillar of my vocation as a consecrated person and, one day,

as a priest. ”

Testimonies and missionary animation

By José I. Sierra

Steps of the animation that we suggest to you:

1. We begin the activity with a song of your choice.2. We take time to read the testimonies, and then, in small groups of 5 to 6 persons, we answer the suggested questions.3. In plenary session, we gather the fruits of this discussion. We can formulate our own personal commitment.4. We end the activity with asong.

Questions

Leaflet 4

TestimoniesDuration of the animation: approximately 50 minutes

St. Kateri Tekakwitha

Zachariah, i.m.c., missionary priest

1.Which testimonies touched you the most? Why?

2.You all might aspire to do good in this world. In the light of those testimonies

and in relation to your present life, where does your will, your aspiration to

serve others come from?

3.Who are “your brothers and sisters” in life? What makes you happy in your

life, to the point of wanting to serve others?

4.In every endevour, we meet obstacles. What are your obstacles? What are

the means that you will use to overcome them?

5.“Heirs to the Word of God… let us quench the thirst of our brothers and

sisters”. In the light of those testimonies, you know that it is possible to do it.

Starting from this World Missionary Sunday 2012, formulate what your

commitment will be in order to quench the thirst of your brothers and sisters.

World Mission Sunday 2012 w Œuvre pontificale de la propagation de la foi World Mission Sunday 2012 w Œuvre pontificale de la propagation de la foi

comes from Jesus and that he is the one who has promised to be with us every day until the end

of time. Moreover, he sent us the Holy Spirit who is the true protagonist of the Mission that was

entrusted to the Church. I believe in the Lord and I trust Him. It is for that reason that I am not

afraid to look towards the future with optimism. And I am more than certain that He will not

abandon the Church that He has founded.

Of course, this means that we, who constitute the Church – the Pope, the bishops, the priests,

the religious men and women, the lay people, in short, every baptized person, are constantly

called to listen to the voice of the Lord and to change our lives, to renew ourselves, to transform

ourselves through his Word. Indeed, there are some structures inside the Church that need to be

changed and that have no more meaning for the man and the woman of today – I am the first

one to admit it. Nevertheless, this is not a challenge and a work reserved only to the priest, the

bishops or to the Pope, it is a task appropriate for all the baptized people who are called to be

missionary disciples.

Anne-Marie, lay womanThe presence of Christ in my life manifested itself in a more concrete way, when I lived a

missionary experience in Peru. Over there, I encountered Jesus through the poor, the orphan,

the abandoned old man, the prisoner…

But, I encountered Him more particularly through death, in the last turning point of this

earthly life. Throughout my stay in Peru, I brought a presence to the sick in a house for patients

with AIDS, who were in a terminal stage. You must know, if you have ever lost a loved one, that

in the last moments of the life of a human being sometimes extraordinary things happen:

forgiveness, acceptances, reconciliations, conversions, etc.

My Peruvian friends, who died, taught me how to live… I cannot explain it to you in words.

But I know, deep down in my heart, that it is Christ whom I have encountered through them.

Jesus lives in each one of us. I truly believe this because I have been the privileged witness of

an encounter, of an experience that overwhelmed me. There are things in life that we cannot

prove scientifically but we are absolutely certain that they exist. There comes a time when what

we live takes over reason. This is how it is with my experience. Because it is from within that I

have understood who Jesus of Nazareth is. I have no words to describe the richness of that

encounter. I feel it, that's all.

Andrée, lay womanAndrée is a social worker. She works in a shelter for women in Thailand. One day, the

interaction with this culture, so different from hers, allowed her to make a very important

introspection: she became aware of her human limitations, as well as the real motivations that

she carried in her heart.

“One day, while coming into contact with the people of Thailand, I realized that my intentions

were not as clear as I thought they were. I thought that I would arrive at the mission in all

humility but the superiority complex that I had was taking over. The personal challenges were

such that I would have given up my mission at any time.”

“I became aware of my darkness. I faced my interior ugliness to notice, simply, that I was not

the good person I thought I was. I knew that I was a good social worker, but my profession did not

impress at all the women of the shelter. They were simply looking for someone they could talk to

and to have a healthy human relationship. Thus, my pride took a good blow.”

“No need to say that I went through many frustrations. But I never felt alone and I always felt

that I was in the right place. It is thanks to my Christian faith that I was able not to give up and to

put my interior ugliness into the hands of God as I prayed the Lord for my own conversion. Once

the interior cleaning was made, I started to learn how to love and let myself be loved by other

persons. “

“This experience also helped me to draw once again, from the springs of my own history: it

reminded me that I have a good family, that I have many persons who love me unconditionally,

etc. And later, when I read the account of my years in Thailand once again, I really saw how God

took care of me. How he put persons on my path, in the right place at the right time. “

Charles, f.m.j., missionaryAfter six years of mission work in Reunion Island, Charles, a young man, who is 29 years old,

continues his studies towards priesthood. He comes from a single-parent family and he was

raised by his mother who was a believer. He never knew his father. What is the purpose of my

life? What does it mean? These are the questions that Charles asked himself while he was a

teenager.

“I felt an extremely profound thirst: a thirst for eternity. I experienced what the world offered

to me: drugs, alcohol, delinquency, etc. My interior suffering was such that, one day, at the age of

19; I decided that I had enough of leading that kind of life. It was the morning and I was alone in

the countryside. I shouted to God as loud as I could: “God, if you exist, show it to me!” Behind this