Sharing, counting on, and building

To share... to count on... to build together are significant verbs that remind me of beloved faces.

Sharing the missionary charism... I think of Nicea, a woman who is committed to a literacy project for young people and adults. She offers her professional skills and her time to people who don’t know how to read and write. I also think of Zolema who helps in the Missionary Childhood whose slogan is: “children that evangelize children.”

Counting on... I can see Nazaré, who encourages the Gospel groups, visits the catechists and supports them in their path of faithfulness to the Word of God. But also, other faces and names come to my mind. Sometimes, it is enough to just call to organize a visit to a patient, or to a family in difficulty and to donate time, friendship and consolation to others.

Nilda, Icilda, Carmen, Grazi and many more names and faces make up the Xaverian Missionary of Mary Lay group in our community in Belém, a Brazilian city that is the gateway to the Amazon River.

With them, we share the announcement of the Good News. We can count on them to bear witness. With them, we build the Kingdom of God. Their presence among us and in our community renews our missionary vocation. The desire to know better our charism and its missionary roots is alive in them!

Thanks to our Xaverian Missionary of Mary Lay Group in Belém because, with your dream of sharing our missionary charism as lay people, you spur us to look for new and faithful ways to announce the Good News!!!