(ANS – Campinas)– From 16 to 21 July, the students of theology and the post-novices from the formation community in Santiago took part, with many other young people, in the missionary week in Campinas in Brazil. This experience of missionary activity, apart from being a good preparation for the World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, helped the young religious to understand better some aspects of their formation.

These 11 young Salesians, together with their Rector Fr Walter Jara, were warmly welcomed by the Salesians and the educative community of the San José High School.   They shared several days of intense fraternity and witness.

 “As a community, we began our participation in WYD in Rio de Janeiro several months ago,” said Fr Jara.  “WYD was always part of our prayer and the whole community looked forward to it. We were able to take part and to pay for the journey because of some practical decisions we had made in the community to save money by living a simpler life-style for the whole of last year.”

After due discernment, the community decided to make their participation in WYD even more enriching by taking part in the missionary week. This proved to be a good choice both in terms of an effective preparation for WYD and as a very fruitful formation activity.

The missionary week put these young Salesians in contact with young people from Chile and Brazil, and with lay people and Salesians from Campinas, with whom they shared various activities. They were welcomed by families into their homes and they enjoyed some moments of rich sharing, getting to know Brazilian culture with its proverbial hospitality, generosity, cheerfulness and devotion.

At different times they experienced the rich diversity of language and customs, in food and in celebration. They were also able to experience the strength of unity of the Church and of the Salesian charism. Their missionary sense was widened to reach new horizons. They got to know a part of the Salesian mission in Brazil – a context quite different from that of Chile. They shared experiences of Oratory animation with young people from a community for young people at risk.

“During the missionary week,” says Fr Jara, “we experienced an increase in the joy of being with young people in the playground, sharing life with them and speaking to them about Jesus. We saw the necessity of working with lay people who bring to the Salesian mission the originality of their own vocation and the value of family life. During this missionary week the young Salesians from Chile recalled the dream Don Bosco had at Barcelona in 1886: a line was drawn, on Mary’s instructions, from Valparaiso to Peking. This was a prophetic dream in which Don Bosco saw a multitude of young people of many different cultures wanting to continue his mission so that young people might have life in Jesus Christ. Don Bosco’s dreams continue and they ask of us to give our lives.”

Published 26/07/2013