Students from the Brazilian Provinces of the Congregation of the Mission (19 from the Southern Province; 15 from the Fortaleza Province; 17 from the Brazilian Province) met via Zoom at 15:00 hours on July 4, 2020. The theme of the meeting was: Connect, Know and Grow in Community.
In addition to bringing us closer together and strengthening the fraternal bonds and therefore coming to a deeper mutual knowledge of one another, our gathering was also intended to provide us with another opportunity to pray for the end of the pandemic, for the success of the National Meeting of Vincentian Students and for fidelity to the Vincentian Vocation.
The meeting lasted for almost two hours which seemed to pass very quickly. The moderator, Cleber Teodósio, a theology student from the Brazilian Province of the Congregation of the Mission, began the meeting by welcoming everyone and then restated the objective of the gathering.
We were led in our opening prayer by Samuel Menezes, a member of the Fortaleza Province who is in the Internal Seminary … other students assisted him in this prayer. Then, Ramon Aurélio and Michel Araújo shared a message sent by the General Curia to the students encouraging them to remain firm in their love for the impoverished; to tell the poor that God loves them; to create projects that can be developed on an interprovincial level; to live as good friends who love each other; to reflect on living in accord with the vow of stability; to work together as members of the Vincentian Family on systemic change projects; to view the poor, the excluded and the marginalized in the same manner as Vincent viewed them and to make a life-long commitment to them.
We then viewed a greeting from the Superior General, Father Tomaẑ Mavriĉ, who expressed his joy and his solidarity with the objectives that were established for the meeting. Father Mavriĉ concluded his greeting with a blessing, praying that the students, with the help of God, the Virgin and the Vincentian Blessed and Saints, remain firm in their response to the cries of the poor and grow in unity and joy as they engage in the mission of following Jesus Christ, evangelizer and servant of the poor.
All who were present in the virtual room introduced themselves. Then Mateus Oliveira, a philosophy student from the Southern Province, played and sang por uma grande missão (a composition of
Bishop Pedro Guimarães). This was followed with a presentation by Icson Rodrigo (Southern Province), Raimundo Silva and Willan Medeiros (Fortaleza Province) and Leonardo Almeida (Brazilian Province). They explained how each Province is moving forward in the formation process, in this “new normal” situation. It was encouraging to know that in all the provinces, students and formators, even with the limitations of that are in place at this time and even with the concerns with studies and the dynamics of community life … even with all of this the members continue to reach out to the poor and develop social assistance projects together with the most needy.
The meeting was concluded with a prayer that was led by Celso Nascimento, a philosophy student from the Southern Province.
Formators also participated in the meeting: Father Denilson Matias, CM, who is currently in charge of accompanying the National Meeting of Vincentian Students and Father Joelcio Saibot, CM. We also note the participation of the students from the Argentina-Paraguay-Uruguay Province and the Vice-Province of Mozambique who are at the international internal seminary and the international theologate.
The meeting was well received by the students and formators, who did everything possible, so that it developed in the best possible way. The team of the Regional Meeting of Vincentian Students from the Brazilian Province, who coordinated the meeting, thanked everyone (students and formators) for their participation. They also expressed their gratitude to the Colegio San Vicente in Rio de Janeiro for their collaboration in sharing their zoom account which made this meeting possible.
Cleber Teodósio
Vincentian Seminarist
