Dear confreres:
May the grace and peace of the Risen Christ be with us always!
I address this letter to each missionary of our Little Company, during this beautiful time of Easter, when we celebrate the triumph of Christ over death. As a result of that triumph, the Apostles of the Lord were able to conquer their fears and embrace the challenge of living their missionary vocation. They trusted that Divine Providence would accompany them in the midst of all dangers and trials that they might confront and that they would be able to proclaim Good News throughout the world.
For us, the celebration of the 400th anniversary of our foundation is an opportunity to renew that missionary passion as lived by the first members of the Congregation of the Mission who followed the example of the Apostles of the Lord. Therefore, as we approach the 61st World Day of Prayer for Vocations, in the context of our Jubilee, I invite every missionary to deepen their understanding of the questions that St. Vincent de Paul posed to his followers:
Are we not very blessed, my dear confreres, to live authentically the vocation of Jesus Christ? For who lives better the way of life Jesus lived on earth than missionaries? (CCD:XI:121)
I am aware that, at times, difficulties and weariness try to drown out the joy of the call that one day made us embrace this path. This happens more frequently in those places where the local community is getting older and where there appears to be almost no young people responding to the vocational call. For this reason, dear missionaries, I want to address this letter to you, so that we do not let ourselves be overcome by disillusionment but rather, let us embrace the invitation that Pope Francis extends to us in his message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations when he exhorts us:
In our day, then, it is decisive that we Christians cultivate a gaze full of hope and work fruitfully in response to the vocation we have received, in service to God’s kingdom of love, justice and peace (Pope Francis, Message for the 61st World Day of Prayer for Vocations, April 21, 2024).
An urgent call to revitalize our vocation
During the General Assembly 2022, I shared eleven aspects that I consider priorities in the Congregation, both for the present and for our future. In fact, the first four priorities refer to the living of our vocation, our commitment to create a vocational culture that renews us, the desire that vocation ministry becomes a real priority in every province, vice-province, region and mission, and the promotion of the two-fold face of our Congregation (priests and brothers) as very current ways to respond to the call of Jesus Christ, evangelizer of the poor.
I want to take advantage of this letter to insist on these priorities. Let us not allow ourselves to be overcome by vocational lukewarmness. Rather, I invite each missionary to become a creator of that vocational culture that will allow us to overcome the temptation of accommodating ourselves to live without generativity or joy the gift that we have received. Let us again reflect on the words of Pope Francis and deepen our response to the invitation that the Lord makes to us in this moment of our history:
To be pilgrims of hope and builders of peace, then, means to base our lives on the rock of Christ’s resurrection, knowing that every effort made in the vocation that we have embraced and seek to live out, will never be in vain. Failures and obstacles may arise along the way, but the seeds of goodness we sow are quietly growing and nothing can separate us from the final goal (Pope Francis, Message for the 61st World Day of Prayer for Vocations, April 21, 2024).
Vocation ministry in the provinces, vice-provinces, regions and missions
Vocation ministry requires two wings to fly. The first of these wings is that of prayer which St. Vincent invited us to view as necessary for the life of soul just as air is necessary for the life of the body (CCD:X:468). In other words, the life of every missionary should be characterized by a profound life of prayer. In his message for this day of prayer, Pope Francis insists on this when he invites us to be builders of hope: “Prayer is the first strength of hope. You pray and hope grows, it moves forward. I would say that prayer opens the door to hope (Pope Francis, Message for the 61st World Day of Prayer for Vocations, April 21, 2024).
We must not tire of asking the Lord of the harvest to continue to send workers into his harvest, as we do in our traditional prayer Expectatio Israel. Indeed, we must also encourage all the members of the Vincentian Family movement and as many people as we can to join us in this prayer crusade that reminds us that the very heart of any vocation ministry is the Lord who never tires nor ceases to call men and women.
The second wing of vocation ministry revolves around our expressed commitment to pastoral activity that is strategically organized, carried out and evaluated. For this reason, I strongly request all visitors and regional superiors to commit themselves to provide leadership in the implementation of vocation ministry projects that present the two-fold image of priests and brothers in the mission and that encourage young people to respond to the Lord. At the same time, may these projects motivate all the members of the province, vice-province, region or mission, to join the cause of vocation ministry. Thus, hand in hand with the provincial director of vocation ministry, may all the confreres work together to create an environment that will allow our Little Company to sow the good seed of vocations in the midst of the different realities where we carry out our mission.
This task must respect the culture and the unique elements of each reality, but above all, it means that we are willing to continue to cast our nets and to trust that the Lord will bless our efforts and make our vocation ministry fruitful.
The ministry of the International Commission for Vocation Ministry.
In the General Council, we have opted for the creation of several commissions to support us in the different tasks and projects that the Superior General and his Council promote and accompany for the forward progress of the Congregation.
One of these commissions is the International Commission for Vocation Ministry, whose creation was announced at the beginning of 2023, and to whom I have recently entrusted the task of establishing a more direct channel of communication with the provinces, vice-provinces, regions and missions, so that they can facilitate whatever is necessary for the vocation ministry of the provinces.
This means that, in the coming weeks, the members of this commission will be contacting the directors of vocation ministry of each province, vice-province, region and mission, in order to coordinate a first ever virtual meeting. This gathering will allow the vocation ministers to share their experiences, the processes, and the challenges that vocation ministry presents in the various distinct realities. This will be the first of several dialogues that I hope will be useful. Therefore, I also invite and encourage the Visitors and other members of the vocation ministry teams to participate in this dialogue.
This Commission is composed of the following individuals:
- in Latin America – Rolando GUTIÉRREZ CM, Visitor of the Vice-Province of Costa Rica and coordinator of this commission (clapvi@cmglobalorg),
- in Africa Fr. Calisto CHAÚQUE (coviam@cmglobal.org) member of the Vice-Province of Mozambique,
- in Europe Bro. Francisco BERBEGAL CM (cevim@cmglobal.org) member of the Province of St. Vincent de Paul in Spain,
- in Asia-Oceania is Fr. Benjamin RAYAPPAN CM (apvc@cmglobal.org) member of the Province of South India,
- in the United States Fr. Toshio SATO CM (ncv@cmglobal.org) member of the Western Province.
I thank them for this service, and with them is Fr. Nelio PEREIRA CM, who is the Assistant General responsible for accompanying them.
This commission has a series of initiatives that can help us revitalize our Congregation through vocation ministry, but the success of this project depends on the communication and interaction between the commission and the provinces, vice-provinces, regions and missions. That is why I encourage you to have these first spaces of dialogue, and through them, so that together we can look for the best ways so that Jesus Christ, the evangelizer of the poor, can help us to make a pilgrimage and build that vocational culture that will bring us the fresh air of hope and vocational fertility.
Your brother in San Vicente:
Fr. Tomaž Mavrič, CM
Superior General
