Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Bucaramanga (Agenzia Fides) - On the afternoon of Friday, May 27, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, presided over the Eucharistic celebration in the Cathedral in Bucaramanga, dedicated to the "Sagrada Familia", for priests, men and women religious, seminarians and members of lay movements of the Archdiocese. The ceremony was also attended by local Authorities.
The theme of the day’s liturgy was faith as a condition so that the gifts received from God can be fulfilled and bear fruit. The Cardinal’s homily called the attention to an "examination of conscience on our works in favor of evangelization", and pointed out that the duty to "be good administrators of the manifold grace of God is essential, as a daily challenge for all of us: bishops, priests, deacons and lay faithful". Everything in our lives is a gift freely received from God, not because of our merit but to be put at the service of the community. All gifts are like the talents entrusted to us, so that we administer them for the benefit of the ecclesial body and the world.
Therefore the Prefect of the Congregation indicated the life of the first Christian communities as a model for every pastoral and missionary operator: "an invitation to us all to return to what is essential, that is, to the joyful witness of faith in charity, to be men of our time, deeply embedded in history, but with the awareness of being brothers in faith and servants of God". The Cardinal also reiterated that the foundation of the pastoral life is prayer, otherwise "everything we do risks being empty and the proclamation of the Gospel in the end is without a soul".
At the school of prayer Saint Laura Montoya learned how to make the gifts received from the Lord fruitful in the charitable and missionary service towards the last, who at the time were the indigenous. "The spiritual presence of this saint and her powerful intercession, in this climate of the National Missionary Congress - he concluded - are certainly an encouragement and an invitation to 'go forth' towards all environments and places in need of the good news of the risen Lord". (SL) (Agenzia Fides 28/05/2016)
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