Building a missionary Parish is to create the community channel so that each Christian, a member of the Parish, can develop this aspect of its mission as baptized. Building a missionary Parish is to create the climate where every Christian who participates in the community may experience the urge to answer the call to be a missionary.

There are two aspects that are necessary to take into account: one looks at the growth in faith of the members and groups in the Parish, and the other is looking at ways to reach more brothers and sisters with the announcement of the Good News.

The first aspect is crucial. All growth in faith is missionary. All growth in the experience of God and the Christian life is missionary. The best preaching of the Gospel is that done through life: where there is life, it grows and is transmitted. The announcement of the Good News is not the announcement of a theory, but the testimony of a reality, something that has been experienced and lived. The proclamation of the Gospel loses all its force when it cannot be shown in life, when it cannot be shown a community who lives it. «What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of life —for the life was made visible; we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was made visible to us— what we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; for our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing this so that our joy may be complete» (1 Jo 1:1-4). «It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard» (Act 4:20).

Everything that is made in a Parish for those involved in it may grow in faith, in Christian life, in the experience of a living God; all that is made for members of a Parish to live more conscious and uncompromisingly their faith; every step in holiness of a community and its members, is the most missionary.

For this to happen it should be look after the proclamation of the Gospel, prayer and sacramental life, community life and pastoral care.

A Parish whose members don't live their faith, which doesn't create fraternal bonds among its members, which doesn't walk to sanctity, will never be a missionary Parish.

Assuming this first aspect, you can take the second step, specifically missionary.

• to center in the missionary mandate of Jesus: Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature (Mk 16:15). Seek to answer that call whatever the circumstances and difficulties.

• to put eyes and heart in those who are far away. Be aware that involves pastoral care and pastoral service and the service of evangelization in the center and the periphery. In the center there are temple, priest every day, catechesis and many other services… and in the periphery little of this, and in some cases, nothing.

• to think of a different Church: one which goes out to the lost sheep, which goes on to announce to those far away and not left to serve only those who come.

It is a conscious and express decision to transform the Parish in a missionary Parish. It is the decision to launch a mission project.

It is a decision of the pastors of the parish, but the religious and laity can play an important role in making this decision.

Without this decision soon the difficulties impede progress in a mission project.

• It is a process in time: not done in a month or a year. Not done by doing a mission in the whole Parish, or by having one or more missionary groups.

• It can be a process in space, in places: you can start with some sites or parts of the Parish, with some chapels and communities. You can start with some groups or services. Then, according to the possibilities of pace, to reach all places and all services.

• It is a process in individuals:

* that will be incorporated gradually, and will grow the number of missionaries with the passage of time.

* that will grow gradually from the animation and training spaces, and from the experience of mission.

Failure to observe this process in many cases will make it impossible to think of building a missionary Parish.

This structure can be:

• Teams of missionaries (or perhaps missionary groups)

• Mission zones (of which teams take charge)

• Mission times

* time of a special mission

* Advent — Christmas

* Lent — Easter

* Fiesta Patronal

* Other special occasions in some communities.

• Forming spaces (for missionaries and coordinators)

These areas include:

• evangelization groups

* catechism groups

* groups of prayer and evangelization

* specific service groups: young, elderly, sick

• formation of new communities, ith facilities (chapel, halls…) and services that make life grow on them:

* evangelization services

* services of celebration of faith

* charitable services

The most notable fruits that we can see a little less than a year of the mission are:

• A large growth in mission awareness in the missionaries and throughout the Parish, and the discovery of the possibility to reach all, who once would have seemed impossible.

• The proper fruits of a Mission: brothers and sisters who meet with Jesus and who approach the community, seeds of faith that remain sown in many people and families…

• Groups of the Word. Groups of 8 to 25 people, who meet every week in a two-hour meeting to share faith and life from sharing the Word and prayer. At present there are over 50 groups throughout the Parish.

• The gestation of two new communities: Anunciacion del Senor, in the neighborhood San Martin, and the Visitacion de Maria, in the neighborhood Piniero, who at this time, but still have no chapel, have more than 20 pastoral responsibles each, in the basic services that have been launched: Family Catechesis groups, groups of the Word, Liturgy team and Economy and Works team.

• The preparation and conduct of the mission opened to us new paths of communion and joint ministry between the various chapels of the Parish.

• The mission left us a missionary structure. In most communities we maintain the structure we built for the mission. It's like an umbrella we fold after the mission, but that we can redeploy when we want. In fact, in most communities we deploy it again in Advent and Lent to have for each area and with each mission team five or six meetings in each case, in preparation for Christmas and Easter.

• The Mission had and is having its influence beyond the boundaries of our Parish: other parishes who have felt encouraged to do something similar, they see that is possible and desirable to do so, seeing the fruits. Surely this Diocesan Missionary Congress (CONSAM 1) would be different if we had not had this experience. Having had the experience of the Mission, with everything what raised and left us, today CONSAM 1 is for our parish an extraordinary grace, because we again renew and revive in something we know from experience that is a great grace.