«All Christian community
is born missionary, and indeed
the love
of the believers
to its Lord
is measured according to
its evangelizing commitment.
For the faithfuls, it is not simply about
to collaborate in the evangelizing activity,
but to feel themselves protagonists
and corresponsibles
of the mission
of the Church»
(Benedict XVI, World Mission Sunday 2007)

The summer missions

«Contemporary man believes more to witnesses than to teachers; believes more in experience than in doctrine, in life and facts than in theories. For that reason the testimony of Christian life is the first and irreplaceable form of mission» (Redemptoris Missio 42).

The mission is not an activity, is a lifestyle: that of the Gospel. It's to respond to the sending of Jesus, «Go and announce…» (Mk 16). It is to adhere us to the urgency of Jesus and Mary that men be saved.

Since 1986, during the first two weeks of January, missionary groups of The Movement of the Word of God take part in rural missions of dioceses in Argentina. For every year, they set out an objective: knowledge of the place, promotion of leaders, community building, etc. This year 74 young missionaries went to 6 sites in Argentina.

John Paul II said: «one is missionary first of all by what one is, as Church that deeply lives the unity in love, before being it by what one says or does» (RM 23). «From the beginning of my Pontificate I have chosen to travel to the ends of the Earth in order to show the missionary concern. My direct contact with peoples who do not know Christ has convinced me even more of the urgency of missionary activity» (RM 1).

In order to participate in the summer missions it is necessary to cultivate certain aptitudes that help to give greater channel to the grace:

• Restlessness by the announcement of the Word.

• Docility and listening of the Spirit.

• Attitude of service, of availability, capacity to share and to work in group.

• Simplicity of interpersonal bonds, capacity of encounter.

• Capacity to be inserted in the culture of the zone.

«The Church's missionary activity is an urgency also at the beginning of the third millennium, as I have often said. Mission is still only beginning and we must commit ourselves wholeheartedly to its service. The entire people of God at every moment of its pilgrimage through history is called to share the Redeemer's 'thirst' (cf. Jn 19:28)» (John Paul II, World Mission Sunday 2004).

«Proclaiming Jesus Christ as the only Savior of the world is more complex today than in the past; but our duty is the same as at the early days of our history. The mission has not changed, just as the enthusiasm and courage that moved the Apostles and first disciples must not change. The Holy Spirit who encouraged them to open the doors of the Cenacle, making them evangelizers, is the same Spirit that moves the Church today in a renewed announcement of hope to men and women of our time. The grace of the mission needs of new evangelists capable to receive it, so that the saving proclamation of the Word of God never decreases» (Benedict XVI, audience of 05.30.11).

See also:

• Formation resources: Evangelization and mission
• Misioneros misionados , by Luis Salinas, in Cristo Vive Aleluia! 6, page 12 (december 1976).
• Contribution of the Movement to a slum , by P. Jose Maria Aguirre, msf, in Cristo Vive Aleluia! 62, page 10 (may 1988).
• Misiones de verano , by Liliana, in Cristo Vive Aleluia! 64, page 26 (october 1988).
• La mision del discipulo , by Roxana F., in Cristo Vive Aleluia! 119, page 25 (october 1999).
• La mision es un llamado a la santidad , by Cecilia Di Fonzo, in Cristo Vive Aleluia! 127, page 12 (may 2001).
• Misionar es abandonarse en Dios , by Vanina S., en Cristo Vive Aleluia! 135, page 10 (december 2002).