COMLA 6 - CAM 1.
Paraná is getting ready.
COMLA 6 - CAM 1. Paraná is getting ready. |
The Mission of the Church.
The need for the Mission has been growing in the Church of Paraná. The Missionary Groups, the sending of priests to the diocesan missions in 1991 and 1996, the missions to prepare Christmas, Easter, and patron saints’ feasts, showed us we have to "go out" to reach "everybody."
Today we have the grace of preparing the Missionary Congress (COMLA CAM). It is not another "massive act" that exacts a new effort from us. It is an "event of grace" that moves us to compromise.
Why is this an event of grace for the diocese? Because in the Missionary Congress the Church wants to dream again of the great horizon Jesus points since the beginning: to proclaim the Gospel to all the peoples. The Church "cannot withdraw from the perennial mission of taking the Gospel to all those - and they are millions, men and women- who yet do not know Christ the Redeemer of man." (Christifideles laicis, 35).
It is to this task, which is the soul of the Church, to which "all" those who are baptised must feel called. In the letter Redemptoris Missio (nº 3), John Paul II tells us "no believer in Christ, no institution of the Church, can avoid this supreme task."
The Pre-Congress Mission.
The aim of the Mission we are carrying out in preparation of the Congress is "to animate our communities missionarywise, to create a spirit of prayer and missionary collaboration." (Mons. Karlic. Letter to the priests). It is clear that each activity we undertake has to have and end, aims and a means to be achieved. Our horizon must be the mission "ad gentes." Not only because we want the universal missionary conscience to be revived in the place where the Congress is carried out, but also to be faithful to the truth of the mission: to announce calling to conversion, to establish the sensible signs of the presence of the resurrected Christ, the Church , as a community of faith, cult and love, and the promotion of the values of the Kingdom. That is why, in general, we "will go" to all the inhabitants of our parish, to "establish the Church" among them, and thus reach the family, which is the heart whence all the "values" are generated.
Dynamic of the Pre-Congress Mission.
When we go on a mission, the priest divides the parish in regions or sectors, and distributes the institutions, making them responsible of one of the regions. The parish missionaries call on once or more (the more the better, as we put it), taking a letter written by the parish priest for the occasion, taking the Virgin and having some celebrations with the family. This missionary scheme usually ends up with the celebration of the Sacraments with those persons the missionaries detected and whom they trained intensively.
Another method is through different events every day. We prepare a series of events that summon families, children, young people, the sick, etc. We gather as many people as possible to have the opportunity to announce Christ.
All these schemes are valid. But they have some deficiencies.
There will be deficiencies in the Pre-COMLA Mission scheme. But its aim is to encourage us towards the so much proclaimed joined pastoral work, and to take a step further in taking on the mission "ad gentes" as the basis and the model for the new evangelisation. Besides, it wants to assume the Pastoral Lines for the New Evangelisation of the Argentinian Church and the material from the Episcopate for the Renovation of the Parish and the Pastoral Council.
How will we make it?
1. establishing the Parish Missionary Team.
2. dividing the Parish in regions.
3. visiting the families to carry out an event that summons them (a summoning event).
4. inviting them, during the summoning event, to participate in the mission among the families.
5. having family meetings around the liturgical feasts.
6. detecting missionaries from the same regions in these family meetings.
7. carrying out events that summon all the regions in the parish seat.
For the animation and training of the parish missionaries, there are joint meetings, where they can express their doubts and anxieties, make their proposals known, and get to know the general lines of the different stages of the mission (for further details, see planning).
Besides, material to be used as guide is elaborated, both for the summoning events and the family meetings, according to the different stages of the mission (material for Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter has been elaborated).
Material for the families are also elaborated: bulletins (see Local Bulletins), letters by the Bishop and the parish priests, etc.
The area of volunteers is another aspect being worked. Cards have been handed out in all parishes to encourage people (mainly youngsters) to join this area which is so necessary for the well development of the Congress. Secondary lay and religious schools of the city will be visited and students will be invited to help, to really make of this everybody’s Congress.
The area of reception and hosting is already working so that the host families have all the information and training they need.
We are working not only for the organisation of the Congress, but also for this "grace event" to renew us all.