Salesians Commission 10 Missionary Volunteers

Salesians Commission 10 Missionary Volunteers

Photos: https://link.shutterfly.com/H6QchlIUSVb

The Salesians of the New Rochelle Province commissioned 10 lay missionaries during Evening Prayer on Thursday, Aug. 14, in the chapel of the Don Bosco Retreat Center at Haverstraw, N.Y.

The 5 men and 5 women had completed 3 weeks of orientation for mission, including fellowship, prayer, paperwork, cultural preparation, introduction to St. John Bosco and the Salesian charism, recreation, and some practical experience in St. John Bosco Parish in Port Chester, N.Y. The final week was a retreat alongside two dozen Salesians at the retreat house, Aug. 10-16.

Fr. Dominic Tran, SDB, provincial, presided at the commissioning, assisted by Adam Rudin, director of the Salesian Lay Missioner program.

The 10 SLMs are Ambroise Curutchague, 23, of Bakersfield, Calif., who will serve as a teacher at Don Bosco Agricultural Training College in Lufubu, Zambia; Nathaniel Devlin, 20, of Moline, Ill., also sent to the school in Lufubu; Emily Durr, 22, of Cincinnati, will serve as a clinic nurse at the Palabek, Uganda, refugee camp; Edwin Feliberty Jr., 37, of Jersey City, N.J., will join the staff of the National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians in Haverstraw, N.Y.; Alexandria Foos, 25, of Westerville, Ohio, will work with young girls at the Instituto Maria Auxiliadora in San Pedro Sula, Honduras; Douglas Hinman, 30, of Littleton, Colo., will teach English at the Don Bosco Institute in Alexandria, Egypt; Jennifer Lopez, 26, of Austin, Texas, will serve first in Madrid and then in Bangkok; Angel Nuñez-Arce, 20, of Chicago, will assist with youth ministry and music at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J.; Sueshai Perez, 27, of Austin, will serve alongside Jennifer in Madrid and Bangkok; and Eileen Ramirez Quintana, 27, of Buckeye, Ariz., will teach English in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Fr. Dominic took his homiletic cue from the one-verse Scripture reading of Evening Prayer, Romans 8:30. That verse, he said, suggested John Calvin’s doctrine of predestination. But, he said, St. Paul’s wider context notes that God’s plan preceded creation and leads up to God’s predestining us to belong to him through Jesus Christ. The verse highlights Mary’s role in God’s plan. Her Assumption into heaven points to the call all of us have received as God’s children.

God has a plan for each of the lay missioners, Fr. Dominic stated, wherever they may be going. The Catholic understanding of God’s plan includes human freedom. We pray that God’s plan will go to and be fulfilled in all places on earth.

God’s Word is always alive and active, he continued. He told the volunteers that God has destined them to be missionaries of the Word, and as bearers of the Word to bring hope and life to the poor. This is God’s plan of love. “You are to be the instruments of God’s plan and God’s love,” Fr. Dominic told the ten women and men.

Every August, your humble blogger is recruited during the retreat week to guide the SLMs on a hike in Harriman State Park, which is very close to the retreat house.

On Tuesday the 12th, he brought them to Pine Meadow Lake, a 2-mile jaunt over a gradual ascent that mostly follows Stony Brook and Pine Meadow Brook to the lake. Photos: https://link.shutterfly.com/LPkR3eKXSVb

Celebrating Mass at Pine Meadow Lake