5 SLMs Commissioned for Bolivia & Mexico
Five Salesian Lay Missioners were commissioned on August 18, 2022, near the end of their retreat at Don Bosco Retreat Center in Haverstraw, N.Y. The weeklong retreat capped 3 weeks of orientation for the 5, as well as earlier discernment periods. The first 2 weeks of orientation were based at St. John Bosco Parish in Port Chester, N.Y., where they were introduced to Don Bosco and the Salesians, were given an understanding of mission and inculturation, received safe environment training, completed necessary paperwork, and had some service experiences in the parish.
The orientation program was led by Adam Rudin, director of
the Lay Missioners program. He was assisted by 3 returned SLMs: Bro. Daniel
Glass, SDB (2012 South Sudan), Katie Church (2018 Cambodia), and Grace Mosher
(2021 Bolivia).
Paul Chappell from Scituate, R.I., will be assigned to Kami,
Bolivia, which is near Cochabamba. The Salesians’ St. Joseph work there
includes a school, parish, and social assistance. Paul’s actually doing his
second turn in the SLM program; a good many years ago he was an SLM in Papua
New Guinea.
Mara Fenn (at left) from Waxhaw, N.C., and Katherine Mendoza from Frisco, Tex., will be posted together at Hogar Maria Auxiliadora, a girls orphanage in Cochabamba, Bolivia, replacing SLMs who have been there for a year.
Adam Goetz (right) from Peosta, Iowa, and Timothy Hughes from Carlsbad, Calif., will go to the St. Dominic Savio School and youth center in Colima, Mexico, a new site for the SLM program.
The SLM retreat, as usual, coincided with an SDB
retreat—about two dozen SDBs in this case. They shared prayers, meals,
recreation, and conversation with the SDBs but followed their own program of
spiritual exercises. Recreation with SDBs included basketball, soccer, and a strenuous
6-hour hike in Bear Mountain State Park.
Fr. Tim Zak, provincial, presided over the Evening Prayer service that included the commissioning rite. He introduced the service by linking our province’s sending forth missionaries to what the early Church did (cf. Acts of the Apostles).
In his homily Fr. Tim first cited the Rector Major’s call for
a “time for generosity” in the Congregation, specifically for missionary
generosity. The Rector Major, Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime, alluded to the 150th
anniversary of the Salesian missions (Argentina, 1875) and to the great work
that has blossomed in Northeast India since the first Salesians went there in
1906. Indians now make up 20% of Salesians worldwide, and they’re going out as
missionaries, including to our own province.
The courageous example of our first missionaries and later ones spurs us on, Fr. Tim continued. The generosity and the witness of the SLMs also encourage us in the province to carry out our own mission where we are, including supporting one another.
After receiving his or her missionary cross, each SLM made a
statement of how s/he heard the missionary call and of what s/he hopes to
accomplish as an SLM.
Paul Chappell (left) aims to grow, especially grow closer to God; and to be present to the people he’ll be with.
Mara Fenn wants to love God and know she’s loved by God, and
to accompany the young girls she’ll be with on their journey to God.
Adam Goetz is seeking to live the joy of his vocation and of
being a child of God, and he wants others to know that joy, as well.
Tim Hughes (right) wants to continue saying “yes” to God in whatever way God sets before him, which now is centered on the kids of Colima.
Kat Mendoza (left) aspires to be a faith-base for the girls in Cochabamba, revealing to them God’s fatherly love.
Additional
photos: https://link.shutterfly.com/1745xZVPHsb
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