Querétaro, Qro. 17 April 2023
A nascent community, a place of joyful encounter
(Experience related to the Holy Week missions in San Ildefonso, Amealco, Qro.)
"Go into the whole world and proclaim the Good News to every creature".
We have witnessed a great experience of God during this Holy Week with our missionary group in Querétaro and we want to share it. What we experienced can be translated as a joyful encounter with God, in community. Just as in the first Christian community, "they lived together and had everything in common", there was a process of discovery and encounter with God. For many of them it was the first time that they had left home to go out to meet others and their reality since our missionary community was made up of teachers, senior high school, secondary and primary school students, as well as mothers and Religious. Thus, the variety of ages was experienced as a joyful complementarity, encouraging each other at all times.
The meeting with the Community of San Ildefonso and the Community of El Rincón, in the municipality of Amealco, the attentive listening and the heart open to the different realities of the families who were visited and who kindly opened the doors of their homes to us, marked the life of each one of the members of this community in such a way that the greatest sign of this experience was the immense joy that was expressed throughout the week, despite the fatigue of young and old alike. A lively, happy, strengthened community, convinced of its mission, was consolidated. Thus, in the words of St. John Paul II, "faith is strengthened by giving it".
All this was a project that seemed distant and difficult to realise, and God arranged everything to make it possible. The support of the whole educational community of the Institute was surprising. In one way or another they were involved in this project, giving their best to help others whether it was a bag of beans or something from the menu for the missionaries. The generosity was great and abundant, nothing was lacking.
We were never alone, God was always at our side to strengthen our hearts, to encourage us in the face of fatigue, to enlarge our hearts to listen and to strengthen people in need. We are convinced that doing "the things of God" make a difference in the face of an indifferent society, to be witnesses and builders of the Kingdom.
Today we can celebrate with the Risen Jesus and let His words to the women who sought Him ring out, "FEAR NOT". We return home with a heart overflowing with joy, a renewed and strengthened spirit. A joyful missionary community has been formed, discovering the gift of service as a means of evangelization and personal encounter with Jesus from their rhythm and experience. Discovering that "this is our vocation; a determined will to walk according to faith and with the support of its certainty".
Such was the joy and intensity of the meeting that we want to proclaim and share the experience, so that many more may join in being witnesses and make real the words of Marie Eugenie which accompanied our whole Lenten campaign: "God has done so much for me that I want to do something for Him".
God has manifested himself in the simple, in community, in smiles and in joy.
With affection,
Javier Alvarado, Pastoral Ministry Coordinator
Missionaries of the educational community of Asunción Querétaro.
[1] Mc. 16, 15.
[2] Hch. 2,44.
[3] Redemptoris Missio.
[4] Mt. 28, 10.
[5] Billet n1.513 Vol.VI