Boston is a city where the eyes of the world are focused on, it’s a great technology center, renowned universities such as Harvard and MIT, and the great number of young people give it an outstanding place among the main cities of the world.
Eight years ago, thanks to the mediation of two priests, the Shalom charism arrived in the Archdiocese of Boston. After having attended to events and accompanying the evangelization work of the Shalom Community in the mission of Fortaleza, they had the desire to bring the newness of the Charism and the parrhesia that marks their evangelizing actions for young people to the city of Boston.
First stone of the mission: the missionary families
The early days of the foundation were led by the missionary families of the Shalom Covenant Community. About four families formed the first nucleus of the community in Boston and sought to dedicate themselves to witnessing the charism of Peace in their work and through small evangelization initiatives.
The missionary action gained new time with the arrival of the missionaries of Life community. Nara Santos, one of the first missionaries of the mission testifies “what marked it from the beginning was the action of God’s providence. The experience that he wanted us there. A great sign for me was the great fruitfulness and, on the other hand, our poverty. It didn’t take too long for people to come closer, to be created as we like to say a people on the move who, having had the experience with God’s love, became other evangelizers.”
The first vocations to the Shalom Community, marked a new time of rootedness and apostolic creativity. The evangelization initiatives, as well as the very process of planning the actions, started to be led by the “owners of the house”, as Nara recalls.
Parties, sports, and the newness of the gospel
One aspect that drew attention was the presence of the young missionaries and the families involved in evangelization. The first Life in the Spirit seminar was promoted after a year and a half, and it already had a good number of attendees.
I think it’s interesting, because people always think of the United States as a difficult place to evangelize,” declares the missionary. Many people told us how they had felt welcomed, within a family in the community.
In the last four years the actions have started to be a little more daring. In evangelization, which apparently does not work, but which bears a lot of fruit. Besides this, one of the biggest actions today is the volleyball that takes place weekly inside one of the college campus. The first matches were played with about 8 people; today we already need four courts. Sport and witnessing the gospel open the doors of faith to those who were far away.
