In this Special Series from comshalom.org, you will follow how missionaries around the world have lived the virtue of hope, proper to Christians at all times of life.
Guilherme Souza is a missionary in the Capital of Poland, Warsaw. He tells us that the missionaries have lived a different routine in the mission at this time.
Warsaw: A foundation with passionate young people
As a foundation, evangelization in the Warsaw mission happens a lot in personal contact, with some weekly actions of evangelization, when the missionaries go to the people. Now, because they are more at home, they start to count more on the help of technology and social networks.
“A message or a link are simple actions of evangelization that maintain contact with the people. Also the prayer group, worship and the Online Rosary are actions that we are developing and still growing. The important thing at this time is to be a sign of peace and hope for our Polish people,” says Guilherme.
He points out that peace, hope and joy are remedies against the possible despair that this time has caused in the hearts of the people at home.
For this reason, through every action, be it online prayer or telephone calls, the missionaries have sought to be close to the Poles, showing that they are not alone, but that God acts also in this time when they also need to be a sign of peace and hope for those who suffer.
Guilherme tells us that the young Poles are suffering from the inability to go to church and have sacraments, but that they are experiencing God’s love in a surprising way at this moment and they are witnessing it.
One of the young people attending the Warsaw mission told the missionary that these few days of quarantine are already bringing him closer to his family through board games, films, help in the house through cleaning and cooking. According to the young man’s sharing, this has also been a fruitful moment of prayer, since without the rush to go to the University he is finding Jesus himself in the Holy Scriptures, especially in the morning.
“Being like the brothers, with our people, with our young people, with those whom God entrusts to us here in Poland, even though we are physically far from some, has been a propitious time to fortify unity in the Community and in the Church. From all evils God always takes greater good,” Guilherme concludes.
Krakow: A Church on the way out
Michele Magalhães is Local Responsible for the Polish mission in Krakow. She says that even with the country’s borders closed, evangelization has come far.
“The whole youth ministry of the city of Krakow began to develop actions with the theme: Although the doors are closed (alluding to John: 20), we continue to announce,” she commented.
The missionary said that the missionaries also began the process of maintaining online evangelization with the people as follows: 1. Praise on Tuesdays; 2. Worship on Thursdays; 3. Rosary of Mercy Online with the whole Work of Krakow on Saturdays.
She points out that the graces of approaching the Polish people are already concrete. “People who never came to the prayer group or to an evangelization are now attracted online through Skype. It has been a concrete, fruitful time of great graces, with great evangelizing creativity even with the few resources that we have”, she concludes.
The missionaries of the Shalom Catholic Community who are in Poland live a moment of deep intercession and full of compassion, characteristic of St. Faustina Kowalska, Apostle of Divine Mercy who was born and became a saint in this country. The devotion to the Divine Mercy Chaplet has been spread through digital platforms, which represents a new time of explicit proclamation of the Risen Christ.
Constant prayer, linked to the experience of unity that is proper to the Shalom Charism, makes all those at home bring hope to a majority Catholic people, who at this time suffer from seclusion and the impossibility of physically attending a Church as usual.
Translation: Sérgio Godoy Jr.