In this Special Series from comshalom.org in times of Pandemic, you are following how missionaries around the world have lived the virtue of hope, characteristic of Christians at all moments in life.
Today you will meet a member of the Shalom Catholic Community who lives in Switzerland. He tells how it has reached the European people in times of restrictions because of Covid-19.
Switzerland: A routine of study and intercession
Isaac Soares is a missionary from the Shalom Life Community in Lugano, Switzerland. He says that at this time, the brothers have lived the mission following the guidelines of the local Church and also of government authorities, which restrict the movement of people on the streets.
“Face-to-face activities here in the country are suspended. Here in Lugano, we all study Theology. Masses are also no longer being celebrated with the public. The guideline is to be at home and study what our teachers are recording through digital platforms. Here at home, we are attending classes and working hard to pray more at this time”, he points out.
Isaac says that the Lugano mission decided to make a Siege of Jericho (for a week), with 24 hours of intercession, right at the beginning of the Quarantine. He points out that being at home is no reason to stop evangelizing.
The missionary affirms that since the beginning of the government’s determination for everyone to remain at home, they started to adopt three concrete measures of evangelization:
1. Intercede.
2. Allow the people to live the moments of prayer with Shalom members in Switzerland through Social Media, especially the Rosary of Mercy, prayer groups and Online formations.
3. Being close to the country’s inhabitants in a personal way: through calls, video calls and text messages, with the aim of strengthening the spirit of unity among people who know the Community in the country.
“God misses his people. We missionaries must be this people who in this period intercede before Him. This is a time when the people also miss God, for not being able to meet and celebrate the faith. We can then be that presence of God in the life of the people and rediscover the profound meaning of what it is to be a missionary ”, emphasizes Isaac.
He concludes by stating that it is time to hope that Christ is the Lord of history, despite the evils that happen to us.
“God does not want evil, He suffers with us and redeems us from evil. We must die and live with Christ on the Cross suffering the evil of this time to reap a greater good ”, he recalls.
Translation: Beatriz Duarte