English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Arabic and Hungarian are some of the languages from nations that the Shalom Catholic Community has reached for evangelization. Justine Lafferrière, disciple of the Life Community, is the fruit and instrument of this wisdom of God. For the missionary, Vocation has shown itself to be increasingly universal. “We cannot continue to evangelize with subtitles, we need to love the people from speaking their mother tongue”, she points out.
As a French woman, Justine says she got to know the community in Massy – just about 20km (12.4 miles) away from Paris. It was through a friend who had contact with the Vocation during World Youth Day (WYD) in 2013, in Rio de Janeiro, that the young woman learned about the existence of the Community in the city where she lived. However, it was in 2015 that the missionary came closer to the Charism, helping with the organization and translation of the Youth Shalom Congress (YSC) in France.
Justine participated in the preaching of Moysés Azevedo and had the experience of the effusion in the Holy Spirit at YSC. After that, she took more and more firm steps towards the Shalom Vocation. The contact with Brazilian missionaries favored the learning of the Portuguese language. In addition to French, Justine speaks English, Italian, Portuguese and a little German. At the WYD in Poland in 2016, she was responsible for welcoming the artists of the Halleluya Festival due to the ease with the different languages.
Far beyond nations
The experience that Justine had with the Vocation expresses the universality of the Charism that was born in Brazil, but that does not belong to a specific nation, culture or language. The young missionary also comments that it is possible to recognize Shalom amid the different customs of each region. “It is something far beyond nations and cultures”, she emphasizes. Having been on a mission in different countries (France, Italy, Poland, Panama and Brazil), she shares that Spousal Love is one of the most beautiful aspects to contemplate in each culture. In fact, it was the reading of the Written Spousal Love in English that most marked her during the process of discovering the Vocation.
International experiences
At the WYD 2019 held in Panama, Justine was part of the presenters team of the central acts of the event, each of whom was responsible for a language. Justine was the representative of the French language. For her, who had just left Eusébio’s Discipleship (house of formation for the missionaries of the Life Community), it was a concrete opportunity to assume her calling, her Vocation as Shalom.
Translation: William Rocha