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2009 11/12 Nov.-Dec Magazine of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians Evangelization1 Editor in Chief 3 Mariagrazia Curti Editorial I do all for the Gospel Editors Giuseppina Teruggi Giuseppina Teruggi Anna Rita Cristaino Collaborators Tonny Aldana • Julia Arciniegas • Mara Borsi Piera Cavaglià • Maria Antonia Chinello Emilia Di Massimo • Dora Eylenstein Laura Gaeta • Bruna Grassini Maria Pia Giudici • Palma Lionetti Anna Mariani • Cristina Merli Maria Helena Moreira 5 Dossier Concepción Muñoz • Adriana Nepi On the pathways of evangelization Maria Luisa Nicastro • Louise Passero Maria Perentaler • Loli Ruiz Perez 13 onsecrated Life and… Rossella Raspanti Formative Instances Lucia M. Roces • Maria Rossi DMA 2009 Translators 11 Women in the Word Jesus and the Samaritan 3 French• Anne Marie Baud 15Ecumenism and Religious life Japanese • Japanese Province English • Louise Passero 17 Arianna’s Line Polish • Janina Stankiewicz When we cannot be silent Portuguese • Maria Aparecida Nunes Spanish • Amparo Contreras Álvarez German • Austrian and German Provinces 23 Cooperation and Development Alternative Economy for fairness toward women 25Pastoral-ly Are young people always further from the faith? 27 Polis Forgotten Hunger 31 Youngpeople.com Hikikomori: the world in a room 36 Camilla My Dear Jesus… 2 Editorial We live in an historical time in which we cannot I do all for the Gospel keep silent. From the Pentecost event,as we read in Arianna’s Line, the Church has matured It is the aim of the last issue of DMA 2009 to in the awareness of having an active role in reflect on the commitment to evangelization. It society and in the world. It has a precise task, is a gift and an urgent task that cannot be put that of speaking of the God of Jesus Christ. off. This was expressed often in the Chapter With the Parousia it is ready to go against the Assembly which directed all toward a serious current, with the courage of a clear, free word, and systematic study, considering also the so as to influence today’s men and women. proximity with the same theme of the Chapter itself. A beautiful conclusion that was reached For us as educators there is still a question: was the proposal of the first journey of How are we to educate the young people to the conversion to love entrusted to each FMA: “To faith? be a living monument of Jesus’ way of being There is an attempt to answer this complex and acting.” Evangelization places roots in the question in the article Pastoral-ly. Times are heart before becoming a sign of life. difficult and often we do not have clear strategies with which to act. However, “difficult Evangelization is communication – states the times could show themselves to be the most dossier – and it is certainly word, but it is evangelical times”, said Mother Teresa of primarily a way of being, a style of life. It is Calcutta. Education to the faith in our times is narrating with one’s existence that “Christian not so much a question of the means at hand, life is ‘good’”. Enzo Bianchi asks :”What greater as a question of sources to be re-discovered. sign is there of a life inhabited by charity than There is an urgent need to return to the doing good, from gratuitous love that reaches sources, to that from which the prophets drew even to embracing one’s enemy, a life of at every time what was indicated as essential service especially among the poor, the least, during the times when even the foundation of the victims of history?” certainties were shaken . The sources are found in the heart of persons, Above all else, it means evangelizing the and for us are nourished in sharing, in the heart. This implies a process of self-formation, company of many young people thirsting for aware of our being bearers of a knowledge and God. The evangelizing sources of the heart of how to act. The formative journey- urge us to the burning passion of living and emphasizes the article Vita consecrata acting only for the Gospel. and...accompanies the person toward a full configuration to Christ according to the charism of her own Institute for a meaningful presence [email protected] in the context in which she lives. It is the goal of formation. 3 On the pathways Of evangelization 4 The Greek word for to evangelize is used to sum up the expression “to announce the good On the pathways of news”:someone who s ha been evangelized has evangelization been “informed”. This is the word that we use to Anna Rita Cristaino describe the most precious reality of our faith: the Palma Lionetti announcement of the resurrection of Christ. The Lucy Roces apostle Paul reached the point of saying :”Woe to me if I were not to preach the Gospel” (1Cor 9,16). Our Institute strongly feels the call of young For him evangelizaiton is the very consequence of people who question themselves on the his attachment to Christ. Undertaking pathways of meaning of their lives, on how to arrive at evangelization in every context requires the realizing themselves as persons, weaving capacity to inculturate the evangelical message, profound relationships...Young people carrying out a dialogue with the cultures and manifest a strong desire for friendship, learning to communicate through them. affection, companionship and solidarity, In this reflection we think it important to pay along with the need for a profound attention to four aspects: experience of God (CGXXII N° 24). The first proclamation,witness, the search for meaning, the responsibility of commitment. “These young people thirsting for love and happiness challenge us.” The first (early) proclamation. The Gospel is the This strong awareness that can be read in the Acts narration of the teachings and witness of Jesus, of of the General Chapter, # 24 leads us to desire to His incarnation, death and resurrection. The continue on pathways of evangelization. Kerigma, the fundamental nucleus of our faith, was As FMA we are obstinately optimistic because we what the apostles proclamed from the rooftops, know that every young person is educable, and in that Jesus, who was innocent and was crucified, every person there is a possibility for an enounter who proclaimed the law of love, has risen. By his especially when he/she has in self a dimension of death He conquered sin and His resurrection the soul that is open and transcendent. restored salvation to us. Every human being has the right to have the All was simple, linear. possibility of encountering the Lord and the Two narrations in the New Testametn explain how revelation of Jesus. This iswhat each and every this announcement came about. Christian has in his/her heart when he/she does In the first, (Luke., 24 13‐35) it is Jesus Himself not keep for self alone the joy of the encounter who teaches us to speak of Him and of His event with the Lord, but rather feels the need to beginning from Holy Scripture. He accompanies communicate and proclaim it. the disciples of Emmaus on a journey that leads Every one of our ministry actions is directed toward them to raise their gaze to heaven from their the openness of the human being who is educable discouragment and to recognize in the events that and the young people expect to receive from us had just come to pass His message of salvation. He reasons to hope, they expect that we will tell them therefore becomes a companion along the way, about the “Good News”. uses understandable language , warms their hearts and shares their table. But what does evangelization mean ? The second narration (Acts 8, 26‐40) tells of the In the present social context, at times we find conversion of the Ethiopean who asked Philip to ourselves uncomfortable in proposing our faith to explain to him the meaninge of th scripture that he someone else, as though we were dealing with a was reading, and the apostle, starting from the product to be bought and sold. For respect of the prophets, explained how that revelation was other person, we do not want to give the fulfilled with the advent of Jesus who died and impression of imposing something or seeking to rose. His speech was so efficacious that the convince someone. Ethiopean immediately asked to be baptized. Even 5 Philip found himself travelling and drew close to his questioner, beginning his discourse by replying to Responsibiity of commitment. Many Christians of the unanswered questions of the other person. the early communities paid with their lives for These are two examples that show us how the thier belief in and witness to the love of Christ. Still proclamation is made up of a dialogue. Faith in the today in many countries Christians suffer many Gospel does not come from persuasion, but is the forms of opposition which in come cases lead to word itself, the intrinsic Spirit which marks and the death of those who openly profess thier faith in strikes the listerner. Faith is a gift. the Gospel. It is precisley martyrdom that lends credibilty to Witness. The apostles followed the invitation of witness, that does not seek power or gain, but Jesus to go out to the whole world to bring the gives one’s life for Christ. This manifests to the good news of the Gospel: shout from the rooftops world a force that is defenseless and overflwoing what you have heard in secret . But for thems with love for humankind that is given to those who peaking would not have been efficacious if they follow Christ to the total gift of one’s existence.