EUROPE / ENGLAND

EUROPE / ENGLAND – PUM Secretary General: “The Eucharist, primary source for nourishing a missionary spirit”

London (Agenzia Fides) – Nourishing a missionary spirit: the intervention of Father Dinh Anh Nhue Nguyen, OFM Conv, Secretary General of the Pontifical Missionary Union (PUM), Director of Ciam and of Agenzia Fides, focused on this theme, opened the work of the National Assembly of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) in the United Kingdom. The general secretary of the PUM started the three days with an afternoon study session on missionary spirituality. After the introduction edited by the English PMS aimed at providing an overview of his work in the context of the local church, Father Nguyen continued with his report which began with the episode of Luke’s Gospel on the multiplication of loaves and fishes. The Gospel episode was taken as a model to introduce the broader theme of a life lived under the sign of mission. Father Nguyen explained the missionary context of the multiplication of bread, the “complete” bread offered by Jesus and the mission of the community of the faithful.
Taking a cue from Pope Francis’ message of World Mission Sunday 2022, Father Dinh provided the participants in the Assembly of the English Pom with some food for thought.
“A deeper overall re-reading clarifies for us some aspects that are always current for the mission entrusted by Christ to the disciples:” Of me you will be witnesses “. The plural form underlines the community-ecclesial character of the missionary call of the disciples – said Father Nguyen, quoting the Message of the Holy Father -. Every baptized person is called to mission in the Church and on the mandate of the Church: therefore the mission is done together, not individually, in communion with the ecclesial community and not on one’s own initiative “.
The Secretary General of the PUM then underlined the Pope’s Message which addresses the indissoluble link between the example of Christian life and the proclamation of Christ: “In evangelization, therefore, the example of Christian life and the proclamation of Christ go together. One serves the other. They are the two lungs with which every community must breathe in order to be missionary. This complete, coherent and joyful witness of Christ will certainly be the attraction for the growth of the Church also in the third millennium. I therefore urge everyone to take back the courage, the frankness, that parrhesia of the first Christians, to bear witness to Christ with words and deeds, in every environment of life ”.
Father Nguyen then recalled the charismatic origin of the PMS, as stated by Pope Francis in the Message, and suggested to those present to nourish themselves with the Eucharist to cultivate missionary spirituality in everyday life. “To nourish and cultivate the missionary spirit it is essential to start from the Eucharist in which three essential dimensions for missionary activity are intrinsically present: loving, praying and sharing”. Finally, the general secretary of the PUM invited those present to deepen the topic by referring to the documents “PMS Charism and actualization 2022 OR Embracing and Employing the PMS Charism (Working Document).
The Assembly then continued with sessions dedicated to the fundraising strategy, its analysis and possible paths to be taken before ending yesterday with the conclusions by the National Director of the English PMS.
(EG) (Agenzia Fides 23/6/2022)


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EUROPE / ENGLAND – PUM Secretary General: “The Eucharist, primary source for nourishing a missionary spirit”