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  1. Why two invitations at the same time? – Which one should we give our attention to?

Image1The International Community of the Divine Savior (ICDS), as well both Generalates, the Society (SocDS) and the Congregation (ConDS), declared 2015 the YEAR OF THE SALVATORIAN MISSION, celebrating the first Salvatorian Mission of the SDS to Assam, India 125 years ago. At the same time, Pope Francis called the year 2015 the YEAR OF THE CONSECRATED LIFE.

Here some remarks for these two special celebrations:[1]

Next year we celebrate the 125th anniversary of the sending of the first Salvatorian missionaries to Assam as well as the 125th anniversary of the death of Fr. Otto Hopfenmüller and the 25th anniversary of the resumption of the Salvatorian mission in Assam. These events have led us to proclaim 2015 as the Salvatorian Missionary Year under the motto “The Savior’s Mission is our Passion”.

We wish to invite everyone to participate in this time of grace, which will promote the missionary spirit at the personal, community and congregational level for all the members of the Salvatorian Family. Furthermore, Pope Francis has proposed the celebration of the Year for Consecrated Life from the first Sunday of Advent 2014 to 2 February 2016. This suggests, therefore, that mission and consecration ought to go hand in hand in the life of every Salvatorian.

Why two invitations at the same time? – Which one should we give our attention to?

We think that the Holy Spirit has given us these two awesome ideas to combine not to choose one over the other:

  • We are one Salvatorian Family and we want to: “Thank the Divine Savior, before anything else, for the history of our mission and the unity of the Salvatorian Family”.
  • We want to evangelize with Salvatorian charism and: “Recall the first Salvatorians who understood the missionary charism of Fr. Jordan”
  • We as Lay Salvatorians dedicate our lives to deepen our baptismal commitment to make Jesus Christ known to all the world by all ways and means that He inspires us.
  • We want to: ”Revive the missionary fire of our Salvatorian identity within the Church and in the world at the personal and community level”, igniting our lives with Jordan´s spirituality, full of a missionary vision.

Then we are also committed to SALVATORIAN MISSION and CONSECRATED LIFE, not only the fathers, brothers and sisters, but Lay Salvatorians as the church rediscovered during the second Vatican Council.

It is only natural that we would focus our mission (local and foreign) and consider also sacred our way of life as lay people, beginning at home, in our family, our first and basic community, the places where we live and work, and in the mission areas, our neighborhood, parish, and our Salvatorian Community.

The Sisters of the Congregation (ConDS) and we the Lay Salvatorians (ICDS) are happy to accept the invitation from the Society (SocDS) to celebrate this commemorative year together as a Salvatorian Family and to encourage all, in the places where there are several branches of the Salvatorian Family, to be inspired by common activities for our mission today.

We encourage all Lay Salvatorian Communities to consider these ideas in the initiatives that you will take in 2015 as Salvatorian Laity.

Please use the following SDS link to find documents about the Salvatorian Missionary Year 2015, prayers, logo, photos, history book to download, activities, and how to celebrate together.

In addition, here are some ideas that inspired us for common activities:

  • We could celebrate a common Eucharist in each unit on Fr. Jordan´s birthday “ it’s a Tuesday in June 2015
  • A communal renewing of our commitment/vows on December 8th.
  • Workshops and other events to make known our Salvatorian charism and spirituality
  • Create common days of prayer and reflection
  • Develop the (Lay)Salvatorian network
  • Develop an international Salvatorian online diary
  • We could add the following historic dates for Salvatorian Missionary celebration:
    • January 17th – 1890, blessing and missioning celebration in the Motherhouse.
    • February 27th – 1890, arrival in Shillong (on Feb. 21 they had reached Guwahati).
    • August 21st – 1890, death of Fr. Otto Hopfenmüller.
    • August 30th – 1890, death of Br. Marianus Schumm.
    • December 12th – 1890, Sisters Laurentia Heilmeier, Benedikta Ruderich and Scholastika Hopfenmüller, together with four Salvatorian men, began their boat trip to Assam.
    • 1915 July expulsion of all SDS missionaries in the wake of World War I.
    • 1989-1990 return to India, creating the community at Carmelaram-Bangalore.
    • 2000 October 11 return to Shillong, the first mission.
    • 2001 July 1 reburial of Fr. Otto next to Shillong cathedral.

We, the General Committee of the ICDS, would be pleased to hear what each unit plans. Please email us your ideas and plans for Lay Salvatorians groups and communities in 2015. So we are able to share it over the Internet with other units over the world. Email us about your thought and planed activities or share it here on this page.

[1] Taken from the invitations of the SDS and CongDS

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