The 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.
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