From our sister Mia Dombrecht, in Nouakchott, Mauritania
This pastoral year, the parish vocational group chose “Burning Hearts, Walking Feet” as the theme for Mission Sunday in October 2023.
At the start of the pastoral year, we met to listen to the young people’s interests and the topics they would like to cover throughout the year. A meditation on the call of young Samuel opened the year.
In November, we organized a recollection by the sea to share on the year’s theme and on the Gospel of the Emmaus pilgrims. We tackled the subject of the missionary vocation. A diocesan priest and sisters from three missionary congregations were present to mentor around ten young people.
In December, through sketches linked to the mystery of the Incarnation, the young people presented different texts from the Gospel. At the end, each one of them shared in a very moving way what aspect of the Incarnation had touched him or her and how he or she was living it in his or her daily life.
In January, we answered the question: How can I live my job as a vocation? A teacher, a caregiver and a painter gave us their testimony of how, in living their profession, they respond to the Christian vocation received from God. This led to some very deep sharing.
In May, the young people listened to testimonies from couples to gain a better understanding of the vocation to Christian marriage from the inside.
It is through these modest activities that, throughout the year, together with the parish vicar and a Sister of Bethany, we accompany a small group of a dozen boys and girls aged between 14 and 20 who are searching for the meaning of their lives and asking themselves the question:
How can I discover God’s call in my life and how can I respond to it?
