A well-known popular saying goes: “In the end, things are beautiful because you know they end.” So it was with the G50 ongoing-formation course held in Rome in September 2026. We knew it from the start, when we arrived from various parts of the world at the Generalate, unaware of what awaited us.
By Giacomo Mazzotti *
That journey is what we tried to recount in the (somewhat mischievous) chronicles throughout the month of the Course. The summation of this whole path was the celebration of the Mass of Our Lady Consolata on Saturday, 26 September.
The rite began in the Auditorium, the place that hosted most of our work. Father James Lengarin, Superior General, presided at the celebration and opened the procession carrying the relic of Saint Giuseppe Allamano. Behind him came the Centenary torch, the G50 banner with the ten course participants, each holding a small unlit candle, and the large group of missionaries of the Generalate.
The liturgy’s readings, from the prophet Zephaniah (3:14-17) and the Gospel of the Visitation (Luke 1:39-48), inspired the Superior General’s intense homily, focused on the deep meaning of the G50, which can be summed up in this mandate: “Like Mary, keep rising and going. Like Elizabeth, know how to make those you meet rejoice. Like Zephaniah, keep believing that God dances with joy for his people.”
“Mission is not an idea, it is a movement; it is not a title, it is a journey; it is not a privilege, it is a service,” said Father James Lengarin, adding: “In these fifty years of priesthood, you have lived the same dynamic: you rose and you went. You entered homes, peripheries, cultures, the wounds of humanity. You brought Christ not as theory, but as presence. The Visitation is your story: a story of steps, of miles, of encounters, of outstretched hands, of consolation given and received.”
Thanking the missionaries of the G50 course, Father Lengarin reaffirmed: “Your presence, your witness and your fidelity are for all of us a luminous sign of the grace at work in personal and community history. Fifty years of ministry and of life given are not merely a milestone: they are an altar of memory, a well of experience and an open door to the future. Let us ask the Lord for a simple and bold gift: the grace of being visitors and consolers, men who bring Christ with the haste of love and the joy of the Gospel,” concluded the Superior General.
The renewal of religious profession
Three significant gestures then marked the moment when the missionaries of the course, candle and text of the profession in hand, renewed their vows:
– The lighting of the candles from the Centenary torch, so that the light of the Spirit may continue to guide the jubilarian missionaries on the roads of the world as consecrated ad gentes.
– The laying on of hands by the Superior General, successor of the Holy Founder, Giuseppe Allamano, as a transmission of his charism and a sign of communion with the whole Institute.
– The renewal of religious profession, meant to nourish the fire of mission, enthusiasm for the Gospel, and the commitment to be authentic witnesses among young people and in their respective communities.
Right after the prayer after Communion, the celebration made room for the due and heartfelt thanks: A representative of the G50 read a dense Message addressed to fellow missionaries “of today and tomorrow.”
Father Mathews, on behalf of the General Council and as the person primarily responsible for the course, expressed everyone’s gratitude to those who made this experience possible, mentioning in particular the members of the Generalate community (especially Father Osvaldo Coppola and Father Gabriele Casadei) for their fraternal and attentive welcome.
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The Superior General finally embraced each participant, giving a small gift in memory of this “Roman month.”
The closing hymn to Our Lady Consolata and the traditional photo of the jubilarian missionaries around the altar sealed the solemn celebration. We thus bid farewell to these brothers of ours who, “full of years” but visibly rejuvenated in spirit, now return to their precious work in the Lord’s vineyard.
* Father Giacomo Mazzotti, IMC, Communications Team of the G50 Course.
