Father Pietro Trabucco during the formation course in Rome. Photo: Jaime C. Patias
After a weekend break, within the welcoming atmosphere for the election of the new Pope Leo XIV, and his first Sunday as Pontiff, on Monday 12 May, the group of 16 missionaries participating in the ongoing formation course in Rome, resumed work with a reflection on the founding core of the charism.
By Peter Githaiga Njoroge *
The topic was introduced by Father Pietro Trabucco, IMC, a missionary with a deep understanding of the life of the Holy Founder and the mission of the Institute, as he carried out various services, including that of Superior General.
See below the video with a summary of the reflection. Speaking on the role of Consecrated Life in the missionary vocation, Father Trabucco recalled that the Institute was born not as a religious Congregation but as a diocesan group. After the first missionary experience in Kenya in 1902, the Founder realised that the training priests received in the diocesan seminary was not enough to make them good missionaries. So Allamano understood, as a gift from God what we now call the charism, to unite religious life with mission”.
“In the missionary journey of our Institutes today, we must always start from the original charism transmitted to us by the Founder, taking care to always put the fundamental elements in first place and avoid putting all our energies in aspects, though important, but always subordinate to the first ones”, said Father Trabucco.
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In his reflection, Father Trabucco, who currently resides in the birthplace of Allamano in Castelnuovo Don Bosco, emphasized the rich legacy of the Founder, who always wanted from his missionaries something “more” so as “to be mere missionary workers, but to live as consecrated people in full availability to love”.
“Our missionary journey passes through the teaching and witness of St Joseph Allamano. A missionary empty of spirituality, which Allamano called fire, does not ignite anyone, does not warm anyone up. Instead, a missionary with a heart lit by the values of community, prayer, the Eucharist, devotion to Our Lady, he instinctively communicates them to others… You must have fire to be a missionary”.
Father Trabucco also invited the course participants to recognize in the charism of the Institute the gift of the Spirit and recalled that Saint Joseph Allamano insisted on the centrality of Christ, love for the Eucharist, Marian devotion and the spirit of community and communion. The speaker concluded his reflection by inviting the missionaries “to always renew their adherence to Christ by walking in harmony with the entire Institute and with the Church”. The invitation is to be missionaries loved and called to follow Christ Jesus in religious life and sent into the world.
See the video below with a summary of the reflection.
* Father Peter Githaiga Njoroge, IMC, missionary in Kenya.
