{"id":6673,"date":"2026-09-18T08:28:56","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T08:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/?p=6673"},"modified":"2026-09-18T08:31:51","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T08:31:51","slug":"consecrated-life-for-mission-less-ash-more-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/consecrated-life-for-mission-less-ash-more-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Consecrated Life for Mission: Less Ash, More Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Father Stefano Camerlengo: “Starting Anew from Christ: Insights for a Renewed Commitment to Consecrated Life.” Photo: Jaime C. Patias<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The last day dedicated to Consecrated Life – and therefore to us, “Consecrated for Mission” – in the G50 course program in Rome <\/a>had an exceptional guest: Father Stefano Camerlengo, former Superior General and now Superior of the IMC Delegation in Ivory Coast.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

By Giacomo Mazzotti *<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s be honest: after the trauma of black screens and “can you hear me?” moments from last May’s videoconference (a true test of missionary patience, thanks to shaky connections), having him there in the flesh was a real, if undeserved, stroke of luck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Father Stefano showed up exactly as we’ve long known him: his unmistakable Marche accent untouched by years abroad, plenty of wit, quick with a joke, and an avalanche of anecdotes. After all, after 18 years spent as “visitor general,” exploring every corner of the world where the heart of the IMC beats, his mental archive of stories, faces, and behind-the-scenes moments is practically endless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Father Stefano Camerlengo, IMC, Superior of the Ivory Coast Delegation<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The morning of September 16 opened with two conversations, culminating in a moment of pure sharing “as a family.” On the table was a thirty-page report (yes, you read that right – thirty!) with the demanding title: “Starting Again from Christ: Insights for a Renewed Commitment to Consecrated Life.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No need to worry – it wasn’t a theological brick. In fact, it was the final, decisive piece of our IMC mosaic, because our speaker put back at the center the one thing that truly matters: the primacy of Christ. We can have the most brilliant missionary marketing strategies in the world and an organization worthy of a multinational corporation, but without Him we’re just doing a lot of activism (and a bit of exercise). Starting again from Christ is the only real secret to not losing joy, stability, and that healthy prophetic madness needed to be, truly, consecrated for mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can’t report every single word of that talk that kept us awake for an entire morning. So, like the wise scribe of the Gospel, we’ll draw out – in our own words – a few “pearls” (or pieces of advice) from the treasure Father Stefano gave us, precious for our missionary commitment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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– Starting again from Christ, meaning rediscovering the spark (before it turns to ash). Faced with disorientation and discouragement, the only way out is to fall in love with Jesus of Nazareth all over again. Starting again from Him means rediscovering the freshness of first love and recovering the courage to dare everything, leaving behind rigid formulas or gaps of hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Cultivating interiority (to avoid superficiality). Tending to the interior life is not optional – it’s the engine that saves us from superficial relationships, anxieties, and gossip. Putting the Spirit first is the only choice capable of shaking the world and intriguing new generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Being witnesses (because the essence of the Church is mission). We cannot stay silent about the beauty of what we have seen and lived. It is not the Church that has a mission, but the mission that gave birth to the Church. We exist for one precise reason: to be a community of witnesses who proclaim and serve, unafraid of the challenges of our time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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– Living community (as brothers, not mere housemates). True fraternity is not a bland cohabitation, but a mission taken on together. When we separate common life from proclamation, we fall into crisis. Walking “two by two,” as the Master wished, is a choice that breaks down barriers and shows the world that sharing truly exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Choosing the least (since the poor are our compass). Following Jesus means dwelling on the peripheries of history and adopting his paradoxical gaze, which finds victory in service and self-gift. In the new ecclesial alphabet, the option for the poor is an obligatory path of salvation and conversion: without the least, there is no authenticity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Guarding memory (of “our” witnesses from the past). To renew our structures we must read the history of our missionaries and of those who defended the rights of the weakest, even at the risk of their own lives. This is not nostalgia, but a “dangerous memory” that puts the fire of the Gospel back into circulation. Let us remember that walking without the Cross means being worldly, not disciples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Choosing a humble and concrete consecrated life. It’s time to set aside triumphalism and old glories. The great history we must build is not meant to make us strut, but to put us at the service of reality. Let us rediscover pride in being small, living immersed in God so as to be sent as brothers among brothers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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To sum up<\/strong>. In these days we have together crossed through our fragilities: we know the shadows, the divisions, and the struggles that sometimes betray the mission and the life of the “consecrated for mission” \u2014 that is, us. It’s true, we carry immense treasures in vessels of clay. And yet, precisely in this poverty of ours, we want to keep dreaming!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Consolata Missionaries, from the oldest to the youngest, we still have an inexhaustible source of compassion, creativity, and self-giving to offer the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Saint Giuseppe Allamano reminds us: “If only we knew the immensity of the gift God has given us in calling us to this Institute! A growing abundance of graces will follow, if we know how to appreciate our vocation and respond to it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have no weapons to fight with, nor do we seek the prestige of the world. Like Saint Francis, we put at the service of the Church only the weapons of the little ones: love, poverty, and peace. We need nothing else. Backpack on our shoulders, let us go and live the Gospel of the Lord – to the letter!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Father Giacomo Mazzotti, IMC, Communications Team of the G50 Course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last day dedicated to Consecrated Life – and therefore to us, “Consecrated for Mission” – in the G50 course program in Rome had an exceptional guest: Father Stefano Camerlengo, former Superior General and now Superior of the IMC Delegation in Ivory Coast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6674,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,153,6,20,16,19],"tags":[121,277,425,92],"class_list":["post-6673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-consolata-missionaries","category-featured","category-mission","category-spirituality","category-training","tag-consolata-missionaries","tag-father-stefano-camerlengo","tag-g50","tag-ongoing-formation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6673"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6681,"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6673\/revisions\/6681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}