Every parish community of all AEC dioceses will be provided with sufficient copies of the booklet Baptised and Sent to read and study.
The following parish groups should have a separate session with the booklet: the parish council, all involved in the liturgy of the parish and the altar servers with the youth group.
Questions will be sent for each group to have a fruitful discussion session around questions like: What can we concretely do in our parish (and diocese) to strengthen that awareness among our Catholics that we all need to contribute to sharing our Catholic faith and to bring people to Christ?
What concrete steps can we take in the next two years to better use the social media so as to reach our young people with the message of faith and to reach out to Catholics who have drifted away from an active relationship with God?
How can we help families in our parish to come closer to Christ and to reach out to the young people in their midst?
How can we make out liturgy, our music and our parish life even more welcoming to those who have drifted away? What does evangelisation mean for us? How do we prepare ourselves; what steps can be taken to grow in this area as a Catholic community?
This reflection on the content of the booklet should be happening in the three months between Pentecost (June 9) and the Mission Congress. The suggestions, ideas, recommendations for change and growth, etc, should be noted down and passed on to the diocese’s PMS Director.
The PMS Director should also organise a similar session with the team of the diocese’s Pastoral Centre and gather from them also their suggestions, recommendations and ideas.
Programme:
September 17 – AEC Mission Congress in Tobago
September 19 – National Schools Rally (all schools invited), Centre of Excellence
September 20 and 21 – Workshops, Centre of Excellence
September 22 – National Rally, Queen’s Park Savannah
Contact information:
Website: pmsantilles.org
Facebook: Pontifical Mission Societies in the Antilles
Email: aecmissioncongress@gmail.com
Tel: 645-0525/622-2932
Host families needed
We are just months away from the AEC Mission Congress taking place in Trinidad from September 17–22. Hundreds of people are expected to attend, many of which are participants from the AEC region. In an effort to reduce expenditure, we are appealing to the generosity of the public to open their homes to accommodate our foreign participants.
We are kindly requesting interested families to send an email to the aecmissioncongress@gmail.com indicating your willingness to host some of our participants.
In addition to this, we are still seeking facilitators/recorders for the Congress. Interested in becoming either, please send your name, contact number and resume to the aecmissioncongress@gmail.com.
The Committee would like to extend its gratitude for the prayers and support received for the AEC Mission Congress. To stay up to date with the Congress check out our website – pmsantilles.org or send us email at aecmissioncongress@gmail.com.
Logo of the Extraordinary Missionary Month
The logo of the Extraordinary Missionary Month October 2019 is a missionary cross where the primary colours refer to the five continents. The Cross is the instrument and direct sign of communion between God and man for the universality of our mission, and through its vibrant colours, a sign of victory and resurrection.
The world is transparent because the action of evangelisation has no barriers or boundaries; it is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Christian charity and the world transfigured in the Spirit overcome distances and open the horizon of our minds and hearts. The words ‘Baptised and Sent’ next to the image indicate the two characteristics of every Christian: baptism and proclamation.
The primary colours of the Cross are referred to the five continents: red for America, green for Africa, white for Europe, yellow for Asia and blue for Oceania.
Red recalls the blood of the American martyrs, seeds for a new life in the Christian faith. Green is the colour of life and symbolises growth, fruitfulness, youth and vitality. It is also the colour of hope, one of the three theological virtues.
White is the symbol of joy, the beginning of a new life in Christ: this is the challenge that the old Europe is facing, so that it may be able to regain the evangelising strength from which it was generated thanks to so many churches and saints.
Yellow is the colour of light, which nourishes itself with light by invoking the true Light. Blue is the colour symbolising the water of life that quenches our thirst and restores us along the path to God. It is the colour of heaven, a sign of God’s dwelling with us.