THE SPORT: A PASTORAL AND MISSIONARY EXPERIENCE
Motivated by our Congregation’s constitution (number 44, page 37), which invites to incarnation, I included myself among teenagers to evangelize. In our action plan, we have many activities in the program, including practicing sport on Saturday morning, though unfortunately coronavirus has prevented us from practicing.
The main objectives for incarnation and joining teenagers’ group are:
- Being close to teenagers to help them to evolve -especially those who are isolated- towards a relationship with the church, the family, the school and even their social environment and then to facilitate dialogue.
- My active participation during sport practice also allows teenagers to develop self-confidence, improve their self-esteem and allowing them to find a place within the group by welcoming all of them.
- My mission during sport practice is always to represent Christ, who is the supreme teacher of life in faith.
- To help teenagers to become Jesus’ friends, creating fraternal and emotional bonds.
My commitment in this field allows Dominican Missionary Sisters of the Rosary to answer the call from the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican “renewed and modern means must be found for adapting us to the expectations of the modern world” F. Bidegain. Therefore, in this evangelization field, we try to cultivate balanced relationships by having a Christian spirit in the practice of sport:
- Nobody earns first place in any competition
- Everybody collaborates
- There are neither yellow nor red cards
- There is no exclusion
- There is no competence
- There is no doping and physical violence. At the end, we are all winners.
Although there is certainty that I have been educated spiritually and theologically, there are also archaic aspects in myself. These allow me to control myself and to cultivate patience. This is the price of evangelism. It is also a way of transmitting Christ’s life by listening. Patience must be exemplary to all the teenagers. This encourages teenagers to get together for dialoguing or having an interview.
We will see each other after the lockdown, if that is God’s will.
Sister Nkogo Marie-Clarisse
Cameroon