OUR EXPERIENCE WITH THE POOR

To evangelise the poor in missionary situations where the Church needs us most is our mission.

“The best way to mourn for a friend or a father is to continue to cultivate his field” (Msgr. M. Muzihirwa).

In this jubilee year that invites us to enter deeply into the theme of our charism, it is a grace, but also a challenge for the missionary to see the reality of the poor today. Ramon Zubieta was a man who did everything in his power for the good of the poor, for him his greatest happiness was to see the poor happy, the poor being educated, especially the native people of Maldonado because of the situation they were going through. So he worked with great zeal, directing the installation of telephone and telegraph lines, improving roads, building bridges and schools.

With great enthusiasm we can say that our Father’s work has continued in different places and in different ways; we feel happy today to live among the poor, sharing the little that we have with them, both materially and spiritually; we have dedicated our time to them, even though we are in the stage of our formation; with this experience we are learning a lot and noticing that there are many people who are spiritually poor, and that it is very difficult to take the love of God as a testimony to our people due to the high level of poverty that they experience. With the knowledge we are receiving during our formation we are putting them into practice by helping the needy with some advice and clarification of life in the person of Jesus Christ, because the poor need our hand to serve them and our heart to love them.

From the material point of view we see that there are many miserable families and people who need our support; but unfortunately sometimes we are unable to respond to all the situations so distressing and out of our reach; but from the little we have and with our physical strength, good will and faith, we are planting some vegetables to share with our brothers and sisters in need; and we thank God, little by little, we are responding to some needs at our level, fruit of our sacrifice and renunciation that we made during the Lenten season to be able to help those who knock each time at our door because of hunger.

The poor are a gift from God, they are our love and our priority. Christ will not ask us how many things we have done, but if we have put love into action. As Dominican Missionaries of the Rosary we are in need of poverty, authentic poverty more than any other situation. Because poverty gives us the freedom to let go of the unnecessary in order to understand the needy brothers and sisters who live with us.

Novices: Laurinda Bendi Nkhole Kaluvala & Noella Manongo Amana