Interculturality: dream and way

Mark 4:22-23 shows the life of Jesus as a coexistence, “among people”, he used to leave the borders and crossed seas and mountains for the preaching of the Gospel, showing how the Kingdom can be lived, highlighting day by day the priority of the Father’s will.

Jesus as model and inspiration is our Way and Life. He calls us to take steps, by his example we feel impelled by his grace to live this missionary challenge.  Living and living with the sisters and collaborators in dreaming and drawing with a compass, new commitments.

Looking back at the documents of the 2019 General Assembly and the agreements of the 2022 General Chapter, the theme of interculturality appeared almost a dozen times and with great emphasis on the themes of formation, community, and mission. In a singular way, this served as a light and guide in the ambiance of reflection and dialogue to be concretized in the documents of the General Chapter. In addition, it became the slogan when presenting the MDR General Team as it appears on the Congregation’s networks.

Today, it is a call and a great challenge for religious communities and consecrated persons to continue building and strengthening this richness of diversity “a new form” of missionary coexistence. However, our missionary identity from its foundation already had this flavor and desire to live together among the first sisters sent to the mission. The sisters of Africa, Asia, America, and Europe have made a reality this very gift of universal fraternity to which Jesus has called us a reality from the very beginning.  Therefore, the Charism as MDR has an answer how to live this reality in the communities, the missionary identity characterized by the horizon of interculturality in all the countries of the world. This is our identity, a long itinerant history and challenge in our time of mission.           

Nini Rebollos

(Photo: I thank Sr. Benedicta Martinez for this “memory of living together” in Madrid).