Mission Spirituality and Foreign Missionaries in the Philippines: Celebrating the 500 Years of Christianity

A public lecture on “Mission Spirituality and Foreign Missionaries in the Philippines: Celebrating the 500 Years of Christianity” was held via webinar through Zoom last July 17, 2021 afternoon with Fr. James Kroeger, MM, Ph.D. as resource speaker. His presentation relied heavily on a synthetic examination of Evangelii Gaudium, a beautiful comprehensive panorama of the church missionary vision and an accompanying mission spirituality that identified ten pivotal insights.

The ten pivotal insights are: 1) Missionaries: God-centered Prayerful Persons, 2) Joy, Pivotal Sign of Missionary Disciples, 3) Integrating Vatican II Perspectives, 4) Missionary Evangelization is Central to the Church, 5) Becoming a Dynamic, Outgoing Church, 6) Centrality of Mercy in Missionary Spirituality, 7) Social Realities, Integral to Evangelization, 8) Popular Piety and Spirituality, Vehicles of Evangelization, 9) Two Crucial Dialogues in Evangelization Today, 10) A World-wide Vision of Evangelization. These ten items help us to appreciate the great depth of Pope Francis’ vision of Missionary spirituality. 

He concluded the session by sharing the words of Saint Augustine, the echo of the sentiments, Tolle Lege! Meaning Take and Read! He also recommended to read Evangelii Gaudium in order to be enriched personally and spiritually.

There were sixty (60) participants attended the webinar with some attending in groups.