Responding to the invitation of Pope Francis to celebrate the extraordinary missionary month in October 2019 I initiated this association for the children of St. Jerome\u2019s parish where I serve as a pastoral sister. The motive is to inculcate in them the spirit of evangelization.<\/p>\n
After being here in this parish for 5 years reaching out in the different pastoral field, including home visits, I realized that many children are deprived of their childhood naivety because their days are rigid and tightly scheduled with attending schools, tuitions and numerous extra-curricular activities. The children also become the first victims of undesirable family situations where arguments and break up are common.<\/strong><\/p>\n Seeing their plight, I wanted to be of help through building up their faith in God and help them find meaning and hope in life. In Hong Kong it`s common that, among parent any one could be a catholic, the other not\u2026the child is baptized. So, in this type of family atmosphere the child could be a missionary in his\/her own family first. I am convinced that on their path of following Jesus in their own little ways, the children could identify the real worth of being a Child of God.<\/p>\n Although the desire to start this association rose in me two years ago but came into realization when Pope Francis declared October 2019 to be an Extraordinary Missionary Month with a theme \u201cBaptized and sent\u201d, I realized it is the right time to begin this MCA (Missionary Childhood Associations) in the parish.<\/strong> I raised this matter to the Pastoral team and obtained their support and encouragement.<\/p>\n Missionary Childhood Associations are set up globally in about 150 countries but not yet one in Hong Kong. Thus inspired to start one in St. Jerome\u2019s Church.<\/strong> As all know Chinese is not my mother tongue and most materials are in English. So, I sought the help of four parishioners and we five formed a team to work nearly 8 months in translation, planning and preparation. While working together, I felt that God who inspired me also inspired four of them for this mission. I have no doubt that God willed it and made it to its fulfilment.<\/p>\n After several months of preparation, St. Jerome`s MCA ran the first formative gathering with parents and members on the 28th<\/sup> September 2019. On 1st<\/sup> October, this association was officially commenced. At present, there are 20 members of 5 to 14 years old. We choose St. Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of Lisieux, one of the patron saints of missionaries to be their patron saint, whose feast day falls on the 1st<\/sup> October. By choosing this saint as patron, they can learn her little ways to be little missionaries.<\/p>\n To mark the opening of the MCA, we organized a solemn prayer service followed by missionaries sharing their mission life experiences: Fr. Reynolds SVD, Fr. Nicolas MEP, Fr. Paul Kam Po-Wai missionary in Cambodia (video clip), Sr. Carmela MSI, and Ms. Cecilia a lay missionary. Many missionary sisters from other religious orders and parishioners came to witness and to support.<\/p>\n I am deeply moved by the enormous support of the parishioners throughout this process. Indeed I am ever grateful to our sisters of HK Delegation for their encouragement and prayerful support. Deep within me with gratitude, I would like to repeat the words of Mot. Igilda:<\/p>\n \u201dI am a weak instrument in His vineyard\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Sr. Sophia Rani MSI Hong Kong<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Responding to the invitation of Pope Francis to celebrate the extraordinary missionary month in October 2019 I initiated this association for the children of St. Jerome\u2019s parish where I serve as a pastoral sister. The motive is to inculcate in them the spirit of evangelization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":26495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow8ovLDA:productID":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[107,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-evangelization","category-missionary-life","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t