Mission in Vijayawada's peripheries to share the joy of the Gospel
The experience of Sr Priya Moras and Sr Joshma Medepalli, missionaries of the Immaculate Conception. The nuns lived alongside young people, the elderly, the poor. From catechism to marriage documents, from the sacraments to visits to the elderly, there are many fruits of an activity aimed at witnessing Christ according to the exhortation of Pope Francis.
Vijayawada (AsiaNews) - Living the mission through an experience in contact with young people, the elderly, the poor scattered in different villages and communities, to experience the "gratitude" of small gestures and receive in return what is needed to meet daily needs. This is the experience lived in recent weeks by Sister Priya Moras and Sister Joshma Medepalli, Missionaries of the Immaculate (PIME), assigned to the pastoral ministry of the parish of St John the Baptist in Kondapavuluru, in the diocese of Vijayawada, in Andhra Pradesh. They shared sorrows and sacrifices, to receive a "new awareness" of the meaning of consecrated life, of caring for the person and witnessing Christ even in the most remote areas.
The two sisters entrusted themselves to God's providence in order to immerse themselves deeply, they explain, in an "experience" that helped them "carry the burdens of the poorest", often "deprived" of goods and resources but always "dear to God and his Gospel message". An experience that began on 23 July and ends next 31 August, in the wake of the exhortation launched by Pope Francis for Missionary Day 2022: that every baptised person be involved in evangelisation, available for mission and witness to the Gospel with his or her life.
Both considered it "a privilege" to be able to experience the reality of the people in the area, helping them to "increase their faith" in the Christian "mysteries" of life and in the celebrations given together with the sacrament of baptism. In the beginning, the parish priest Fr Sleeva Raj Bondala, from Kondapaveluru, introduced them to the various communities and villages: Gollanapalli, Gopavarigudem, Kattubadipalem, Chikkavaram, Chintagunta and Purushothapatnam, all in the diocese of Vijayawada, and entrusted them with various pastoral tasks.
For weeks, they visited families, many of whom experience situations of extreme poverty and need, formerly confined in ghettos and marginalised. They gave catechism lessons to these, and even invited some women to join the Legion of Mary association. In addition, the sisters gave new life and impetus to the group of altar boys, both male and female, instructing them on duties and devotion during altar service. And again, groups in preparation for confession, communion and confirmation, to which must be added the effort made to regularise the marriage documents - hitherto null and void due to formal defects - of at least 350 families.
In one village, 16 baptisms were also celebrated, of adults and children. The religious also gathered and animated the local youth movements with various activities, and recited the rosary and hymns in community every evening in a different place. Also fundamental were the visits to the elderly and sick, who found great benefit from their closeness and prayers. During these weeks of mission, they gave ample space and importance to awareness programmes on the sacraments, especially communion, which one must approach regularly and walk together with the people of God in a perspective of synodality, as desired by Pope Francis himself.
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