Remembering Brother Joseph Caruana, our first missionary, asks something of us. His story invites us to consider how the missionary spirit we have received is taking shape in our lives today. This question gave particular meaning to our recent online gathering, which brought together MSSP fathers and lay people from our communities across the world.
With Ivan Cauchi guiding the workshop, we had the opportunity to deepen our knowledge of Brother Joseph and reflect on the inspiration his life continues to offer our Society. Coming together around his story allowed us to revisit an important part of our beginnings and consider what it means for the mission we share today.
There was something deeply fitting about remembering our first missionary in the company of people joining from different countries and communities. The international family to which we now belong forms part of the continuing story of our Society’s missionary vocation. Across geographical distances and different circumstances, Brother Joseph’s life offered us a common point of reference and a reason to listen more closely to one another.
The reflections shared by lay participants and MSSP fathers were an especially meaningful part of the encounter. Their interventions brought personal experience into the conversation, as they considered how Brother Joseph’s example spoke to their own lives and understanding of mission. Through these contributions, we were able to hear how a shared inspiration takes root in different settings.
This exchange mattered. We can sometimes speak about our missionary identity as though its meaning were already settled. Listening to one another reminds us that we need to keep discovering what this calling asks of us. The questions arising in one community may help another see its responsibilities more clearly. A reflection offered by a lay person may open a new perspective for a religious, just as the experience of a father may encourage someone living their vocation within family, work or community life.
Our gathering made space for this mutual listening. It reminded us that fathers and lay people share responsibility for nurturing the missionary spirit entrusted to us. We need one another’s experience, insight and faith if that spirit is to remain alive and responsive to the people we serve.
As we prepare to celebrate Mission Sunday this weekend, Brother Joseph’s witness invites us to examine our own availability. Where are we being called to give more of ourselves? Whose needs have become too familiar for us to notice? What might we need to change so that our communities remain open to those who need companionship, hope or practical support?
These questions concern all of us. Some are called to leave their country and serve among people whose language and culture they must learn. Others live their missionary commitment through the patient responsibilities of family life, their work, their local community or their care for someone who depends on them. In each setting, the Gospel asks for a response that becomes concrete through our choices and relationships.
Remembering Brother Joseph together helped us place these different expressions of mission within the same shared calling. It also gave us an opportunity to strengthen our sense of belonging. Although we could not gather in one room, we could make time to learn together, hear one another’s reflections and recognise the faith that connects our communities.
We are particularly grateful to Ivan Cauchi for preparing and presenting this workshop, and for helping us encounter Brother Joseph more closely. We also thank all the fathers and lay people who participated, especially those who shared their reflections and enriched our understanding through their own experience.
This Mission Sunday, may we carry the encounter into our prayer and our daily decisions. The most meaningful way to honour our first missionary is to allow his witness to make a difference to the way we live our own calling, wherever we have been sent.
