8 SPRING NEWSLETTER 2024 Mission Week 2024 As a community which is “rooted in faith”, each year we come together for a week-long celebration of our Catholic ethos. Through special times of prayer, workshops, talks and activities, we are renewed in the Salesian spirituality which animates our mission. Mission Week takes place in the last week in January, to incorporate the feast day of our patron saint and founder of the Salesian congregation, St John Bosco (31st January). Monday - Launch Assemblies This year’s theme was launched at the start of the week… Dare to dream! 200 years ago, at the age of nine, John Bosco had a dream which eventually shaped his entire life. He saw a multitude of very poor boys who were fighting and swearing. A man of majestic appearance told him: “This is your field of work; with gentleness and love you will change them.” John was confused and cried and then a Lady, just as majestic, added: “Make yourself humble, and strong. At the right time you will understand everything.” In celebration of the 200th anniversary of the dream, and inspired by these words of Pope Francis, our theme for Mission Week is “Dare to Dream”: “I am inviting you to dream and to dream big - knowing that all the rest will be given to you in addition. Dream of open, fruitful, and evangelising Houses capable of allowing the Lord to show very many young people His unconditional love and to permit you to enjoy the beauty to which you were called. Dream... not only for yourselves and for the good of the congregation but for all the young people who are deprived of the strength, light, and comfort found in friendship with Jesus Christ, deprived of a community of faith that includes them, and deprived of a horizon that holds life and its meaning. Dream... and help others dream!” - Pope Francis. What is Mission Week?
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