Eucharistic Family Missionaries
by Deacon Ken Dawson
After having taken her family on a mission trip to Belize, a mother told me, “Serving at the mission with the other families enabled us to experience God's love in a powerful way. Watching our younger children play with the other children in the neighborhood there was special. And going to Mass and worshipping daily during our time together at the mission brought our family closer to God.” Another mom described serving the poor as family missionaries in Belize as “one of those rare times in life that etches itself into your memory with divine clarity.”
I am Deacon Ken Dawson, a member of the community of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT) and these two families have become personal friends. I travelled with them to our SOLT mission in Belize through a missionary program we’ve created that helps families have the opportunity for affordable mission experiences that they can do as a family. We take families on short-term mission trips, usually a week, to serve together in established foreign or domestic SOLT mission locations. These mission trips are about so much more than service; they bring families to encounters with Christ that build connections that equip them to share the Faith with others too.
We are all aware of the missionary mandate of the Church to share in Our Blessed Lord’s mission to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19). There are no limits on who we go to, or where we go, or even which of his followers should go. It’s meant for every one of us—clergy, religious, and all laity, including families.
Our families, as domestic churches, are called to be missionary by taking “part actively and responsibly in the mission of the Church,” a mission that finds its foundation and soul in “sharing in the Body of Christ that is ‘given up’ and in his Blood that is ‘shed’” (John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, no. 57). While we may accept, understand, and even desire to fulfill this calling as a family, finding ways to evangelize and serve as a family is not always easy. Many ministries have specific missions that are meant to be served by people of a particular age range, sex, or skillset—and with good reason. But where and how can a family evangelize and serve together as a family, fulfilling their missionary calling?
When presented with these difficult questions, a good approach that is also a core element of the spirituality of our community, is to look to Our Lady and strive to imitate her. Pope Francis said of Mary's upbringing, "Mary grew up in the home of Joachim and Anne; she was surrounded by their love and faith: in their home she learned to listen to the Lord and to follow his will. Saints Joachim and Anne were part of a long chain of people who had transmitted their faith and love for God, expressed in the warmth and love of family life, down to Mary, who received the Son of God in her womb and who gave him to the world, to us. How precious is the family as the privileged place for transmitting the faith!" (Angelus Message, July 26, 2013)
Mary was Jesus’ first and model disciple, following him faithfully throughout her life in the context of family. Her example and intercession, even to this day, provide insight into how we can go as missionaries, like Our Lady—family missionaries of the Eucharist, to paraphrase Mother Adela Galindo, who spoke at the National Eucharistic Congress last year.
Mary knew that she was a beloved daughter of the Father and that he had a plan for her. Her relationship with the Father was fostered through prayer and the practice of her faith, seeking a deep and abiding union, or communion, with God. Similarly, we also seek this relationship and communion with God through prayer, worship, and the sacraments.
Through these experiences of mission offered through the SOLT Family Mission Experience, families experience this Marian dynamic. While at the mission, they pray together, attend Mass together, and receive the sacraments—the Eucharist in particular—deepening their union with God and union with each other. In this way, living essentially from Eucharist to Eucharist, they receive the grace from God to go and serve. Then they return to receive Jesus again at Mass, so they’re ready to be sent again. In this way, Our Blessed Lord is the foundation and inspiration of the evangelization and service of the domestic church, the family.
In our apostolate we help families to experience and develop this missionary zeal within their family. This provides them opportunities to encounter Our Blessed Lord without the distraction and pressure of their “normal” lives. The discipline of daily Mass, as well as reading and reflecting on scripture, help the family missionaries to encounter Christ in the sacraments and the Word, both while they are on the mission trip and even afterward. As one mom shared after she returned from a mission trip with her family, “We still read our Bible daily, pray daily, and share our God-moment daily as we learned to do on the trip.” Then, when these families go out and serve in the neighborhoods of Belize, they begin to see Jesus in every family, the people in the mission they serve with, and the people in need whom they serve. In this way, they build new relationships and experience what could become a new “normal” for their lives back home, a life built on Eucharistic missionary service.
This method of serving in mission has helped our community to identify four circumstances in which any family could become Eucharistic missionaries right now, wherever they live, making sure to start with prayer and the sacraments—receiving Our Blessed Lord in the Holy Eucharist and being sent forth by him.
While we are all called to be missionaries—to “Go ... and make disciples”—we are not called to do this in the same way. One of the moms from a recent trip wrote in her parish newsletter, “Every person you meet is hungry for love, connection, and dignity. And every day, whether in Belize or Denver, we are each called to mission in our own way.” What’s important is that we answer the call, whether it’s to go to far-off mission locations or serve in the local community, to go for long-term or short-term service, or to stay home and support missionaries with our prayers, sacrifices, and material support.
Our Blessed Lord shares his mission with our domestic churches, our families. Our response is valuable and necessary to carry forward his mission in our world.
Are you ready to say “Yes!” to becoming family missionaries of the Eucharist?
