From 5 to 16 July 2022, 64 missionaries from 20 religious congregations and some lay people from the five regions of Brazil took part in the youth mission in the Amazon region. This took place in the diocese of Cametá/Pará and was organized by the Conference of Religious Congregations of Brazil. The following sisters from our Congregation participated: Deusimar dos Santos Lima, Edicleia Batista Regis and Maria José Lisbôa Lopes from the "Province of Our Lady of Providence" (Porto Alegre); Flávia do Carmo S. Fonseca and Thaís Fernandes de Souza from the „Heart-Jesu-Province“ (Florianópolis); and Josileide de Lima Oliveira from the „Trinity Province“ (Curitiba). The people from the parish of Maracajá on the Transamazonian Road welcomed the missionaries with great joy. There they were informed for three days about the social, economic, political and ecclesiastical situation of the region as well as about the service of the visitation. They also had the opportunity to meet Anapu/PA, the place where Sister Dorothy Mae Stang fulfilled her mission and was buried. There they heard the testimonies of the community about the prophethood of consecrated religious life. In a beautiful celebration, the missionaries were sent to four parishes of the mission area "Mary, Mother of the Nations" of the Diocese of Cametá/PA: Novo Repartimento, Pacajá, Gelado and Maracajá.
In the communities, the missionaries not only visited families and the sick, but also celebrated faith and life. Every day they packed their backpacks and set off without knowing where they were sleeping, what they were eating, what reality they would find... It took a lot of trust in the loving care of Divine Providence. On their treks they met a hospitable, courageous, hardworking, simple, persistent, but very poor people. A people that are "abandoned" by the long distances, the lack of means of transport, the precarious medical care, the low level of education - many are illiterate..., a people who need someone to listen to them, to hear their cries and their pain; a people thirsting for the Word of God and authentic evangelization. At the end of the mission in the communities, the missionaries returned to Maracajá to share their experiences, evaluate the mission and make suggestions. The group proposed to form an inter-congregational community or a mobile training team.
(Source: Circular COMPARTILHAR of the Sisters of Providence in Latin America, September/2022)