Today the Church celebrates World Mission Day, which this year holds particular significance: it marks the 100th edition of this special occasion established by Pope Pius XI to foster the idea that the whole Church is involved in proclaiming the Gospel to those who have not yet come to know Jesus.
To mark the occasion, Pope Leo XIV – who was himself a missionary in Peru for many years – has sent a message entitled ‘One in Christ, United in Mission’. Asia is a continent which, for many years now, has ceased to be merely a place where missionaries arrive from distant lands to proclaim the Gospel, but has also become a place where Churches thrive, giving rise to vocations for the mission ad gentes: there are now thousands of priests, nuns and laypeople from Asia who carry out their ministry as witnesses to the Gospel on other continents. For this reason, today we are publishing a testimony from one of them, Sr Lucy D’Mello, an Indian missionary who has been carrying out her apostolate in Algeria for 12 years. The text is taken from the website of the Missionaries of the Immaculate, an Italian religious institute with a significant presence in Asia (India, Bangladesh, Hong Kong) which this year is celebrating the 90th anniversary of its foundation.
In 2013 I was called for a mission ad extra — that is, beyond my homeland, to North Africa. I remember that many people came to speak with me and with the other missionaries, sceptical about our presence and our immersion in a reality that was predominantly Muslim. But my heart, ready for mission, did not wish to heed those voices. And so, in August 2014, I landed where life had called me, full of trust in the Lord and strengthened by the words of Saint Augustine: “Man is faithful when he believes in God and in His promises. God is faithful when He grants to men what He has promised.”
It was immediately evident — the difference between my Jesus, Saviour and Lord, and the Jesus of the local people, a great prophet and worker of miracles. It was not easy, in the beginning, to express my missionary passion by sharing the love of Jesus with others… and this was only one of the many difficulties I encountered. With time, however, through the building of friendships and mutual trust, we learnt to respect one another, to accept and welcome each other, moving beyond our differences.
I remember very well the first day of Ramadan in 2018. A woman from that place — a widow of one year, living with her daughter — said to me, visibly moved: “What an experience of grace, to break the fast with an Indian Catholic sister!” It may seem a small thing, but it is not. After an entire day of fasting, from dawn to sunset, a day of purification, that moment is one of profound communion. What that woman said to me I keep in my heart. For me it stands as a testimony of how genuine human encounters can transcend religious and cultural boundaries.
Since 2023 I have been living in a small town in the southern desert, where I and two other sisters are the only visible Christian presence. We render our service to differently-abled children in a small centre, and we also visit them at home. We likewise offer our prayers for expatriates — there are many in this land, working for oil and gas companies, who for reasons of security cannot attend religious functions, except in some of the larger cities and towns.
It is not an easy mission… and no mission ever is. As many told me before my departure, celibacy is little understood and appreciated here, and we remain an almost tiny minority, with small communities and no institutions. But none of this means it is not worth it.
I find great comfort in reading and re-reading the words of Pope Francis: “Indeed, Jesus did not choose us and send us to become the most numerous! He has called us for a mission. He has placed us in society as a small quantity of leaven: the leaven of the Beatitudes and of fraternal love in which, as Christians, we can all meet one another so as to make His Kingdom present” (Address to the Clergy, 2019). I believe this is precisely so, and I carry its fruits in my heart.
Many things have changed for me over these years — among them, the expressions of consecrated life — but its essence remains the same. My vocation is a personal response to the encounter with the person of Jesus Christ, that Jesus who was yesterday, who is today, and who will always be.
Today I am called to contribute to the building of fraternal communities wherever I find myself and whatever the cultural reality may be. I am called to live the experience of mission that becomes respectful dialogue, open to life, to intercultural, interreligious, intergenerational, and international coexistence.
“Life does not HAVE a mission, but IS a mission” (Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate, Pope Francis).
Our Foundress, Mother Dones, used to say that no place and no situation can diminish the passionate thirst for the apostolate, for the mission of our Congregation — which, everywhere and always, through its life, its word, and its charity, seeks to communicate Christ wherever it finds itself. Our charism is the living passion to proclaim the Kingdom of God to all, especially to those who have not yet come to know the Good News of the Lord Jesus, and to those who most need someone to “draw near” to them — because God is my Father, and yours too.
This is our “apostolic heart”, which makes us apostles, followers of Jesus and His instruments… a heart that has not ceased to beat, even in me, who feel so small in a reality so vast and so different.
I know how difficult it is to make Christ known in these lands, and yet over time I have found many ways to communicate the merciful love of Jesus — to the differently-abled children, to the sick and the elderly whom I visit, to prisoners, and above all by lifting up all my brothers and sisters in prayer to the Lord.
Sister Lucy D’Mello is an Indian nun of the Missionaries of the Immaculate Conception, who carries out her apostolate in the North African province.
