Yasmine CAJUSTE VMY International President writes “With the theme “Evangelized we evangelize” we journey as  an Association toward the IV General Assembly of the VMY which will take place in Salamanca, Spain (July 24 – 28, 2015). The theme for this year, 2015, involves us in a twofold complementary and yet simultaneous dynamic.

We need to experience ourselves as persons who are evangelized, that is, persons who embrace the Word of God and who allow that Word, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to guide  our activity. To be evangelized can sound passive. Nevertheless, conversion, which is a grace, makes us active participants because God does not impose himself on us. God  stands at the door waiting for us to open the door so that God, in turn, might dwell with us (Revelation 3:20). God calls and invites, but God also accepts the spontaneous response of the disciples, for example, the response of the young rich man who rejected the call to live his life in a radical manner. To be evangelized requires openness and initiative … it involves questioning ourselves as a result of an encounter with the other, with marginalized men and women, with events … questioning ourselves in order to recognize the call  of God in all of those different situations. To be evangelized enables us to love because we have come to understand that God has first loved us. We can say that to be  evangelized is not some activity that is engaged in once and for all, but rather is a process in which we are daily renewed through prayer, through listening and through service. It would be good to ask ourselves if we allow ourselves to be renewed and transformed on a daily basis in order to reach out and encounter our brothers and sisters.

Those, who experience this process of being evangelized, naturally want to share this Good News with other people.

Therefore, our transformation in Christ should never lead us to look at ourselves and/or our life in some self- satisfied manner. Rather that transformation in Christ should  impel us to share the process that changed our life with others individuals. Evangelization is the center of the mission of the Church and the center of all Christian life. Faith is given and received as a gift that is to be shared with others.

At the same time this gift of faith is lived in community. As men  and women of faith we involve ourselves in a process in which we deepen our understanding of the gospel so that Christ might enlighten the life of our society and fill with hope all those people who allow themselves to believe in and to dream of a better world. The process of evangelization is accomplished by word and action. Therefore, as members of the larger Vincentian Family, we promote and engage in various projects and various forms of ministry (at the same time we are always mindful of the need for an explicit proclamation of Christ’s message) that are expressions of our commitment to God, expressions of our commitment to our less fortunate brothers and sisters. In this twofold dynamic of proclamation and action the gospel becomes credible and we reveal the fact that Christ lives in us.The poor  evangelize  us! The certainty of this Vincentian conviction impels us to reach out to others in order to bring them a message that can enlighten and transform them. We will be able to evangelize others to the degree that we allow ourselves to be evangelized by God in prayer and evangelized by others through the events of our daily life. May you have a  joyful 2015 as evangelizers and as men and women who allow yourselves to be evangelized!

Yasmine CAJUSTE VMY International President

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