New Beginnings

Come Pass It On!

Come join Fr. Guido as he explores Consecrated Life.

Xaverian Family News

Newly ordained Bishop Aldolfo Pereira Zon SX with his flock

Xaverian Priest is Ordained a Bishop in a Gym

Talk about bringing the Gospel to the people. Check out these images!

Fr. Luigi Brioni SX with friends in Sierra Leone

Christmas Letter from Ebola Country, Sierra Leone, West Africa

It's Christmas again this year, with the Babe that never says NO to be with us and for us all. Last year I spent the last ten days of December in hospital with serious malaria; this year Ebola has come to our Country and keeps everyone afraid and sorrowful. But I remain with you (without Ebola!) with my prayer and best wishes, with His heart and mine! Read more.

Conforti Update

Over �2,000 was raised for the Ebola fund in Sierra Leone in Christmas Bingo.

Christmas time and the end of the year is always a busy time in Conforti. Advent retreats, Christmas Bingo (in aid of Sierra Leone), Christmas parties and celebrations and the ending of another year the beginning of a new one. As a regional community we had a few days to sit and reflect on what we have been doing and where we are going. We are hoping to revisit the way we help local parishes and how we approach Mission Appeals.

So for those who are still looking for New Year Resolutions, let us give you some things to look at!

Looking for some guidance this New Year: have a look and try: Prayer!

New Year = New Apps

Resolve to help the environment.

Our Vocation to Social Mission

Lord, we respond to your call to demonstrate love in action in a broken world.

Help us remember that our Baptism marks

A "vocation to holiness,"

The challenge to be part of a community

That is to be light in the darkness.

Pray more.

theGYM Experience

Samuel Circles for men discerning Religious Life

...is one of the many initiatives Religious Communities of men are offering for this special year dedicated to Consecrated Life, meaning those called to live in community around a particular charism and founder. The Xaverians in the Boston area are collaborating with five other communities to offer these discernment circles monthly, inviting young men interested in learning more about religious life to come and participate in an evening of prayer and discussion (and food!). We meet around the Word of God through the ancient practice of Lectio Divina, allowing the very Word of God, graced through the text and the heart, to enlighten the way to understand a call to ministry. Our January Samuel Circle will actually be held in cyberspace! The Samuel Circle for February will be at the Assumptionist Center, 330 Market Street, Brighton, MA. Check us out on Facebook. Join the prayer and discussion!

Fr. Rocco Puopolo SX and Fr. Alex Rodriguez SX will be representing the USA at an international forum of Xaverian Mission Educators to be held in Madrid, Spain from January 22nd to 30th. Check out the blog postings of this gathering of Xaverians from USA, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom beginning January 23rd!

TheGYM team was in full force as Frs. Rocco Puopolo, Alex Rodriquez and Adolph Menendez represented the Xaverian Missionaries at the bi-annual gathering of the Federation of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), SEEK 2015, held in Nashville from January 1st to 5th 2015. What a way to begin a New Year, together with over 10,000 faith-filled University Students who are seekers!!!

Pope Francis

Christmas Message and Urbi et Orbi blessing - 2014.12.25

Pope Francis may have been the busiest cleric on the planet last month. He vigorously chided European leaders for being unconcerned about unemployment and not caring for the migrants drowning in the Mediterranean in their attempts to reach Europe... Learn more.

...And more and still more!

Discover the Holy Father's statements on motherhood,

...and the Vatican's call for women's voices.

Over 30,000 young people gather for Taiz� Prayer

Tens of thousands of young people from Europe and around the world, journeyed to Prague, by bus, train, plane or hitchhiking for a four-day Taiz� gathering. Learn more. Check out their Facebook page.

Pace e Bene
Witness Against Torture

The WAT community gathers in Washington DC from Monday, January 5th until Tuesday January 13th, to fast in solidarity with the men at Guantanamo, especially those who remain on hunger strike, and to use our creative energy to encourage citizens and government officials in Washington, DC to see the humanity of the men in Guant�namo and call for the closure of the prison.

This spring Pace e Bene is organizing two national speaking tours to promote Campaign Nonviolence for a world where everyone matters. John Dear will be crisscrossing the country in March and April 2015 and Rivera Sun, Pace e Bene's Social Media director, will also be speaking in cities across the nation March through June 2015. Learn more.

Confronting Racism

TalkAboutTheTalk

Powerful Video Shows the difference between the way black and white parents talk to their kids about police. It's time to engage in a positive national discussion about race and authority. #TalkAboutTheTalk

I once saw a high school teacher lead a simple, powerful exercise to teach his class about privilege and social mobility. He started by giving each student a scrap piece of paper and asked them to crumple it up. Find out what happens next.

I AM

DOCUMENTARY TRAILER

From the director of BRUCE ALMIGHTY, THE NUTTY PROFESSOR and ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE comes something completely different. I Am is a documentary written, directed, and narrated by Tom Shadyac. The film explores Shadyac's personal journey after a 2007 bicycle accident, "the nature of humanity" and "world's ever-growing addiction to materialism." First debuted in 2011, it's now showing on Free Speech TV and Gaiam TV.

The documentary I AM is the story of a man who had it all until something happened to make him realize he might have it all...wrong. After a near-death experience, Hollywood film director Tom Shadyac (Ace Ventura) decided to spark a conversation around two rarely asked questions: what's wrong with our world and what can we do about it?

And so Shadyac traveled the globe interviewing today's greatest thinkers. And while he may have been filming a documentary, his film reveals a plot twist straight out of a blockbuster movie: scientific proof that we are all connected. By the final scene, it's clear that while he started out asking what's wrong with our world, he ended up discovering what's right with it.

MOBILE APP

The Xaverian Missionaries have a new Mobile App

available on Apple, Android & Amazon. Now you can take us with you wherever you go. Remember: We are ALWAYS here for you!

The Fall 2014 edition of the Xaverian Mission Newsletter is available online.

This issue highlights the Year of Consecrated Life and excerpts Pope Francis' Message for World Mission Day. It covers stories on the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone and the murder of three Xaverian Sisters in Burundi. There is a Christmas poem by Fr. Tony Lalli SX and commentary on the North American Interfaith Network (NAIN) Conference by Fr. Michael Davitti SX.

Read it here.