Celebrating 200 years of history means looking back to our roots and renewing our commitment to walk alongside the people. In celebration of the Congregation’s bicentennial milestone, the Vedruna do Nordeste Charismatic Family experienced two intense days of missionary work in the municipality of Carnaubeira da Penha (PE).
The mission brought together missionaries who had already drawn from the wellspring of the Charism, coming from Salgueiro, Araripina, Betânia, Jatobá, and Belém de São Francisco—all united by a single purpose: to bring the Word of God, love, and a transforming presence through a warm welcome.
The program began on Saturday morning with a communal prayer that strengthened the community and the sending out of missionaries. The main focus was on home visits, organized with the goal of listening and sharing the Gospel directly in people’s homes.
The mission trip began on the outskirts of Carnaubeira da Penha and then extended into the central region. At every door that opened, the priority was to listen attentively: to welcome the stories, challenges, and daily struggles of the families. This simple gesture of presence turned out to be the mission’s most profound impact, forging bonds of solidarity and faith with the local community.
On Saturday night, we gathered for an extraordinary event. The evening featured the young people who had participated in the International Youth Meeting in Vic (Spain), who shared the impressions, lessons, and enthusiasm from this global experience to enrich and inspire the group.
On Sunday, the missionary gathering began with the Eucharistic Celebration, a time when the community and the missionaries gathered around the table of the Word and the Eucharist to give thanks for all the fruits harvested over the weekend, shortly before setting out for another round of visits.
These two days in Carnaubeira da Penha reflect a living connection to the 200-year journey begun by Saint Joaquina de Vedruna. Since the Congregation’s founding, the Vedruna charism has been expressed through a spirit of outreach, closeness, and compassion toward the most vulnerable.
Visiting homes on the outskirts of the Northeast today means renewing this same fundamental insight: embodying a charity that listens, that makes itself present, and that walks side by side with people through their joys and sorrows. As it listens to the struggles of the people of Carnaubeira da Penha, the Vedruna Family reaffirms its calling to keep the flame of the Gospel alive in today’s realities, celebrating the past with a firm gaze toward the future.
Júnia Marise, applicant
