65 Years of Priestly Life. The history of a Journey 8 always with me, with each of us. He knows and loves each of us. The Eucharist is not a remembrance of what Jesus did in Jerusalem over two thousand years ago. We take part in the Last Supper as the Apostles did. We sit down with Jesus and eat with him. It is mind boggling; however, that’s where the Spirit has been trying to lead us and the ongoing evolution of our brains was providing the tools in the quantum science. Missiology I have already written on this matter in Word in House November 2012: The Missionary Nature of the Sacraments. I regard it worth reprinting. Dear Confreres In this issue of Word in House we are grateful to Ennio Mantovani SVD for sharing his ideas with us on the missionary nature of the sacraments. His starting point is the long struggle as a bush missionary. Ennio began working full time in adult catechumenates with the pre-Vatican II mentality and theology and then moved on to Vatican II, trying to understand and make his own the teaching of the Church. Thank you again Ennio for your contribution. Yours in the Word Gerard Mulholland SVD Communications Co-ordinator AUS Province The Missionary Nature of the Sacraments In the last Provincial Assembly, I made two interventions: one on the missionary nature of the Sacraments and one on discovering what God is revealing to the people among whom we are working. For me, what I said was the result of years of study and reflections as a bush missionary in PNG and then at the Melanesian Institute and I assumed that everybody understood my concerns. Maybe I was too optimistic. Allow me to present in a more detailed way what I wanted to communicate to the Assembly. My starting point is the long struggle as a bush missionary who began working full time in adult catechumenates with the pre-Vatican II mentality and theology and then moved on to Vatican II, trying to understand and make his own the teaching of the Church. For me the greatest change was in the understanding of the Church as “missionary by nature”. It is from this missionary nature that I deduct the nature of her sacraments. Those who did not have to work through that theological transition might miss the changes which took place and which ought to be part of the post Vatican II theology. I see the danger of us accepting the Vatican II view of an outgoing, missionary Church while keeping the pre-Vatican II personalistic understanding of the sacraments. I made two interventions: one on the missionary nature of the Sacraments and one on discovering what God is revealing to the people among whom we are working.
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