MISSION
The parting directive of Jesus before he left the apostles was to preach the good news to all creation. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mt.28:19-20). Expressions like “to make disciples of all the nations” (Mt.28:19); “to all nations” (Lk.24:47); “preach the Gospel to the whole creation” (Mk.16:15); “so I send you” (Jn.20:21), all point to the same direction. The missionary command of Jesus is valid for ever. Jesus had entrusted the accomplishment of this mission to the Apostles. The disciples are sent with the same mission of Christ (Jn.20:21). The Church faithfully continues this mandate she has received from her divine founder of proclaiming the mystery of salvation to all men and of restoring all things in Christ. As Church takes its origin from the Mission of the Son and the Mission of the Holy Spirit, the entire Church is missionary by its very nature and she is responsible for preaching the Word of God to the whole creation. The Vincentian Congregation is also actively participating in this evangelizing mission of the Church.
The Statutes of the Vincentian Congregation in its article 81 states the missionary nature of the Congregation as follows: “In places where the Gospel has not yet been preached or the Church is not yet well established, all of us, under the direction of Superior General, should be ready to respond to the manifold requirements of evangelization”. Therefore the Vincentian Congregation took upon itself the responsibility of missionary work in the region where Christ is not known and the message of salvation has not reached. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations… teach them all I have commanded you”. These words of Jesus inspire us to take part actively in the missionary work of the Church. At different points of time the Congregation has sent missionaries to different areas in India and abroad for evangelization and faith formation.
In general all the Vincentian activities are part of our Mission to preach Good News to the poor. Here, by the term Mission we refer to our activities outside Kerala, in India, Africa and Latin America. In this sense we have a Mission Province (St. Thomas Province); three dependant Mission Regions (Good Shepherd Region in Andhra Pradesh; Sacred Heart Region in East Africa; and St. Xavier’s Region in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka) and two dependant Missions (St. Paul Mission in Ahmednagar and Christu Jyothi Mission in Uttar Pradesh). There are also individual Mission Centres in the States of Jharkhand, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and West Bengal in India and Peru in Latin America.