Day 6 Lenten Reflection

“[Reflecting] on the vast challenges of this mission [Amazon] – the heat, the humidity, the isolation, the violence, the poverty – but also the opportunities of creating a new way of being Church in this distant corner of the planet.
I recalled the words of Pope Francis after the Synod on the Amazon:
‘I dream of an Amazon region that fights for the rights of the poor, the original peoples and the least of our brothers and sisters, where their voices can be heard and their dignity advanced.
I dream of an Amazon region that can preserve its distinctive culture riches, where the beauty of our humanity shines forth in so many varied ways.
I dream of an Amazon region that can jealously preserve its overwhelming natural beauty and the superabundant life teeming in its rivers and forests.
I dream of Christian communities capable of generous commitment, incarnate in the Amazon region, and giving the Church new faces with Amazonian features.’”
(Querida Amazonia (no. 7))

(~ Paddy O’Neil, SM, A Journey into the Heart of the Amazon, May 13, 2024)