From Friday, 16 to Monday, 19 June, the 10th Congress of Redemptorist Youth and Vocation Ministry took place in the retreat house of Villa Marianella-Chinauta. Some leaders of the youth communities of Manizales, Popayán, Bucaramanga, San Gerardo and San Alfonso University took part in the meeting. Fathers Oscar Gerardo Gómez and Oscar D. Báez and junior José Édinson Mariño were animators of the meeting.
The theme posed for reflection during the meeting was the family in a Christian sense. It was based on the figure of St. Joseph in the Apostolic Letter Patris corde (With a Father’s Heart, 2020) by Pope Francis and on the figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as presented on the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
As the meeting was concluded, the young people expressed their gratitude to the Province and their Christian joy, together with the desire to continue to be integrated into the general pastoral work of our communities, and proposed the following motto to animate the RYVM: Redemptorist Youth: Hope is our conquest! This motto aligns with the theme of the XXVI General Chapter (Missionaries of Hope in the Footsteps of the Redeemer). It is worth remembering that this was the last meeting of the RYVM of the Province of Bogotá. Next year we hope to have young people from Ecuador and Venezuela. We will keep you informed.
We thank the local community of Villa Marianella for the welcome and quality of their services, Fr Luis Carlos Jaime, Provincial Superior, for accompanying us and animating part of this meeting and Fr Oscar Gerardo Gómez, vocation promoter, for his leadership at the head of RYVM. We encourage the superiors and parish priests so that next year we will have participants from all our parishes and works.
Fr. Óscar David Tarazona Trujillo, C.Ss.R.
