‘Companions in Mission’ hopes to be the beginning of an answer to the invitation of the Spirit to try to share something of the richness of Columban mission spirituality with others. If ‘Companions in Mission’ is a work of the Spirit that the Columbans are being called to, we felt it to be vital and beneficial to endeavour to express the theological basis of the project as we see it. ‘Columbans have much experience in living out the mission of Jesus in many diverse ways such as animating parish communities, spreading the word of mission through the Mission Awareness Support Team, accompanying refugees, administering, with young people and much more - according to individual gifts and discernment of God’s call.
At the heart of all Columban activities are faith, hope and love, and it is the spirituality that flows from this centre that informs, motivates and energises Columban mission.
This spirituality is nourished and sustained by prayer and reflection that strengthens our love, familiarity and dependence on the Gospel, which is the ‘text
mitigate against the coming of God’s kingdom.
The Companions in Mission project offers a way to share this sense of mission spirituality, to support and encourage people engaged in the mission of Jesus in exploring and strengthening our understanding of mission and sense of ourselves as ‘Companions in Mission’. We the animators are also learners, and in the Companions in Mission project we would hope to meet with others.
We see it as involving prayer, pastoral reflection, learning, and theological reflection that enables analysis and reflective processing of our mission experience in the light of Scripture.
We also see it as offering an opportunity through reflection for people to discover more of their own spiritual depths and wisdom, to spend time with the God within.
We do not see it as simply another educational programme with it’s own ideas and agenda, but more about accompanying each other, companioning each other into a deeper missionary journey with Christ.
It is an opportunity to come along-side others to explore together
book’ from which we are all working, and strengthens the vital bond between the Gospel and action.
Prayer and reflection inform our action and enable growth in awareness that it is the mission of God in which we are engaged, not just humanistic activism. It is this awareness that can sustain us and bring consolation and joy in the face of the challenges and perplexities inherent in trying to bring forth the Kingdom of God, in a world that is both miraculous and full of beauty yet suffering and in need.
As missionaries, we are called to nourish our inner spiritual life and allow the Spirit ever more freely to outreach through us to strengthen and accompany what is life-giving in the world, to relieve and companion the suffering, and to challenge and oppose the structures that
