As 2016 is just starting, I was looking back at the past year and all that happened for Fidesco USA. It started with a weekend of discernment and preparation for candidates in January in Larchmont near New York. After additional training in the spring, all candidates joined the worldwide training in Paray Le Monial (France) organized in August by Fidesco. It is always a very rich experience to spend even a few days in the city of the Heart of Jesus. As one of the candidates writes, “during the training we learned so much about our missions and what we will be doing, but there was one thing that stood out to me the most. I was reminded that the main purpose of being a missionary is to serve the Lord and from there on He can provide what I may need.”

We have currently 5 volunteers on mission, including the 4 that just started this past summer. Reading the mission reports from Christine and Ali in Thailand, Katie and Luke in the Philippines, or Pauline in Brazil, I am struck by what they write about the needs of the very poor they are serving. It is not just about food, or medical care, or shelter (and they DO need all of this), but it also love, attention, and the joy of receiving all of this. In return, the volunteers receive lots of joy as well, despite the hard and sometimes apparently never ending work. And they deepen and enrich their prayer life in a unique way. As Saint Vincent de Paul said, the poor are our real masters and teachers, and all Fidesco volunteers are living this.

I hope Fidesco USA will continue to grow and offer the life-changing opportunity of the mission to more Americans this and the following years. After a new discernment weekend in the Fall, we have 5 new candidates who will continue their training in the spring and summer — and we are looking at a possible new discernment weekend in January. I will keep Fidesco USA, its Executive Director and all its volunteers in my prayer this year, and I hope you will do the same!

Brice Quesnel, Fidesco Board Member