A group of Brothers and lay people from ten different countries who animate the pastoral ministry of the Sa-Fa Family have been gathered in La Horra (Spain) on the occasion of the II Mission Meeting. For four days we have lived prayer and work hosted by the Brothers’ community of La Horra. We are grateful for the gift of hospitality that they have offered us during these days.

In this meeting we have made known the new document “Sa-Fa Schools for the World”. From our shared reading we were able to contemplate the richness of the diversity of the schools that make up the Sa-Fa Family and also all that we have in common. We dream that our schools have a “Sa-Fa Flavour”. Schools with a pastoral focus that humanise and care for people. Schools that put the student at the centre and where all the members of the Sa-Fa Family feel at home and are fulfilled in the development of their mission. Schools that are universal, of the Church and where we can be recognised as having our own identity and defined in our commitment to society and in the care of our “common home”.

The Sa-Fa Family is called to continue to give our pastoral ministry a vocational and missionary orientation. We have to respond to the Plan that God has for each one of us so that we may be fully happy. We feel it is necessary to emphasise that each of the pastoral actions that we carry out must have a clear vocational sense.

The whole Meeting has been a confirmation of the richness of pastoral life in the Sa-Fa Family. A richness that, at the same time, implies a challenge: to try to ensure that young people and families, in the parish and educational communities of which we are a part, continue to deepen the processes of faith. For this we have to be creative and daring in carrying out our mission.

We recognise in the Sa-Fa works many expressions and movements that involve families, and we find the opportunity to respond to the concrete challenges they pose to us today, and to share with them the joy of the Gospel. The family is the beginning and the end of the educational and pastoral action of the Sa-Fa Family.

Grateful for the time we have spent and the experiences we have shared, we hope to be able to spread in each of our countries and cities of origin the family spirit that we have breathed during these days. May we continue to learn from the example of Jesus, Mary, Joseph and Brother Gabriel, from those who are close to us and from those who are far away, so that their words, testimonies and life may help to ensure that the Mission of the Sa-Fa Family continues to inspire the educational community.

La Horra, 17th March 2022.