Faithful in the Salesian presences in Rondonópolis, Poxoréu and Primavera do Leste joined the Xavante in Sangradouro for the Mass presided over by the Cardinal on the morning of Wednesday 13 March. The caravans of faithful traveled for almost two hours to participate in the Eucharist and thus also meet the Rector Major who became a Cardinal of the Catholic Church.

The community had set up the altar under the leafy branches of the large mango trees placed in the centre of the village. Almost an hour before the start of the celebration, the Xavante organised themselves in a circle in front of the altar. Their bodies painted and adorned with the clothes of the festival gave a tone of solemnity to the celebration and put on display all the cultural richness of this people.

As soon as he arrived in the village, Card. Fernández Artime received the typical Xavante ornaments as a gift, in recognition of his authority. After him, all the other missionaries, Salesians and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, also received similar ornaments, in recognition of their work carried out with love at the service of the Xavante people.

The same celebration was able to well represent the happy communion and harmony achieved in the missions by the Salesian Family and the indigenous population:  just as had happened in the Mass in the village of Our Lady of Fatima, in the Salesian colony of São Marcos, in Sangradouro all the songs of the liturgy were offered in the Xavante language; the readings were proclaimed in Portuguese; and the Gospel had two proclamations, both in the Xavante language and in Portuguese – the first by Fr Vanderson, Rector of the Salesian presence in Rondonópolis, and the second, by Fr Joseph Tran Van Lich, a Vietnamese Salesian missionary stationed in Sangradouro.

During the homily, delivered in Portuguese by the 10th Successor of Don Bosco and simultaneously translated into the Xavante language by the village chief, the Rector Major highlighted God's infinite love for each of his children. The cardinal took advantage of the presence of many mothers with small children in their wombs to ask everyone: "Can any of these mothers, Xavante or not, forget or despise the child in their womb? That's impossible. But even if that happened, God wouldn't forget about each of you” he said.

At the end of the Mass, a group of children sang and danced in honour of Mary Help of Christians, and the Mother of Jesus was also remembered by one of the elders of the community, in a speech of thanks for the work and presence of the Salesians among the native populations.

After such an evocative celebration, worthy conclusion of his journey among the Salesian missions in the lands of the indigenous peoples, Cardinal Fernández Artime continued his journey reaching Cuiabá, where he arrived in the afternoon, and where he was welcomed again with great honours and celebrations, within the shrine of Mary Help of Christians, by the young students from the Salesian educational centre and the various pastoral groups active there.

Euclides Fernandes

Source: BCG Province

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