Fukuoka, Japan. From 27 to 31 July 2026, 24 missionaries from the communities of Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, and Taiwan gathered for the five-day retreat of the Claretian East Asia Delegation. Through prayer, silence, reflection, and fraternal communion, the participants renewed their missionary identity and deepened their relationship with Christ.
Fr. Callistus Pradeepkumar, CMF, Provincial Superior of the Province of Deutschland, guided the retreat through conferences inspired by Sacred Scripture, Claretian spirituality, Church teaching, and missionary experience.
He invited the missionaries to become a listening Church before becoming a speaking Church, emphasizing that proclamation begins with communion, authority is expressed through humble service, and missionary outreach is born from contemplation and sustained by hope. He also presented the Blessed Virgin Mary as a model of missionary discipleship who received the Word with openness before proclaiming Christ.
The retreat encouraged the participants to embrace synodality as a way of life marked by listening, communal discernment, service, and joy. It concluded with an invitation for each missionary to make three practical resolutions.
Renewed in hope and strengthened in fraternity, the missionaries returned to their communities with a deeper commitment to Christ’s mission across the diverse cultures of East Asia.
