Invitation letter

Guatemala, June 2016

Dear Maryknoll Lay Missioners

As the hosts of MAC 2017, we, the Guatemala Maryknoll Affiliates Chapter, cordially invite you to the gathering that will take place from November 9-12, 2017 in the Verbo Encarnado Retreat Center in Guatemala, Central America (www.verboencarnado.com.gt).

Since 1993, on celebrating the first gathering in Chicago, USA, the Maryknoll Affiliates movement has met every two to three years in the United States to comment on the past, present, and future of the Maryknoll Affiliates and to celebrate significant events of the Maryknoll family. Although the home of the gatherings has been the United States, on March 28, 2015, we received the good news from the Maryknoll Affiliates Board that the proposal that the Guatemala Chapter presented at MAC 2014 had been considered and evaluated with the subsequent decision that now is the moment to hold the gathering outside of the United States, specifically in Guatemala, in this case.

The inspirational theme of the MAC 2017 gathering is BUEN VIVIR, literally “good living.”  This consists of an invitation to enter into harmony with the Andean peoples and great majority of indigenous peoples of the world so that we also may begin a search for new paths for humanity.  BUEN VIVIR has much to teach us: learning how to listen to one another, thinking and walking together, searching for harmony and equity for the well-being of all people, community, Mother Earth, and the Cosmos through a sharing and a celebration filled with warmth and affection.

In MAC 2017 we will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Maryknoll Affiliates.  This will be a moment to thank the grandfathers and grandmothers who began each entity of Maryknoll and for the Affiliate chapters to recognize our existence, parting from the four pillars that define us and give us our identity:  spirituality, community, global vision, and action, thus reaffirming the presence of God who invites us to live a full life that prioritizes being in solidarity with the poor, the oppressed and excluded. 

The NSFA and NTLH bulletins, the Maryknoll Affiliates website (www.maryknollaffiliates.org), the MAC 2017 Blog (www.mac2017guatemala.blogspot.com), and the Maryknoll Affiliates Guatemala Chapter Facebook (Capítulo Guatemala Afiliados Maryknoll) will keep you informed and will make known the specifics of MAC 2017.  On registering as a participant in the gathering you will be sent more details via e-mail. 

We hopefully anticipate that this gathering will be an opportunity for respectful dialogue, that we will seek spaces that will help us create solid bonds as a single Maryknoll family that wants to strengthen mission through the love of God, to dream, and to act on the basis of new alternatives that at the moment seem impossible to achieve.

With best wishes on behalf of the Planning Committee of MAC 2017,

Rosa Beatriz Castañeda de Larios

Maryknoll Affiliates Guatemala Chapter

Conference Coordinator