We catch up on the activities of the brothers at the Flores mission (11 December 2022)

During our recent visit to the mission, we had the opportunity to be with the brothers and witness first-hand their ministries and outreach programs.

That said, perhaps we should once again, provide some background to the institute. The Missionaries of the Poor is a partly monastic Catholic religious institute and since its founding, it has received both papal and episcopal approval for its work and constitutions. Thus, the brothers work with the poor and build a community with the poor. The mission in Labuan Bajo, Flores runs a fully operating apostolate where the brothers permanently care for 21 special needs male residents. Additionally, they run outreach programs tending to the needs of the local poor, providing feeding and educational programs to disadvantaged children. The brothers have recently been providing evangelisation programs at local churches, and even hotels, through their music and singing. They operate a weekly catachesis and English class for the local children and provide child sponsorship (through sponsors in Australia) for local primary and secondary students, providing them with private Catholic educations.

The brothers operate almost a full farm on the property of the monastery with every available space of arable land cultivated, including livestock. These produces are used by the monastery and apostolate, and are also shared with local poor communities. Moreover, within the confines of the monastery, young men in formation (postulants and novices) are educated in English and in their vocational journey in becoming fully professed brothers. An important component of the brothers’ life is prayer, adoration, and daily mass. Each Saturday evening, with the local community, they have mass celebrated at the monastery. That is a brief summary of the mission and the images in this post will certainly expound on this.

We will continue with our mission journey next post

God bless all

Trevor and Tina