AURORA—The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart held a ‘missioning’ for just over a dozen men and women at the MSC headquarters on Dec. 8 – the feast of the Immaculate Conception, which is the date the MSC was founded by Father Jules Chevalier in France in 1854.

A total of 15 laity recently completed a two-year formation program, meeting monthly in separate classes for English and for Spanish speakers.

The classes “focused a lot on spirituality of the heart,” says Richard Salazar of St. Mary Parish in DeKalb. Other topics explored included what it means to be the heart of Christ for others, solidarity with the poor and service to the poor, along with surrendering and doing God’s will, he says.

Salazar’s wife, Marlene, also was missioned at the evening Mass. She notes that she once had prayed to marry a missionary man. Now her prayer is being answered, she says, along with her own calling.

The third person to round out the new English-speaking lay missionaries is Christopher Adamsick of Our Lady of Mercy Parish, located in the part of Aurora that crosses into Kendall County in the Diocese of Joliet. Before he was married, Adamsick says, he had considered joining a religious order. He adds that he finds the MSC priests to be “awesome,” and akin to Pope Francis.

The new lay missionaries next will discern what their missionary calling is, says Richard Salazar. As a recipient of the benefits of the MSC’s Life’s Healing Journey retreats, Richard says he is grateful that he has been invited to begin training to assist the MSC with those retreats.

However, the MSC laity “covers all apostolates,” including parish work, feeding the hungry, building homes and the like, “all under the umbrella of bringing God’s love to the world,” he says.

Grace Delgado has been a lay MSC since 2008 and is executive director of the LHJ retreats.

Speaking of the LHJ retreats, she notes that for some lay missionaries, “that’s a very specific way, a very concrete way of being involved.”

Lay LHJ leaders use their own funds to join MSC priests in bringing the retreat and parish missions to various places in the United States and Mexico, she says, and “live that experience of spreading God’s love and Father Peter’s work.” (Now deceased, Father Peter Campbell, MSC, was instrumental in developing and founding the Life’s Healing Journey retreats, which began some 40 years ago.)

Delgado considers the larger MSC community to be her extended family.

“I can travel anywhere there are Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and I feel welcome,” she says, noting that the lay missionaries started more than 25 years ago in the Aurora area, and more than 75 are currently active. Other LMSC communities are located in Texas and California — all connected to MSC priests in those areas.

“We try to meet every month,” Delgado says, adding that Hispanic laity have been joining in for the past eight years, and their presence “enriches our community as well.”

All the lay missionaries are invited to pray daily prayers and to attend daily Mass and prayers at MSC headquarters when they can, she says.

The Mass booklet for the missioning shared the common thread among all the members: “May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be loved everywhere!”