The “Mission Now” project (“Missão Agora”) once again made its mark on the 2026 pastoral year by bringing young people together for a community missionary experience during the Easter season in the Chelas neighborhood of Lisbon, Portugal. Inspired by the momentum of the 2023 World Youth Day in Lisbon, the Patriarchate of Lisbon launched this project to encourage young people to serve in the everyday realities of the diocese. Participants balance their studies or jobs with dedicating their free time to bring Jesus to others.
Inspired by the example of the early Christian community found in Acts 2:42, 44, 46–47, “Mission Now” seeks to renew and strengthen the Church as a network of missionary communities that forms missionary disciples and sends them forth. The project rests on the conviction that the Holy Spirit inspires and sustains the mission, calling ordinary people to become witnesses of the Gospel on the outskirts of the city.
From early April until the end of the Easter season during the last week of May 2026, Elisa, Pedro, Hugo, Manuel, and Miguel—ages 19 to 27—shared an apartment at the St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish Church, in Chelas, Portugal. There, they turned their daily lives into a genuine mission of a “Church that goes forth.” Every day, the missionaries supported the local community, in collaboration with neighborhood social organizations, through the pastoral outreach of the Conventual Franciscans in Chelas. Their missionary work included tutoring children and teens, assisting older adults, making home visits, organizing youth activities, leading pastoral initiatives such as praying the Rosary in neighborhood communities, distributing food, and providing social support. The missionaries pointed out the profound human and spiritual impact of the experience. They recognized that the mission transformed them just as much as it sought to transform the community around them. Above all, the mission expressed itself through small but meaningful gestures: listening, being present, praying with people, and bearing witness to God’s merciful love.
“Mission Now” builds the Church through people who walk together in faith, and this shared journey reflects the synodal nature of the Church. The missionary group becomes an ecclesial community that promotes active listening, dialogue, and shared responsibility while valuing diversity and participation. People from different vocations and states of life come together as equals, as if gathered around a round table. Built on four pillars—formation, prayer, community life, and mission—“Mission Now” has left the Diocese with one clear conviction: the mission does not end in Chelas. Instead, it opens the way to new missionary initiatives, new communities on the outskirts, and new pastoral challenges, where the Church and its young people are called to be the face of Christ.
We thank the Holy Spirit, the driving force behind this missionary project, for the gift of this experience, and we entrust its future to Mary’s protection. May she continue to guide us, inspire us, and send us forth.
Friar José Carlos CERDEIRA MATIAS
