On October 22, 2024, after celebrating World Mission Day in Barcelona, Spain, the Franciscan Missionary Center of the Federazione Inter-mediterranea Ministri Provinciali (FIMP) conducted a “morning togetherness” event with the friars of the San Francisco de Asís Friary in Barcelona and the local poor. The friary is a presence of the Province of Our Lady of Montserrat in Spain. The event took place in the Pastoral Center next to the friary.

This charitable initiative began twenty-five years ago. Every morning, from 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, the friars of the community operate a soup kitchen, which offers generous and nourishing meals to more than a hundred people.
The soup kitchen is coordinated and led by Friar Mariano RECIO RIOJA with occasional collaboration from the friars of the community. It is managed by fifty volunteers from the friary church who take turns, in groups of ten, preparing the food that will be distributed. The meals consist of sandwiches, cold cuts, dessert, milk, coffee, fruit juice and other food items to take home.
Before the food is distributed, Friar Mariano takes a moment to offer the volunteers a spiritual message. After praying in common, the soup kitchen, located in the large hall and the atrium of the friary, is opened to the people needing assistance. They stay for the whole morning. While they eat, the friars listen to their special needs, hoping to solve some of their problems, offering words of comfort and human and spiritual advancement.
The volunteers supply the soup kitchen with food they have collected from benefactors and merchants and sometimes from the friar community as well. This meritorious enterprise continues to be made possible by the faithful of the neighborhood, who always provide what is needed to keep the initiative alive
A few days earlier, the Director of the Missionary Center, Friar Paolo FIASCONARO, participated in World Mission Day held at the friary church with a Mass at 8:00 p.m. It was presided over by the Minister Provincial, Friar Juan Antonio ADÁNEZ SILVÁN and concelebrated by the local Guardian, Friar Roberto LLORENTE PIZARRO. The church was packed with faithful. The Minister Provincial encouraged everyone to cultivate a strong missionary awareness and to pray for their confreres who are engaged in the significant work of promoting human, cultural, and spiritual development in mission areas.

Friar Paolo FIASCONARO,
Director of the Missionary Center