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 An
estimated 12 million people have been touched by the Charismatic Renewal
in Brazil and there are over 20,000 prayer groups as well as many strong
communities. Shalom is one of these. It all began when I was 18 years
old when I was baptised in the Holy Spirit. This was an experience that
changed my life and gave meaning and purpose to my youth. When I walked
the streets of my town I saw thousands of young people looking for happiness
but not knowing where to find it. How could I evangelise those who hungered
for God without knowing it?
Then in 1980 Pope John Paul II visited Fortaleza, the
town where I lived. My Archbishop asked me, on behalf of the young people
of the town, to give the Pope a gift. I wondered what I could possibly
give to the Pope but as I started praying I saw in my mind the image
of all those thousands of young people and families that I would see
in the streets every day who did not know the happiness that is Jesus
Christ. Thus I decided to give to the Pope my own life and my youth
to evangelise all those who are far away from Jesus. This I did on 9th
July 1980.
But how to put it into practice? Afterwards I got a crazy
inspiration. Young people might not go to Mass but they did go out to
eat pizza. In 1982 with the providence of God and with the help of my
friends we opened the first pizza parlour to evangelise young people.
From the outside it looked like any other pizza place but behind we
had an altar with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and several rooms for
welcoming young people and several places for prayer.
We called the pizzas “Manna” and “Kerygma”
and those who came would ask us of course what this meant and this would
give us an opportunity to tell them about Jesus and the gospel. Often
these conversations would end up in the chapel in front of the Lord
and we would ask the Holy Spirit to come upon them. The result of this
was amazing. In a very short time we had a crowd with us, because the
young people who came would bring their friends and family to listen
to us.
We realised that God was giving us a special charism
and that we should become disciples of peace. Others felt the need to
consecrate their lives to the Lord and the proclamation of the gospel
too and in this simple way Shalom was born. Today we are made up of
priests, families and young people and are established in 12 other countries.
Pizza parlours were just the beginning and over the years
we have searched for other ways of evangelising using the mass media,
the arts, music and dance. In Fortaleza every July we have a carnival.
This is a time when thousands of young people get lost in drugs and
prostitution. We decided to start something different for them. During
the carnival time, we put on a concert too, but in the crowd we have
young people who speak about Jesus to those around them, and behind
the stage we have several priests who are available for confession.
It began quite simply 10 years ago, but today I reckon we would have
about 350,000 people in total who come over the five nights. On the
Saturday night up to 100,000 young people come and in the middle of
the night we bring in the Blessed Sacrament. It is amazing to see how
the young people welcome Jesus in their midst in this way.
Most of these young people have never had an experience
of God’s love and it is wonderful to see the long line of young
people searching for forgiveness in the Sacrament of reconciliation.
I am totally convinced that one of the main fruits of the Baptism in
the Spirit is courage – the boldness to proclaim Jesus Christ,
who is the answer to man’s problems today.
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SHALOM COMMUNITY
Statistics 2006
59 dioceses in Brazil
68 Life community houses
110 Life community residences
106 cells of Covenant community
3116 brothers and sisters
443 prayer groups
30 seminarians
141 priests that help
64 Centres of Evangelisation and Formation
30,000 people involved in work
377,668 people a year reached by one to one evangelisation of
various kinds
143,878 people a year reached by retreats and weekend missions
800,000 people reached by events of evangelisation
547,500 hits on web site
590,000 daily radio listeners
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Angelo, a 29 year old Brazilian who is a member
of the Shalom Community in London, shares his testimony and how
he came to a renewed faith in Christ.
I came to England seven years ago to find work and to make money
because life is very difficult in Brazil. When I lived in Brazil
my mum made me go to church but I didn’t like it. I only
went to meet nice girls. When I came to England I didn’t
know anybody. I was an illegal worker and worked in a Motorway
Service station from 7 in the morning until 7 at night seven days
a week. I didn’t go to church and I used to drink and go
to the clubs and be with girls.
Then one day a guy I knew sold me some false documents
so I could get an insurance number and work legally. I paid him
the money but when I went to social security with the papers he
gave me, they told me told me to wait in this room. I knew something
was wrong and a policeman came in and took me to the police station.
I was given a Portuguese speaking translator, who
told me that they knew about the false documents and that I could
be sent to prison for 1-3 years. I was petrified. In my desperation
I turned to God. I don’t know exactly what happened. I was
just so upset. I said to God, “Do what you want with my life.
Let it be done according to your word. I might as well be dead
because my life was in such a mess.” This was the first time
in my life that I really prayed from my heart.
I was in the prison for seven hours. When the solicitor came.
I told him everything. He said the best I could hope for was deportation.
It had been very expensive to come to England and I had many debts
in Brazil but I accepted this. Then, I don’t quite know what
happened, suddenly I was told the police were letting me go free
and nothing was going to happen to me. I couldn’t believe
it.
I decided to come to London and start a new life as the crowd
I hung round with weren’t into good things. The first thing
I did when I arrived was to thank God for his help. I knew that
it was a miracle and that God had helped me. I promised him I
would change my life. At the Brazilian chaplaincy I met two Brazilian
girls who were interested in praying together and we went together
to a Brazilian prayer group in Bond Street. Here I got baptised
in the Spirit and learnt to speak in tongues. But as time went
on I felt I wanted something more radical. So a few of us started
a prayer group in my flat. There were only 6-8 of us young people.
We met every Sunday. Then one day we met a guy who told us that
a Shalom group had started here and asked if we wanted more formation
to help us to grow as Christians, which we did. So we started.
The group has been going 3 years now. We asked Fr Alex Sherbrooke,
the parish priest if we could meet at St Patrick’s, in Soho
Square, and he agreed. Then we went to Rome where Shalom have
a community and asked them if they could send some missionaries
to help us start the Friends of Shalom. This was in 2002. After
a year, we asked Fr Alex if we could organise a Brazilian Mass
in the Church once a week. He agreed and now every Saturday at
4pm we have a Portuguese speaking Mass followed by a gathering
of the community.
We began with just 15 people but now about 100
people come to the Mass and about 50-60 to the prayer group afterwards
where we have food, praise and worship and teaching. At the moment
it is all in Portuguese but we hope soon to start a prayer group
in English so others can come too.
My life has changed 100% in the last few years.
Every Saturday I have a commitment to my God. I have a special
responsibility for organising social events, retreats, pilgrimages
etc for the group. When you come as an immigrant to a new country,
it is very risky if you don’t find a group like Shalom. It
is easy to get depressed and not having your family with you it
is easy to get involved in drinking and drugs and many bad things.
People back home imagine that everyone here is rich and life is
easy but when they come here they find it is not like that and
life can be very hard and lonely. I thank God every day for coming
into my life. My life belongs to him now.
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