GLT Accompaniment: United States

Watertown: Where Memory Becomes Mission. Celebrating 150 Years of MSC Presence in the United States. There are places that tell a story even before anyone begins to speak. Watertown, New York, is one of those places for us Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.

During my recent visit to the United States, I had the privilege of being in Watertown for the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in the United States. On 2 August 2026, we gathered not simply to commemorate a date, but to give thanks for a story that began there in 1876 and that, through many unexpected paths, continues today.

As I listened to the stories, met people and walked through places marked by our MSC presence, I became increasingly aware that I was not simply visiting a chapter of the history of the United States Province. I was touching a part of the history of the whole Congregation.

One hundred and fifty years ago, our confreres could hardly have imagined what would grow from those first steps. They came with the limitations, uncertainties and courage that accompany every missionary beginning. They did not know what the future would bring. They simply responded to the mission before them.

Perhaps this is one of the most beautiful lessons Watertown offers us today. Mission rarely begins with certainty. It begins with trust. Someone takes the first step. Someone plants a seed whose fruits may only be seen by another generation. Watertown is one of those seeds.

During the anniversary celebrations, I was deeply moved by the many people who continue to carry this history in their hearts: MSC confreres, religious, lay people, parishioners, friends and members of the local Church. Their presence reminded me that our history cannot be measured only by institutions, parishes or buildings. Our deepest history is written in people: in lives touched, families accompanied, communities gathered around the Eucharist, friendships created and generations of confreres who gave themselves quietly and generously to the mission.

Many of their names may eventually disappear from our institutional memory. But the good they did remains. This was one of my strongest experiences in Watertown: the past was not dead. It was present in gratitude, stories, affection and relationships that have endured through the years. But an anniversary cannot simply invite us to look backwards. Memory, when it is Christian, sends us forward.

We are living through a very different moment in the life of our Congregation. Some traditional presences are becoming smaller. Structures that served us for decades are changing. New missionary realities are emerging, and we are learning to collaborate across Provinces, Unions and Regions in new ways. This can create uncertainty. Yet Watertown reminded me that uncertainty is not new to the MSC story. Those who began our mission there in 1876 also walked without knowing what the future would bring. They had faith, fraternity and a missionary conviction born from the Heart of Jesus. Perhaps that is enough for us as well.

During those days, the celebrations, conversations around the table, stories and laughter also reminded me of something simple: a Congregation is not held together primarily by structures. We are held together by relationships, by a shared memory and, above all, by a shared mission.

That is why Watertown does not belong only to the United States Province. When one part of our Congregation remembers its history, that memory belongs somehow to all of us; when one part celebrates, the whole body has reason to celebrate; and when one part discovers new hope, that hope can nourish us all.

I left Watertown profoundly grateful: for the first MSC who arrived there 150 years ago; for the generations who followed them; for the lay people, religious and local Church who walked with them; and for our MSC brothers in the United States today, who continue discerning how to live our charism faithfully in a changing Church and society. But gratitude also places a responsibility in our hands. The best way to honour those who came before us is not simply to preserve what they built. It is to recover something of their courage to begin again. Father Jules Chevalier dreamed of a mission without borders because he believed that the love of the Heart of Jesus was the remedy for the evils of his time. That conviction sent MSC missionaries across oceans, cultures and languages, and eventually brought them to Watertown.

Today the geography of our mission is changing, but the call remains the same. The world still needs missionaries capable of revealing a God who is compassionate, close and merciful. It still needs communities where people can experience that they are welcomed and loved. And it still needs men and women willing to take the first step without knowing exactly where the road will lead. Perhaps this is what Watertown whispered to me during those days: Do not be afraid of beginnings.

One hundred and fifty years ago, something small began there. Generations later, we gathered to discover that the seed had become a story much larger than those first missionaries could ever have imagined. May their courage awaken ours. And may Watertown remain for us not only a place where an MSC dream began, but a place that reminds us that the dream still has a future.

Mario Abzalón Alvarado Tovar, MSC
Superior General / Central America & Mexico Province