Seeing a person do something well is highly recommended for two reasons. First, you learn to do things correctly; second, it lets you know how far you can aspire. When you do speed tests, you know your times, and if they were the best, you might think that you have already given everything possible. However, meeting people with clearly superior times places you and makes it clear to you that you can still give much more of yourself. That lesson was learned by all those who attended the 2024 Mission Awards, awards that, among other things, make us dream of greater dedication, apostolic zeal, and generosity.
Eight very different winners shared their testimonies with us, speaking to us in the veiled language of kindness: “Now it’s your turn.”
- Among these eight winners was the Abia Merino family. After the illness and death of one of their children, Carlos and Cristina felt the calling to become an emergency foster family. Many children have already passed through their homes, some of them sick or disabled. They showed us how generosity has unsuspected limits.
- Father Ignacio María Doñoro, a missionary priest, rescues children in extreme situations, risking his own life. He founded the Hogar de Nazaret, where he takes in 300 children rescued from abuse and trafficking. From his speech, I remembered one phrase: “Love heals souls.”
- Rafael Lafuente Buján, lecturer, motivator, speaker, and coach, I believe is the best showman to make chastity appealing, exciting, and feasible, to live, to completely distance oneself from pornography, and to aspire to a strong and united marriage.
- The Cari Filii Foundation works to promote the Marian vocation in society. Through its news portal and the promotion of pilgrimages, they help people to focus on the best of influencers: the Virgin Mary.
- José Luis López Linares, film director, is known for such outstanding works as Hispanidad, watering historical differences with love, not with hate.
- Hispania Nostra is a foundation that was created to protect the cultural and religious heritage of Spain.
- Methos Media, responsible for bringing films such as Nefarious or Guadalupe, films that change lives, to our screens.
- Sabadell Religious Institutions are dedicated to meeting the needs of those who have an apostolic mission, with the aim of Christ being present in their lives.
To all of them, thank you very much for those “superior times” that make us dream higher. Thanks to Isabel Molina and the entire team of the magazine, Mission. And, finally, thanks to the Francisco de Vitoria University for having become, that October afternoon, a high-performance school for the soul.
