FIRST LA SALETTE WORLD ENCOUNTER CURITIBA, BRASIL (NOV. 2-22, 2008)   Jacob Vettathu, MS   Curitiba is the most beautiful city of Brasil, and it is the capital of the Parana State. The Provincial house of the Brasilian province is in Curitiba.  There were 26 participants for the encounter which included Provincials of Brasil and Switzerland, General and his councilors, two participants from each province but Switzerland and Italy just one, and 2 translators. Regional superiors of Argentina-Bolivia and that of Angola made a part time presence.  The methodology used for the Encounter for 3 weeks was that used by the Latin-American Church: See, Judge & Act. First week for seeing the the situation of  Latin-American Church, Brasilian Church, and the Religious in Latin America, and La Salette in Brasil which ended with a tour to some of the ministry centers of Brasilian Province. Second week was for Judging which included the presentations of different provinces and ended up with a reteat. Third week was for Acting which was workshops in 5 groups on Reconciliation into its 5 sub divisions – Bible, Option for the Poor, Basic Ecclesial Communities, Youth & Ecology.  The Brasilian province is estimated by all participants as the most active province in the congregation and the following entities in this Province received special appreciation:  (1) The Mission Team is composed of priests and laity, and they go to La Salette parishes as well as the parishes where La Salettes are known. This is a full time ministry. They stay in the communities of the parish and do integral formation programs which lasts almost a month per parish. Then they do follow up. Once the team finishes its mission in a parish, it brings presence brings so much life and joy to the communities that the parishioners are really sad to leave them. The mission team takes care of pilgrimages to the shrines. Most of the vocations of Brasilian Province come out of this mission program.  (2) The Association of the Laity. They are not secondary to the La Salette religious but really extensions of the religious and La Salette Sprituality. The province is committed to work with the laity. The members of the association undergo 5 set of formation seminars in various weekends. In the recent Provincial Chapter, delegates from the associaton of the laity were also chapter members. As mentioned by the General, in the La Salette month of 2011, there will be laity participants and most probably from the Brasilian Province. Maximin and Melanie represented the laity.  (3) The 5 Shrines in the Province. Two of them are diocesan shrines entrusted to the La Salettes. Shrines are centers of all kinds of dialogue and reconciliation. There is a month for the pilgrimage to the shrines and they come in crowds. The ministry of the Mission Team is to animate the pilgrimage in every sense. They well maintain the shrines  and there are facilities for all kinds of reconciliation ministries, and people love to come there. More than taking parishes, shrines are a priority in the Province.  (4) In the formation of the seminarians, most of them come from the Mission Ministry, and from the very first year onwards, they regularly do apostolate at weekends by staying overnight with the families of the surrounding communities and it strengthens their formaton.  (5) The Team Work in the Province. The La Salette Presence is in 8 states of Brasil, and they have recently opened a mission in the Amazon area which is a very challenging mission in every sense. It is a mission of the entire province and its membersip and not just that of the leadership nor of the few individulas who are there. The entire community brings its presence together with those who minister there in every manner. Nobody becomes eliminated, abandoned or excluded. A lot of team work is seen in the entire ministries of the province. The province underwent a great crisis after Vatican Council II, and many membership left the Province. Those remained had to undergo a real renewal of themselves to the spirit of the Vatical Council II and the Latin American Chruch context to become what they are now.  (6) The La Salette Magazines which are taken cared by a team of 17 members and the mission team, and its circulation is more than 10 thousand. The laity are the ones who bring and spread it regularly.  (7) Option for the poor. Our General specially commented that Brasilian province never ask for any financial help even if its needs are many. The life style is very simple with that of the people in general, they well take care of and well utilize the resources they have. When they get into financial shortage, they really tighten their own belts. General also commented that in financial transparency, Brasil Province is No. 1.  So it is really an eye opening for the participants of the First La Salette World Encounter in Brasil, an evaluation of how the mission in their own provinces and regions, and an inspiration and enrichment from the Brasilian Province that there is much that the La Salette Missionaries can do in the present world as individuals, as a province, and as a congregation. And everybody felt gratitude in every sense for being one of the participants of this Encounter.