A Reflection by Fr. Domenico Guarino, mccj
Looking back on these months spent in Kitchener, Ontario, I find myself reflecting deeply on how meaningful this time has been, not only on a personal level, but also for my missionary vocation.
During this period, I had the opportunity to follow three courses at Conrad Grebel University College, Reflective Peace Practice, Contemporary Nonviolent Movements, and Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding. Rooted in the Mennonite spiritual tradition, the College is known for its historic commitment to peace, reconciliation, and active nonviolence.
What started as academic study quickly became spaces of encounter and transformation, where the passion of professors and students for justice and peace, joined with deep reflection on nonviolent resistance and grassroots action, encouraged me to continue a journey of reflection that our institute began long ago on what it means to be missionaries today.
Inspired by voices such as Ursula Franklin, Gene Sharp, John Paul Lederach, Pope Francis, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr., I have come to see more clearly that peace is not an ideal, but a concrete and demanding practice. Their witness reminds me that our missionary vocation calls us to walk humbly alongside those who suffer violence and exclusion, embodying peace through courageous actions rooted in compassion, justice, and hope.
Faced with a reality marked by war, forced migration, ecological devastation, and a growing culture of indifference, it becomes ever more evident that nonviolence is not optional, but urgently necessary. My time at Conrad Grebel has offered me new tools and insights that I now carry into the wider challenge of walking and working together, as a Congregation and in communion with all movements committed to justice and peace, so that we may read conflict from the side of the oppressed, keep hope alive amid despair, and cultivate peace as a shared and transformative way of life. This commitment takes flesh each day in the ordinary rhythm of our communities: accompanying migrants and refugees as they rebuild their lives; creating spaces of welcome and dialogue in parishes; walking alongside women and men whose dignity is wounded; supporting young people so they may become artisans of peace; working alongside local movements that defend dignity and rights, and nurturing simple communities of prayer where hope is kept alive. In these hidden gestures, I believe the Gospel of peace becomes credible.
I leave this experience with deep gratitude. Above all, I carry with me a renewed missionary commitment: to continue walking alongside those who suffer, to search for alternatives to violence, and to serve as a bridge of peace in a fractured world, because I believe this is at the very heart of the Comboni vocation today.
– Domenico Guarino, mccj –
