Our Mission
Sent to make
disciples
The SJS Volunteer Missionary Program gives young adults the opportunity to spend an intentional year growing as disciples of Christ and joining His mission.
"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations" Matthew 28:19
SJS Volunteer Missionaries, inspired by Jesus' sending out the seventy-two in Luke 10 and the Great Commission, go out to meet people where they are and invite them into a living relationship with Christ.
Disciples
First
The SJS Volunteer Missionary Program is primarily a program of missionary formation.
This means the primary goal of the year is to foster growth in holiness — an investment in the missionary's interior life, human virtue, freedom, and capacity to love well.
Mission is the context in which this formation takes place. Through prayer, community life, mentorship, and real responsibility, SJS VMs learn ways of living with Christ and serving that last long after the year itself has ended.
A Shared
Mission
SJS Volunteer Missionaries serve in close collaboration with the Saint John Society and the Society of Mary, sharing in their apostolic life, prayer, and mission.
SJS VMs serve alongside priests and sisters not as assistants, but as collaborators entrusted with real responsibility in evangelization, discipleship, and service. Through this shared mission, missionaries experience how the Church carries out her work — through presence, fidelity, and showing love every day.
How the mission is lived
As part of their formation, SJS Volunteer Missionaries
commit a year to:
Meeting people
where they are, especially students and young adults
Mentoring
others through conversation, accompaniment, and discipleship
Serving
through evangelization, works of mercy, and parish life
Living
in an intentional community marked by prayer, friendship, and encouragement
Growing
in maturity, leadership, and love for the Church
SJS VMs serve diverse populations, including college and high school students, young adults, families, and those living on the streets of their cities.
The Need We Respond To
The Church today faces a real need. Many people are searching for meaning, belonging, and truth, yet have never been personally accompanied in their spiritual life.
Campuses, parishes, and communities need disciples who are present, formed, and willing to walk patiently with others — not as experts, but as fellow disciples
who know Christ and desire to make Him known.
This program exists to respond to that need by forming missionaries who are ready to show up, to listen, and to live the Gospel in ordinary, faithful ways.