BRAZIL, by Sueli Vilarinho •
Filled with the joy of the Year of Mercy, the Family League in Jaraguá- São Paulo-Brazil, together with Raquel from the Secular Institute of Our Lady of Schoenstatt, organized a workshop on mercy on 16 April 2016 with reflections from Pope Francis and Fr. Kentenich’s 1965 Christmas Letter to the Schoenstatt Family, focusing on living mercy in the new image of the Son, the Father, and the new community.
New Children
The God of Love inspires us to be the true image of the new children who recognize smallness and give themselves to his infinite Mercy, seen in the parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15:11-32). May the return home always be in the joy of recognizing our misery and that we may be embraced by God, our Father of Mercy.
In the story of the Prodigal Son, we experience the loving Father God who welcomes each of his children. Each one of us should be ready to live this love, but also to live by striving for every day sanctity, so as to elicit the Father’s joy.
In the new image of the community, Fr. Kentenich places us within a bond of solidarity of destiny. Within this mission we are invited to share the burden of the Cross, as a family united in the covenant of love on the certain journey along the way of mercy for our new times.
Mary, Mother of Mercy
Finally, we are invited to live mercy practically, to hand over our burdens and sins at the crib where the Baby Jesus accepts and transfigures forgiveness. The best part of mercy is to live it.
We desire that Mary, Mother of Mercy will always inspire us to walk with her Son so that our life journey can be a reflection of the new son, the new Father and the new community, thereby living our ideal: “Living Schoenstatt Shrine, a New Nazareth, Tabor for the World.”
