Something to think about Category

Fr. Pedro Kühlcke, Prison Ministry, Paraguay • Sometime ago, Pepito was finally able to tell me his life story:  “I was eleven years old when my parents separated.  My father is an alcoholic; he abused my mother until she could no longer take it.  I decided to go live with him, because I knew that he would not place limits on me.  I began with cigarettes and alcohol, and then the drugs came.  I even did drugs in front of him, but he never told me anything-he was usually tooRead More
Víctor and Stella Domínguez, co-founders of the Schoenstatt Apostolate of Hope for Divorced People in New Unions in Paraguay • The Apostolic Exhortation is a “long letter of the Pope’s love for families.” It is an extraordinary document: The Holy Father presents the reality of families but in the form of a love poem. We can even say that this document is a hymn to love. And this reality is inspired by the practical application of the Christian doctrine on the family. The family: “an irreplaceable good for society andRead More
By Fr. Oscar Iván Saldivar • At the close of the Easter season, the Church invites us to reflect on the “ascension” of the Lord, the Resurrected Christ, into Heaven. What does the Ascension of the Lord mean? What are we celebrating? Every Sunday we recite in the Creed: “I believe in Jesus Christ…and ascended into heaven where he is seated at the right hand of the Father Almighty.” In this Mass we celebrate the “ascension,” the Resurrected Jesus rising up into heaven. But do we understand what we areRead More
From Ingeborg and Richard Sickinger, Vienna, Austria • With Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis’ post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation about love in the family, a change of paradigm has taken place in pastoral care. A great theme that can be followed through the whole work is a shift of emphasis from the law to the ideal. Cardinal Schönborn, who presented the Papal document on 8 April in Rome, stated in an interview with the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, “This document lifts the discussion onto a higher plane. (…) The Pope speaks of love inRead More
Fr. Guillermo Carmona, National Director for the Schoenstatt Movement in Argentina • A couple of weeks ago, Pope Francis published this exhortation on marriage and family:  The Joy of Love.  A hymn to life and hope.  It’s a good read, particularly during the Easter season when the light shines through the darkness.  I could re-name this exhortation “The Gospel of the Family.” The good news contained in it is for us who belong and live in the Schoenstatt Family. The Pope speaks about the family as “God’s dream” which he describesRead More
By Sebastián Acha, Asunción, Paraguay, a life-long Schoenstatt member who has been a deputy in the Paraguayan Chamber for the last ten years – a contribution in the series: What does the Year of Mercy mean? • In the 1920s José Ortega y Gasset wrote: “The information that best describes the uniqueness of a race is the profile of the models it elects, because nothing reveals the root condition of a man better than the type of woman that he can fall in love with.  Through the choice of theRead More
by Maria Fischer, Editorial team • First, the report: Pope Francis had sleeping bags and small gifts distributed to the homeless in Rome during the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday. The Vatican almoner, Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, went through the streets along with volunteers and homeless people distributing the packages among those who were sleeping in the street. This work was carried out in “spiritual unity” with the Stations of the Cross that were being simultaneously held at the Coliseum, where Francis and tens of thousands faithful remembered Christ’sRead More
P. Juan Pablo Catoggio, Superior Generalof the Institute of the Schoenstatt Fathers.  An article in the series: What does the Year of Mercy mean? • God, what is your name? That is the question Moses asked God before the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-8,13-15). God is the central theme today, the central theme of today’s liturgy (Third Sunday of Lent). This time of Lent is a time of conversion. Often, we think that conversion is a radical change – profound and life changing – that demands decision, purposes, efforts. And weRead More
By Pamela Fabiano, Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, the Vatican. An article in the series: What Does the Holy Year of Mercy Mean? • “Jesus Christ is the face of the Father’s mercy” (Misericordiae Vultus, 1) The Papal Bull on the Proclamation of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy that has been alive now for several months throughout the world, condenses, summarizes and recapitulates in its beginning words, the mystery of the Christian faith. In Christ, the merciful Father takes on a human face to reveal, in a definite way,Read More
A reflection for Holy Week in the form of a trial. By Diana and Alejandro Caballero with the Retreat for Holy Week Team at Tuparenda • It was one of the milestones of the 2015 Holy Week Retreat at Tuparenda. In the form of a trial- with the participants as jurors, where the alleged perpetrators of Jesus’ death were processed one after another. It motivated those participating to reflect today where Jesus is killed through fear, the search for power, because of envy, cowardice, apathy, lack of time…Jesus, who “InRead More