EUROPE, Sr. Gertrud-Maria Erhard. The preparations for the European Marriage and Family Congress that will take place at Pentecost 2010 are going ahead apace. Families from seventeen countries have registered and want to learn more about Fr Kentenich’s pedagogy of bonding, so that they can make use of it in their private and professional lives.
“I have a great deal of international experience,” remarked Stefan H., an engineer working for Opel at Rüsselsheim. “I am working with colleagues from half of Europe: from Poland, Belgium, Sweden and Russia. However, the international experience we have had as a couple in preparing for the European Family Congress is far more personal. Although we are all bringing with us a very different cultural character, and have very different experiences in working in the Schoenstatt Family Movement, each time we experience a family-like community.”
The preparations for a European Family Congress at Pentecost 2010 in Schoenstatt started two years ago. The team engaged in the preparations is made up of families from Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Spain, Switzerland and Germany.
The final meeting of the team took place at the end of January in Vienna, and since then the work has picked up pace. We are expecting families from fourteen countries, but since we only have places for 200 people, there is already a waiting list.
The heart-shaped carabiner
The objective of the team is to pass on to all the participants some of the positive international experiences we have had as we prepared for the Congress. After Stefan H. and his wife attended the preparatory meeting for the first time in November 2008 in Munich, they floated on Cloud 9. This experience was repeated at the November 2009 meeting in Warsaw. Conchita Monedero from Spain greeted them with a warm embrace. “That woman is tops! She has an inner warmth that shines out,” Stefan H. enthused.
For his wife Maria H. the most impressive moment in the whole process of preparations took place on Saturday morning in Warsaw (November 2009). Starting with a little heart-shaped carabiner (a climber), which a couple belonging to the team had brought along, the meeting took off with tremendous joy and enthusiasm. The heart-shape of the little carabiner, with whom one can connect really practical things, gave expression to personal relationships, and became a telling symbol of the motto of the Congress, “United with You in Love”.
“Until this point in time we had been discussing the organization, but at that moment everything landed in the heart,” remarked Maria H. “That morning it was as though we ‘staked out the whole arena’ in a way that determined everything,” her husband added. “This experience in Warsaw is a key that unites us. We hope that such moments will also be given to us at the Congress, so that we are lifted onto a new level.”
Growing in knowledge and competence
Stefan H. learnt something new in the team. “I am rather an objective person,” he explained. “With me everything has to be rational. I noticed that during the work of preparation for the Congress, Fr Kentenich became even more important to me – not just for my intellect.
What I value very particularly in him is his education for freedom. This offers me orientation – first of all, for myself, for us as a couple, and also for my relationship to my children. It helps me to reflect on and improve my relationship to my children if something went badly. My wish is that more will grow in this regard.”
The team preparing the Congress hopes that through getting to know Fr Kentenich’s pedagogy, the participants at the Congress will grow in knowledge and competence.
Content
The motto for the Congress: “United with You in Love” is an invitation to discuss Fr Kentenich’s Pedagogy of Bonding. The main emphasis of the Congress will be on the subjects:
- How can we build up stable relationships?
- How can we gain experiences in this regard and pass them on to others?
- Knowing where I am at home – First Day: Attachment to a place
- Knowing to whom I am important – Second Day: Personal bonding
- Knowing where I can take my bearings – Third Day: Attachment to Ideas
More information: www.midili.eu
Translation: Mary Cole, England
