ECUADOR, Mónica Maruri. On May 28th, Ecuador’s Schoenstatt Family began its fifty years’ jubilee celebration of the Movement’s arrival in that country. The first event was held at the Guayaquil Convention Center; close to a thousand participants gathered to listen to Father Ángel Strada’s masterful conference entitled “Father Joseph Kentenich: Model of Sanctity.”
Father Strada is the postulator for the cause of canonization of the Founding Father.
In his speech, Father Strada stressed the need for holy people in the world today. He also emphasized the four pillars in canonizing the Founding Father: the embodiment of his likeness to Jesus, he gave his generous and constant yes with these requirements: “The maximum giving of love and freedom can only be understood by someone who has felt accompanied and protected by God.”
The prophetic educator
A second trait is in knowing that he is a father who has a family that aspires to holiness. “I know mine and mine know me,” Father Kentenich said in paraphrasing the Good Shepherd.
Thirdly, Father Ángel Strada emphasized, Kentenich’s facet as the Prophetic Educator who lived immersed in his time. He concluded the narrative about the fourth pillar of the certainty of the Founders’ Marian Holiness: “my mission is to proclaim the Blessed Mother and to reveal her as the co-redemptress,” Father Kentenich said. “And this was in response to the question of where I get the strength to overcome great difficulties ‘simply in the Covenant of Love, which is a school of holiness,'” Father Strada said.
After the ovation for his talk, Father Strada answered several questions from the audience.
Then a choreographed piece was presented, which illustrated the Ecuador’s Schoenstatt Family history that began its journey with the Founding Father and a small group in the year 1960. The Jubilee Conference continues on Saturday, the 29th with an extensive and colorful Conference on the Guayaquil Shrine’s grounds of “Father’s Family, A Home for the World, which was consecrated on the 31st of May 1972.
Translation: Celina Garza, San Antonio, Melissa Janknegt, Elgin, USA
