PARAGUAY, Carmen Codas. A Teacher’s Retreat was held in Tupãrenda on July 9th just like it is every year. Professors and teachers from different parts of the country gathered giving the first day of rest of the winter vacation to receive another kind of nourishment: spiritual nourishment, and a time to share very interesting subjects. Everything worked together to create a welcoming atmosphere, where the hand of God felt present. The theme of the retreat was: “Teachers for a new Paraguay, welcoming, awakening, and transmitting life.”
Lourdes Ortiz from the Joseph Kentenich Pedagogical Center gave the welcome. Next a presentation and explanation of the workday was explained immediately beginning the first of three workshops, where in each session there was individual and community work.
Teacher: Where do you meet Jesus?
The presenters gave a Kentenich vision of the teacher: the educator is the one who awakens life, receives life, and gives life. They should not only transmit knowledge although this is part of their work, but they should not overlook the important and significant human development of those who are entrusted to them, because if Schoenstatt aspires to renew the world and especially in your own country, human effort is not enough, rather, you must be willing to daringly jump into the arms of God. Seeing as He uses his own as instruments to build a new Paraguay, and in so doing, they become TEACHERS (with capital letters) who will give an impetus to change, which is full of faith and of hope.
Teacher: Reflection of Christ, Teacher of love, a vocation
Father Martín Gómez recalled an answer that a father gave his son when he asked: What are saints? A saint is he/she who (like the windows of a church) allows the light of God to shine through, which shows him. That is what a teacher should be. To be a teacher is: a) a vocation a call from God, and that more than being a profession, is a charge given by God, and b) a responsibility, since you are working with people who have a destiny of eternity given by God.
He continued to point out that in order for a teacher to be a reflection of Christ he/she should do what He says: “Learn from me” (Mt. 11, 29) or what Father Kentenich says, “God does everything out of love, for love, and through love” or according to Ramón I Cardozo, the miracle of education can only happen with love.”
Jesus teaches in different ways: with his words, with his gestures, and with the testimony of his life. Blessed John Paul II and the Founding Father and also did this: to educate is selfless service for the life of another.
He ended his talk with: “Our country needs heroes, teachers who reflect Christ!”
Teacher: Reflection of Christ, the Teacher of love, ways to live the vocation
Every teacher knows that it is not easy to welcome, awaken, and transmit the life as an example of Christ the Teacher. Father Martín proposed the teacher’s Decalogue, a reflection of Jesus the Teacher. He reflected on the meaning of each phrase.
Decalogue of the teacher, reflection of Jesus the Christ
1. Fill yourself with Christ: through the sacraments.
2. Pray daily: Dialogue with God, keeping in mind that the door of entry is faith.
3. Nourish yourself with the Word of God: Read prayerfully and meditatively.
4. Love and imitate Mary: She is the seat of wisdom.
5. Offer everything daily with joy: Know that it is a gift. Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
6. Make the classroom a place of encounter with Jesus.
7. Cultivate bonds with others: teaching, stimulating, embracing.
8. Reawaken the vocation of being an instrument of Christ the Teacher every day. Mother Teresa said: “I am a pencil in the hand of God.”
9. Renew the willingness to serve.
10. Grow through study and training: Train yourself to train.
Apostolic initiatives: Rosary Campaign
During the break, two couples spoke about the Rosary Campaign to invite the educators to be missionaries of the Pilgrim MTA, which was accepted by some of the professors and teachers.
José Luis Bravo, a representative of “Save the Family” was also present. He carefully explained a burning issue in Paraguay, above all everything related to education and the role of the teacher. His talk was scheduled for five minutes, but it lasted more than half an hour at the request of the teachers, who preferred to give up part of their lunch hour to ask questions, to share experiences, and to ask how to bring up the subject in the schools.
Mass of sending forth
The retreat concluded with a Holy Mass of sending forth during which several teachers gave their testimonies about the retreat and expressed their appreciation for having the opportunity to participate in this type of encounter that is a gift from God for the task of the teacher. They also presented their offering to the capital of grace, which consisted of symbolically roofing a school with little papers in the patriotic colors of the flag as a tribute to the independence bicentennial. They offered the entire day, their individual contributions, and the good as well as their pain and suffering. Everything was taken to the Shrine, where the teachers received the final blessing.
Translation: Celina Garza, San Antonio, USA/Melissa Janknegt, Elgin, USA
This is an inspiration to me, a retreat for teachers. I am a teacher in a public school and I really need to be reminded to folow the example of Christ, to see through the eyes of Christ, each child of God in my classroom. What an opportunity to come closer to Christ, even though his hurting children! Thank you all in Paraguay for the inspirations. And thank you for the article!