org. Juan Barbosa, from Córdoba, Argentina, has been a part of the schoenstatt.org team of editors for many years; he writes, edits articles, and shares the richness of the international page through his emails and bulletins. In May, he joined the team responsible for schoenstatt.org “with renewed enthusiasm after being in the Schoenstatt Holy Land and the meeting in Cologne, where we spoke for hours about the grace 2014.” Here he shares what it means to him to work for schoenstatt.org, and what enthuses him the most about the Jubilee of the Covenant of Love: “I began to get fully involved in 2014, and I will be introducing it from where I work…”
What motivated you to offer your time to work editing and writing articles for the international pages?
Two things fundamentally: The first, my enormous admiration for the dedication that Father Kentenich had throughout his life toward attachments with people; that very personal attention that marked many. The second, that of not knowing about the death of a friend… That led me to give my effort to bring many people close to the reality of the Schoenstatt Family in my community and in the world. The word community is written “in black and underlined” in my personal ideal.
A little personal presentation –history with Schoenstatt, apostolate, profession…
Matilde and I began our family history on July 4, 1981 with our marriage “of three people,” since we indissolubly sealed the Marriage Covenant with God. Four years later, the business, where I work, offered me a transfer to Córdoba, the second city of Argentina, in an important executive position. Here we learned about Schoenstatt and when we sealed the Covenant of Love with Mary, we knew that our family would be anchored in heart of the Queen forever. With five children, two sons-in law, and two grandchildren it seems incredible for us that the “Yes” we gave God together has presently produced so much fruitfulness and that we are … just at the beginning of the road! We belong to the Circle of members of the Family Work, and we are in charge of coordinating communication within the Family. Although my work demands a lot of mobility, the present day communication allows us to always be connected with our main apostolate (moreover because we do it with our son Gonzalo, who is a journalist).
What fascinates you the most about 2014?
Undoubtedly my main fascination of 2014…is the day following the 100th Anniversary! If we are happy on 10-18-14 wherever in the world the Good Father God wants us to be, and hopefully it will be in The Homeland, I am very motivated to work for Schoenstatt on the following day and with much more fervor. I feel that the time of lay people intensified beginning with the second century and the phrase “We are here, we go with you” should impregnate each one of our cells, mobilizing all our being toward the newest times.
What is your favorite message of 2014?
“The profound faith in the Covenant of Love with Mary is what moves and inspires our actions; it is the source of our fruitfulness and the concrete way of living our following of Christ.” This phrase fully identifies my thinking. The Covenant of Love with the MTA is at the same time, fuel and motor; it is nourishment and strength, it is meditation and deed at the service of the Good God the Father. The Ring Prayer of the Covenant affirms it in every stanza, when before every daily act it reminds us…Then my Covenant arouses all my strength telling me: The hour of your love has come!”
What is your favorite phrase of the pilgrimage prayer?
The 12th stanza of Heavenwards, “Let us glow like brands of fire and joyfully go forth to the nations, giving witness to redemption and jubilantly leading all people to the Triune God.” (Heavenwards, p.15) was my favorite, since I read it for the first time, therefore, “With every step we take on our pilgrim way, we ask you: Enkindle in us anew the fire of love for you, for Father Kentenich and for our family. It becomes irreplaceable nourishment to “embody” the previous one. That is the reason it especially touches me, and above all at such a difficult time, that our beloved country is going through, in my judgment.
What does the international motto: Your covenant, our mission mean to you?
This question is indissolubly tied to the previous one since it means to live stanza 12 in its entire dimension. Without the Covenant, hearts would not be on fire, there would be no be joyful hearts, or hearts that vibrate as witnesses of redemption. Schoenstatt is the Covenant of Love and the Covenant of Love is Mission. By showing us the road of the Covenant with his life, Father invites us to accompany him in the Mission and we tell him…We go with you!
What does “Covenant culture” mean to you?
The Covenant is the essence of Schoenstatt. Without the Covenant, Schoenstatt would not exist, since it is the soul of its being. If we seek the meaning of culture, we will find that RAE states in part of its definition that it is “a combination of life style and custom”. Therefore, the Covenant culture is the natural expression of Schoenstatt’s soul, it is its most perfect meaning, it is the main axis, and it is living and transmitting our attachment to God, to others, to nature, the culture, the Church and the world, through and from the Covenant of Love.
What do you expect of 2014?
At this moment, the international Family is preparing with a work triennium where our Father and Founder’s charism, our Shrine and our Mission is revived. In my understanding, 2014 is the moment to recreate it, the third “re” based on recalling and reliving it. It is the moment in which lay people should advance together to the institutes of consecrated life with a greater protagonism, based on our commitment with the sanctification of our soul and the evangelization of the world. It is to live the “Let us glow like brands of fire, jubilantly leading all people…”, that we stated above.
Can you tell us of one of your “missionary developments” in the line of what we pray every day in the pilgrimage prayer?
When one suffers a small domestic accident, for example, a hurt finger and it needs a band aid, that is when you value its use that it has every moment of the day for the different activities, like putting a key in a door, to write, to pick up a utensil, etc. Through an everyday example, we can then see the number of gifts that we have and which we do not sufficiently appreciate. Some years ago, Father Eronti told us that we should be grateful for being alive every day, since at any moment we might not be alive. I had not thought about it until I heard this phrase…In reality, I try to be grateful to the Good God the Father for each one of the many ways He pampers me, and I try to do the same with the persons with whom I come into contact every day.
What does your work of editing so many articles and different texts mean to you? What is your experience doing it?
When I began this service, without even imagining it, I did it for the reasons that I commented at the beginning. Traveling on the road, I began to enjoy each step, deepening in every situation and living it with intensity in order to then transmit it. To be able to “be” in Burundi, in Montevideo, in Córdoba or in Madrid, for example, and in different situations and experiences is a truly fascinating experience if one can “live” it from his own center. How can you do this? By living the Covenant Culture in conjunction with the international Family and transmitting it from the Kentenich philosophy of communication. That is the fantastic thing about Schoenstatt…It is the organic thinking and acting.
Until now, which is the article that you have liked or that has fascinated you the most?
Undoubtedly, it is the last one I do. More so in that special moment, since the last one was a brief testimony of my visit to the hell of Dachau. There I took a much greater dimension of the enormity than I already had, of the integrity, the faith and the strength that our Father and Founder had. In editing an article, one grows in respect to the former, it incorporates new ways of transmitting it and that dynamism not only nourishes; but rather, it constitutes a base for the following one. A base that is a little “higher” than the previous one…
Is there a phrase, a quote that especially touches you?
Many, but undoubtedly one in particular has accompanied me for 26 years: “Beneath the protection of Mary, we want to learn to educate ourselves to become free, firm and priestly personalities” (Pre-founding Document of the Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement).
Translation: Celina M. Garza, San Antonio, TX, USA
