El Salvador, Florencia Couto and Claudio Martínez •
El Salvador magnanimously carried out the first Marriage Strengthening: The first Marriage Strengthening took place in San Salvador from Friday, February 23rd to Sunday, February 25th. —
“The first Forta is special. You can’t fail. If it goes wrong, there won’t be another one. It will be the first and the last, so you have to make every effort to make sure everything goes well and not let the opportunity go by”. The words of Father José Luis Correa, pronounced when the first Fortalecimiento in El Salvador was still more than a year away and the organizational gear was just being set in motion in the Central American country, still resonate in each of the team members.
Surely this speech was deeply felt, because between February 23 and 25, 2024, the first Marriage Strengthening in El Salvador took place with complete success. That, at least, is clear from the evaluations of the 15 participating couples and also from the sensitivity of the organizing team, which, even with much self-criticism, believed it had more than fulfilled the objectives set at the time.
Mass in Sacred Heart of Jesus Church at Ayagualo Retreat House
“We did it”
Without Father José Luis Correa -destined to Germany, but supporting with prayers-, and with Father Raimundo Costa on board, the enormous effort of the Salvadorans bore fruit. This desire also comes from Patricia Fernandez and Isidro Perera (first Tico federate who died in December 2022), who were national advisors of the Movement in El Salvador. “The great Victress is the Blessed Mother. We are called to found Schoenstatt wherever we are sent. Our mission, made with much love, to go to sow the seed of Schoenstatt in El Salvador, fell on very fertile soil,” commented Pat after the wonderful weekend in El Salvador.
Celina and Eduardo Salaverría, the general coordinators, expressed their gratitude to the internal and external team with emotional words: “Thank you to all the great team we had. There are not enough words to tell you how much we appreciate you and how key each one of you were as an essential part of Forta. To our brothers and sisters in Costa Rica, we thank you once again because without you it would not have been possible to pull off this great retreat. It is worth saying: We did it!”, said Celina.
Father Raimundo offered several masses during the FM
To serve with love
In order to carry out the first Forta in El Salvador, all the couples of the internal and external team traveled to Costa Rica to participate there. Silvia and Billy Nasser, Schoenstatt coordinators in El Salvador, were the first couple strengthened in the country (2017). Other couples attended in September 2022, October 2022 and October 2023, and even the coordinating couple and another couple participated as an internal team in the XXXV FM in Costa Rica last October.
The contribution of Costa Rican friends Coca and Felipe Font, liaisons for the First Forta in El Salvador, and also Laura and Jorge Llobet, Maureen and Alvaro Monge was very special. The contribution of Costa Rican friends, first at a distance and then physically, was fundamental for the development of the retreat. With 35 editions of Forta, Costa Rica is an example to follow in the continent. “It was a real privilege and gift to have shared with all this wonderful experience. The El Salvador family is flying,” said Alvaro Monge.
Patricia Fernández participated with great joy and it was also a way to honor the memory of our beloved Isidro Perera
New groups of the Family Branch
In the words of Father Joseph Kentenich: “Purity, humility, magnanimity and love; these are the four essential qualities of a Marian heart”, we can say that El Salvador will harvest its fruits for the growth of the branch. “Forta will be our seedbed. All the participating couples who are not in Schoenstatt signed up to form a group”, Claudia and Fernando Gutiérrez, Leaders of the Family Branch of El Salvador, told us with excitement..
All the work will reap its fruits. So much so that with great joy we already have a date for the 2nd Forta in Salvadoran lands: it will be from May 23 to 25, 2025. Thus, El Salvador continues moving forward and confirming the “Nothing without you, nothing without us”.
The Gutiérrez, Font, Martínez Couto, Boillat, Monge and Nasser couples enjoyed a delicious lunch with Father Raimundo at a restaurant on Lake Coatepeque, in Santa Ana, El Salvador
Maureen and Alvaro, with Father Raimundo, depositing the contributions to the Capital of Grace at the Family of Hope Shrine in San José, Costa Rica
Original: Spanish. Translation: Marcela Fernández, Toronto, Canada
