SCOTLAND, Fr. Michael Savage. For members of Schoenstatt this was a welcome return to the old Schoenstatt home at Ardmory in Langside Glasgow. As we walked up the front path there was a sense of coming home. The afternoon conference brought together members from the Focolare, the community of the risen Christ and Schoenstatt.
Mgr Paul Murray representing the Archdiocese of Glasgow held the keynote talk on the new Evangelisation. In it he highlighted how the process of evangelisation was started before we came along and will continue well into the future. We are only part of a far bigger process. The main thrust of Evangelisation is that preaching the gospel should be a joyful process. The modern understanding of Catholic evangelisation was started by the late Pope Paul VI who steered the latter stages of the II Vatican council. He wrote that Evangelisation is the deepest identity of the Catholic Church we exist to evangelise that is the pass on the joyful message of Christ’s gospel. Ultimately we are not communicating an idea but a relationship with Jesus.
The biggest success of the day
After the talk members from each community shared something of their charism and approaches to evangelisation. Sr Margareta talked both from personal experience and about the Schools’ project over the last ten years.
Ultimately the sharing and comradeship of the three communities proved to be biggest success of the day each have their own individual identity yet all work towards the same end.
Thanks to John Wallace for enabling representatives from the Schoenstatt Movement to be present.
