ARGENTINA, Nestor Reitano. “This Lady insisted on visiting your home, and I had no other alternative than to bring Her!” That was one of the many phrases that were heard in the areas of Villa Bastía, Tupungato, Mendoza, of the Republic of Argentina from January 20th to 26th 2014. These phrases opened locked doors and softened hearts, allowing each one of the 120 missionaries to enter homes in these towns.
With the motto “Your Covenant, our mission”, practicing Catholics, atheists, separated brothers/sisters, and sleepy Catholics welcomed the young missionaries led by our Lady of Schoenstatt for four consecutive days in each home. Ideas were shared, there was evangelizing, they were catechized, the needs and projects of every person were heard and they sought to find points in common with separated brothers/sisters in more than 250 homes. The objective (which was widely accomplished) was to leave a Little Marian Corner in each home, where our Lord with his Holy Mother would be established. On the first day, they were given a container with holy water, and they were taught how to bless their children with it, and to bless the home of anyone who requested it; they were also given a little book with the basic prayers and a Holy Rosary. On the second day, they were given a candle with the picture of a dove representing the Holy Spirit. The third day, they were given a picture of the Holy Cross and lastly a picture of the Virgin Mary with the short consecration prayer so that they could consecrate themselves to Her.
Queen of the Mendoza Family Missions
Activities for the youths and children of these places were carried out and there was a clothes fair where the prices ranged between two to five pesos; the earnings were used to acquire twenty Bibles and five New Testaments, which were donated to the parishes for the catechesis of the local people.
Mass was celebrated every day at one of the places that were missioned. It was offered for a special intention: the sick, the deceased, the family and on Friday in a very poor area next to a dump; it was offered for work. During this Mass, a picture of Saint Cayetano was blessed, and it was taken in procession (for approximately three kilometers) to a school were the missionaries were staying. The picture was enthroned in a small grotto at the entrance of the school. The last day of mission concluded with a large Mass for the entire town in which about twenty children were baptized and Our Lady of Schoenstatt was crowned as “Queen of the Mendoza Family Missions.” Among other symbols, the crown recalled four very important people for the missionaries of Mendoza: Pope Francis, Blessed John Paul II, John Pozzobon (who initiated the Schoenstatt Rosary Campaign), and Hector “Coco” Ricciardi (missionary and heartfelt Schoenstatter, whose only objective to the day of his death was to take the Virgin Mary to each home and to each heart). Everything ended with a great picnic dinner to which the entire town was invited and there were songs folkloric dances.
To mission as a family
The missionary group included approximately 100 adolescents from the ages of fourteen years and up, six or seven couples with their children, and some older folks who accompanied the mission or helped with the logistics. The adolescents were proportionately separated among the couples, where each one of these assumed the emotional paternity for their corresponding group and the respective youths assumed filial bonds with their “Missionary parents.” Each family was assigned a specific area to mission, this is why they are called “Family Missions.” This year they were also accompanied by the pastor of the area, a deacon and a priest from the Schoenstatt Movement. The adolescents as well as the couples are from different parishes, schools and Catholic movements.
The internal spirituality of the mission had a marked Schoenstatt accent.
Missionary trienniums
Each participant of the mission (only if he/she can pay it) is charged $150. for all costs and expenditures for the seven days of the mission (approximately 12.00 US dollars), with this about $10,000 of approximately the $50,000 that this missionary endeavor costs is collected. The rest is donated by generous hearts, businesses, organizations, parishes and religious movements.
The modality of these missions is to visit the same place for three consecutive years. The first year, as has already been mentioned, a Marian Corner is left in each home; the second year the people are prepared for a “Covenant” with the Virgin Mary in which there is an exchange of interests, we are in charge of her interests and she is in charge of ours; in the third and final year the Marian Corners are blessed as “Home shrines” from where the Virgin showers the graces of shelter, transformation and apostolic zeal. Once the triennium is completed the Archbishop is approached so that he can assign a new place for mission.
This was the thirteenth year of mission and they already have two “children”, another group of family missions that belong to the department of Tupungato and a university missions “Vis Iesum” that gathers, in a large part, the current youths who at one time fell in love with the family missions (it is hoped that someday they will return as married couples), both groups are two years old.
While money is always necessary, Mary will take care of getting it, but we do ask everyone who reads this article for: “many, many, many prayers!”
For questions or suggestions contact: misionesfamiliaresmendoza@gmail.com
Original: Spanish – Translation: Celina M. Garza SanAntonio, Tx USA
