SPAIN, Barbara and Eduardo Aymerich •
La Vileta is a district of Palma, Mallorca; La Vileta’s Immaculate Conception Parish, elevated, sober and welcoming, opens its doors to all projects witnessing to Christ, Mary, and the new evangelization. That is where a group decided to take our Mother Thrice Admirable of Schoenstatt to ignite more people’s needy hearts. Hand in hand with their Pastor, Fr. D. Julio, a young priest of Argentinean origin but established and formed at the Mallorca seminary, they unfolded and developed Covenant workshops to give the first and most important thing of Schoenstatt: the Covenant of Love with Mary.—
Hearts touched by Mary’s graces
When the Virgin Mary takes possession of a place, hearts touched by her grace open to a life involving prayer and formation. A large group of men and women, youth and adults, welcomed the first family missions in December 2018, where the first Covenants of Love were sealed, after which another group traveled to Schoenstatt. In the Original Shrine, Fr. Julio and many others sealed their Covenant of Love, fascinated by their experience.
In Vileta, the Pilgrim MTA proliferates in reaching all homes that need it; the 18th of each month is celebrated in the Parish as Covenant Day; some parishioners sign up for many workshops talking about Schoenstatt pedagogy; an image of Schoenstatt’s Blessed Mother presides over the month of May in the garden, where the people bend down to pray to her, and the Pastor himself, Fr. Julio, is so open and receptive it seems everything comes from his hands, as if he had been formed and educated in Schoenstatt.
Fr. José along with some Schoenstatters set up there with their guitars on their shoulders, without wanting it, created a good commotion in the Balearic Islands!
“Sometimes we get so complicated with organizational issues or hierarchies” or: simply go back to the first love.
All support is welcome in Vileta, and in that spirit, with an attitude of “support” and “support”, for three days, we went to Mallorca: Pilar de Beas (with José Antonio from Heaven), María Jesús and Jorge de los Reyes, and Barbara and Eduardo Aymerich (unfortunately Lourdes and Angel Juanes who are also in the support Commission could not accompany us). Happy to immerse ourselves in this adventure, we placed ourselves at the disposal of those who were waiting for us and of their Pastor to share our Covenant of Love and our experience in a workshop of Divine Providence and some testimonies in the Parish.
We had the opportunity to share the joy experienced in this parish and the simplicity of people in understanding Mary’s gift, in her Covenant of Love. We saw great emotion and feeling in faces, which rekindled in us the flame of our first love. Because in the end, Schoenstatt going out, is much simpler than it seems. It’s about giving others that first love that resonated with all of us.
Sometimes we make things so complicated with organizational issues or hierarchies that we drown out the very life Jesus and Mary make available to us every day.
Of course it is important to understand, to know, and to study what we want to share or where we want to sow, but it is also important to open the door and simply go out to meet what God has in store for us!
Everything here, even a social commitment project.
Mallorca brings together everything that Father Kentenich wanted: a parish, people with noble hearts, and a simple organization allowing things to flow without further complications. Moreover: the “Encuentro project,” assisting and accompanying homeless people living on the street in Madrid, has taken hold in such a way in Mallorca that Fr. Julio already has a hostel, which will soon become a home, giving shelter to 6-8 men, that until now slept on the street, where they will be able to shower, dine, sleep and have breakfast… all this presided over by a small chapel. Isn’t it wonderful?
It was an honor for us to be able to support the Mallorca mission. What joy to share what has been received over so many years! What joy to know the Blessed Mother establishes, where she wants, and she only needs our hands and feet to do it. We undoubtedly lit a small flame in the hearts of those who came out to meet us, but they rekindled in us that fire that is sometimes forgotten and cools…
It’s building
Mallorca is a wonderful island, like everything the Good Lord draws. Your people are good, and even more “the portion of your chosen children. Pilar and José Antonio have a house there: a house looking at the walls of Alcudia. Quite a paradise! The two of them, Pilar on earth and Jose Antonio from Heaven, with their well-known apostolic longing, supported the mission of Mallorca from the beginning together with their daughter, Fatima, and some more and I believe, have taken it seriously!
Looking at the sea, raising your eyes to contemplate the mountains that border the entire island, visiting the centennial monuments, allowing oneself to be rocked by the gentle breeze, adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, and chatting with people that receive from you about the divine and human, gathering their deepest desires, is to take Schoenstatt to other places, it is going on pilgrimage with our heart Shrine wherever God takes us. It’s building.
Thank you Mary, thank you Mallorca for that profound and fresh experience that we have shared with you today!
Original: Spanish. 30 May 2019. Translation: Maria Fischer, Germany. Edited: Melissa Peña-Janknegt, Elgin, TX USA
