ARGENTINA, Sebastián Cajide •
This year, the Schoenstatt Family Missions once again went forth to encounter the communities, this time in the area of Colonias Unidas, a town located 100 km from Resistencia, the provincial capital Chaco, Argentina. –
To Colonias Unidas with 105 missionaries
We feel that our Family Missions are an apostolate of reaching out that reflects Schoenstatt’s newness and that wants to give the Church and the world a message of hope, of family, of love and peace.
This time, we were 105 missionaries who gave our Yes to Mary. The group consisted of eight couples, two priests and youth from different places of the country, who left behind their daily comforts to live a different week, working united in the service of the Gospel, like a Church that goes out as a family for our neediest brothers and sisters.
This year, we began a new mission cycle that consists of three annual visits to the same place. This time, we proposed following Pope Francis’ invitation to be daring collaborators, serving the Church and the world, finding answers in Christ and Mary to the voices of the time that emerge strongly in the present time.
The joy of the Gospel
In this mission cycle, we aligned spiritually and apostolically to work with the motto “In your hands, Father: family, life and peace”, to transmit the joy of the Gospel.
In order to do this, we carried out different apostolic tasks for two days, in addition to the home visits. One of them was community service, fixing the playground in the Barrio San José Obrero square, where we planted trees and flowers to beautify the place. During the afternoon, we also experienced times for encounter in the training workshops for children, youth and adults, and the opportunity to share daily Holy Mass in the different chapels of the place: San José Obrero and San Roque González, and in the Santa Ana Parish.
This year, a group of missionaries visited institutions such as Benegas Clinic, the nursing home and the police station. We ended with a folk festival by sharing a touching celebration with the community.
We are grateful for the welcome by the community in Colonias Unidas who opened their doors to pray together and above all, to confirm the message of love of God our Father: “Everything in your hands, Father, our family, our life and our peace”.
The mission transforms us
We always say that the mission transforms us. It cannot leave us the same because it is the real presence of God’s Spirit that reaches us, fills us and awakens us. That is what the missions were for us, they profoundly impact for our hearts, a closeness with our brothers and sisters and a vital impetus for our lives.
In the second founding document, our father and founder, Joseph Kentenich sends us and he asks us “Carefully foster the awareness of your divine mission and instrumentality.” In the family missions, it is the entire family who becomes an instrument in Mary’s hands and reaches the ideal that our Father wanted so much: to be a family guided and inspired in the love of the Covenant.
Original: Spanish. 10 September 2018. Translation: Celina M. Garza, San Antonio, TX USA. Edited: Sarah-Leah Pimentel, Cape Town, South Africa
