ARGENTINA, Belkys and Sebastián Cajide•
On Saturday, December 8th, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary was commemorated through the first Advent Mission in Resistencia. The family missions organized it and the large Schoenstatt Family accompanied it.—
We had the participation and collaboration from different Branches that make up the Movement; it was an experience of community and fraternity through service to most needy.
Ninety missionaries went out to the encounter, visiting our fellowmen and from the Villa Chica neighborhood. We gathered there to conquer our greatly, desired shrine.
Reaching out
The gathering began at 8:30 am with an opening prayer and meditation on the Word. Then we went in procession to Our Lady of Itatí to celebrate Mass, where the priest sent us out with a special blessing for the whole missionary community.
At approximately 10:00 am, we divided into missionary groups, and we went to different points in the area, while another group of missionaries remained at the Homeland Chapel, spiritually accompanying the entire mission gathering in Eucharistic adoration.
We want to grow in missionary awareness and in the spirit of service
Upon returning, lunch was shared, and we worked in missionary groups reflecting on the experience.
It is the first of future missions that we want to carry out as a Family, traveling with the Pilgrim Mother picture to homes, where the future shrine will be built because we want to grow in missionary awareness and in the spirit of service, placing ourselves at the disposal of the parish community and listening to the neighborhood’s voices in order to give a spiritual, educational, and spiritual response.
We are encouraged by the current to conquer the shrine, and we ardently desire that the Blessed Mother, along with her Son, will reach more homes, more hearts, and that our future shrine will be a home for everyone, faithfully resembling the manger of Bethlehem, where the little God child in Mary’s arms waits for us.
“It was my first experience on mission,” Griselda Pereyra, a reporter for schoenstatt.org in Resistencia, commented. “It is a challenge to conquer and take Mary to those humble homes that need so much love.”
Original: Spanish. 18 December 2018. Translation: Celina M. Garza, San Antonio, TX USA. Edited: Melissa Peña-Janknegt, Elgin, TX USA
