PARAGUAY, by Johana and Horacio Chávez, Ministry of Engaged Couples •
A gray Sunday gradually changed color with the joyful strength and the good disposition of the couples who approached the little piece of heaven in the land of Tupãrenda. The Ministry of Engaged Couples prepared a series of talks and a retreat, which was their last activity for the year. The new team was formed with Pope Francis’s visit, and everything it does transmits the joy of the work it has done since then. This time, it offered offered young couples a different Sunday with topics related to courtship and dynamics and the participation of the musical group Guerreros was a highlight.
“The preparation for this retreat takes more time than the retreat itself”, a member of schoenstatt.org noted, who passed through the hall where members of the Ministry of Engaged Couples were preparing everything to the last detail. “It is also a message: if a retreat that lasts one morning takes such careful preparation, how much more will it take to prepare for a marriage for life. We must take what Pope Francis told Schoenstatt at the jubilee audience seriously: “You cannot prepare couples for marriage in two meetings, two conferences. That is our sin of omission, as pastors and lay people who really are interested in saving the family.”
Knowing each other to love each other
People from different cities participated in the Ministry of Engaged Couples talks at Tupãrenda: they met at a place with an appropriate atmosphere where the topics provided formation on getting closer to God and true love based on respect, trust, dialogue were presented, thus preparing them to aspire for a marriage that aspires to be a reflection of the Holy Family of Nazareth.
The title of the first talk “Knowing each other to love each other” dealt with temperaments, conflict and forgiveness. The couples showed great interest in learning about their temperament in order to cultivate a love based on knowing and accepting their partner.
Tenderness and love
Stella and Victor Domínquez presented the second talk “Crystal Courtship” – a dynamic accompanied with romantic music and an effusive embrace to transmit the delicate nature of the tenderness of love. Some couples had shining eyes; others had tears of emotion. The Guerreros crowned the morning with a dance.
The Blessed Mother does not encounter barriers or obstacles when she wants to call her children to be closer to Her and her Shrine, in this case to understand the value of attachments in courtship.
The Ministry of Engaged Couples Team, happy:
