Francisco Grondona/Diego Asili/mkf. One year since Conference 2014, Diego Asili and Francisco Grondona from the Boys’ Youth in Argentina and collaborators of the Press Office, spoke to Father José María García, assistant superior of the Schoenstatt Fathers and in charge of Team 2014. They spoke to him about what this Conference means for Schoenstatt and what will be celebrated in 2014: the 100th birthday of the Covenant of Love. We are publishing this interview in three parts. It is also possible to download the entire interview or listen to it as mp3.
D: It is now one year since Conference 2014. At this time, with your message, the initial guidelines on how to work toward our centennial were given to the Family. How was this work planned?
Fr. JM: Exactly, and these guidelines are not theoretic guidelines, they emerged from an observation of real life in the local Families, that is, each Family presented itself. We had an exercise of practical faith in Divine Providence. In the background, when we asked, what are we going to celebrate?…..we wanted to see the life which the Blessed Mother has been giving to us throughout the years and how this life develops today. Therefore, first was the grand moment of observation…..of mutually listening to one another…..it was not expected that someone would give us a presentation on the importance or the coming together in 2014, rather that the importance and the coming together are in the minds and hearts of everyone because what we want to celebrate is the 100th birthday of the Family. But…..what is the main factor which leads us to this celebration? In order to be in agreement, we should do it observing the life which God has given us. In a process of discernment, that is what was formulated afterward. What are we going to celebrate? It is not 100 years of Covenant of Love, we are going to celebrate the Covenant of Love’s 100th birthday. The stress is placed on that Covenant of Love, on that pact which Father Kentenich sealed with the youths 100 years ago, and which has generated a history. It is a history which is expressed in life currents which express the real life of the Family. Basically we can say: we are celebrating the birth of a Family – the Schoenstatt Family – but not only remembering what occurred, but rather the life of that Family throughout these 100 years.
For that reason, the option was to work from the standpoint of life currents. Basically it is taking the life of the international Family, let us say, as a celebrative factor. That is why it was clearly said: OK, where are the common traits of this Family which extends internationally?
Where did we agree? The great currents…..what motivates life, what awakens the generosity of the Family, what leads to living the mission of this Family as manifested in these currents: the current of the Shrine, the current of the Father, the current of unity around Father Kentenich and the missionary current. Ultimately they are different aspects of a great life current which is the Family itself, that is, you feel them when the Family is aware of these points…..(like, as if) it renews itself interiorly when its creativity is awakened.
D: Concretely, what was done for this from the standpoint of the planning for 2014?
Fr. JM: Since the meeting for planning 2014, what we did was to create a space where the International Schoenstatt Family could express itself. The Commission as well as the Team want to be a means which channels all of these initiatives…..that is, the life and the initiatives have to come from the local Families, and what we do is support it, accompany it, channel it, set it up and strengthen a web where that life develops, exchanges. So, our part is to think about what to do in order to support and channel the initiatives of the local Families.
That was formulated into a message: so we want to celebrate. What are we going to celebrate? How are we going to celebrate it? Where are we going to celebrate it?
D: So, one year from that message, from that initiative…..what results or responses from the Schoenstatt Family throughout the world did the Commission receive?
Fr. JM: That message was sent from the planning meeting. Those who participated took it to their different Families. They made it known just as they had experienced it…..worked on it…..formulated it. They had made it their own at the planning meeting. It has gone into the Families and they have made it their own in different ways. Some have better understood it, some have emphasized some aspects more than others, according to the situation of each local Family.
It goes back to the local Families, but after being read internationally. That is, the International Schoenstatt Family thinks thus and is seen in this way.
For a year now, it has in practice been worked on two levels. One has been a national level…..what the participants were able to transmit in their local families with all of the initiatives and the life that has come forth in the different countries, knowing that each country also has its own emphases according to the currents they have been cultivating until now. So, there has been a slow process, but an effective one…..from the dialog between this project which comes forth from Conference 2014 and what is alive locally. There is a process which consists in adapting itself and seeing itself in this context which is more global for an International Family.
This is the process at present. Parallel to this, the other level, is the part which pertains to us…..the more organizational part, that is, we ended our work as a planning meeting and the Schoenstatt Family (the International Presidium) took the time to form Team 2014 which was recently named in December. Until then, some of us who participated in the planning meeting have been putting together a basic organizational project to place at the disposition of the International Presidium. Basically it is “what is required to be able to make it a celebration project”…..seek persons…..seek resources or at least think of possible resources…..seek the necessary juridical means convenient for being able to function as a Team in the context like the German, from over here. This is what we have done on these two levels.
F: What are the tools which the Commission has for grasping the life currents of the Family? Throughout the four remaining years for planning which remain, what is the plan for continuing?
Fr. JM: Now the great challenge is to be consistent with Father Kentenich’s style of working, the life currents and to cultivate them. That is, to center ourselves on them as real life currents. Life currents cannot be invented. Either you have them or you do not have them. What has to now been seen well is how to work with those life currents because a life current is also a gift of grace, that is, there is a message from God through it. It is not only about motivating the Schoenstatt Family, it is about a grace which touches the fundamental element of the Family and which leads us and makes it possible to execute the mission which we have as Schoenstatt Family today. What do I do with the signs of the times? Etc. Looking at the real life of the Family, these currents come forth.
Well then, what is our task? To cultivate these life currents and the means we have were the same for Father Kentenich, that is…..a great cultivation of the spirit…..a great deal of communication…..a great deal of exchange…..awaken initiatives which have to do with this…..foster that type of initiatives. But it all depends on creativity and how the Schoenstatters involve themselves within this process, or better said, that they make it their own taking from themselves this initiative; therefore, everything that is communication is fundamental in this next stage. Communication, exchange, fostering the web…..that is basic.
The life currents are what are fundamental. Important are the projects where those currents are expressed…..where they are visible…..where they can be seen concretely. The organization part is basic, but should not be visible, so to speak.
Translation: Carlos Cantú, Schoenstatt Family Federation, La Feria, Texas USA 022710
