mev. Many people pass through Schoenstatt each day, week by week. Some come for a few hours, others stay for a few days, but undoubtedly all who come to visit the Blessed Mother in the Shrine return with a special brightness in their eyes. Among the pilgrims who recently visited original Schoenstatt was Father Guido Murillo who granted an interview to schoenstatt.org
Father Guido belongs to the Diocese of Guayaquil, Ecuador. He was ordained a deacon in 2007 and his ordination to the priesthood took place on November 22, 2008. “I have not been a priest for long, but I have had some type of pastoral experience.” Among other things, Fr. Guido worked with the coordination of the Bishop’s pastoral visits to the victims of the 2008 winter. He has been a pastor, seminary professor, a chaplain at a college, and worked on “other small assignments,” he says. In 2011, he was asked to pursue a degree in Biblical Theology at the University of Navarra, Spain. “It is a two-year program, I have completed one year, and have one more year to complete…and after that, I do not know what comes!”
To visit two friends
For the question on how he came to Schoenstatt, Fri Guido responded: “I am here in Schoenstatt because I came to visit two friends: Fr. Kentenich and especially the Virgin. I met Sister María Andrea and Fr. Egon in Guayaquil. I told them that I wanted to take advantage of the trip to Germany to come and know Schoenstatt and to thank the Virgin for the year I spent in Pamplona and to offer the future experience in Munich. I have had the opportunity to be here in Schoenstatt for almost an entire week, getting to know the holy places, getting to know more about Schoenstatt, and more about the life of Father Kentenich.”
Fr. Guido was able to participate in the Pentecost Congress that took place recently in Schoenstatt. In reference to the Congress, he relates: “Fr. Egon says I have been fortunate because I have been able to participate in this Congress on the New Evangelization, and thus I have been able to be introduced into the theological and ecclesial reality in Germany, which is totally different from that of the Church in Latin America.”
Encounters
What has been your experience from the contact with these holy places – as you yourself have said?
“That was a question which I was already supposing I would be asked! I would begin by responding that there are encounters and encounters, and there are encounters of which, in time, one becomes more conscious. Schoenstatt is not something totally new for me because the Shrine in Guayaquil is very near to my home, and as a child, I went often with my mother to the May Pilgrimages. Later I went as a seminarian, then as a deacon, and as a priest I have gone regularly. In fact, as a priest, I have had my retreats there. Those encounters have made me grow progressively into the spirituality and knowledge of Schoenstatt. I think that being here in original Schoenstatt has been an opportunity to know better, not only intellectually, but also affectively, what Schoenstatt is for the Church and world: a gift from God and a great presence of the Holy Spirit.”
I have been here as a pilgrim
He shared with schoenstatt.org that Schoenstatt has been present in the important moments of his life. “There are decisions that I have made in the Shrine. There I have made offerings and resolutions, and Schoenstatt has really been present in some of the milestones of my life.”
Upon thinking about Schoenstatt as a support for his priestly life, Fr. Guido said that he always has seen himself as a pilgrim. “I have been here as a pilgrim, and I leave with the certainty that being a Schoenstatt pilgrim is very good for me. There I meet the Virgin and through the Virgin, I encounter Jesus.”
Fr. Guido will be in Munich for three months “to learn more German and to have the experience of being in a German parish.”
Translation: Carlos Cantú, Schoenstatt Family Federation, La Feria, Texas USA 06102012
