Sagrada Familia – obra de arte de Mariana Loyato, Argentina Holy Family – piece of art by Mariana Loyato, Argentina Heilige Familie – Kunstwerk von Mariana Loyato, Argentinien Foto: elvolquetedemariana.galeon.com © 2006

INDIA, Rosa and Eduardo Aymerich. Everything was planned since the beginning. The Father called us to India with a concrete mission. However, besides the apostolic work for Schoenstatt another more important task is added: the mission of internally working on our family.

"I love you, Rosa as my wife and I promise to be loyal to you and to love you, in sickness and in health, in joys and in sorrows, with your weaknesses and when you suffer, for your courage and for how you love, even with your touchiness and bad moods, with your originality and simplicity, with your subjectivity and in your sadness, for your warm heart and for being my ‘little sun’, for your tenderness and because you make me laugh, everyday of my life. I not only love as you are, with the good and the not so good, rather I love you precisely for what you are".

"I love you Edu as my husband and I promise to be loyal to you and to love you, in sickness and in health, in joy and in suffering, with your crosses and challenges, in what worries you and what gives you joy, in your dreams and goals, even your bad humor and your personality, with your tenderness and affection, with your impatience and your lack of confidence, for being passionate and constant, for assuming each sacrifice with joy, because you will spoil me and you will take care of me all the days of my life."

To learn to love each as we are

We promised all the days of our life, even the most difficult ones, even in our miseries and defects, the ones we knew about before we married and the ones we discovered afterwards. What a challenging task! The ideal husband and wife team that we first envisioned has diminished. The perfect and ideal husband or wife is not at my side; rather he/she is the best companion that either one of us could have, because that is what God wanted for both of us.

During this time in India, where we have been given the gift of being together every minute, the Blessed Mother has entrusted us with the special mission of getting to know each other better, to educate ourselves mutually and to learn how to love each other just as we are with all our talents and our weaknesses. We all know that the way of love on many occasions means much suffering and resignation. When we thought that we were at the edge of the abyss and we saw everything dismally, when our patience was at its limit and we felt lost, without hope, then an interior voice begged, "The time of your love has arrived! Mother glorifies yourself! Work a miracle in us; be loyal once more to our Covenant of Love". And behold, there is Mary, pure and beautiful, in all her splendor, answering with an "Ave" in the ear, a Magnificat on her lips. She holds the Child in her arms, tongues of fire hover over her head, a sword pierces her heart, and a dragon is beneath her feet. All of this in exchange for our impotence and misery.

The great Queen, Mother of our home and the Educator of our family

We have given ourselves to Mary and accept the task that she has entrusted to us. It is causing one of us much perspiration and it is causing the other one a tear here and there. However the result is decisive, there is a deeper love. The more blood that is shed for this Mission, the more fruitful it will be! The more we are purified, the better instruments we will be in her hands!

Someday we will be able to say that Mary has conquered us and she has been crowned as a great Queen, Mother of our home and Educator of our family. That like the Holy Family of Nazareth, our only desire is to always be a holy family anchored in God, that is to say, a home with open doors that gives Christ to the world.

Translation: Celina M Garza, Harlingen, TX, USA/Christi Jentz, Milwaukee, USA