"Cor unum in Patre’

Looking back at a year in India – Eduardo and Rosa Aymerich shortly after experiencing a year with and for Schoenstatt in India

En el Santuario en Bangalore In the Shrine in Bangalore Im Heiligtum in Bangalore
Eduardo con jovenes en el Santuario Eduardo with youth in the Shrine Eduardo mit Jugendlichen im Heiligtum
Santuario de las Hermanas de Maria Shrine of the Schoenstatt Sisters Heiligtum der Marienschwestern
Lema del campamento de la JM Motto of the Boys’ Youth’s camp Motto des Lagers der Mannesjugend
Eduardo, Rosa, y su bebe Eduardo, Rosa and their baby Eduardo, Rosa und ihr Baby Fotos: Aymerich © 2006

INDIA, Eduardo and Rosa Aymerich. Our bare feet are taking their last steps through India. We have already started to slowly bid farewell to everything and to everyone: to the smells, the sounds, the red afternoons surrounding the palm trees, the Shrine without benches that has been our real home during these months, and above all, the beloved people who have accompanied us this year and have given us much.

As the end approaches, it is also the time to take a look back and to analyze what we have experienced, to compile what we have learned, to ask forgiveness for what we lacked the courage to do or left undone, to give thanks for the gifts, and above all, to analyze the mission and to retrace God’s steps through it.

What will we leave in this land? We do not know. What we do know is what it has left in us. A wound of love: an unforgettable impression that will mark our lives forever.

Ah India, Tower of Babel! Rich in traditions. What do we do with such a vast mixture of cultures, castes, religions, languages, customs, and ways of being different? Once and again the words of Father Kentenich beat strongly in our hearts. May it be love that springs forth from the Shrine, the one that unites us all and joins each heart in the heart of the Father.

If we can give a short message of what we believe that God and the Blessed Mother want to leave in India through us, we would confidently and surely affirm:

The mission that God thought for Schoenstatt in India will only be fulfilled if we struggle, united as a true family, and if we love each other in an extraordinary manner: "to be of one heart in the Father". In this way, the ideal that our Father and Founder thought will also become a reality in this land:

"Do you know the land so warm and dear which Eternal Love has built itself: where noble hearts beat with affection and bear with each other in the joy of sacrifice; where they glow and shelter one another and flow as one into the heart of God; where streams of love well forth with might to quench the thirst of the world for love". (Heavenwards, p.158)

So be it.