Going on a mission as a family

Los Pinos Shrine January 18^th: Celebration to commission the Family Missions 2008

Encuentro de preparación Preparation Vorbereitungstreffen
18 de enero: envio de „familias misioneras“ January 18: “mission families” are sent out 18. Januar: Aussendung der Missions-Familien
Otra familia – un matrimonio con varios jovenes An other family – a couple and several youth Eine andere Familie – ein Ehepaar und mehrere Jugendliche
Pidiendo alimentos para las misión Asking for food for the mission Lebensmittelspenden für die Mission
Es un apostoloda también This is also an apostolate Das ist auch schon Apostolat Fotos © Andrés Ghiringhelli 2008

CHILE, Cecilia Ayarza. Six years ago two couples from Los Pinos joined the Family Missions in Santiago with the aim of participating and learning about the Family Missions. They dreamed about forming a Missionary Group in Los Pinos that would be composed of families, their children’s friends, and Schoenstatt youth. They accomplished this… In 2004, the first family missions were carried out from Los Pinos. Since then the Family from Los Pinos has grown spiritually and in numbers. Beginning in 2008 it was decided the group would be divided into two groups of Missionaries. Seven Families would go to Traiguén, the ninth area close to Temuco, and eight Families would go to San Javier, the seventh region.

The experience of these four years of Family Missions in Los Pinos has been very valuable. They have marked and moved each person who has experienced it, and their joy and testimony has resulted in many people asking to participate. The two groups of family missionaries will go to San Javier and to Traiguén from January 26^th thru February 3^rd. They will be accompanied by Fathers Patrico Rodrigues and Miguel Kast. During the January 18^th Covenant Mass, a commissioning ceremony was held: "We want to be instruments of the Blessed Mother and to take the Lord to many people and homes."

An intense pilgrimage

The missionary families are composed of couples and their children and by Schoenstatt youths who were integrated as children from the different families. This missionary force includes about one hundred people. The preparation work began in November with the designation of families. There were different meetings and presentations involving families who have joined these groups; there was a food drive in the supermarkets near the Shrine where they asked people to contribute. Thanks to generosity of many people, they collected enough food for each day of the missions.

They also had a meeting to introduce themselves and to get to know each other; they met the Schoenstatt youth who would become part of their family during the missions.

A testimony: "From our Los Pinos Shrine, we experienced Christ just like the disciples did 2,000 years ago. We returned to share a delicious mate (herbal tea) with our friends, we enjoyed the joy of the youth, we laughed together during a theatrical presentation, we prayed the rosary as we went on pilgrimage through the streets in the south…"

An experience of evangelization

The first family mission was carried out twenty-nine years ago (1978) at the suggestion of Father Hernán Alessandri. A community of couples who were seeking ways to establish close bonds and family dialogue during the time their children were entering adolescence started the missions. They were seeking a way to make a vital contact with the reality of Chile especially with the needy as a way of expressing their Christian commitment.

There were no precedents; they didn’t know if it would work, they didn’t know if the community where they were going would welcome them. The main thing was that they wanted to do this as a family, to talk about, and share what family in the light of faith of the Gospel means.

The families invited youth, especially Schoenstatt Youth, to join their families. They became a large family, which isn’t easy when it involves seven to nine families, or about seventy to ninety people who would sometimes live in uncomfortable conditions for eight days.

An important part of the life of a family mission is the joy, the authenticity, the creativity, and the respect for the youth. Since the youth have their own rhythm and life, one of the valuable things was the conversations between the parents and their children. In this way a very special union is formed and profoundly rooted in the heart. Many, many things are discussed during these long nights!

At the conclusion of missions, a report is given to the Bishop or the Pastor, which hopefully will help them with their pastoral work. Leaders have been identified, a different kind of community has been established: sometimes it has been possible to form a family pastoral in a hospital, human as well as religious problems are detected. At times the Bishop has celebrated Holy Mass at the conclusion of the mission.

Translation: Celina Garza, Harlingen, TX, USA/amj