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Family Mission in Sauce de Luna and Alcaraz
Nachrichten - News - Noticias
 published: 2008-02-19

After participating in the Family Missions I want to return

Family Mission in Sauce de Luna and Alcaraz

 
Familienmissionen in Sauce de Luna und Alcaraz (Foto von 2007)

Misiones familiares en Sauce de Luna y Alcaraz (foto del año 2007)

Family missions in Sauce de Luna and Alcaraz (photo 2007)

Familienmissionen in Sauce de Luna und Alcaraz (Foto von 2007)

Foto: Lombardi © 2008

 

ARGENTINA, Angie Spinassi. Family Missions were held from January 27th to February 2, 2008 in Sauce de Lunca and Alcaraz, two towns in the Entrie Rios province. I want to share the experience of the Family Missions with you, but when I try to do so, I find it difficult to describe this experience with words, because the stories are simply not enough.

When I remember what I experienced during those days, images come to mind that make my heart flutter. I think about the simplicity of two brothers in their twenties laughing together and playing with their other two younger brothers, ages 9 and 10, carrying them on their shoulders and giving them tender affection. I recall the heroism of a husband looking at his wife of several years with profound love when she verbally shared with the entire missionary community about God who lives interiorly in her. I call to mind the pride and gratitude of a mother with tears in her eyes when a letter from her son who is far away was read in which he expresses his strong attachment to God and with the Schoenstatt Family. I am surprised before the mystery of two people, who until only five days ago were perfect strangers, as they look at each other’s eyes and loudly sing songs reflecting those ideals that give strength to the most intimate part of their beings, and feeling profoundly united in those same ideals, silently adopting each other as true brothers. I am happy about the miracle of a couple seated on the floor of the chapel adoring the Blessed Sacrament. Their gaze at this precious moment reflects both of them re-encountering themselves in God’s heart as they are falling in love. These images are the most true to life images of those moments filled with God, difficult to capture, but they offer the true essence of the missions.

The Family Missions are ...Missions

These short occasions reflect what we are, what we gave at Sauce de Luna: our being a Family of the Father, children of God. Sometimes it is difficult to understand what truly happens during a mission. We think it is impossible to visit a town, and renew it in one week by bringing it close to God. Because when we look at this through human eyes, we realize it would be an illusion to think we are capable of this. However, if we change our gaze and we think it is the Blessed Mother who visits the homes...then the situation changes. "She is the great missionary, She will work miracles."

The missions are a reality, they are not an illusion, but it is a reality that transcends us. Many times I feel what I did for the people of the town was not sufficient, I was completely useless…and in a way I was right, because what we, as human beings, can offer is finite and imperfect. However, we want to offer ourselves because God the Father and the Blessed Mother reign in our hearts. We come in His name, and what we want to leave in the homes is the presence of God, not our own presence. It doesn’t matter if the town remembers our names or not, our physical appearance, or even our personalities. The important thing is for them to remember the Blessed Mother visited them through a group of people who tried to reflect God through their actions.

Family Missions are...Family oriented

But it is not any face of God we want to leave enthroned in their homes. It is the face of a God, who is Family, the same God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but at the same time is only one; precisely because it is God, who is Family, reigns in our hearts and the one who can be perceived among the missionaries.

That God who is Family expressed himself through the simple love seen in each gesture. In the missionary group there are fathers and mothers, children and siblings who work to rid their hearts of things that have no value, and they want to fill them with things truly valuable in the eyes of God: ATTACHMENTS can then be given to others.

Thanks to the naturalness breathed, this family love experienced within the missionary community fulfills another great mission of the Family Mission: to give many people a family they do not have. The Family Missions are healing because they offer a home and shelter not only to the inhabitants of the town they visit; but rather to each one of the members of the missionary community who many times do not have the experience of the true feeling of an earthly home. The experience of sharing a true family, although it is only for a few days, makes us think that it is possible, it deepens us in the profound mystery of maternal and paternal love, and it opens our hearts predisposing them to better capture the mystery of feeling and believing that we are truly children of God. Father Kentenich said it very well: "whoever heals his natural attachments, will heal the supernatural attachments...", and what greater mission can we have than to help our brothers and sisters so they will experience God as a true Father?

What will stay with me from the Family Missions?

That I have retained a profound teaching of life from the Family Mission tells me the recipe to fulfill the vocation of a family is to be uncomplicated and simple like a child before God, and to not be afraid to love although there is a certainty I must renounce myself in order to do it.

I will remember leaders who were always willing to serve and to conquer hearts. They placed their own heart as a guarantee without fear of suffering.

I will remember leaders who guided with what they had and were, showing not only their strengths; but also their weaknesses (although this brought some tears and the remaining pride was taken from them) in this way they gave God all the credit for all the good they did, since by seeing the light, their acts of love radiated so one could see the Father behind each fragile heart sustaining him with great firmness.

I will retain profound experiences of spiritual infancy, of feeling small and loved by God, of feeling like a daughter.

I will retain the faces and names of Sauce de Luna, who opened their hearts when we visited their homes, making them understand it was not truly us they welcomed, rather, it was the Blessed Mother herself, who wanted to knock on their door.

I will remember families who gave their most precious treasure, the intimacy of their home, generously opening them to share with others, giving us their own brothers and sisters, parents, children, and spouse.

I will retain a profound feeling of Church, understanding we are all a part of the Mystical Body of Christ. We are all united in his infinite love, and in the mission of transmitting this good news to the world without taking into consideration the social condition, dwelling, or education of the people.

I will remember the brothers and sisters in the Blessed Mother, in Schoenstatt with whom I do not share the same color of hair or eyes, but I share the color of the soul ( as a great person said).

I will retain many things from the Family Missions. I have a great desire to return to the Family Missions.

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

 

 

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