Gently led by Divince Providence

The first family missions in Spain

La familia Becerra, con la alegría que les caracteriza, se ocupó de llenar los escasos tiempos muertos que tuvimos. En este caso ense ñaban a los niños una canción. The Becerra family filled the few hours without missionary work with games and songs Familie Becerra sorgte für die Pausenfüller: hier bringen sie den Kindern ein Lied bei
El Domingo de Ramos también comimos en el jardín de la casa parroquial de Trescasas. El buen tiempo nos acompañó hasta el Viernes Santo. Mealtime in the garden. It was sunny until Holy Thursday Mahlzeit im Garten. Bis Gründonnerstag war es warm und sonnig…
Después de una semana con una meteorología más que aceptable, el Viernes Santo empezó a nevar por la mañana y estuvo todo el día nevando. Este es el aspecto que tenía el campo de Segovia en la mañana del Sábado Santo. After a week of sunny spring weather,  Good Friday began with snow... Nach einer sommerlich-warmen Woche, lag am Karfreitag dann dicker Schnee auf der Ebene von Segovia …
El taller de niños en Trescasas fue bastante entretenido: cantamos, jugamos, pintamos, aprendimos la vida de Jesús... Doce niños del pueblo pasaron las tardes con nosotros. Activity for the children Die Kinder kamen immer ganz auf ihre Kosten Fotos: andrés Perez Romero © 2009

SPAIN Bárbara de Franceschi. We had dreamed about the family missions for years before they became a reality. And it is because, once again, it is confirmed that God’s time is not our time. The Schoenstatt Family in Spain had to mature first: the different Branches strengthened and grew in other previous projects, the marriage and personal vocations were interwoven, and in some cases with a marked missionary accent. So that is how, the Family Work was by built from a small comission represented by couples of the three communities guided by Father Carlos Padilla and Sister Sylvia Maria, and one young couple, Rosa and Edu Aymerich, who had previously been on mission in India and Paraguay.

Since the beginning this community bonded with joy and confidence, they did not know where, when or how the doors opened to the family mission, but they allowed themselves to be gently led by the plans of God reaching the Diocese of Segovia, where the missions were finally held.

The living presence of our Pilgrim MTA

On that day, the Blessed Mother packed her bags with us; she taught us that you do not need many things to go on mission: three empty houses to accomodate the mats and sleeping bags, some clothes suitable for rain or snow, a balanced and healthy menu to strengthen the missionaries, some simple wooden crosses, and of course, a beautiful chapel – Homeshrine with colored rugs on the floor, cushions, cloths which were appropriate for the litugical season and candles which were lit all day to warm the hearts before the Blessed Sacrament, who is always present as a friend whoencourages, loves and profoundly nourishes the souls of those who belong to Him.

The first town to be missioned was San Cristóbal, where we slept and had our night prayers; it was a town of 5,000 inhabitants, it is a suburb of Segovia, where many young families live so as not to be too far away from their work and to enjoy more comforts than in the city. We did not reach everyone: some doors were tightly closed to us, others were opened timidly, and many welcomed our presence with gratitude and acknowledgment, since they felt the living presence of Pilgrim MTA who entered their homes and opened hearts to her sheltering, her warm love and her peaceful and comforting presence through her instruments.

Laughter and tears of love!

The other town, Trescasas, was a simpler neighborhood with beautiful views of the hills with old houses mixed with the newer, well built ones, where some families had always lived; and other houses were vacation homes. At this place we enjoyed a beautiful ancestral home of this town, that had been abandoned for some time, to which the inhabitants and the missionaries gave it life, much life.

That is how seventy-five missionaries grouped into four large families, among which there were babies a few months old, children, adolescents, our own children and older adopted ones, parents and grandparents had –I dare say - one of the most beautiful and profound community experiences. In the morning the family, children included, or couples visited the families, taking interest in them, praying with them and inviting them to the workshops that would take place during the afternoon in both towns. The workshops for children, youth, adults and couples were pedagogical, creative, and in some cases very entertaining, there was a little bit of everything: laughter and tears of love!

A united family that could love itself and love others

What these people need is to be heard and to be consoled! We are all in need of accompanying one another and to feel the fire of God’s love among ourselves!

We realized that re-evangelization is not done with big words, or even great gestures. It is done with a close and joyful presence, with the doors of the house open so that anyone who wishes or needs to can approach it and enter. It is done with the innocence of small children, the joy of the youth, with their songs, their guitars and the "tum, tum of the drum" the good disposition of the parents, the sacrifice of everyone, the acceptance of what God wants of us

at each moment of the day and the praise of the permanent creation, in the sun, the rain, the snow, and the mountains. But above all we could together confirm that the family with its presence is a great missionary, since all ages and stages of life are represented in it, and within it you can contemplate on what God wanted for the Church, a united family that can love itself and love others.

We hope that the mission will become larger and wider

Thanks to God and the Blessed Mother for this experience that will remain etched in our hearts with golden letters. Thanks to Schoenstatt for being a family, for allowing us to give the best of ourselves, without taking into account the particular vocation or Branch that we come from, and thanks to everyone for their prayers, the enormous Capital of Grace of some, and the generosity of many! We will continue to go on mission, since we are sure that this is what God wants and he has demonstrated it to us; and we hope that the mission will become larger and wider, and that many can experience this fire that is capable of tranforming cold hearts into warm dwelling places! We will continue united!

"Family of Mary, be loyal to your mission"