[Kd1871-covenant-solidarity] Blessings and thanks to all priests who work with and for schoenstatt.org

[maria]

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Dear Schoenstatt Fathers and diocesan priests who collaborate with 
schoenstatt.org,

Blessings in this your very special day, and thanks for make us and make 
our readers "leave" from reading your mails, your articles for the page, 
from receiving your blessing and your prayers, your advice and 
closeness, "looking as if they have heard good news." (Francis, 2013). 
So very often we ask you to pray for us and for whom and whatever, to 
bless us and to bless our projects and our people... today we pray for 
you in gratitude, and for all the Schoenstatt Fathers and diocesan 
priests  - especially Fr Francisco Pistilli and Fr Javier Arteaga as 
owners of the domain and legal back-up, and P. José María, P. Egon, P. 
Guillermo Mario, P. Antonio, P. Claudio, P. Josef Barmettler, Fr. David 
as members of the board or core team - , who form part of this network 
of solidarity that is schoenstatt.org, in covenant solidarity.
In heartfelt gratitude,
maria

    A good priest can be recognized by the way his people are anointed:
    this is a clear proof. When our people are anointed with the oil of
    gladness, it is obvious: for example, when they leave Mass looking
    as if they have heard good news. Our people like to hear the Gospel
    preached with "unction", they like it when the Gospel we preach
    touches their daily lives, when it runs down like the oil of Aaron
    to the edges of reality, when it brings light to moments of extreme
    darkness, to the "outskirts" where people of faith are most exposed
    to the onslaught of those who want to tear down their faith. People
    thank us because they feel that we have prayed over the realities of
    their everyday lives, their troubles, their joys, their burdens and
    their hopes. And when they feel that the fragrance of the Anointed
    One, of Christ, has come to them through us, they feel encouraged to
    entrust to us everything they want to bring before the Lord: "Pray
    for me, Father, because I have this problem", "Bless me Father",
    "Pray for me" -- these words are the sign that the anointing has
    flowed down to the edges of the robe, for it has turned into a
    prayer of supplication, the supplication of the People of God. When
    we have this relationship with God and with his people, and grace
    passes through us, then we are priests, mediators between God and
    men. What I want to emphasize is that we need constantly to stir up
    God's grace and perceive in every request, even those requests that
    are inconvenient and at times purely material or downright banal --
    but only apparently so -- the desire of our people to be anointed
    with fragrant oil, since they know that we have it. To perceive and
    to sense, even as the Lord sensed the hope-filled anguish of the
    woman suffering from hemorrhages when she touched the hem of his
    garment. At that moment, Jesus, surrounded by people on every side,
    embodies all the beauty of Aaron vested in priestly raiment, with
    the oil running down upon his robes. It is a hidden beauty, one
    which shines forth only for those faith-filled eyes of the woman
    troubled with an issue of blood. But not even the disciples --
    future priests -- see or understand: on the "existential outskirts",
    they see only what is on the surface: the crowd pressing in on Jesus
    from all sides (cf. Lk 8:42). The Lord, on the other hand, feels the
    power of the divine anointing which runs down to the edge of his cloak.

    We need to "go out", then, in order to experience our own anointing,
    its power and its redemptive efficacy: to the "outskirts" where
    there is suffering, bloodshed, blindness that longs for sight, and
    prisoners in thrall to many evil masters. It is not in
    soul-searching or constant introspection that we encounter the Lord:
    self-help courses can be useful in life, but to live our priestly
    life going from one course to another, from one method to another,
    leads us to become pelagians and to minimize the power of grace,
    which comes alive and flourishes to the extent that we, in faith, go
    out and give ourselves and the Gospel to others, giving what little
    ointment we have to those who have nothing, nothing at all.

    Francis in the Crisam Mass, 2013

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-- 
El encuentro con Jesús nos cambia la vida
maria at schoenstatt.org
www.schoenstatt.ORG



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