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<hr size="2" width="100%">Dear Schoenstatt Fathers and diocesan
priests who collaborate with schoenstatt.org, <br>
<br>
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.<br>
In heartfelt gratitude,<br>
maria<br>
<br>
<blockquote>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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
<div align="right">Francis in the Crisam Mass, 2013<br>
<br>
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</blockquote>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
El encuentro con Jesús nos cambia la vida
<a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:maria@schoenstatt.org">maria@schoenstatt.org</a>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.schoenstatt.ORG">www.schoenstatt.ORG</a></pre>
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