Home Of Our Mother
Tell us about the origins of the Home?
The Home of the Mother has grown and developed with time. It isn't
a foundation that was defined from the beginning; this , would have meant
suffocating the charism. We are all convinced that the Home of the Mother
is precisely of the Mother and we simply are instruments. She is the one who
shows us each following step we have to take. I think that there has been
a spirit, a charism, and that this charism becomes more explicit with time.
How has the foundation been transmitted?
I received the charism and endeavoured totransmitittoeveryone:the Defence
of the Eucharist, the Defence of the Honour of Our Blessed Mother, especially
in the Privilege of Her Virginity, and the Conquest of the Youth for Jesus
Christ.
Already before I entered the seminary, in 1976, 1 knew I had to work for
the accomplishment of these three missions I had received. After my ordination
I began to surround myself with young people. The first thing I did, was to
cultivate their spiritual life so that they lived in the grace of God, and
show them the way to be close to Our Lord and Our Heavenly Mother. I animated
them to lead a serious prayer life, to have recourse to frequent Confession
and, if possible, to daily Communion, and to pray at least one mystery of
the Rosary. Little by little the commitments we have now were defined.
That is how the first group formed and then became the Home of the Mother of the Youth. Its female branch began in 1982 and its male branch in 1983.
What kind of development had this group of young people?
Growing up they had to make decisions, of course. Their first option was to study at the university. As most of them were from Toledo and had to go to Madrid to study, we had to decide between being dispersed in Colleges, in flats or residences, or, another idea which filled them with enthusiasm, to start a small young girls' residence in which they could live together the same spirituality. This was the first important step.
The second important step has been the foundation of the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother on the 22nd of September of 1984. They came from a group of girls who wanted to devote themselves totally to live in plenitude the triple mission of the Home. The first ones were Mother Ana, Sister Reme and Sister Conchi.
What is the spirituality of the Home?
How does one discover the vocation to become part of it?
First of all, our spirituality springs from the three specific missions we have: the Defence of the Eucharist, the Defence of the Honour of Our Blessed Mother, especiallly in the Privilege of Her Virginity; and the Conquest of the Youth for Jesus Christ. Our spirituality is therefore:
Eucharistic: The Eucharist is the centre of our whole life. in
It we find our strength, "Arise and eat, else the
journey will be too great for you" (I Kings 19,7). We love It and try
to make It loved through the daily cele-
bration of the Eucharist and through adoration.
Marian: Mary is Our Mother, Model and Teacher.
We feel Her very close to tu as a Mother.
Apostolic: Mainly with young people, through the
Eucharist and Our Lady as principal ways of
meeting Jesus Christ.
The Home of the Mother, as its name says, has
the spirituality of a "home", a family in which
the mother, heart and soul of all families, is
Our Heavenly Mother.
The Home is the present of Our Lord to His
Mother. That is why we want to improve ourselves,
ceaselessly imitating Her dispositions and interior
attitudes of donation, charity and abandonment in
God's hands.
Our soul is a sanctuary exclusively of God where our alliance with Our Lord and the Blessed Mother takes place. Our Lady lives in us and among us, manifesting Herself to everyone, if we let her. The sanctuaries we want to build in Her honour have to be a manifestation of the sanctuary of our soul.
Another characteristic is that it is a Carmelite spirituality, the fidelity
to God is nowadays more than ever necessary because there is a great fear
of committing oneself to God and of maintaining oneself on a way of faithfulness
to Him. Many people do not enjoy the presence of God precisely because of
their infidelity.
Fidelity to God always implies the Cross, suffering, but it leads to a complete
sense of our life, including the sufferings we might have to undergo, as Saint
Paul says: "I complete in me what is lacking in the redemption of Christ
for His Church".
We want to live a total abandonment to God's will, which brings forth an absolute acceptance.
A consequence of all this is the true joy, the union among us and an unconditional love for the Church.
The aim of all the members of the Home must be the identification with Jesus Christ and the transformation in Him from Our Lady's maternal arms.
After nearly 17 years since the foundation of the Home of the Mother,
How do you see things now?
I can say that there have resulted things which 1 did not foresee. But this probably does not matter, because the Holy Spirit is unpredictable. It is not we who lead God's work, it is God himself who directs it; we do enough when we keep ourselves out of His way. Of course I am surprised when I look back at everything that has happened: when I see that, apart from the noviciate of the Servant Sisters in Zurita, there are three more houses in Cuenca, Priego and Belmonte; that 17 priests and Bishops have asked us to found in their Diocese; that people even offer us land to build a sanctuary to Our Lady, if we want to, as has happened in Italy and in Barcelona. All this does not cease to be for me a motive for wonder, an incredible surprise.
Perhaps, as regards the Home of the Mother, I am a qualified spectator of what God is doing. Still in their beginnings, are the Servant Brothers of the Home of the Mother. For this we must pray more, as our Lord said: "the harvest is rich, but the workers are few, pray therefore to the owner of the harvest to send workers to his harvest". May Our Lord send new Servant Brothers to the Home of the Mother so that they may serve His Church better and better.
As a privileged spectator, there have been two developments that have absolutely amazed me. First of all, the expansion of the Communities of Adults, although I am sometimes worried that there might enter people who are not really called to join the Home and who pursue uncorrect purposes or just do not have our spirit.
The other phenomenon is the increasing participation of young people in
the activities we organize. If is a reason for hope in the progressive stabilization
of the Home of the Mother of the Youth. On the one hand there is the restoration
of the Monastery of Saint Michael of the Victories in Priego. Here it is surprising
to
see not only boys and girls but also university students working with enthusiasm
and ardour. On the other hand there is the work going on in the Home Carmen
Maria of Barcenilla (Cantabria). Here it is not a question of restoring something,
it is a matter of building something new. And this is what boys and girls
are living with incredible dedication, enraptured by the idea of creating
something for other young people.
How do you Interpret the following sentence:
"You do not give life without suffering"?
It is a sentence I read during my spiritual reading and which was pronounced by the great founder of the Work of Schonstatt, Fr. Kentenich. This sentence impressed me so much that I have frequently repeated it in many of my homilies and retreats. Our experience in the Home has been the same, not only for me but for all those who more closely participated in the creation of the Home. As the Home is spiritual life, that is, it engenders life in the soul, it inevitably implies sorrows and sufferings. We see it in Jesus Christ and He Himself warned us: "The disciple is not greater than his master, and if I have been persecuted, you toowill be persecuted; if my words have been retained, yours also will be retained". The price of lifetherefore is suffering, and those who are not disposed to suffer, will never be able to engender life.
To conclude, what advices would you give to our readers ?
Once, talking with Mamie, she said to me: "My son, do not give people many advices, because they usually do what they want". And Mamie had a great experience of life. That is why I am not the kind of person to give advice.
I can only say that the person who opens himself entirely to God is usually
much happier, even in suffering and persecution. Therefore, if there is one
thirig I could say, it is to open yourselves to God, because, as the Pope
recently said in a sentence which also impressed me a lot, "only the
eternal can fill the human heart".
If there is any coriclusion you might draw from this (not from what I say
but from the Pope's fine observation), it is the necessity of opening oneself
to God. As the Scriptures say: "Look, 1 am at your door and call. If
someone opens, I will come in and we will eat together". So let us not
be foolish and let us open wide the doors to Our Lord who is the only one
who can satisfy us. This is more or less the advice I give.
From this you can infer everything else. What does openingto God mean? Meditate
on His Words, admit them into your heart, put them into practice, lead an
honest life, observethe Ten Commandments; receive the Sacraments to increase
the supernatural life, etc.. Discover in the poor, in those who are in need,~
in the
person at my side, someone who needs love.
Let us do it.