Missionary marriage: "God has a plan of salvation for each person".

RelatedThe testimony of a missionary couple: "Mission and grace are a symbiosis".A Paschal Charism. The Easter Vigil, key to the Neocatechumenal Way. "The life of Carmen Hernandez represents the history of the Church in the 20th century."

My name is Beatriz, I am married to Miguel, we have four children and nine in heaven. My only purpose in talking about my experience as a Catholic family and marriage is to be able to give glory to God and make his love present in the midst of this secularized society. Talking about God is not fashionable, without
However, for us, life without God would be meaningless.

I was born into a Catholic family, I am the second of four siblings. Neocatechumenal Way through catechesis they received in the parish. Since then they have lived their faith in a community where they have been able to experience God's love in their lives.

A faith from parents to children

This has been fundamental for me because, thanks to the Neocatechumenal Way, my parents have transmitted the faith to us through a domestic liturgy, praying together as a family, helping us and teaching us, both me and my siblings, the immense love that God has for us. How He happens in our lives, the importance of receiving the sacraments, seeing also that God is present when problems or difficulties arise.

And this faith, which both I and my husband have received from our parents, is what we, in turn, pass on to our children, so that it is passed on from generation to generation.

It was my parents who invited me to listen to these same catecheses. Although in my adolescence I was somewhat rebellious, thanks to their perseverance and prayer I listened to these catecheses. From that moment on, my personal experience on the path of faith began, where I was able to have a profound encounter with the Lord. I grew and matured in faith, becoming part of a community in which the Lord clearly showed me my vocation: he was calling me to form a Christian marriage.

I met Miguel, -my husband-, in the community, and we began a courtship where we were able to get to know each other.

Marital difficulties

In spite of our good intentions to form a Christian family, the first years of marriage were not easy: our differences appeared. Without God's love, it is impossible to die to your "I", to your reason and pass on to the other. However, throughout this journey of faith, God has shown us his love, through the sacraments, illuminating our lives in the light of his word. We have seen the action of the Holy Spirit giving us the grace of reconciliation and forgiveness when we have needed it.

When a person is baptized he receives faith. This means that he has eternal life within him. The Holy Spirit descends upon him and enters into him. That Spirit gives us the fruit of Christ's action, which is the resurrection from the dead and gives us eternal life, which gives us the capacity to forgive. This immense grace has been made known to us in the Church, in the community. This has been essential for our marriage and we pass it on to our children: Christ has conquered death, so that a problem in marriage, an illness or even the death of a loved one does not destroy you.
because you have eternal life within you.

During all these years of marriage we have seen how God has a plan of salvation for each one of us in our concrete life. Our mission is to lead our children on a path to heaven, that they may also discover God's love in their lives, that in the face of suffering and persecution, God does not abandon them.

God has a plan of salvation

In our family we have gone through very hard times, such as the death of our daughter Marta at three and a half months of age. Faced with this painful event, we were able to experience the immense love and consolation of God, who showed us that this was not the end of our daughter but the beginning of her eternal life, and from heaven he intercedes for all of us. Eight other children were miscarriages in which we also saw the consolation of God as a father who loves us and has never abandoned us.

This is our mission with our four children, the one we are living now: that they may receive the faith, that they may discover that God loves them deeply.

RelatedThe testimony of a missionary couple: "Mission and grace are a symbiosis".A Paschal Charism. The Easter Vigil, key to the Neocatechumenal Way. "The life of Carmen Hernandez represents the history of the Church in the 20th century."