Concep and Dani, a married couple from Barcelona, have three children: twin 11-year-old girls and an 8-year-old boy. This year they did Holy week missions together for the first time. They shared, “What we found exceeded any expectations: we found God.” The family was in the diocese of Teruel and Albarracín, with the Family Missions group from Barcelona. In this testimony, they share their missionary experience.
Testimony of Concep and Dani
It was our first year doing family missions, and the truth is, we did not really know what we were going to find or how our children would accept it: two 11-year-old preteens and an 8-year-old boy about to make his First Communion.
We wanted to live Holy Week as a family, close to Christ, and at the same time, be able to help and collaborate with the Church.
What we found exceeded any expectations: we found God.
In the other missionaries who became family-friends, we found role models and true gifts. On the mission we had many great experiences: praying, sharing experiences, meeting wonderful people who live so far away from us, but who are so close to our heart, and, why not just say it—laughter all around.
The excitement of remembering our 8-year-old son, inviting an elderly man from one of those towns to come to the liturgy of the hours while giving him a rosary and explaining how to pray it was an authentic lesson in learning to be like children, to look at the faith as they do, with courage, ingenuity, and commitment.
We met holy priests who live in very difficult conditions in their parishes, and I try to pray for them every day.
We saw the harsh reality of the Church in a lot of rural areas: few people live close to God, they live in small dispersed population centers, and most of them are very old.
In a way, it verifies the general reality of the Church of today and the times that we have to live in. God asks each one of us to pray for these circumstances, to be an example and testimony, and to act as apostles in our environment. Undoubtedly, having been part of the Family Missions this Holy Week has been a gift from the Lord that we hope to repeat next year.
You can read the original on the Regnum Christi site of Spain.
