From September 28 to October 1, the annual Mano Amiga 2020 Convention was held in the 100% format. online.
Paul Lara, L.C., territorial director of the Legionaries of Christ in Monterrey and president of the Mano Amiga National Council, offered a Eucharistic celebration on behalf of all the participants and their families.
During his homily he emphasized that “let us be like children”. He commented that it is necessary to understand that God is the one who carries the boat of our life and asked the participants to ask themselves: “How much do we abandon ourselves and trust in him and how much do we listen to him so that he can guide us?
At the end of the homily, Fr. Lara, L.C. offered a message to the entire educational community of Mano Amiga to thank them and recognize the work of all; for their dedication, devotion and sacrifice, especially for making the mission of Mano Amiga what it should be.
Afterwards, Mr. Enrique Castañeda Téllez-Girón, Mano Amiga's national director, addressed a message of thanks to the organizers of the national convention and inaugurated the event.
He assured that by being all together and aligned, Mano Amiga's priorities can be fulfilled: getting closer to Christ and being apostles, integral formation, academic quality and sustainability. He thanked all the teams in schools, clinics and central offices in each location for their professionalism, dedication, commitment and love for the institution and acknowledged the creativity, flexibility and adaptation to change within the contingency.
Rosario Guerra, a consecrated member of Regnum Christi and pastoral manager, also thanked all the participants and emphasized that Mano Amiga is a Catholic educational community of Regnum Christi, which seeks to bring Christ to each of those who are part of it and from there “to be apostles in our environment”.
Julian Martinez, manager of integral formation, closed the first day of the convention by asking that a message of hope be conveyed to all participants during this event.
The convention program included integration and mystique activities, forums by area and conferences such as: “Leadership in difficult times”, “Attitude, key element for success”, “Positive Discipline”, “Resilience as a formative tool”, “Added value”, “Shopping experience”, “Educational Pact”, “Classroom observation and feedback”, “We are all Pastoral, we are all Mano Amiga”, “Theology of the Body”, “Forming Apostles”, “Mano Amiga Pedagogical Model”, among others; in addition to a master conference: “Adapting to change”, given by Mtro. Pedro Landaverde, a lawyer specializing in administrative law from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana and a master's degree in education from the Universidad Interamericana para el Desarrollo (UNID).
The virtual circumstances favored the participation of all the collaborators of each school and service offices; administrative, discipline prefects, study prefects, academic coordinators, Catholic formation coordinators, psycho-pedagogues, social work, teachers, directors, consecrated women and chaplains.
A total of 25 conferences were transmitted, 15 speakers, five priests participated and there were more than 5,300 connections.
Each day began with a mass, celebrated by Legion of Christ priests and school chaplains, and concluded with a mystical activity.
The objective of the event was for all participants to learn and deepen their understanding of the general objectives of Mano Amiga in order to be clear about the direction they must follow to fulfill the mission; to know, live and transmit the spirituality of the schools and to learn to adapt to the changes that have implied both the evolution in education and the current pandemic.
We also sought to renew the experience of the Regnum Christi mystique in order to transmit it to all the work teams.
The convention ended with the presentation of awards and recognitions to the best director, best academic coordinator, best adaptation to the educational model, best approach to Christ, best collection, best percentage of new admissions, best percentage of re-entries, best percentage of total enrollment, best percentage of retention, among others.
Nilo Vechi, L.C., who reminded them that joy is a virtue and invited them to make an effort to live joyfully.
For all participants it was a moment of renewal, of personal enrichment; despite being virtual, the motivation and drive to move forward in these difficult times was achieved.
