«Christ the Lord
by the Holy Spirit raises up
in the Church institutes
which take as their own special task
the duty of
preaching
the Gospel,
a duty belonging
to the whole Church»
(cf. Ad Gentes, 23)

Our history

The Movement of the Word of God recognizes three initial moments
in its history:

September to December 1973	Time of gestation of the Work
April 1974	Birth at Easter retreat
January to April 1976	Conscience of its present identity

Origins

At the beginning of September 1973, in a retreat for fifth grade students of a girlschool in Flores district (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Fr. Ricardo, founder of the Movement, announced the reality of the living God of the Gospel, and proposed a very simple experience of spontaneous group prayer. A week later, five of the girls of that course met at their school to repeat the event, thus keeping the fruits of the retreat.

The experience of the group kept developing until the end of the year, in a process which grew in number, in prayer deepening and in coherence of their Christian life. A similar experience took place simultaneously in a retreat for fourth grade students in a school in Belgrano district (Buenos Aires).

Starting from that experience, conscience is taken of the group encounter being a process of grace and prayer, of community and of service.

Providentially, a prayer group had been originated, whose experience would serve as root for another series of groups which arose the following year.

For the celebration of 1974 Easter Feast, a retreat was held, which was attended by about 80 young people. This gave birth to four centers of juvenile prayer groups located in Capital Federal and Greater Buenos Aires.

That foundational retreat (Easter I), discovered to them the experience of spontaneous group prayer, and the liking for praising God. It also left in them a seal of inner freedom, conversion and evangelical joy. The eagerness to continue that experience led to the formation of the "juvenile prayer groups". The encounter with the living and true God, became a way of group prayer. This opened the young people to the newness of brotherly love in community and to the evangelizing mission.

Thus, without being the initial intention, the "juvenile prayer groups" were being prepared to receive the grace of an evangelizing Movement in the Church, in moments which were environmentally difficult for the Church and dark for the Argentina.

In that year 1974, the groups deepened their process of prayer, brotherly love and testimonial evangelizing. Pentecost, Assumption of Mary, and Christmas became established as three annual days of formation, which are still kept at present.

In the course of the year, some of the praying young spontaneously received the charismatic experience. And through the observation and discernment of the then advisory team, the main stages in the process of the community group prayer were determined.

In 1975 the Pastoral Center of Cordoba began developing. The groups were growing in number settling their own process and, what is today the Pastoral School was established for the coordinators of the groups.