Makarias and Kefas: what they are, and why a family might care

If you typed “Makarias,” someone said it on a visit, or it appeared next to Father Ernesto’s name and you did not want to arrive without knowing what it is. This page exists for that. Not to sign you into a group in the dark. So you know what you are hearing.

Makarias · for womenKefas · kefas.com.mx

Two names from the Bible, not two brands

Makarias takes Elizabeth’s greeting to Mary in Luke 1:45: blessed is she who believed. It is a women’s movement. Its work, as the school’s own family formation describes it, is to evangelize and form women, and to prepare them to serve: in the group, as formators, or in a parish. At Arxe it is described as evangelizing in the family and serving the Church, with the Bible, the sacraments, prayer, and ascesis. Ascesis, here, is not a punishment. It is the order of a life that does not slip out of one’s hands.

Kefas is the name Jesus gave Peter: you are Kefas, which means rock (John 1:42). It is for men, heads of families. The emphasis is a personal relationship with Christ, sharing the faith, and the growth of the man as the one who holds the house. Not as a title. As a craft. The public site is kefas.com.mx. Makarias publishes on its Facebook page.

Why a first-time mother might care

A first child does not only take your sleep. It leaves you without a language for what you are living. Friends from work do not always want to talk about God at 11 at night. The family has opinions about the school and does not always walk the faith with you. A school that only offers a classroom solves the child’s morning. It does not solve the Tuesday when you also need someone to open the Gospel without hurrying you.

Makarias is that for women: other women, the Bible, a formation that does not end at the parents’ meeting. Kefas is the pair for fathers, who often arrive at school as drivers and leave without having said a sentence about what they believe. You do not have to want both. It helps to know they exist, and that they are not a social club under another name.

If you are still asking whether the child is ready, that decision is a different one. It is in is my first child ready for school? The movements do not replace it.

What they will not ask of you

You do not need to belong to Makarias or to Kefas for your child’s application to be reviewed. The school has its process: visit, file, evaluation, enrollment. Confusing the movement with the paperwork scares families who only wanted a kindergarten, and leaves out others who did want a community and did not know how to ask.

Ask it on the visit, in these words: “Can parents join, is it optional, and what happens in a meeting?” A clear answer tells you more than a logo. The school’s family formation is on the family formation page. The story of the founder, Father Ernesto María Caro, with Lic. Sonia Maldonado at La Casita de Nazaret in 2001, is on the founder page.

How to know if it would help, even if you do not join yet

• If you want the faith of the house not to depend only on you, a group with the Bible and the sacraments lightens the load. A group that only organizes events does not.
• If your marriage is in a fragile year, do not start with an intense movement. Start with the child’s pediatrician, if that is needed, and with an honest conversation on the visit. The group is not therapy, and it should not pretend to be.
• If a father says “that is my wife’s thing,” Kefas exists precisely so that sentence is not the end of the conversation.
• You can know the school and not join the movement. You can ask about the movement and decide the school is not yours. Both freedoms fit.

Arxe, the school, is at Av. Insurgentes 1616, San Jerónimo 1er Sector, Monterrey, and runs from age 2 to 15. Makarias and Kefas are not a campus. They are a road for the adults of that house. The school office is open Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.