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A January 20th relived
ARGENTINA, Sister Clara María. January 20th was relived with the great fervor of a growing family that renews its original spirit more and more each day!
20th of January 1952: Our Father and Found blessed his long awaited Shrine in Argentina beneath a burning sun, pierced by the sword of sorrow.
20th of January 2012: The Father's Family gathered to celebrate their Mother, who sixty years ago touched this blessed land for the first time with the edge of her mantle beneath a burning sun in a celebration pierced by joy and a victorious hope.
Father's footsteps
In the first place, Father's footsteps in 1952 were remembered. Then the Holy Mass was celebrated, which was uplifted by a mixed choir and different instruments. Although it was vacation time, many people did not want to miss this day of grace.
The Shrine - a sign
In the homily, Father Juan Pablo Catoggio pointed out among other things:
"The covenant reaches a culmination; it reaches its extreme degree like interweaving destinies between the Father and his children on the 20th of January 1942. This impacted the entire Work, but very especially the Sisters, and especially in this place that includes the Province of Nazareth. Here, they wanted to unite to Father, his Work, and his prophetic mission for the Church. For this reason, the blessing of the Shrine had to be on the 20th of January. Consequently, this entire message is the living foundation of this Shrine."
Father almost blessed this Shrine with his tears, and with the sorrow of his soul: misunderstood, unjustly sanctioned, on the way to exile. And this separation came from the Church, which was more difficult than the one ten years earlier, the one that truly brought an inseparable unity, an interweaving of destinies with him, among us, and that made this Shrine, Father's Shrine.
It is about Father's Shrine and the Heavenly Father, who Father proclaimed: strong, full of love, living and working, who embraces us with his mercy. This is the Gospel of this place. As a result, forty years later the Church of God the Father was built, the house where Mary wants to form men and women who reflect some of the love of this good Father to the world, an orphan of heaven -without a father above, and homeless without a father below- "existential dismantlement," according to the words of the writer, Sábato. We are not "street children;" we have a Father who makes us Father's Family and a National Family.
Each person is a Shrine of the Father
But, what is will sign be for this new 60th Anniversary?
First, it is the Original Shrine. At the blessing of the Father Shrine, we heard that what is true for the Original Shrine is true for this Shrine. Today we could say that the words said here on the 20th of January 1952 are also true of the Original Shrine. Therefore, the Original Shrine should be a 'sign of faith, a sign of unity, a sign of struggle, and a sign of victory.'
We are the second sign. Each person should be transformed into Father's Shrine; it should also say about us: 'Father lives in me, whoever sees me, sees the Father.' In this way we could be, as our motto for this year states: A living Shrine, home for the world."
Illuminated Shrine
The celebration ended with a procession toward the Shrine of the Mother and Queen led by the Father Symbol.
There a glorious spectacle waited- the Shrine shone, illuminated in such a way that stressed its silhouette in the beautiful landscape of New Schoenstatt along with some lanterns that guided us to it.
Celina M. Garza: Spanish/English translation - Melissa Peña-Janknegt: English edit
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