Maria Fischer •
Is an article in schoenstatt.org something so very quiet and simple worthwhile? Those who sent their petitions, their desires, their gifts, their desperation and confidence to Mary the Mother of the Lord and our Mother, and who will probably never physically visit, are alone in the Shrine, in her small shrine in the Schoenstatt Valley.
They fill more than fifty sheets of paper. Long letters and sometimes very brief ones from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Ecuador, Germany India, Italy, Indonesia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Spain, and the United States… We are unaware of the contents. Everything is confidential, but I feel that I am taking an immense treasure to the Original Shrine…
His photo is in the Original Shrine
It is always worthwhile to travel the 75 km, once a month, to physically deliver these precious letters. On this sunny August afternoon, it is especially worthwhile, because I am taking Pablo, a Chilean Schoenstatter’s son, who, on this very day, was found dead on the mountain where the young man wanted to spend a beautiful day…So many people prayed when he did not return…
His photo on the altar of the Original Shrine is a consolation for his family… I also placed Matías’ photo, a nephew of one of the Rosary Campaign missionaries in Argentina, for more than a week they searched for the small plane, which had disappeared from the radar without leaving any trace, while taking him to a work site… That same day, the people from his city went out into the street, candles in hand, to pray for him and for the pilots; the three missing are all fathers with small children… Their friends and family continue to pray and to hope…
United around the Lord
A Holy Mass at the Kanaan Patris Shrine in House Marienau’s garden closes this grace filled afternoon of solidarity. Pilgrims from the Philippines, Argentina, Italy, Ecuador, Brazil and Germany are united around the Lord…it is a small “sample” of this large international family that day by day, sends its prayers to the Original Shrine, our common home and our source of specific graces. Without the Shrine, we cannot be nor can we act like Father’s Family, nor as an Apostolic Movement at the service of the Church and society.
Original: Spanish, 12 August 2017. Translation: Celina M. Garza, San Antonio, TX USA. Edited: Melissa Peña-Janknegt, Elgin, TX USA
