PORTUGAL, Fernando Martins/Sr. M. Paula. Portugal is celebrating! The year 2010 is rich with jubilee graces. During the year in which the Golden Jubilee is celebrated in the land of Santa Maria, the Schoenstatt Secular Institute of the Sisters of Mary shared the joy of the consecration Jubilee of some of its members with the diocesan bishop, some priests, the entire Schoenstatt Movement, religious communities, civic representatives, friends, and pilgrims to the Shrine.
“A Jubilee is the celebration of the experience of the Word proclaimed, prayed, lived, and witnessed,” and it is also “a proclamation of the joy and certainty of the blessing of God,” said D. Antonio Francisco dos Santos, Bishop of the Diocese of Aveiro, during the Eucharist of thanksgiving, which was celebrated on Sunday, January 24th at the Schoenstatt Movement’s Shrine. Three Sisters of Mary – Heloísa, Lucía, and Cecilia celebrated their giving of self to God; the first one for fifty years and the other two for twenty-five years each.
Especially addressing the Sisters, he affirmed that it is with one’s eyes on Christ that one can “see farther” and “be builders of the future” in the certainty that a jubilee “illumines our past and opens new horizons for the mission that consists in announcing the God News.”
Each one of us has a history of our vocation
At the end of the Mass, Sister Heloísa explained their vocational road on behalf of the Sisters who were celebrating their jubilees. With a great deal of emotion, sometimes contained and at other times manifested, she mentioned that “each one of us has a history of our vocation, and that it was a great coincidence to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of their giving of self to God during this Year for Priests in which the centennial of Father Kentenich’s ordination is also celebrated.
Sister Heloísa confessed that she had perceived her desire to lead a consecrated life since she was a child, because “I felt an urge to dedicate myself completely to God.” Opposite of some parents who oppose their children’s vocation, Sister said that in the case of her parents ‘they felt very honored for having a daughter consecrated to God.’ In order for a person to be happy, one should carry out their vocation,” she stated. And then she added that if this does not happen, happiness would never be attained.
Giving of self to the Schoenstatt mission in Portugal
Sister Heloísa, who was in the Schoenstatt Shrine in the agricultural colony of Gafanha de Nazareth for twenty-one years, will return to Brazil. She carried out a dedicated and markedly spiritual pastoral action among the people of Portugal, greatly increasing Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and devotion to our Lady. She serenely welcomed pilgrims and everyone who approached the Shrine. The Rosary Campaign also took root in the Diocese of Aveiro thanks to her care.
Sister Lucía from Gafanha de Nazareth directed the musical accompaniment of the celebrations, especially in the Church of Our Lady of the Fields during the Eucharist and other events related to the Schoenstatt Movement. For her part, Sister Cecilia de Vizeu, who also spent some time in the diocesan Shrine of Aveiro, dedicated the majority of her life to social and pastoral service along the Schoenstatt line. She will direct the kindergarten, Garden of Mary, at the Tabor Center of the diocesan Shrine.
After the Eucharist, they had time to share during which expressions of gratitude were extended for the service and self-giving of these Sisters to the Schoenstatt Movement in Portugal.
