PARAGUAY, Sandra Lezcano. The Schoenstatt Family from Parguay is pre-living the moment of the official beginning of the Ibero-American novitiate of the Schoenstatt Fathers. The presentation of the Sion tunic is the ceremony in which the novices receive the specific tunic of the community. This ceremony will be held on Saturday, July 17, 2010, at 3:30 p.m. at the National Shrine of Tuparenda, Ypacarai, Paraguay, and it will be presided by Father José Maria Garcia ( former teacher of the novices in Paraguay and the current Vice Superior General of the Schoenstatt Fathers).
This Ibero-American novitiate has 28 novices: six Argentineans, four Brazilians, nine Chilenas, two Parguayans, three Mexicans, one Ecuadorian, and three North Americans. The novice master is Father Francisco Pistilli, a Paraguayan.
Organizing all the details
Approximately 400 people are expected to attend including relatives, friends, and the Schoenstatt Family from Paraguay; on that afternoon about 25 priests will con-celebrate the Eucharist…It will be quite a celebration! There is also a large team that is charge of organizing the event. The Vocational Circle and other collaborators are working on all the details that such an important event requires.
The choir for this ceremony has been preparing for months. They are practicing new songs with joy and enthusiasm to provide a musical touch to this great day for the novices and also for the Schoenstatt community that accompanies them in this step of their lives. Vivian Jiménez and Gabriela Santiviago gave us the information about the program and they commented that it is very cold in Paraguay, which is unusual in the warm Guarani land. This surprised more than one priest who returned after a long time expecting the warmth of the sun, which is characteristic of this country, and they encountered very low temperaturas, just like all of the region. Furthermore, rain is forecast for that day, so the Schoenstatt Family from Paraguay would appreciate your prayers so the Blessed Mother will give the novices a beautiful sunny afternoon.
The families and friends of the novices began to arrive in Paraguay since July 11th, and to take advantage of this large event, the youth are organizing an encounter On Sunday, July 18th, the novices will participate in their first Eucharist vested with the Sion tunic.
Katia Monreal relates her experience of an encounter with the novices some weeks ago:
Twenty-eight young priestly vocations
“During a year in which the Church is being harshly criticized, the Blessed Mother has given us a beautiful afternoon – one that only She could prepare – and She showed us that She continues to paint the other face of this coin with color and new hope. The encounter with the novices was set for 4:00 p.m., and since we arrived a little late to the meeting, I thought: ‘How beautiful it would be to share a talk with the young men who have discovered their priestly vocation and who have begun their road in the novitiate of the Schoenstatt Fathers’…but the Blessed Mother gave us much more than this on that afternoon.
We began to feel it little by little, a family atmosphere was being created when one after another they began to arrive, I was overcome with much emotion, and I said to myself: “they are so young, some are only 19 years old and the older ones are 25 years old! They left their family, friends, teachers, and work to answer the call of the Blessed Mother. There are twenty-eight young vocations determined to give their lives, so that with the wise hands of a Mother you will lead them on this new road.
The house where the encounter was held was filled in minutes with great bustle. It seemed like a large family reunion – there were 80 people – we were all talking, we laughed, we encountered each other, some entered the house, others went out to the patio, with all of this going on we did not feel the cold or the night that was approaching. What could not be missed was the joy on their faces that each one of them transmitted, it was one of those moments when we say: Thank you for bringing me to this place to have the opportunity to experience your presence, which is always so close in the small things of life.
We were able to share the experiences of the novices, to learn about the different countries from which they came, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, United States, Ecuador and Paraguay; they told us about their families, the process through which they discovered their vocation and their first steps on this new road.
We heartily wanted them to feel that in Paraguay they have a family that accompanies them and is concerned about them that now they are a part of our family, that even if we cannot be in constant contact, we are praying every day so that they will remain loyal to their vocation.”
Translation: Celina Garza, San Antonio, USA
