Marianne Maier. Marianne Maier and her friend, Katy Abele, traveled through South America for several weeks during the month of March, and on this excursion they were in Villa La Angostura in Argentinean Patagonia, where Clara Bianco Herbón and her husband have an inn: “Puerta del Sol.” This week an interview with Clara was published on schoenstatt.org concerning the situation in Villa La Angostura, presently covered with 40 centimeters of volcanic ash, this article inspired this letter from Marianne addressed to Clara. Life enkindles life, and the internationality of Schoenstatt means: that what happens in La Angostura also touches me.
Mere chance?
Dear Clara: just yesterday I had the CD with the photos of our trip through Argentina and Chile in my hands. Spontaneously, I decided to look at all the photos of the trip, and there were more than five hundred photos. I finally had time to see them and to enjoy them. The photos and the memories of our visit in your home always touch me anew; it truly was a place of sun, or better said, a doorway of sunshine.
In contrast, today I saw the photos with all the ash on schoenstatt.org. And I suffered…
Truly! A Place of Sunshine!
In March of this year, two Schoenstatt girls were in your house in Villa La Angostura for two days on our road from picturesque southern Argentina to Santiago, Chile, to Bellavista. We were charged with so many new impressions and the wonders of nature that we were almost tired from too much vacation, and at the same time filled with curiosity about Schoenstatt in South Amercia. We impulsively stopped at Villa La Angostura (we must admit that it surely seemed like a hold-up). It was very, very beautiful! For us it was like a great gift from heaven at the most opportune time, especially the open doors, your trust, and a gigantic Schoenstatt heart. After four weeks of vacation in anonymous inns, we found Puerta del Sol a place full of love, rest, recuperation, a place to receive new strength and to find oneself: this is what we took from your home! It was the best time of our tour as backpackers when we experienced the viva international Schoenstatt!
You welcomed us joyfully on the first rainy day of our trip. We enjoyed: the swimming pool, we experienced a beautiful day in your home, we rested, we were filled with a beautiful landscape, your narratives about the young Schoenstatt history in Villa La Angostura, your complete giving of self to the Blessed Mother and Schoenstatt, praying in common in preparation for 2014 and for you friend, who was very ill was truly a Schoenstatt encounter, just like we wanted! We were profoundly touched; it was something sudden. The place strengthened us, and it prepared us to experience a very close attachment. It was also an enormous ray of light for us, through the Door of the Sun and the Door of Heaven in your person.
No ash could cover it!
Dear Clara, with this letter around the terraqueous globe and through the network – we want to send you a small ray of hope and of affection and a few little things more: we, Katy and Marianne, give you the “ash of our daily life” presented to the MTA for you with an interior reaction: Forward! As a small sign of our gratitude, affection, and the credibility we experienced at “Puerta del Sol” forever!!!
Celina M. Garza: Spanish/English translation – Melissa Peña-Janknegt: English edit
