org. A date no one wanted to miss: At exactly one thousand days to October 18, 2014, the doors of the Original Shrine were opened for the Iberian-American Tertiary of the Schoenstatt Fathers and for a dozen Schoenstatters for the celebration of the Holy Mass “toward 2014”, in covenant with Puerto Rico. Just like the previous Saturday, Father Raúl Espina was the celebrant for this early morning Mass on January 21st, and the seminarians provided the songs and the petitions for the offertory.
Since the majority of those in attendance spoke Spanish or Portuguese, the Mass began in Spanish (then he repeated in German) after a brief introduction by Father Raúl, he explained the special date, Schoenstatt in Puerto Rico, and what marked the entire Schoenstatt Family during these days: the death of Father Jonathan Niehaus. Looking at the condolence book or the comments on schoenstatt.org, one can feel how Father Jonathan’s life, his being, and his final offering of self awakened and awakens the best in so many people especially in the family in general…There are “steps of pilgrimage’ toward 2014 that are necessary and logical. There are also steps that are truly important and create this atmosphere of pilgrimage that transform it into a testimony of faith, as it stated in the official Jubilee bulletin.
Sign of faith
Father Raúl also mentioned the family missions that would begin the following day, and all the petitions that were sent to the Original Shrine this week: from Portugal, Mexico, USA, Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, and Germany. Each petition is a sign of faith and a contribution to the pilgrimage atmosphere.
After the Mass, Hedwig Weinzierl, of the Women’s Federation, who was on mission in Croatia for many years, asked the team of schoenstatt-tv for the address “to send petitions, so she could send it to the Schoenstatters in Croatia, because they should also send their petitions to the Original Shrine.”
For her and everyone else: the direct line to the Original Shrine for everyone is: https://www.schoenstatt.org/en/let-s-pray-together.htm
Video (schoenstatt-tv)
Celina M. Garza: Spanish/English translation – Melissa Peña-Janknegt: English edit
