GERMANY, fma. “You are far more inclined to come up the mountain when you are greeted and blessed by Fr Kentenich on the way to the shrine.” Those were the words of one of the people who attended the Covenant Celebration in the evening of 18 March at Schoenstatt auf’m Berg in Memholz. She was in the Founder Room – the room that contains a record of everything about Fr Kentenich’s visit here. This is where the statue of Fr Kentenich has been placed until the feast on 20 May. It is an exact copy of Fr Kentenich’s statue in Milwaukee and Rome. It was here that everyone gathered for the Covenant Celebration to congratulate Fr Kentenich on his feast day the following day – a small and colourful group. For many of them it was their first encounter with him in the symbol of the Father Statue. His black shoes, his hand in which something different is always placed as a gift for the next visitor, his eyes that look so clearly at his visitor – they wondered everything and their wonder led to an encounter. A man who had recently lost his wife quietly placed her memorial card in Fr Kentenich’s hand.
Prior to this there had been the Covenant Celebration – in pouring rain – in the shrine; a small group united with everyone who was renewing their covenant of love in some way on that day. The Pilgrimage Prayer 2014 unites the shrine at Schoenstatt auf’m Berg with the worldwide Schoenstatt Family on its pilgrimage to 2014. In his address Fr Erhard enlarged on Fr Kentenich’s greatness as a prophet with his daring, strongly believing and wide open vision, “perhaps even further afield”. He looked beyond his own nose, beyond the horizon and his own interests. The Blessed Mother’s open heart is a challenge to us to open our hearts wide, to be there for others, in order to an instrument that helps them to find her.
He is really there
A week ago Fr Kentenich’s statue arrived here, and those who were present, either directly or via a flood of emails and photos, and saw a TNT van on the highway, will not have thought of its being taken over by UPS, but of Fr Kentenich. He “really is there”, could be heard repeatedly. “Now the Founder Room has become a place where I can meet him – after so many years,” someone else remarked. There is a constant stream of visitors. The two sons of a family that was in Memholz this week remarked in the car: Now we are going there to hug Fr Kentenich!”
The festivities have already begun
It must have been rather like this in Milwaukee when he lived there. He is never alone. Children come again and again. During the weekend when the statue arrived, hardly a minute passed without the door to the Founder Room opening and someone coming in. The entire 27th course of the Family Federation, which was meeting there that weekend, individual families with their children, children just before bedtime, the Sisters, even people taking part in a weekend of Charismatic Renewal who followed the “stream” … Again and again something else was placed in his hand: Roses, daisies, the Pilgrimage Prayer 2014, cards, a pair of scissors. A pair of scissors? Whoever gave it to him, and whatever that person was trying to say to him through this gift, a little girl accepted it as a gift from Fr Kentenich. “It will be a very special pair of scissors,” the child’s mother remarked with a smile. My hand in your hand – so that the impossible becomes a reality. The motto of the festivities took on a definite form. Many placed in his hand what they wanted to happen, even if it seemed impossible. And many placed their own hand in his hand so spontaneously that we asked ourselves how anyone could have thought it would be necessary to explain something about symbolic thinking, the need for sense perception, and the directness of an encounter.
“… the reception has to be a little bit festive”
Nothing else was possible! On 11 March the core team preparing the celebrations on 20 May gathered around him … and placed all their preparations in his hand so that the impossible could become possible. We recalled what he had written from the prison in Koblenz about his return to Schoenstatt, even though he did not know when that would happen – he had first to go to the concentration camp for almost 4 years: “When I come back, the reception has to be a little bit festive.” These words applied to the festival at Memholz on 20 May.
“Milwaukee, Rome, Schoenstatt, Rio de Janeiro, Memholz!” That fascinated Stefan Loriz, a member of the core team, and he already envisaged a typeface like that on the advertisement for the Global Player. “Much more”, the others in the group responded. “There are statues of Fr Kentenich also in Buenos Aires, La Paz, Nueva Helvecia, Cordoba, Cape Town …” Where else? ” Let us send a fest day greeting or an invitation to all the places that have a Father Statue.” – “Will we get a greeting from there for the installation of the Father Statue?”
The feast day is on 20 May and it has already started…
Translation: Mary Cole, Manchester, England
