PORTUGAL, www.schoenstatt.pt. On October 20, 2012, the Schoenstatt Shrine in Aveiro hosted the National Leaders’ Day. About 190 representatives from the various branches and dioceses where the Movement is active were the visible face of the Schoenstatt Family in Portugal.
The warm welcome by the Aveiro Family, together with the logistical organization, was crowned by a wonderfully sunny day that helped to create an atmosphere of joy and enthusiasm among the participants towards the meeting and the activities.
The opening Mass was a huge thanksgiving at the closing of the Year of the Shrine Current and the presentation given was an expression of all its richness. In his homily, Fr. Diogo Mendes Barata made everyone even more aware of the importance of the bond to the Shrine as the source of grace.
Concrete way of uniting faith and life
Covenant Culture was the main theme for the day and the topic of discussion during the morning conference. Fr. José Melo introduced them to this year toward 2014, during which they want to cultivate their missionary spirit, and he helped them to identify the characteristics of their Covenant Culture, which is their concrete way of uniting faith and life, their response to the challenges of the New Evangelization.
During the afternoon, three apostolic projects were presented which express this Covenant Culture: Home Shrine, Pilgrim Mother Campaign, ‘Missão País’ [Country Mission]. These are some of the fruits of the Covenant of Love that they want to take as a gift to the 2014 celebrations, together with many other apostolic projects that are being collected throughout the world.
Today, we, the Church, have the mission to evangelize the world
The activities were then divided according to Branches, examining ways of making the day’s theme relevant to the reality of each Branch and outlining concrete steps to follow this pilgrimage toward 2014.
They ended in the Shrine when they were sent out as the Blessed Mother’s allies, and they reaffirmed the desire that came from the day:
“Today, we, the Church have the mission to evangelize the world, to spread the faith throughout the deserts of our times. Today, we, as Schoenstatt members, have the mission to spread a new culture that comes from our source – the Covenant of Love with the Mother Thrice Admirable.”
Fr. José Melo: Covenant Culture (portuguese)
Source: www.schoenstatt.pt
Original. Portuguese. Translation: Sarah-Leah Pimentel, Johannesburg, South Africa
