ROME, Don Stefano Mueller. In these days not only the Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church are travelling to Rome from every corner of the world. Many hundred thousand people are expected to attend Benedict XVI’s last General Audience in St Peter’s Square. Emails, articles and comments are also arriving in Belmonte from all over the world and on the home page, schoenstatt.org. In them Schoenstatters and people outside the Movement are expressing their gratitude for the service of Pope Benedict XVI, and promising their prayers and intercessions as well as their contributions to the capital of grace for the Church via “our” shrine MATRI ECCLESIAE.
Esteem, respect and memories of personal meetings during his time as Professor, Archbishop of Munich, Cardinal in Rome and in the years of his Pontificate, along with gratitude and sincere prayers, characterise the fundamental tenor of the messages that began arriving immediately after the initiative appeared: A gift for the Church: Let us bring our gratitude to Pope Benedict
“That is my thanks for all the great things he has given us”
“I thank our Holy Father, Pope Benedict, in a very special way for his spoken and written words. Through them I have grown ever more deeply into the world of God. I have received valuable incentives for meditation from them. Friday was always my day of prayer for our Pope and all priests. I will keep this up, and when I pray for the new Pope I will always include Pope Benedict. That is my thanks for all the great things he has given us.”
That was the very first message we received.
“I am completely surrounded by Schoenstatt”
Msgr. Peter Wolf, Rector General of the Schoenstatt Institute of Diocesan Priests, to whom Fr Kentenich entrusted the juridical responsibility for the MATRI ECCLESIAE Shrine and the Centro Internazionale di Schoenstatt a Belmonte, wrote:
“Throughout his time of office I was granted an audience every year. I was able to present to him the greetings of our Rome pilgrims each time, as well as one of my books of texts by our Father and Founder. On one occasion I asked him to bless the pilgrim staff that had accompanied a confrere and young people from Schoenstatt to Rome. He always showed his gratitude and interest. On one occasion he remarked with obvious joy: I am completely surrounded by Schoenstatt! He also knew about Belmonte and asked at times how it was progressing and whether our new Rector was also living there.”
“After all, we want to go on praying …”
Ever since his resignation became known, the Rosary has been prayed every day in Belmonte – in union with our worldwide Movement – and Holy Mass offered up for his intentions and the intentions of the whole Church at this special moment in its history. The Consiglio della Famiglia Romana, the Diocesan Family Council of the growing Schoenstatt Movement in Rome, immediately decided that the prayer initiative here at the international shrine at Belmonte would continue after 28 February. “After all, we want to go on praying: for Pope Benedict, for the Church, for the Conclave, for the future Pope …”
“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word” (Lk 2,29).
On Thursday, 28 February 2013, at 7.30 p.m. there will be a time of prayer in the MATRI ECCLESIAE Shrine for the transition: “Nunc dimittis – Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word.” It would be wonderful if Schoenstatters all over the world were to include themselves in this time of prayer in their daughter shrines, home shrines and heart shrines.
The comments and emails we have received will be placed on the altar of the Belmonte shrine during this time of prayer, and passed on via our Mother Thrice Admirable. You may gladly send in your thoughts, prayers and contributions by email, or as comments on the web page, in the coming days and weeks until the new Pope takes up office, and place them at the service of the Church via the Shrine of the Mother of the Church.
“I am praying that the time of the Conclave may be a time of Pentecost for the Church, and that through the intercession of the Mother of the Church God’s Spirit may prevail and open up a way into the future.”
We join with all our hearts in these words from Msgr. Wolf’s mail, and greet the whole Movement: The Belmonte TEAM (with Brazilian Sisters of Mary, the Czech Familiy and Fr Stefano).
My gift for the Church – an e-mail to Belmonte
Original: German. Translation: Mary Cole, Manchester, England
To mark the special occasion, Holy Mass “on the Way to 2014” on Saturday 2 March in the Original Shrine will be offered “in covenant with the Cardinals in the Conclave and the future Pope”.
