The Schedule of a Manager

SWITZERLAND, Melanie and Ulrich Grauert. When we entered the room, we came face to face with the Auxiliary Pilgrim Mother. It was love at first sight! She looked at us for a long time and it was as though we had known her all our lives. We immediately felt the wish to take her along with us to Switzerland. But how were we to manage this? We were given a tip: She goes wherever she is invited. We didn’t need to be told twice. The official invitation was made, and a little later, on 17 February 2013, the time had arrived and the Auxiliary Pilgrim Mother arrived at Ebikon, Switzerland.

The 17 February was a special day, because on that day sixty-six years before Fr Kentenich had arrived in Ebikon to visit the Pallottine Fathers at the St Clemens Gymnasium (Secondary School). There is a pocket calendar belonging to him in the Fr Kentenich Room in Quarten, and in it he had written that he would arrive in Ebikon at 9 a.m. on 17 February 1947. Precision landing!

From then on the Auxiliary moved amazingly quickly. She kept us all in suspense and we could hardly keep up with her.

She organised one appointment after another, ensured that she was constantly in contact with people (young and old), travelled around, appealed to people and simply “worked”.

A few months later when we held a card on which Fr Kentenich had written something, we read, “My nature is fire”. That immediately reminded us of her; the Auxiliary had not come to stand around as a decorative object in a room, but to be among the people.

Pope Francis would say, “Go out onto the streets.” Her schedule, like that of a manager, went like clockwork. There were pauses in between so that everyone could catch up.

The Auxiliary

The Auxiliary: was sent out from Santa Maria, Brazil, in December 1986, after she had been blessed by Pope John Paul II at the first World Youth Day outside Rome, and was in Buenos Aires in 1987. She travelled around in Argentina, South and Central America and the USA until 2001. Then Monina Crivelli, who was responsible for her, handed her over to www.schoenstatt.org the international website. In this way the Pilgrim Mother Campaign and schoenstatt.org united in the mission of carrying Schoenstatt to the ends of the earth. To the peripheries. Ten years in Schoenstatt, two of which were spent in Burundi, Congo, and Ruanda, then at the preparatory Conference 2014, and since 2011 wherever Schoenstatt comes into existence and wherever she wants to go.

The official title of this Auxiliary picture is: “Third International Auxiliary of the Pilgrim Mother Campaign, Queen of the New Evangelisation of America and the whole world.” What a title!

We had been scared stiff before this “VIP visit” of the Auxiliary, because she had been to so many places in Latin America, the USA, Africa, and Europe, and always had a community and large family around her. We could only offer her our home, a place in our home shrine, our little family, our open hearts and hands, and the willingness to simply do whatever she wanted to do.

The exchange student – alias Auxiliary

One Monday evening the Shepherd’s Club met in Rummingen. The trip there was amazing. We met at a Park & Ride place near the Autobahn, and we had actually planned to travel further in a smaller car. There were four of us, and as we got out we all asked the same question: Where is the seat for the Auxiliary? In the boot? Impossible, its unworthy of her. So without more ado we repacked our things and the Auxiliary, in the large people carrier where she had a proper seat and could be belted in. Then we set off.

We hadn’t been driving for long when suddenly there was laughter in the back. When we asked what was up, we got the reply, “You know, when you told us you had invited the ‘Auxiliary’ to attend the Shepherd’s Club, we thought she was an exchange student. Only gradually we began to hear more details, and realised that it couldn’t be the case. Now the penny has suddenly dropped!”

Invitation of the Schoenstatt Girls and Young Women to the MJF festival

“Dear team preparing the MJF festival, at the meeting of the core team we asked whether the Auxiliary Pilgrim Mother, who is visiting Switzerland at the moment, could be invited to attend the festival from 27-28 April. I think it would be a great honour to receive this visit from the Blessed Mother. … If she is to visit us at the festival, we must naturally invite her to come, and we must do so as quickly as possible (today if possible), because there are so many invitations … Many thanks for informing us that the Auxiliary is in Switzerland. We would love to invite the MTA to attend our MJF festival on 27-28 April in Quarten. We have heard that there are so many requests already, and so we had to hurry up. If it can be managed, it would give us great joy. … The Auxiliary is very happy to attend your MJF festival from 27-28 April in Quarten …

That was the correspondence with the Girls and Young Women so that the Auxiliary could take part in the festival.

Conference of Delegates

A few hours before the end of the Conference for Delegates in Quarten it happened that a family wanted to take the Auxiliary with them immediately. “We have to leave towards midday, because on the way home we have to visit the new Federation Course in Horw, which is holding its first convention. Does she really have to be there until the closing Mass?” No, everyone agreed, she didn’t want to wait and set off immediately. She was ahead of us! Next morning, during the workshop to answer the question: What do we, the Swiss Schoenstatt Family, want for the coming year, for 2014, and the new century? Suddenly there was a suggestion, “The Blessed Mother is active, she goes before us like the storm blowing outside, with flying mantle; she wants to work – with us.”

Once again we experienced that wherever the Auxiliary is, she is at the centre and is at work.

Flying change

Once when we were driving with the Auxiliary we had no idea how, when or where we were to pass her on.

We had been driving for two hours when the mobile phone rang, “Where are you? … aha … In about ten minutes take the exit from the Autobahn and head for the parking area on the right. A family is on the way to pick up the Auxiliary …” Once again, a precision landing!

We have just experienced something we would like to pass on to you:

Don’t hesitate to invite the Auxiliary to visit you, give her a place of honour. She will come and set to work.