CHILE, Amelia Peirone. 100 / 50 / 40 are these averages for some competition? This numerical rarity is not about a contest; it shows Providence’s measurements during 2014. It is one hundred years since the beginning of the covenant of love with the always admirable Queen and Mother of God. It is called the Anniversary of bone because it designates a love that is already forever, in the echo of Genesis: “This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh!” It is also called the Miracle Anniversary. Fifty years since the death of that quiet full chalice, Mario Hiriart. It is the Golden Anniversary, a time of acquiring the brilliance of a great legacy, built by a loyal love. Forty years of unity around Christ Redeemer of the Andes, pilgrims close to Mario, a Latin American brother, this Ruby Anniversary expresses a relationship that has become so solid and constant, that is almost impossible to break, since so many attachments have been created.
“Anniversaries of…”
In various celebrations, we are accustomed to accent expressions such as joy, gratitude, praise. We hardly speak of adoring. It seems somewhat excessive to us. And these dates – that are always betrothals, since each one is called “Anniversary of…” – they are a first and last view, a more potent light to exult before the presence of God, the absolute loyal one, on each one’s road, of the entire Family, of the Church, and of history.
This is how, according to the confident saying of St. Francis of Assisi, “If we knew how to adore, nothing could truly bother us: we would cross the world with the calm of the largest rivers.” Because “…the pure heart is the one that does not cease adoring the living and true Lord. It takes a deep interest in God’s life itself and dares in the midst of all their miseries to vibrate with eternal innocence and eternal joy of God.”
The joy of God
That is what it is about, God’s joy in the 100th Anniversary of the first covenant of love in Schoenstatt, a covenant with Him crossing through Mary’s being. She is the open side, the aqueduct of God’s life, running through the Mother to all her children.
It is God’s joy on the 50th Anniversary of Mario’s death, an overflowing living chalice, “being a transparency of Christ like you, Mother like your shrine, like a chalice, and given because “he gives all of himself, he gives himself totally, the most loved,” exactly like Mary: “You give up the infinite Treasure of graces that you had close to your heart, without keeping the perfect happiness that is the life with God for yourself, you give it totally to us so that we can enjoy it.”
It is also God’s joy in the intrepid convocation of the first pilgrimage to Christ of the Andes, attentively hearing Mario’s dream of that shrine that was erected on the summit, so that all can see what the lamp of unity among the peoples, among brothers/sisters, among people of good will is. There are forty historic living shrines built with true fervor for the same Queen and Mother, and for her, to the Lord God of heaven and earth.
Wayside Shrine of Mary’s Crusade
It is not a minor detail that it was the youths of Mary’s Crusade 2014, who enthroned the Blessed Mother’s wayside shrine, and a long future, close to Christ, crowning the greatest desire without fear, leaving the password marked there: “Little Mother, here you invite us to transform our lives into a shrine, for us to be a living shrine. to be bearers of Christ’s joy to the world like you.”
The one hundred, the fifty, the forty years binds everyone, especially those who are known or who want to be living cells within Schoenstatt. It does no good to remember, if it is not transformed in such a strong impulse that makes love explode outside of the words, making it mature, and in this way, becoming stronger, more of a builder, more coherent, and more open.
English translation: Celina M. Garza, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Video (Photos: Cruzada de María of the Boys` Youth, 2014 and before; Music: Fr. Manuel López Naón)
