CHILE, Grupo Abba [Abba Group] •
Fifty men gathered in Campanario Shrine to crown Mary as their Mother and Educator with the mission that she “send us” joyfully to fulfill our obligations in loyalty to God the Father according to His will.
All the places and cities where the Men’s Branch exists in Chile were represented at the crowning conference: Quillota, Viña: Los Pinos, Agua Santa, Santiago: Campanario, Bellavista, Providencia, Nuevo Belén, Rancagua, Los Angeles that was represented by Carlos and Luis Benítez…
Queen of our Branch and Queen of our Pentecost
At our first Crowning in 1973 when a handful of laymen took their first steps in gathering to form the Branch, we crowned Mary as Queen of our Branch and Queen of our Pentecost, a tradition that has been the guiding principle of our work for forty-two years.
Just as we did then, we turned to our Blessed Mother to implore her and to crown her in our weakness and personal miseries as sons who desire to be fathers to others, fathers in our homes, fathers in our work, fathers in the day to day contingency, giving a true witness to the graces that we received from our Good God the Father in the shadow of the shrine of the Mother Thrice Admirable of Schoenstatt.
We want to go to the periphery of our own square meter
Since Mary is Queen of all creation and has been through all these years. On this occasion, we wanted to also crown her with our flaws, because we want to go to the periphery of our own square meter, aware that we are few and weak, but with the strength and security our Covenant of Love offers us, and we aware that we are favorite Sons of the Father. With simple faith having been tested many times, we come to the Shrine with a Crown forged of steel and designed in a semicircle with three openings that shape its four points. Using steel, Juan Eduardo Fernández, who crafted it, wanted to symbolize the man of today’s vigor, so that in the shrine, we will be forged by the hammer in the forge of life, leaving our Crown unfinished, that is, without completing the circle, so that we can perfect it with our actions according to God’s will. The three openings represent the three points of the Unity Cross, symbolizing our communion with the Schoenstatt Family, forming a harmonious whole according to the mission that Father Kentenich entrusted to us on the 31st of May.
With the nobility, commitment and loyalty, which are distinctive characteristics of a knight, we crowned our Blessed Mother as Mary, Mother and Educator…Send us forth!
