PORTUGAL, Lena Castro Valente •
Since last August there is a shrine (once a shrine, always a shrine) with a glass door and windows in Brazil. Since the old stained glass windows were removed, we can say that the current ones are simply made of glass. —
To know what is happening in the life of the Schoenstatt Movement throughout the world is a necessity and a grace. To be able to feel the beating of the heart of the life that springs from the more than 200 shrines that extend over several continents unites us in the mission and in the fraternity of values that define our charism.
That is why I have always accompanied with emotion and interest the different events of this painful phase of “Dachau” through which the Shrine of Santa Cruz do Sul has passed, and continues to pass, and I am grateful to the editorial team of schoenstatt.org for the constant information that allows us to be aware of what is happening.
The Blessed Mother’s loyalty
Life continues to spring forth in abundance in this shrine, or as the founders called the original shrine – our little chapel – and the children of Santa Cruz do Sul have responded ADSUM, without weakening, since 2020 when the cross was raised over them and over the future of the Blessed Mother’s house.
In this we can clearly appreciate the faithfulness of our Mother and Queen. She is the ALWAYS faithful one who does not abandon her dwelling place, where for more than 40 years she accepted to establish herself, promised that it would be so and continues to fulfill her promise “forever and ever”. “God wills, man dreams, the work is born”, in the words of the great Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa and there is no “human hand” that can undo what God, in his will, wants to do.
The voice of God?
In all this experience of “Dachau” will there be here a very strong voice of God? Will not this shrine with windows and glass door be the paradigm of the Church to which we aspire today? A Church with total transparency, in which the Spirit of God is not imprisoned behind dark doors, but radiates freely and those who are outside can benefit from it, even without entering.
A shrine completely inserted in the real world, in the midst of the people of God, without visual barriers that impede its communion with daily life. A shrine reaching out.
Long live the shrine of Santa Cruz do Sul, paladin of the Church of the new shores.
Original: Spanish 2022-09-20. Translated by: María Aragón, Monterrey, México
