From Our Paraguayan Bicentennial to our Schoenstatt Centennial

PARAGUAY, María Luz Fleitas/Fr. Antonio Cosp. Paraguay’s Bicentennial as a way toward Schoenstatt’s Centennial: the Schoenstatt Family in Paraguay places an original accent on the great pilgrimage of the entire Schoenstatt Family on the way to October 18, 2014. The vision which guides them during the next few years: As missionary family in Father’s hands, to give the culture of the Covenant to re-found our Paraguay. As a motto for the next few years, they have formulated: Covenant Family for a new Paraguay.

“The culture of the Covenant is no longer mentioned,” explains Fr. Antonio Cosp, Director of the Movement, “rather, the Covenant is directly emphasized as something good which must be maintained and increased.” Tuparenda has a vision for the coming years: To be Mary offering a home. Saint Mary of the Trinity Church and our Shrines are the symbol of the mystery of Schoenstatt whose fundamental force was calculated by Father for the next 400 years. In the shadow of the Shrine…..Keep in mind that cultivating the Spirit is the way to keep the Covenant alive in each person.

A nation of God

In his initial contribution to the 2010-2012 planning meeting, he highlights the important lines.

I quote our Bishops: “A new evangelization for a new Paraguay. The Bicentennial should indicate the direction for the newest times. The origins of the country are established on a Catholic culture. Since then, our people look to the future with hope. And the Church has responded with strong leadership, accompanying its people amid catastrophic tragedies: the great war and the last war in Latin America.” (Pastoral Letter, November 2010)

We discovered a very benevolent gaze from the Blessed Mother on our suffering nation. She chooses the Jesuits so they can undertake – here – their major historic project: a nation of God. This project left a great deal in the souls of our indigenous countrymen and a heart on fire, that of Roque González. Then She searches for an exceptional person for the post-war era, Juan Sinforiano Bogarín for whom it was fitting to be Bishop and the first Archbishop for 54 years. I imagine Roque and Juan Sinforiano dialoging with the Blessed Mother so that She might do something for these newest times in history which will indicate the direction for the next 400 years. Father Kentenich’s gaze was an anticipation in 1949. “In these lands, Schoenstatt will have an exuberant development since it has an exuberant nature.” Then came the arrival of Schoenstatt in 1959 through Providential means.

We see the Bicentennial with the same hope which our people always had. To make it a reality, minds fed by our Prophet are lacking, as are hearts afire and sacrificial, like Roque González from Santa Cruz.

Schoenstatt arrives in Paraguay 50 years before the Bicentennial in order to offer the Church and the country the project of a desired Paraguay, placing minds, hearts, and hands on the way to its fulfillment.

The vision and the Jubilee of the Centennial of the Covenant

Three aspects are especially highlighted:

1. Pilgrimage to the Original Shrine to renew the foundation process of those years. The creation of the new man in the new community; the conquest of sanctity; the spirit of surrender and the missionary spirit of the hero sodalists.ary spirit of the hero sodalists.
2. The foundation mystery, the Covenant of Love with the Blessed Mother should penetrate the heart of each Schoenstatter. And this should become missionary in order to conquer many hearts.
3. Create together, as a Covenant Family, a culture of the Covenant which embraces are own family, many other families, our area of work, pedagogy, the Church, our neighborhood, and our social and political commitments.

Covenant culture

And what is Covenant culture? Formerly, we defined culture as the cultivation of life of a people….. the way of expressing its identity in all facets of a people’s hoping and working. It encompasses the customs and traditions, industry and development, faith and symbols, festivity and art, and the way of establishing juridical and affective relationships.

From the Prefounding Document, Father Kentenich wants to open for us the doors to a culture where a profound relationship with Mary is lived…..a world of freedom and authenticity…..of mission and work with oneself. In this way, a new form of living which expresses itself in many ways emerges.

Since our Covenant of Love with Mary is not a convenient act realized in the Shrine, but rather an experience of transforming us into partners, of making us children and gentlemen, of having Her as permanent Mother and Queen in our lives, a relationship with Her is formed…..a relationship which is everlasting and is enriched with each event of our shared lives. Thus the Covenant of Love with Mary is transformed throughout the life of a Schoenstatter into an exemplary relationship….. exemplary and modifying of other relationships. That is the culture of the Covenant….. For some reason we say to Her: Mother, teach us to go through life…..(from the Planning Meeting).

Translation: Carlos Cantú, Schoenstatt Family Federation, La Feria, Texas USA 01122011