mkf. Gabon? Is it a country? Where is it located? Sister María’s face reflected surprise when she coincidentally attended the Mass in Covenant with Gabon on January 22nd. On the pilgrimage road toward 2014, it is the worldwide Schoenstatt Family’s turn to visit Gabon, a country located in central Africa, close to the Gulf of Guinea that borders Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and the Congo Republic. For more than a year, countries, where the Covenant of Love is found to exist, are celebrated and remembered in the Original Shrine. The Covenant of Love is often found existing in some country, like Gabon. Therefore for an entire week from Saturday to Saturday and often for the first time, that country is honored before the gaze of the Schoenstatt family. The poster is in the Original Shrine and it is updated every week before the Mass as an expression of the Covenant culture.
Not even the Sisters of Mary, who are in Santa María, Brazil, and who have a list of all the countries where the Schoenstatt Rosary Campaign is present, know exactly how the Pilgrim MTA arrived in Gabon.
But she is there! And with her are the graces of the Shrine, the Covenant of Love, and October 18, 1914 and all of Schoenstatt.
With this Gabon forms part of the current that emanates from Original Shrine and returns to it, symbolized by the worldwide pilgrimage of all the people and nations toward October 18, 2014.
On the feast day of Saint Vicent Pallotti
During the Mass, Father Peter Locher recalled Vicent Pallotti and his vision of a worldwide apostolic mission and the small beginnings, but ones that were full of hope, and that are lived in conjunction with Movements and Missionary initiatives.
At the Offertory, everyone prayed for the missions that will be carried out this week in Brazil as well as in Argentina, for the Schoenstatt Family from Kenya, who is experiencing the visit of the Father Symbol, and for all the other petitions that were sent to the Original Shrine during the last week. Immediately afterwards, everyone prayed the Pilgrimage Prayer Toward 2014 together, alternating between German and Spanish (which caused special joy to the young participants of “Time at Schoenstatt”), an initiative promoted by the Schoenstatt Sisters.
The Masses continue
Last Saturday, the Mass was offered for Ghana: another African country. There is a Schoenstatt Father there – Raphael Benuyena – and several small “seeds”. The first Saturday of February the Mass will be offered in Covenant with Guatemala where Couples’ Groups, a Schoenstatt School, and the Schoenstatt Rosary Campaign exist. Then the Masses will be offered as follows: February 12th: Guinea-Bissao/Conakry, February 19th: Haiti, and on February 24th: for Honduras. In March the Masses will continue for Hong Kong, Hungary, India and Indonesia.
The Mass on February 5th for Guatemala will be transmitted live. Then everyone is invited to breakfast at House Marienau.
Translation: Celina Garza, Melissa Janknegt, USA
