BRAZIL, Sr. M. Lubia Bonfante. A milestone in the preparation for the great Jubilee of the Covenant of Love in 2014 is the pilgrimage – throughout all the countries where the Schoenstatt Movement exists – of the Father Eye Symbol which will be placed in the Original Shrine. Shortly after the conclusion of “Conference 2014,” on February 18, 2009, the symbol began its pilgrimage throughout the communities in Schoenstatt. It has now visited several countries and will be in Brazil in the second semester of 2011, visiting our 22 Shrines. It is hoped that it will remain in each Shrine for one week.
As Schoenstatt Family, we want to participate in this great moment of grace, preparing our heart to receive it and enriching it through our contributions to the Treasury of Grace.
Itinerary of the Father Eye Symbol
July
05-06 Arrival at Porto Alegre/RS
07-13 Santa Cruz do Sul/RS
14-20 Porto Alegre
21-27 Santo Angelo
August
28-03 Frederico Westphalen
04-08 Itaára
09-17 Santa Maria
18-24 Santa Catarina (Criciuma, Florianópolis, Jaraguá do Sul, Joinvile)
25-31 Curitiba/PR
September
01-07 Guarapuava
08-14 Cornélio Procópio
15-21 Jacarezinho
22-27 Londrina
29-05/10 Vila Mariana/SP
October
06-12 Jaraguá
13-19 Araraquara
20-02/11 Atibaia
November
03-09 Poços de Caldas/MG
10-16 Belo Horizonte/MG
17-23 Rio e Janeiro
24-29 Brasília
08-14 Fortaleza/CE
15-20 Recife/PE
21-27 Garanhuns/PE
28-12 it returns to Santa María/RS from where it will be taken by the Argentina Family. Each Schoenstatt Family will go for the Symbol to the place where it was before.
Symbol of the Eye of God
In Christianity’s first centuries, Christian art was not concerned with representing God. Paintings, icons or sculptures were in relationship to Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary and the Saints….. Beginning with the Middle Ages, the first representations appear figuring God the Creator…..enveloped in clouds, in great majesty and power, with the right hand extended and the ring-finger pointing to the universe. It is the right hand of God that works wonders according to the expression: Digitus Dei est hic [Vulgate, Exodus 8.19]. God’s finger is here. On many opportunities, God was simply represented by the hand extending from a cloud. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Contemporary Age, Christian art began to represent the eye as a symbol of God, in churches and chapels, especially on door-ways , above pulpits, on the altars and on ceiling paintings. The eye of God was represented amid rays of light, also on a cloud, and in general associated to a triangle…..symbol of the Blessed Trinity. It was the Church’s effort to attract anew to the heart and life of man the reality of the presence of God in an epoch marked by the absence of God.
The Eye of God was generally represented within a triangle. The equal angles of the triangle serve to explain the mystery of the One Triune God. Only one God and three distinct persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There are not three gods, but only one god. “The Trinity is one. We do not confess three gods but only one God in three persons: ‘the consubstantial Trinity,’ says the Catechism of the Catholic Church.”
The eye is in the center of the triangle, representing the omnipresence of God to whom nothing can be hidden, as we read in the Scriptures.
2. “The eyes of the Lord are infinitely more radiant than the sun, they see man’s ways and they penetrate the most hidden corners. Before being created, all things were known to Him” (Eccl 23, 20).
3. “You saw me before I was born. The days allotted to me had all been recorded in your book, before any of them ever began” (Psalms 139, 16).
Since when do we have the Father Eye Symbol in the Schoenstatt Shrines?
Its history began in South America – when in 1947 – our Father and Founder visited the Provinces of the Sisters. Each Province chose their ideal and created their banner. The Province of Uruguay/Argentina – who wanted to be Nazareth Family, Province of the Father – decided to embroider the eye of God the Father on their banner. On Christmas Eve 1948, with Father, they placed a symbol of the Eye of God the Father in the Shrine. This first symbol, made of wood, was painted by the artist, Irma Ulmer. Our Founder was very happy and gave great importance to this event because it was an expression of the birth of a Father current in the Family. That is, God as Father, but also a current in regard to the Founder as Father of this Family.
In 1950, the Province of the Sisters called Providentia in Metternich, Germany – of which Sr. Emilie was Provincial Superior – also enthroned the Symbol of God the Father on Christmas Eve, with the help of Father Kentenich. As the Providentia Province, they chose the Eye of God to express that they should live under the loving gaze of the Provident Father God.
At that time, the Family was initiating a Father current, and with it, the desire to express it in an image, a visible symbol.
in 1952 Santa Maria/RS,
in 1952 Florencio Varela, Argentina,
in 1966 Liebfrauenhöhe, Cologne and Mount Schoenstatt,
in 1967 Dietershausen.
Where is the originality of the Father Symbol in Schoenstatt?
While Christian art and literature speak of the eye of God, we stress that this is an eye of the Father. This terminology expresses something decisive: there is the mission of our Father and Founder, and we all participate in that mission of announcing the image of God as the image of the Father. The eye of God is not the eye of a severe judge, but the eye of a Father. On one opportunity, our Father said in Brazil that this eye is not that of a “policeman” who wants to catch us committing a crime. It is the loving eye of the Father who contemplates his beloved child. And he taught us that we should live with this small truth: “The Father sees me, the Father loves me, the Father needs me.”
The Father sees me: “I think you have to say it many times. He sees me, He knows me. He does not look at me with the eyes of a prosecutor or a policeman, but with the eyes of a friend, a Father. Therefore, I am never alone…..He sees me. And even more so: “He does not look at me from a distance. He sees me because he is near me, He is with me. Let us remember: the omnipresence of God means: God is everywhere, not only because He is who He is or because of his power. God is closer to me than the air which I breathe or the water in which I am swimming. Wherever I am or in whatever I want to do, God my Father sees me. If it is true that He sees me, it is also true that I see Him. Both dwellings must constantly meet. It is not the gaze of the eyes, but also of the heart.” (J. Kentenich, Santa María, April 1948)
The Father loves me: God is love, his essence is love….. All true love proceeds from the Father, the Father loves us always…..not because we are good, perfect, beautiful, but because He is Father, because he etched in us the characteristics of his Son, Jesus. He finds his most beloved Son in each one of us.
The Father needs me: Yes, although God is all powerful, He does not want to act in the world without our collaboration. He made us free and He will not save us if we do not want to be saved. He needs us in order to encounter others, to tell them that He loves them. God needs our willingness, our apostolic endeavor, our sacrifice “to complete in us what is lacking to the passion of Christ.”
This small phrase “the Father sees me, loves me, needs me” is applicable to the good God, but also to the Mother of God and to our Father and Founder. It is about a symbolic language which is characteristic of organic thinking which unites harmoniously the natural and the supernatural, idea to life, the first cause (God) and the secondary cause (man and the entire creation).
As Schoenstatt children: we have a Father, a Mother and a mission. And the Founder needs us for this mission. Each one should say, “I am Schoenstatt.” Nothing in Schoenstatt should occur without my collaboration. Yes, the Mother of God and our Father and Founder need each one of us. This is the great significance of the Treasury of Grace. All we do we place in the hands of the Mother of God so that She may draw hearts, transform them and take them to Jesus.
On one occasion, speaking of the Mother of God, Father Kentenich explained: “She sees us as in a mirror. She is not omnipresent like God, but in God She sees us, accompanies us and knows all about us.” The same thought can be applied to our Founder. In God, he sees us, accompanies us, knows and wants to know everything about us.
The Church teaches that those who die continue their mission from Eternity. Our Father and Founder – who received from God the charism and the mission of his paternity – continues accompanying his children from Heaven.
When we receive the symbol of God the Father, we believe that in Him our Father and Founder visits us, comes seeking our contributions to the Treasury of Grace and our work for Schoenstatt in preparation for the great jubilee of the Covenant of Love.
We do not separate the good God from mankind nor mankind from the good God. We see it as one. In order that it be easier for us to believe in the love of God the Father, God sent us one of his transparencies: our Father and Founder. In God, he sees us. We can also see him represented in the symbol of the Father, encounter him in it and present our heart to him. We can say that through the eyes of our Father and Founder, the paternal eyes of God contemplate us.
Throughout his life, Father wanted to give to many persons the infinitely great paternal love of God. Now, from Heaven, independent from space and time, he can now fulfill this task.
In all Shrines, the eye of the Father reminds us that our Father awaits us there, he wants to shelter us deeply in his heart, and – with the Mother of God – transform us into the children of the Father, free and happy.
