LEBANON, Toufic Labaki, aat. A Biblical country, mentioned 72 times in the Old Testament, famous for its precious wood cedars, perfumed and which is not likely to decay – a symbol of the Immaculata – with which Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem. In the southern part of its territory lies Cana where they preserve the ruins of six stone jars: “They have no more wine – Do what He tells you.”
Lebanon is the doorway to the nearby Orient, on the shores of the Mediterranean. It has beautiful mountainous landscapes, snow clad in winter and there are still forests of thousands of cedars. A land with six thousand years of history, populated by Phoenicians, Asyrians, Hitites, Acadians, Babilonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs – among many other groups – including Europeans. A land which has been the scene of foreign wars, has known conquests and diverse dominations, persecution of Christians, of martyrs and saints. And was always reborn “from the ashes” without hating anyone.
A people who love peace, extraordinarily creative, agile with change, cordial and loving family life. A people – with the soul of a navigator, inherited from the Phoenicians – who fostered a numerous emigration in the 19th Century, to the point that at the present, the country has some four million inhabitants and it is calculated that there are ten million Lebanese in the world.
Schoenstatt in Lebanon…..from Argentina
Many immigrants settled in Argentina in the first years of the 20th Century. Their descendants at the present are hundreds, perhaps thousands.
And some of them have been called to Schoenstatt for decades now. And like every Schoenstatter, they desire that the Blessed Mother be known everywhere, that their friends and relatives also receive the graces which She dispenses…..
In 1995, a Schoenstatter from Buenos Aires and a member of the mothers’ branch sent two Pilgrim Images along to her relatives.
A Pilgrim Mother in Baabdat
And in 2004, a Schoenstatt Sister of Mary from Argentina and the daughter of a Lebanese sent another image to her relatives who live in a beautiful tourist area in the mountains of the North. Both “emissaries” requested from their respective families, photos with the Blessed Mother for schoenstatt.org. They sent them gladly and are very grateful that Lebanon would be prayed for in the Original Shrine. Additionally, they sent the motto “Your Covenant Our Mission,” written in Arabic so that it can be placed on the altar on Saturday, June 25th.
Surely the Blessed Mother will be very happy having situated herself in the places where she walked with her Son, where she implored the wine of love and unity which is so terribly needed in today’s world. May She continue traveling through this land so that She may reign with her Son Jesus.
Source and more information www.labaki.com
