PARAGUAY, Fr. Antonio Cosp/mcb. A month from the opening of the Year of the Shrine current worldwide, the Schoenstatt Family was celebrating the 18th united from Shrine to Shrine, heart to heart. In this month, the Schoenstatt Family from the Shrine of Tuparenda, the National Shrine of Paraguay, extend their Covenant greetings, allowing all to share the experience of the celebration in their Shrine with all of them through photos, video and testimonies.
The emotion and joy with this chance still resounds in Maria Luz Fleitas’ testimony “Peru passed the torch to Paraguay! The Paraguayan Schoenstatt Family carried out the Covenant greeting with the celebration of the Holy Mass, presided by Father Antonio Cosp Fonclara in Saint Mary of the Trinity Church, Tuparenda, City of Ypacaraí, where more than 1,000 people arrived; it is located 32 kilometers from Asunción! This celebration was done with feeling and above all with the spirit of forging the covenant culture on the pilgrimage toward the Schoenstatt centenary. The missionaries of the Schoenstatt Rosary Campaign arrived with their Pilgrim MTAs and went up to Saint Mary of the Trinity Church with the Auxiliary MTA. It was a day of celebration, the day when our month-long celebration of October 18th begins. The Apostolic Federation of Families was in charge of the 3rd Sunday Mass; they provided the Saint Mary Choir’s beautiful songs. Ever since the Family found out that Paraguay would extend the Covenant greeting to all of Schoenstatt, there was a great commotion on this road…”
Large international get-together in Tuparenda
The “dwelling of God” welcomed 3,000 pilgrims this September 18th; half of them were youth on their annual diocesan pilgrimage with their bishop and their priests to celebrate the month of the youth. Moreover, approximately thirty couples told the Blessed Mother that Her love has captivated them in such a way that they were offering her a Blank Check of their lives and thirty-five engaged couples held an educational workshop about love.
Perhaps the most important thing was the thousands of hearts from every corner of the world that placed their gaze and their hearts beating in unison with the Paraguayans on this active wait to 2014. After concentrating our spiritual presence in the Original Shrine, we are now rotating from country to country. Each 18th is a acquiring a decisive importance. Perhaps it will be one of the most lasting fruits of our pilgrimage to the 100th Anniversary.
During the main Mass at nine, Father Antonio Cosp, the rector of the Shrine, explained the parable of the wise and just owner who paid everyone equally for unequal work…He explained how something similar happened with the Shrine’s gift of the first grace: the Blessed Mother invites everyone to find a home in Her heart, so that from there by her hand, we can grow by having the same gaze that God the Father has on all the events of life, and that we may set many ablaze to live with generosity and unconditional surrender.
One month from the opening of the Year of the Shrine current
Father José María García, Head of the preparation for Jubilee 2014, along with Team 2014, and director of the international website, regards the international Covenant Greetings a great gift “one month from the opening of the Year of the Shrine current on our pilgrimage toward the Covenant of Love Jubilee, which we will celebrate on October 18, 2014. Every 18th, when heaven touches earth, we go on pilgrimage to our Shrines, wayside shrines, Home shrines and heart shrines to renew our Covenant of Love. The shrine of Father’s heart is the origin of all our shrines and the cycle closes when everyone will consecrate their heart in the COVENANT OF LOVE as a living shrine where She and the most Blessed Trinity work. In this network of shrines, we once again tell the Blessed Mother, Father Kentenich, and the entire family: Your covenant our mission. We build Schoenstatt together: NOTHING WITHOUT YOU, NOTHING WITHOUT US.
It seems to me that it is a gift of the MTA at this moment of preparation toward the large Jubilee 2014, that month to month, the “Covenant Greeting” opens the doors of one of our Shrines somewhere in the world, allowing us to participate in the special graces of that Shrine and in the lives and commitment of the local family thereby uniting us in the covenant like a large, pilgrim family, praying
on every step of our pilgrimage:
Inflame in us anew the fire of our
Love for you, the Family, and for Father Kentenich.
Give us the strength to forge a Covenant culture in our world,
educate us to be your missionaries for this century”
Video of the Holy Mass celebrated in Schoenstatt, Mount Sion Shrine, in the morning of September 18 – with sermon in three languages (english, german, spanish)
Celina M. Garza: Spanish/English translation Melissa Peña-Janknegt: English edit
