org. On January 7th, the Original Shrine was still sparkling with Christmas ornaments when Fathers Heinrich Walter and José María García entered to celebrate the first “Toward 2014” Holy Mass for 2012. This Mass was being celebrated in Covenant with Poland, a country with a long Christian tradition and with many painful experiences; a country with a center filled with life: the Shrine of the “Black Virgin” in Cestahowa as Father Heinrich Walter highlighted in his introduction.
The Schoenstatt Fathers’ novices- two who are from Poland- contributed their hymns and music with guitars and trumpet, and the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary from Poland took charge of the readings and prayers of the faithful. It is always a moment of special attachment when the “Toward 2014” Masses have an echo in the country or in the national community with whom “In Covenant” is celebrated and who live in Schoenstatt. It broadens the horizon of the local community toward the degree of Schoenstatt’s involvement in more than 120 countries around the world; toward the diversity of histories, cultures and forms of Covenant life, and the sensation of unity in what is the source of all this life, “the essence of belonging to our Family,” the Covenant of Love. Poland’s six shrines, (one which was blessed by Pope John Paul II through the initiative of a bishop who – as a young priest – was a prisoner in the Dachau Concentration Camp; there he met Father Kentenich and Schoenstatt and sealed his Covenant of Love) along with the life around them, form part of the life of what on the way toward Jubilee 2014 more and more is called and wants to be “our International Family.”
The presence of the Covenant of Love
“The Holy Masses, ‘Toward 2014,’ in the Original Shrine take us, from Saturday to Saturday, from one country to another where there is the presence of the Covenant of Love. In these Masses, all countries where the Covenant of Love is lived are named, be they countries with decades of Schoenstatt history and thousands of members, or countries, where there is only one ‘Pilgrim Virgin’ or two or three persons afire for the flame of the Covenant of Love. New names are made present with the audacity and simplicity of one who believes in the universal service of the Blessed Mother from the Shrines… The names surprise us, but they also make us feel the responsibility of the love of Mary for them,” Father José María wrote in the first official 2014 bulletin published on December 23rd.
The presence of the faith of the Family
The jar placed on the communion rail and some 10 or 15 sheets of paper for the same purpose, form another moment of the “magic” of these simple Masses on Saturday at dawn. Week after week, hundreds of persons send – via schoenstatt.org – their petitions “to the Original Shrine,” trusting in the working of the Mother of the Lord and our Mother from this her place of grace, and in the prayers of the brothers and sisters in the Covenant. Beginning to arrive are not only petitions, but testimonies of love for the Blessed Mother, prayers of commitment to Her, or simply names of relatives, friends, neighbors… Photos arrive: One of a sick child, others of dear ones who have died, another of a happy couple because they are expecting twins after having sent their desire to have a child. (Could it be that their petition was sent twice?) A Schoenstatt Sister from Argentina writes: “I ask for prayers for the health of Toufic Labaki (lung cancer), a coordinator for the Pilgrim Virgin in Lebanon.
He has placed the image of the Blessed Mother on his cell phone in order to look at Her while he receives chemotherapy… Thank you. I pray for all intentions which arrive at the Original Shrine…” Nothing without You, Nothing without us.
The presence of the world
Also rendered at this Mass are the international intentions of the Schoenstatt Family: For the Schoenstatt Family in Poland on their way to the 2014 Jubilee, for their projects and initiatives, and for all the Polish people; for the International Schoenstatt Family on its pilgrimage for the renewal of the Covenant of Love; for all the members of our Schoenstatt Family who died this week; for those who are sick and dying; for the new Director General of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary, Father Doctor Bernd Biberger, from the Institute of Schoenstatt Diocesan Priests; for the new cardinals named by the Holy Father, especially the Most Reverend Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, who a few years ago as Bishop of Milwaukee met Schoenstatt; for the persons in Chile and Argentina who have been victims or are threatened by the giant forest fires; for the persons who suffer because of wars and crises in Arab countries, Iraq, Afganistan, Nigeria and wherever violence rules…
This morning, the pilgrimage prayer which is prayed in each one of the “Toward 2014” Masses, was prayed alternately in German and Polish… and everyone understood.
Christmas carols in Polish and German
After Mass, some 15 persons accepted the invitation to have breakfast and an exchange. It was fruitful: Christmas carols were sung in German and Polish… together.
On January 14th, the “Toward 2014” Mass in Covenant with Portugal was celebrated.
Translation: Carlos Cantú, La Feria, Texas, USA
Video – Blessing of the Shrine in Koszalin
Video: Holy Mass in the Original Shrine on January 7th (Schoenstatt-TV)
