Fr. Andrew Pastore. It is hard to imagine that the atmosphere of the Conference 2014 could be repeated, but to a certain extent it was. On the 24th – 26th of February the responsible leaders for the covenant tents met in Marienland to discuss the concrete steps needed to transform the idea of portraying, celebrating and confirming the apostolic life of our movement in and for the church and world. The areas – or major fruits of the covenant identified in the Conference 2014, the historic meeting of members of the movement from 32 countries – youth, marriage and family life, pedagogy, church and new social order – were taken into view as we looked at how these “tents” might look and feel.
The meeting was animated by Fr. Werner Kuller, Sr. Luciane Machens represented, with others from team 2014, what had already gone before.
The absence of Fr. Jose Maria Garcia, who had to step down from his leadership role in team 2014 was strongly felt. The whole gathering prayed for him and sent him a sign of everyone’s gratitude for all he had achieved to date.
It became clear what still needed to be done, what was already decided and the elements that would need to be clarified in time. A further meeting with a more international mix was agreed upon.
2014 – the celebration of Covenant life and Covenant culture
For me one of the major elements of experience was the fact that 2014 is not just a gathering of commemoration of what happened 100 years ago, but the preparation, celebration and life of our movement has to revolve around us “living” that covenant culture our founder envisaged. For our life, our contribution to church and world.
We did have people from Austria in the meeting as well as couple from Switzerland, someone from Poland, England, Chile, Germany and well… Bavaria… couples, fathers, sisters, federation members – an incredible mix. The international perspective came to the fore when we shared the projects we know of from through out the world – what a colorful and blessed picture was presented.
The overfilled mass on that cold Saturday morning in the original shrine
Our prayers and masses expressed the longing that many connect with the celebrations ahead of us. A high point for me was the overfilled mass on that cold Saturday morning in the original shrine in covenant unity with Switzerland.
