What Motivated Me to Give my Time to Translating

PORTUGAL, Maria de Lurdes Dias. The motivation of offering my time to translate for the International website was a desire to contribute, as a free instrument in the hands of God the Father, towards building a world where love, hope, and faith in God the Father is born every day, where we all love one another as children of the same Father and the same Mother, where we can all work towards the common good taking special care of the poor, the sick, and marginalized.  Such a world is built on a Covenant Culture, it is that “land so warm and dear…”

My Schoenstatt story began with a dream I had about the Blessed Mother, a dream that was so real that it felt as if my body had been radiated with warmth and a bright and intense light, while I saw the most amazing image I had ever laid eyes on, a beautiful woman with such a bright smile impossible to describe.  What was even more incredible was that a feeling of belonging and longing remained.  I was so touched by this and at the same time so happy, that I told my family, friends, and even a doctor about this wonderful dream.  Several days later, my mother came by to tell me that a friend of hers had said that with this dream Our Lady wanted to me to visit her and that I should go to a Shrine in Restelo (Lisbon), the Schoenstatt Shrine.

Shortly after that, I made my first Covenant of Love, nineteen years ago now, on May 18, 1993. It was the confirmation that our Blessed Mother, with whom I had always been very close, was calling me to be her instrument, welcoming me and beginning my long and difficult inner transformation.  The Shrine became a sacred place for me, a heavenly refuge, where I would go to find the strength to continue in spite of the difficulties and the pain, knowing that she was working her grace from there and that she would not abandon me.  In 2007, also on May 18 (nothing is a coincidence), I renewed my Covenant of Love and this is when I really began to know the Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement and participating in everything that it offered: retreats, belonging to a group, and in particular, forming a deep attachment to our Father and Founder through his books and his charism, which attracted me from the beginning.  After two retreats at Schoenstatt, the first as part of a group and the second alone (fifteen days), the link to our Father and Founder, to Schoenstatt, and the Family was deepened and reinforced.

Apostolate – I currently belong to the Mothers’ Branch, and I attend Adoration twice a week.  I belong to the Bethany group, a group for divorced women, and participate in the Pilgrim Mother Campaign for Families and Prisoners.  I am in the formation group for the Pre-Militants and am a group leader for the “Hand in Hand with Mary” course.

Profession – My main work is both the best and the most difficult – to be a mother to Mariana, 22yrs. going on 23, who this year went to the Berlin Technical University to finish the final year of her Masters degree in Architecture.  I was divorced when she was four years old, but her relationship with her father has always been good and based on great respect, even though she does not live with him.  I have had other jobs – I worked as an executive secretary, translated technical informatics manuals from English to Portuguese for Apple-Macintosh during the boom.  I worked for the Association of Lupus sufferers for five years by welcoming the sick and encouraging them with my testimony (I am also a lupus carrier), was also an events organizer and did administrative work.  I united these skills by forming my own small company, Maria Flor, where I made flower arrangements for weddings, baptisms, and other events.  I worked in public relations during Expo ‘98 and after the Expo, had the opportunity to work at the National Carriage Museum, where I was trained as a guide and socio-cultural animator, a job I had for five years and which I enjoyed very much.  Today, I feel that I am continuing this work with these translations, to give life, spread encouragement, fresh air, soul – this is the meaning of the Latin word “anima” (animate).

I have been unemployed since July 2011, and cannot claim an unemployment subsidy.  What helps me is the minimum pension I receive from my ex-husband, the help of my parents, and the fact that I own my house.  God worked it so that I don’t lack the basics!  Unemployment in Portugal is currently at an all-time high, but I have never lost hope and faith and am at peace because I know that the Blessed Mother will take care, as she has always done throughout my life.

What most fascinates me about 2014 is that after almost 100 years, the Movement that this great man and prophet, Fr. Kentenich, dared to found with unshakeable faith in Divine Providence is very much alive and gives new life to the world, and that the enthusiasm in the preparation for this Jubilee is filled with God’s love.

My favorite passage from Message 2014 is that when we say “nothing without us” we bring our gifts in the Covenant, in which we gratefully “discovered the fruits Schoenstatt has produced over the last 100 years and the various ways in which they are evident.”

My favorite part of the Pilgrimage Prayer is none other than “give us the strength to spread a covenant culture in our world today!”

The International Motto – “Your Covenant – our Mission” means that our mission is to live the same Covenant of Love that our Father and Founder lived with the Blessed Mother, which started in 1914 in the Shrine, committing ourselves to help the Blessed Mother as a collaborator in God’s plan of salvation, in the formation of the New Man and a new society, by giving everything we have and are.  It means living in the New Covenant that Jesus brought to men, living a relationship of love with God the Father and with our brethren.

I hope that 2014 will be a starting point where the Apostolic Schoenstatt Movement, together with our Father and Founder, shows and gives the world its treasure: the heaven that is so sought after in today’s age, the Covenant of Love with our Mother Thrice Admirable and her Shrines. The hope is that Mary may be recognized as the Mother and Queen of heaven and earth, the one who leads us directly to the Father; that the Good News of Jesus will be put into practice in building a Covenant Culture that is reborn from the ashes.

The experience of translating so many different articles and texts has been very enriching and beautiful.  Firstly, I feel that I am working for the Blessed Mother, and that in my little-ness, I was one of those chosen to proclaim and witness the love of Jesus and God the Father for all of us to the whole world, like the apostles of old.  It has also been a wonderful opportunity to work as part of this team, with whom I feel a very close connection even though we do not know one another personally.

The article I most enjoyed translating was the first, about the Shrine “Our little piece of heaven, and now we can say it is OURS!”  It touched me very much, mostly because of what the Original Shrine represents for us.  Without it the Apostolic Schoenstatt Movement would not exist.  The testimony by the Family Missions deeply touched me, as well as the song-hymn of our translation team and Silvia’s meditations.  There are so many others, such as the introduction by Maria Elena…

There are so many phrases that have had a powerful effect on me but they can all be summarized in this: Let us make “Nothing without You, Nothing without us” a reality.

Note: Maria de Lurdes Dias from Lisbon, Portugal, joined the schoenstatt.org/schoenstatt2014.org translation and editing team in March 2012.  She translates articles from Spanish and English and does the final edit on the Portuguese articles.

English translation from the Portuguese: Sarah-Leah Pimentel, Pretoria, South Africa