Posted On 2013-02-07 In Jubilee 2014

Father’s gaze rests on Rome

ITALY, Federico Bauml. A small silver sculpture, depicting an eye inserted in an equilateral triangle. This is the Father’s symbol: light, simple and full of meaning, just like the person who was so attached to it, so much to make it become his own present to the Movement, with the desire that one day it would be placed in the original Shrine, in Schoenstatt.

 

 

For a variety of reasons, the Father symbol has never been placed in the Mother Shrine, and from the 8th July 2009, (day of the 90th anniversary of the priestly ordination of Fr. Kentenich) it has begun a pilgrimage throughout the world, visiting all the national Schoenstatt families; a trip that will come to an end on the 18th October 2014 in Schoenstatt, when the symbol can take the place that the Founder has assigned to it: in the Original Shrine, between the Holy Spirit and the Crucifix.

A special moment

22 January 2013: the Symbol arrives in Rome. This symbol, that has toured the world and that is now in our country, in our city; a special moment, the occasion to feel part of something greater. The Greek would have called it a kairos, a moment of grace, the time when God is near.

This week in the company of the Father’s symbol allowed us to regain the Shrine, to pause, to pray, to reflect. All the groups alternated in giving the “guest” the best possible welcome, to find ourselves all together on Sunday 27, to celebrate the Eucharist as a family.

It was also the opportunity to deepen our knowledge of the history of our Movement and of its Founder, particularly thanks to the beautiful reflection with which Sr. Elizabeth has guided us to the discovery of this symbol, because only by knowing fully someone, and with him his history, can we get to love fully.

“Your will be done”

“Our Father…. Your Kingdom come, your will be done”, How often we repeat these words, and all too often we do so in a mechanical way, out of habit.

The Father Symbol invites us to add weight to these words, regaining the prayer that Jesus taught us.

Because, after all, our Covenant is nothing other than a meeting of our eyes looking towards Him and His gaze that rests on us, and just this is the inheritance that the Father Symbol leaves with us at the end of the week, the gift that was so dear to Father Kentenich

Original: Italian. Translation: Valerio Salvador, Johannesburg, South Africa

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