USA, Abby Dedinsky. After traveling for thirty five hours from Australia to the USA, Mr. and Mrs. Vea arrived with the Father Symbol. Quietly rejoicing at first, those gathered at the airport suddenly broke into song. One of the leaders from the Schoenstatt Girls’ Youth had written a song for the occasion of the visit of the Father Symbol, which she first shared with the Schoenstatt Family present at the thanksgiving Holy Mass celebrated in the Shrine at eight o’clock in the evening, so that all could sing it as the symbol arrived.
The text follows here:
Jubilee Hymn 2014
Abby Dedinsky, USA
Father, your merciful, loving glance
Greets us in all creation.
Give us strength and send us forth
To build your Schoenstatt Kingdom!
One in the Covenant with our Queen,
With our Mother from the Shrine;
We give ourselves entirely
For your mission for our times.
Father bless our Family
As you have from the beginning.
We are full of thanks for many years
Of Covenant Loyalty;
With hearts aflame we witness:
Your Covenant our Mission!
Father unite our Family
Across miles, seas and time.
Though many tongues and many lands,
We’re one Family with our founder.
One in your heart we witness:
Your Covenant our mission!
Father strengthen our Family
In all that is to come.
Grant many graces from our Shrines
So all may know Your Love!
With hearts renewed we witness:
Your Covenant our Mission!
What can we do to celebrate the gift of the Original Shrine?
During the earlier celebration of the Holy Mass, right after the reading of the Gospel Father Gerold Langsch invited the girls’ youth themselves to say something about the meaning of the celebration of this evening.
Alexandra Vos, Diocesan leader of the Schoenstatt Girls’ Youth, shared the following. “We had asked ourselves what should we do in order to celebrate the gift of the Original Shrine? Now it is ours! I mean, it belongs to all of us, the Schoenstatt Family – of course, not just to the Youth. After a number of e-mails back and forth where we discussed and mentioned things like Holy Mass, night adoration, etc. We thought, why not do them all? And, it has to be quick because this has been such a surprise gift. So, we thought of today, May 31st, when the Father Eye is about to arrive. It’s such a great gift! It’s pretty awesome that we can have this celebration here in the Shrine!”
Visit to the Exile Shrine
At the end of the Holy Mass the Blessed Sacrament was exposed and the Guard of Honor began with the help of the Sisters of Mary and members of the couples and the Boys’ Youth. Some went to the airport to receive the Symbol of the Father Eye, which arrived close to midnight. Appropriately, the first place it visited was the Exile Shrine, the altar where Father celebrated over 3,000 Holy Masses. In the symbol of the Father Eye the Schoenstatt Family of the USA may receive the presence of the Father and Founder once again, in the land he loved so much.
Expecting the Home Shrine Congress
With his arrival, “a miraculous month comes to an end,” as Sister M. Joanna, provincial superior, prayed and thanked. A month of abundant blessings and expectations is beginning. The Home Shrine Congress will begin on June 27. The Father Eye will be present and all certainly will enjoy being in Father’s presence. In fact, the first participants for this Congress are precisely Mr. and Mrs. Vea who brought the Father Symbol all the way from Australia. Still today it is the same way as it was during the time of Father here in Milwaukee: the presence of many international visitors gives this place its name: International Schoenstatt Center. Welcome Father! The Schoenstatt Family interprets the arrival of the Father Symbol as Father himself being the first one to come to the congress in order to celebrate 50 years of the wonderful proclamation: “what holds true of the Original and of the local Shrine, holds true for the Home Shrine…”(JK, Nov. 18, 1963) Father himself wants to receive his guests in Milwaukee. Welcome Father!
