CHILE, red. The Schoenstatt Movement of Chile is preparing for Jubilee 2014 with great commitment and enthusiasm. “We are on the road with the desire of experiencing the 2014 Jubilee Year as a Family united around the Founder and Father, encouraged by faith and the experience of the Covenant and on fire for the Mission,” Father Eduardo Aguirre wrote to the Schoenstatt Family of Chile, motivating them to celebrate the opening of the Jubilee Year in the country’s every Shrine and Wayside Shrine of on October 18th, with pilgrimages, adoration and a Covenant Mass. “The important thing is for everyone; every community and each member of the Schoenstatt Family to participate with enthusiasm and commitment and by being involved and feeling co-responsible for the 2014 celebration, to offer the Church the Covenant of Love with Mary, which has transformed our lives,” said Father Eduardo Aguirre, the National Director of the Chilean Schoenstatt Movement.
Father Eduardo Aguirre’s letter is published below
On our spiritual road toward October 18, 2014, we want to intensify our steps and to prepare ourselves, with more awareness and enthusiasm, for the celebration of the day on which we will commemorate the 100th Anniversary since the Most Holy Virgin sealed a Covenant of Love with Father Kentenich and the first youths, taking possession of the Schoenstatt Shrine and transforming it into a source of life and renewal for the Church. We want to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the out- break of graces that gave origin to our Movement with abundant faith and gratitude, with joy and renewed commitment.
We are on the road with the desire of experiencing Jubilee Year 2014 as a Family united around the Founder and Father, encouraged through faith and the experience of the Covenant and on fire for the mission. Throughout this year, we want to renew the Covenant of Love in every Shrine, in every Wayside Shrine and Homeshrine sending it out to the Church and to the world with new evangelizing impetus.
These celebrations around October 18, 2014, are not only an occasion to express gratitude and to celebrate; but rather, to implore a new outbreak of grace, that will give us the impetus of renewed loyalty, in our mission. Attuned with our Church and placing ourselves at its service, our desire is that the Covenant of Love with Mary will spread powerfully in the life of the Church, that our Shrines be places that are open and sources of renewal for everyone, and that the Church will recognize and be open to our Father’s charism.
Commission 2014
We have created a Commission 2014 that will take care of coordinating, giving impetus and in part, to organizing the initiatives and activities at the national level to prepare for the 2014 celebrations. The task of this commission has already begun with the preparation of the opening of the Jubilee Year, on October 18, 2013, and the scheduling of the Leaders’ Regional Workshops.
This commission will work in close unity and coordination with the Central National Council, and it will create sub-commissions to assume specific tasks in the scheduling and carrying out the activities of the Jubilee Year (liturgy, publications, information, and dissemination, etc.). We hope to have the participation of the different local Communities and Families of our Schoenstatt Family of Chile.
18th of October 2013 – Opening of the Jubilee Year
The official opening of the Jubilee Year worldwide will be Friday, October 18th of this year. This event will be celebrated in every Shrine or Wayside Shrine of the local Families.
It is proposed that this day be a day of pilgrimage to a Shrine or Wayside Shrine and there be Adoration to express gratitude and to implore graces for the Jubilee Year.
Then, a Covenant Mass will be celebrated, which will solemnly and festively begin the Jubilee Year, uniting spiritually with the Original Shrine and carrying out a symbolic opening gesture for a year of graces.
In the same manner, it is proposed that there be a time for Family prayer in the Homeshrines, so that the opening of the Jubilee Year will also be celebrated in them.
The important thing is for everyone– every community and every member of the Schoenstatt Family to participate with enthusiasm and commitment, to be involved and feel co-responsible for the celebration of 2014, to offer the Church that Covenant of Love with Mary that has transformed our lives.
Hymn
We would like to have a hymn that will accompany and motivate us during 2014 and the October 18th celebration of this year. This hymn could be based on the “Jubilee Prayer – Pilgrimage 2014” and it should express the joy, the enthusiasm and the commitment with the Covenant and our mission for the Church.
The members of our Schoenstatt Family, who feel motivated to make a proposal are asked to send (the lyrics and music, no longer than three verses) to Father Eduardo Aguirre or Carmen Rivera to the secretaria@schoenstatt.cl, by Friday, September 27th.
Source: Vínculo, Magazine of Chile’s Schoenstatt Family
Original: Spanish – Translation Celina M. Garza San Antonio, Texas USA
