ARGENTINA, Catalina Adrover de Michelini. The God the Father Educational Center is twenty years old, and this was celebrated along with Father Kentenich, who also had a birthday on November 16th. The special thing about the celebration was the pilgrimage to the Shrine of Mendoza.
600 students along with all the teaching personnel, teachers’ aides, the students’ parents, and members of the Civil Association traveled by bus and arrived at La Puntilla. They invaded the grounds forming groups and lines that went up, like ants, to the top of the hill, passing by the Blessed Mother’s Wayside Shrine.
The older group, the larger one, filled the John Paul II Hall where the coordinating couple of the Diocese of Mendoza, Guillermo and Marcela Soria, welcomed them. After expressing gratitude to Mary for the twenty years of the school, they divided into groups. They carried out an itinerary accompanied by some teachers – it is important to stress that the teachers were well organized, making it possible for all the students to enjoy all the places and the explanations that had been prepared in an orderly manner.
Visits
Some went up to visit the Shrine, the Father Hall, the pilgrims’ house, the grounds of the Immaculate, the Joseph Engling stone…There were people in charge at each place to make this experience a special visit. The groups took turns so that they could experience everything that had been prepared, and so they could to make good use of this visit.
Meanwhile, others remained in the John Paul II Hall to listen to different children’s choirs, prepared by the music professor, singing to Father Kentenich.
Others went through the Cenacle Hall, where videos were shown that had been prepared by the students during the past Kentenich workshops.
The kindergarten children were in the park seated on the grass beneath leafy trees; they listened to their teachers tell them about Father Kentenich.
The groups took turns, and this way, they all shared the same experiences.
Covenant of Love
Then it was time for snacks; the upper grounds as well as the lower grounds were filled with groups sharing conversation, snacks, mate (herbal tea), etc.
The culmination of this gathering was around the Shrine, the roots that brought forth the God the Father Educational Center. The Blessed Mother welcomed all these favorite children, and she received them with open arms.
The Blessed Mother especially embraced the older ones, who will finish the secondary stage this year and will no longer be students who passed through the classrooms of the school that saw them grow over fourteen years. Twenty-eight students consecrated themselves to Mary and She welcomed them into her maternal heart.
After praying the prayer that they prepared, they received the Covenant medal from the hands of the Rector, and José Luís Ovejero, the director of the secondary school, Mrs. Cristina Pellizón de Calzetti, and the priests who accompanied them, Father Hugo the chaplain of the school and Father Guillermo Carmona, the National Adviser of the Schoenstatt Family Work in Argentina.
Hundreds of children singing to the Virgin
Hearts were raised to heaven within this framework with appropriate songs and with hearts filled with emotion, the youths intensely experienced this moment of grace.
Upon leaving the small Shrine, the esplanade was filled with hundreds of joyful children singing to the Virgin. The entire God the Father Educational Center crowned the Holy Virgin with their innocence and pure hearts.
The God the Father Educational Center in the Tents of the Covenant culture
Original: Spanish. Translation: Celina Garza, San Antonio, USA
