COSTA RICA, Hugo García •
On the weekend of March 17 to 19, the celebration of the fifth anniversary of the blessing of the Familia de Esperanza Schoenstatt Shrine in Costa Rica took place. As part of the celebration, the Madrugadores of the Shrine were once again present and united with the entire family. With great joy and happiness in our hearts we got up early to show our Blessed Mother with actions that we are humble instruments in her hands and that we want her to educate us, shelter us and transform us. —
It has been five years of rising early under the shadow of the shrine. A place of grace where we have experienced that under the protection of Mary, the hearts of the Madrugadores become docile, faithful instruments of evangelization to bring man, the great absentee, back to the Church. With our testimony of faith, life and struggle to persevere in each early morning, we are making a reality our desire to be better parents, better spouses, better children and better brothers and sisters.
To become agents of change in society
Undoubtedly, we have received from the good God the Father an immense gift, an unparalleled treasure which we must jealously guard and care for. Our mission is clear: we must be agents of change in a society where the role of man has been attacked, questioned, blurred… Through our Marian imprint, we are called to ardently live our Covenant of Love with our Mother Thrice Admirable and Queen of Schoenstatt, so that through her intercession we may lead many men to our Lord.
With great enthusiasm we extended the invitation to the other communities of Madrugadores in the country and the region. They accepted our invitation decisively and in a wonderful early morning, we had the great blessing of being able to celebrate the holy mass with Father José Lizardo. We were accompanied by brothers from the communities of San Rafael de Alajuela, San Rafael de Escazú, San Miguel de Escazú, San Antonio de Escazú, Loreto, Coronado, Tepeyac, Curridabat, Desamparados, Santa Lucía de Heredia, and from abroad, to the community of Nicaragua.
Getting up early again
We have lived an intense early morning, full of prayer and gratitude to our Mother and to the Lord, for so many blessings received during these five fruitful years. During this time we have also experienced difficult moments due to the pandemic, in which we have continued to persevere for months virtually. Once again we have had the opportunity to come to be with our Lord in the shrine, to “recharge our batteries” and to give Jesus our anxieties, our smallnesses, as well as our desires and our joys.
We have once again lived our three dimensions: Mass, table and mission… the moment of prayer and of being face to face with Him, the moment of sharing with our brothers at breakfast and finally going out into the world and trying to be congruent with our apostolate for the next fifteen days.
Original: Spanish 2022-03-25. Translated by: María Aragón, Monterrey, México
