UNITED STATES/SPAIN, Miguel Ángel Rubio •
Last Easter I was in New York. One day, as I was walking along 41st Street near 5th Avenue, where the Public Library is located, I noticed that the floor was covered with metal plaques with quotes from famous people. One of them caught my eye with the following inscription: “The universe is made of stories, not atoms” (Muriel Rukeyser 1913-1980. “The Speed of Darkness”). The inscription stood on a background that resembled a molecular lattice in which the atoms were shaped like open books. —
A parallel to our movement
As if by itself, the thought occurred to me to draw a parallel between the image on the plaque and the Schoenstatt Movement: a network of atoms in which the atoms were shaped like shrines instead of open books: a network of shrines. But I immediately rejected this idea, because the inscription on the plaque gave me the key: “The universe is made of stories, not atoms”. So the parallel that came to my mind was “The movement is made of stories, not shrines”.
Certainly the shrine is an essential element of the movement, and there are many shrines on five continents that are connected as an organic unit. However, these shrines would be mere buildings and isolated, lifeless “atoms” if there were not something behind them that keeps them alive, in “movement”. Of course, God and, in a special way, the Blessed Mother are present in them, but their presence alone is not enough to bring them to life. In many shrines, the following is written on the front of the altar: “Nothing without you, nothing without us”. And it is precisely this “Nothing without us” that makes up all the stories that each of us has experienced in the shadow of the shrine and that bear witness to God in our intimacy with Mary.
Meaning and mission of our website
It is our stories – in which Mary accompanies us – that give us life and that give life to others when we share them with them. And this is where our website plays an essential role. It is a site that is essentially about telling stories that we want to share with others. We do not publish chronicles or press releases, and schoenstatt.org is not a forum for opinions; it is stories that shake us awake and awaken life in others, because, according to our founder, life is ignited by life. And at the heart of these stories we find Christ without fail.
“The universe is made of stories, not atoms”: this quote can be found on Library Way, a section of East 41st Street that leads to the New York Public Library. The plaque was designed by Gregg LeFevre | Photo: Miguel Angel Rubio
Original: Spanish. Translation: Maria Fischer @schoenstatt.org
