mda. “I promise.” With just two words Fr. Egon Zillekens, who had just returned to Schoenstatt from the schoenstatt.org meeting in Madrid on 28 January, answered an email asking for prayers in the Original Shrine. “I promise” and then he did what he promised with a rosary, a prayer during evening benediction and Mass the next day – 29 January. This is how the Original Shrine silently became the centre of a network of prayer and solidarity for a young 20-year old man from Costa Rica who is gravely ill, and his family – members of the Family Work, schoenstatt.org collaborators, and simply friends, brothers in the covenant. Within just a few hours, prayers for him and his family are being said in hundreds of home shrines…
T.S. is very sick. During his travels through Europe he picked up a virus that is likely to kill him in just a few days. He only had time to arrive at the emergency room in San Jose. The situation is very serious.
“We need to build covenant solidarity…this is vital and important…it’s a real story,” said Fr. José María after hearing the news. It is a real story, one of those stories through which schoenstatt.org wants to foster bonds within the international Schoenstatt Family that carries the soul of covenant culture.
Prayers are being said at the Memhoelz shrine in Germany, as well as the shrine in Madrid. “How painful for this family. Sometimes God’s plans are a mystery. Faith helps us to carry the cross. I am accompanying the S. Family from Vienna with my prayers,” says Tita Andras. There are prayers and contributions to the capital of grace in Austin, Córdoba, at the COPE broadcaster in Madrid, Buenos Aires, Villa Ballester, Lisbon, Santiago, Asunción, Lima…
“Thanks so much for all the prayers in all the countries and shrines. God and the MTA have their reasons that this illness will serve a greater good…” wrote T.S’ parents on 28 January.
It is a real story. A member of the family is suffering. Hundreds are running to support him. Covenant solidarity, real. Bonds of solidarity. The beautiful thing that Schoenstatt offers.
While one of the participants of the schoenstatt.org meeting in Madrid was waiting at the Barajas Airport on 28 January, a young woman was asking for donations. When she received a couple of euro, she took a sticker out of her pocket that read: “I am in solidarity.”
Let us show solidarity. Let us all pray in covenant solidarity for T, for his parents, brothers, friends.
Translated from the Spanish by Sarah-Leah Pimentel, South Africa
