mkf. Because of the grave political and social situation being experienced in Ecuador, Father Eduardo Auza, Director of the Movement in Ecuador, on September 30th – immediately after the beginning of the police revolt which provoked institutional chaos and ended in a violent confrontation with the military and the retention of the president, Rafael Correa, for several hours, and in addition to two deaths and at least 30 wounded – sent a letter to the entire Movement. In the letter, it can be proved how the CULTURE OF THE COVENANT is one of the stimuli with which the Schoenstatt Family can depend on to actively respond to what it has to face in this Latin American country.
We publish this letter because, as Fr. José María García commented, “the 2014 Jubilee already acts as a reference in the daily life of the Schoenstatt Family, assuming the graces of the Jubilee and because it is a great testimony to how it takes on the international awareness of what it is and what the 2014 Jubilee can mean beyond our inner circles.”
Letter from Fr. Eduardo Auza
Dear Schoenstatt Family,
Facing the most delicate situation which our country is experiencing at this time, I allow myself to send this message to the Schoenstatt Family of Ecuador. I think we are all impacted and concerned with what is happening with the institution of the National Police and its undoubted repercussions in the life of our society and citizenry. In such tense and delicate situations which awaken phantoms and fears of the past – painfully not so long ago – it is imperative that we, as Schoenstatt Family, offer on the Paten of the destinies of the Nation, our decisive commitment for peace and the defense of our democratic institutions without ever ignoring the clamor and the appeal to social justice and to the legitimate right of expression of our citizens, but within the juridical and constitutional confines.
Motivated by the living example of our founder, it is important that in the spirit of creative loyalty to his charisma, we again affirm the importance of the principle of authority and its democratic application, rejecting firmly all types of violence and assuring this through fraternal and respectful dialog that in Schoenstatt categories is nothing other than forging the culture of the covenant, one of the most important accents on our way and preparation for the Jubilee of 2014, the first centennial of the founding of our Family.
Dear brothers and sisters in the Covenant of Love, today more than ever, we must give a testimony of faith in our confidence in God and in the intercessory and educative power of our Mother Thrice Admirable of Schoenstatt. With this supernatural help, today more than ever, we should and we can be guarantors of peace. May our group meetings never lack the prayer for peace for our country. May we never stop meditating on what God wants to tell us and may our resolutions contribute to forge a new social order. May our comments and attitudes edify and extol our surroundings as it corresponds to a child of Mary, to a “Servus Mariae.” Let us make our life a Shrine. Therefore, hate and violence must be far from us.
I invite the entire Family to go to our Shrines (Web of Shrines: Daughter Shrine; Home Shrine; Work Shrine, Heart Shrine) to truly experience them as places of pilgrimage and of grace, asking for the gift of social peace for our Ecuador, consecrated to the heart of Jesus and Mary. As far as it is possible, let us invite our communities, our branches or groups to offer together prayer in the Shrine asking especially for our government officials who have received the task from God to lead the fate of our people from Ecuador, and let us also pray for all the citizens of Ecuador so that from their different regions and provinces: Costa, Sierra, Oriente Amazónico and Galápagos, we may form a chain of prayer and solidarity to benefit our country which will permit us to live in communion and in peace…..thus predicting in this way, prosperity and development. Let us not falter in our efforts to offer them as contributions to the Treasury of Grace. Let nothing go to waste! Everything can and should be placed on the Paten!
United in the Covenant of Love, I send my blessing:
Fr. Eduardo Auza
National Director Apostolic Schoenstatt Movement
“Do not worry about the fulfillment of your desire. Ego diligentes me diligo. I love those who love me. Prove to me first that you really love me, that you take your resolution seriously. Just now you have the best opportunity to do so. Do not think that in times like these, when momentous decions are being make, that it is something extraordinary to increase your striving to the highest degree.” Fr. Kentenich, October 18, 1914
“With hope and joy, confident in the victory, we go with Mary into the post-modern age.” Fr. Kentenich, 1968
Mother Thrice Admirable, Queen and Victress of Schoenstatt… pray for us
