mkf. Why do they actually call it Night of the Shrine? It’s bright outside, and it’s the middle of the day… asked a passing older person in the back of the tent. What he sees is just the exciting, wonderful, fun and important frame of an even larger picture. The central point is actually midnight on Night of the Shrine. When in the light of some torches, candles, and other lights, hundreds gather around the Original Shrine with Mary adoring the Saviour in the monstrance, when everybody carries the letters from this night, when the spirit of World Youth Day and Schönstatt meet and everyone prays: “Blessed Mother, we bring you in this night our letters of the ‘Nothing without us’ for the Covenant with you and the ‘Nothing without you’ you want to give us in this night anew.” This is the Night of the Shrine when the Original Shrine glows like on no other night.
The way to the Shrine began in the big tent, where just a few moments ago partying and laughing was in action: pictures, words, symbols, and dances speak about the future – about life that lies like a bouquet of flowers in your hands and promises salvation- about life that pulled apart, closed up or made impossible by the future. It is not just about a problem-free world. It is about life in all circumstances, in happiness or in situations where doors are closed and even slammed shut in front of you. In all this, such was the message: there is somebody whose promise stays and will always stay.
Letters of the Night of the Shrine
In a few minutes of silence, everyone was directed to write “Letters for the Night of the Shrine” to Mary and Jesus Christ; to write what moved them – on this night of looking at the real future, looking at your whole life. Unbelievable silence. The only conversations were with the God of all of our futures. The letters were taken with them in the procession to the Original Shrine that began from the tent through Hillscheider Street and Franz-Reinisch-Bridge to the intersection (known thanks to a big sign for those days as: “Interchange Schönstatt”) at the Pilger-Info and then led to the Original Shrine. Two missionaries have already brought the International Auxiliary MTA there with whom they will be sent out at the end of the celebration to the second Missions in Germany. “She’s got a wonderful silver plaque and how it shines!” Dennis said with a wink of his eye. Naturally this is the plaque of the first Missions…
You have reached your destiny!
The big cross, Schönstatt-logo, and the unity-cross combined went ahead with torches lighting up the way. Songs and prayer accompanied them along …
The brightly lit up Original Shrine, a huge picture of the MTA, and fire burning in several dishes await the youth in the darkness of an unexpected warm, clear, and beautiful night.
“You have reached your destiny,” the speaker says, just like the navigational-system now in cars acknowledges when it has led one to an unknown destination, you first look around. Is this the place I wanted to end up in? The speaker continues: “In this place young people have felt: God has chosen me…”
An offer that nearly a hundred years later still counts for these young people and for everyone who walks with them. “The Shrine stands for this offer from God. That is why we are standing around it together. And this moment can become a holy moment. Let us open up for the grace of this holy place…” Hitting Schönstatt’s main point: Nothing without you, nothing without us. This offer stands and it is our chance. We are there – and the grace can flow.
Adoration
The holy place is the monstrance, Jesus in the Eucharist; it is carried from the Original Shrine. Many kneel down in the damp grass. Adoration songs, prayers, and silence…people remember words from the morning talk by Torsten Hartung who is also attending with his wife. Which thing does one react to in his heart first- to the voices or to the word? To the voices… the voices of the youth gathered here around the Original Shrine reveals much more than the (very nice) words of the prayers and the songs. Now it was really the Night of the Shrine. “Our Father…”
The bell of the Original Shrine is ringing. Was it really already midnight? The plexi-glass Shrine containing the letters was carried in accompanied by torches. In 2005 at the Covenant for the youth of the world, letters were first put in this and have been there ever since at every Night of the Shrine. What was in there? “Sandra, how was it being from Paraguay, and five years after your first visit, standing in front of it and knowing your letter from then is in there?”
Now, here, everyone together
“Blessed Mother, we bring you, through our letters, the ‘Nothing without us’ for the Covenant with you. The ‘Nothing without you’ you want to give us in this night anew.” Consciously the German Schönstatt youth took the Schönstatt youth from all over the world into the renewal of the Covenant of love – now, here in this place, everyone together, for the youth of the world: Night of the Shrine. “The Shrine from Schönstatt lives from the lives of its visitors,” declared the headline of a local newspaper awhile back. In this night it is very alive…
Meanwhile the Missionaries brought the Auxiliary MTA out of the Original Shrine; from this place and with her, they were sent out to the second round of Missions in Germany that will begin on September 10th, which is also the 60th anniversary of the Pilgrim MTA campaign. The Auxiliary stands for the missionary grace of the Pilgrim MTA.
One moment
The monstrance and the plexi-glass Shrine moved into the Original Shrine and the teens followed. One after the other went in and brought the Blessed Mother his letter. All the others stood reverently in the back in order for everyone to have this one moment of personal encounter with Mary. The band ‘1+1=11’ repeated their whole repertoire from this Night of the Shrine and still there was a long line of expectant teenagers left. Nobody was in a hurry…
In front of the Original Shrine, the Auxiliary MTA was placed and the Missionaries placed lights around it … first one, then two, three, four… Around the Original Shrine priests were prepared for discussions or confession. And still teens were waiting for their one moment in the Original Shrine.
The cross from the altar, where by now the flames were extinguished, throws a large shadow onto the wall of the Original Shrine under which the long line of teenagers was still standing.
A picture for this Night of the Shrine, five years after Cologne and one year before Madrid.
A picture for a young Schönstatt waiting the 18th of October 2014.
Video
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