Egon M. Zillekens/org. The Shrine of Flexibility has turned twenty. Flexibility: In the 1930s, when the Nazis took Schoenstatt into their sights, it was one of the essential points describing the tremendous danger posed by Schoenstatt, which at the time did not even call itself a “Movement”. Tremendous flexibility: This is what the shocked regime officials discovered in this tiny, young community, which they considered posed a huge danger to their static, all controlling, all dominating, all regulating regime. Flexibility: While others try to save forms, something new is growing out of the same spirit and attitude. While others mourn for apostolic fields that have been lost, this flexibility is creating a new culture in new fields – with wonderful freedom. When something seems impossible, it follows new paths, free from fear and anxiety, but with creative fidelity. This flexibility is symbolised in the supporting poles along the sides of a shrine in Schoenstatt, and this shrine has turned twenty: The Canaan Patris Shrine of the Priests’ Federation, a Shrine of Flexibility.
From 24-26 July sixty priests of the Priests’ Federation – from Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, the Czech Republic – gathered around this shrine in the garden of the Marienau to celebrate, reflect and set their course in the Year of the Shrine Current and this historic moment of the Original Shrine.
An Evening Blessing without compare
Every heart is afire with love for the Original Shrine! This is how we could describe an evening blessing without compare. Sixty priests gave the evening blessing; two of them were sitting in the sanctuary with guitar and bass. The shrine rocked! It was “our Night of the Shrine”, as one of the priests put it. After the evening blessing they processed with lighted candles from the Original Shrine to their shrine, the closest neighbour of the Original Shrine, where they lit a large fire.
What would have happened if we had not had this Shrine?
How did it happen that twenty years ago this shrine was blessed in such close proximity to the Original Shrine? When the communities of Schoenstatt Priests looked for a home on the mountains around, the Federation Priests, as the first and eldest of the communities for priests in Schoenstatt, decided that they would protect their inheritance in the Marienau in the valley. Even though some thought that their actual home was already on one of the mountains in “the Land of Canaan”. So they built a transportable shrine, a “scout shrine” (reference to the “scouts” sent out by Moses to explore the Promised Land of Canaan), a Shrine of Flexibility – one which could technically be transported elsewhere. It is the shrine that at present stands in the garden of the Marienau and could also stand somewhere else. It is a shrine that in these twenty years was essential on its present site, and nowhere else – such was the insight during a panel discussion and the many other discussions during these days of celebration. It was not an idea, but a concrete finding that could be seen by its fruits – the fruits for this time of growth in the Priests’ Federation when it became the centre for the new life in Chad, India, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, etc., and also in Europe.
What would have happened if we had not had this shrine as a place of refuge for so many that six Holy Masses were often celebrated there every day when they could not get into the Original Shrine?
Pilgrimage to the Kreuzberg, Bonn
Monday was a special highlight: a pilgrimage to the shrine on the Kreuzberg near Bonn. In the Year of the Shrine Current the Federation Priests wanted to visit a shrine, and chose one that most of them had never visited before. This shrine, which celebrated its silver jubilee in the last few years, is maintained by the Schoenstatt Brothers of Mary. Fr Felix Kreutzwald, who supported the building of the shrine and the long drawn out negotiations to buy the site, explained the history and mission of the shrine and the nearby Kreuzberg church to the priests with great enthusiasm. This church is important for its reconstruction of the “Holy Steps” and a copy of the picture of the Annunciation from the church of Our Lady in Florence, which was referred to in the First Founding Document in connection with St Aloysius, for whom it was the cradle of sanctity.
Mr Ernest M. Kanzler, the new Superior General of the Brothers of Mary, explained the current situation and mission of the Kreuzberg Centre. A visit to the wayside shrine was naturally on the programme.
And then they looked at the flags flying round the shrine. The German flag has already been shredded by the wind, an omen of the football semi-final game to be played on the following Thursday, as someone remarked (and proved to be true)…
New Life
That Tuesday a new start and new life became a concrete experience when five young priests from Switzerland consecrated themselves as a new Federation course. They had chosen the ideal: Scouts of Joy for our Times.
In the Dominican Republic the first Federation course in that country started, while a second course is in the process of formation. In Ecuador Fr Eduardo Auza, Movement Leader of the local Schoenstatt Movement, has placed himself at the disposal of the priests who are interested in joining the Schoenstatt Priests’ Federation.
It was fitting, and fitted into the total experience, that a few days after these celebrations a Federation Priest in Buenos Aires was assaulted and shot. … Also in this way the fruits of a shrine are seen and harvested.
Photos
Original: German. Translation: Mary Cole, Manchester, England
