PORTUGAL, Fr. José Melo. “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.” These words from the Founding Document (1914), as if Our Lady were speaking to us today, are an invitation to renew our love for our Mother Thrice Admirable (MTA) by following in our founder’s footsteps and keeping the Schoenstatt Shrine alive.
True love gives rise to actions and words, silence and self-surrender; generosity and renouncement grow; heroic efforts towards personal growth and love of God and neighbor come to life. All this, given in love for the Shrine, is our “capital of grace,” without which the stream of graces ceases, because we live in the dynamism of “nothing without you, nothing without us.”
This is also our gift to the MTA for 2014
Prove to me first that you really love me. In this way, love is always fertile and generates life. This is also our gift to the MTA for 2014: the capital of grace and the apostolic projects and initiatives that were born from the Covenant of Love.
In order to make our love and our covenant gift more real, I’d like to challenge the Schoenstatt Family in Portugal: that during this year we can learn more about the many apostolic projects and initiatives that we are carrying out (…)
In this year of the missionary trend, we are already a covenant culture as a Family. An example of this is the Missão País [Country Mission] that has been underway for several weeks, run by the youth of a missionary generation born from living faith and the Covenant of Love.
The circumstances of the Original Shrine, published in the last few days, once again remind us of our Lady’s words: “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.”
Fr. José Melo, National Movement Director, Portugal
Translation: Sarah-Leah Pimentel, Johannesburg, South Africa
Source: www.schoenstatt.pt
