Original Shrine, Maria Fischer •
There were some snowflakes that gently fell on the Original Shrine, in the first minute of the New Year 2021. Inside the Shrine, few people, on this New Year’s Eve 2020 without fireworks and celebrations. Father Alejandro Blanco, General Secretary of the Schoenstatt Priests’ Federation, was there, and he spontaneously decided to expose the Blessed Sacrament, and after a few minutes of silent adoration, he imparted the sacramental blessing to those present and to all of Schoenstatt.—
The bells of the Original Shrine rang to bid farewell to this year 2020, marked by the health crisis and the “Kentenich crisis,” a year not only full of Corona, but also full of many moments of solidarity, of concern for one another and for the weakest, of social commitment and growth. The bells of the Original Shrine rang to welcome the year 2021 and to welcome it with hope and commitment.
In these first minutes of 2021, we all received the blessing with the Blessed Sacrament.
Thank you, Father Alejandro.
“May the Virgin Mary, who gave birth to the “Prince of Peace” (Is 9:6), and who cuddles him thus, with such tenderness in her arms, obtain for us from heaven the precious gift of peace, which cannot be fully pursued with human force alone. Human force is not enough because peace is above all a gift, a gift to be implored from God with incessant prayer, sustained with patient and respectful dialogue, constructed with an open collaboration with truth and justice and always attentive to the legitimate aspirations of individuals and peoples. My hope is that peace might reign in the hearts of men and women and in families, in recreational and work places, in communities and in nations. In families, at work, in nations: peace, peace. Now is time to think that life today is organized around war, and enmities, by many things that destroy. We want peace. And this is a gift.
On the threshold of this beginning, I extend to everyone my heart-felt greetings for a happy and serene 2021. May each one of us make sure that it be for everyone a year of fraternal solidarity and peace, a year filled with expectant trust and hope, which we entrust to the heavenly protection of Mary, Mother of God and our Mother.”
Pope Francis, 01.01.2021
