MESSAGE OF POPE FRANCISCO • On November 11, in the Paul VI Audience Hall, the Holy Father Francis received in audience the participants in the Second International Meeting for Rectors and Collaborators of Shrines, organized by the Section for Fundamental Questions of Evangelization in the World of the Dicastery for Evangelization, under the theme: “The Shrine: House of Prayer. On the way to the Jubilee 2025”. — In the lists of shrines in general or Marian shrines in the world, Schoenstatt shrines are not found, although some of them –
Read More ARGENTINA, María Elena Cruz Sanchez • On October 1st we celebrated the 97th anniversary of the founding of the Secular Institute of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary and being this date so special to give thanks, we want to give testimony of our recent trip to the Shrine of New Schoenstatt, in Florencio Varela, province of Buenos Aires, with the Mothers’ Branch of La Emilia. We are grateful because when we arrived at the doors of the Shrine, Sister Maria Ester was waiting for us on the walkway and her
Read More PUERTO RICO, Rubén Ortiz, Carmen R. Rodríguez, Merie Montalvo, Norma Echevarría, Millie Maldonado • On Monday, September 4th, the pilgrims gathered early in the morning at the different places to board one of the three buses that would take them to each of the Schoenstatt Shrines in Puerto Rico, the “Island of Enchantment” of the Puerto Ricans (Boricuas) and all those who have made this island their second home. — The encounter of departure and the history of the pilgrimage to the three shrines 37 years ago, the Schoenstatt Family
Read More WYD Lisbon 2023, Maria Fischer • It feels like going through withdrawal. The thousands of young people are missing, the hectic pace of press releases and photos offered by the WYD Lisbon 2023 press center, the live transmissions, the work against the clock of the schoenstatt.org team to cover the experiences in Lisbon… What will the youth of this World Youth Day take with them? And what about us? What about the many critics who were not there, but “know” that there was a lack of critical press, that everything
Read More COSTA RICA, Mary Cruz Coto • August 2nd is the feast day of Our Lady of the Angels, the patron saint of Costa Rica. The devotion to the “Negrita”, the Black Madonna, is marked by the pilgrimage to the Shrine in the Basilica of the Angels in Cartago. For this reason, the Schoenstatt Movement in Costa Rica has prepared itself spiritually to walk this path of love for our Mother. — Beginning on July 1st and every day of the month, under the title “Our Lady of the Angels”, we
Read More SOUTH AMERICA, ACIprensa /mf • “Fourteen days ago, one hundred youths and a dozen Schoenstatt Fathers left Mendoza to cross the Andes on foot to reach the Marian Shrine in Santiago de Chile. Each day they experienced the sunrise and sunset in prayer, and faith encouraged them to walk 400 kilometers and gave them the strength to arrive. The faith that Jesus hoped to find in his country. The faith that moves mountains or overcomes them. The faith that heals and performs miracles. Our task for today is to ask
Read More SPAIN, Ambrosio Arizu/Maria Fischer • “Tell them to write on the web”, Ambrosio Arizu answers me when I tell him that within the schoenstatt.org team, after so many articles about Madre Ven – the pilgrimage in 2021, and the film in 2022 – the hope grew to be able to see the film also in Portugal and Argentina. The diffusion of the film is in charge of the production company Goya… but with the touch of “nothing without us”, since Goya acts from the popular request, expressed in a form
Read More SPAIN, Maria Fischer • “Let’s go on pilgrimage with the Blessed Mother through the cinemas! Join this week and take ” Madre Ven” to many people”. If we already watched with amazement the repercussion of the ” Madre Ven” Pilgrimage, the idea of the production of a movie of it and the premiere in several dozens of movie theaters, seemed to us a subject of pious fiction… We are talking about cinema, this is Avatar II and Wakanda and EO, but ” Madre, ven”? Yes. This movie – let’s remember
Read More BRAZIL, Ruy Kaercher/ Maria Fischer • “And we finally arrived at 1977, the year of the construction and inauguration of the Shrine of Santa Cruz, the sixth shrine in Brazil, the diocesan shrine of this land. We began this year with new enthusiasm and great conviction that this would be the year marked by heaven for special graces to be worked in this land.” Father’s footsteps generate life. “Precisely three days before the 30th anniversary of the Founding Father’s visit to Santa Cruz, construction work began on the shrine. The
Read More JESUIT PILGRIMAGE, Press Release • The Jesuits launched a free “Jesuit Pilgrimage” smartphone app. It aims to give an intimate experience of the locations that helped make Ignatius of Loyola a saint and led to the writing of the Spiritual Exercises, a manual to help people discover God in a personal and passionate way. “This app has the same purpose” said Fr John Dardis, SJ, Director of the Jesuit General Curia Communications Office. — The app is available in English, Spanish, Italian and French, both for Android and
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