(mkf) The Peruvian Schoenstatt Family is celebrating the first Schoenstatt Shrine on Peruvian soil - dedicated on December 8, 2000. The experience of this new place of grace in their midst is a driving force for their activities. They are convinced that the Blessed Mother, like in the Original Shrine, will draw many youthful hearts to Schoenstatt. The Schoenstatt groups in Lima, the capital of Peru, also hope to soon be able to build a Schoenstatt Shrine there.

Archbishop Miguel Cabrejos dedicated the new Shrine in Trujillo on December 8, 2000. Approximately 1,500 persons joined in, among them 200 or so Schoenstatters who had traveled over 300 miles from the capital, Lima, and to harbor city, Callao. Smaller delegations came from Chile, and the neighboring country of Ecuador. The Peruvian Schoenstatt members experienced the dedication of their Shrine as a dream come true.

Born From One Person's Covenant of Love

The birth of Schoenstatt in Trujillo is the Covenant of Love sealed by a German Vincent's Sister, Sister Liberata, who works in an orphanage in Trujillo. She made her Covenant of Love in Schoenstatt, Germany, before her order sent her to Peru. When women from the orphanage's neighborhood asked the sister to give them talks on faith, she first did not know what to do. Then, she remembered Schoenstatt and the Covenant of Love, and asked Anna Maria Trilling, a member of the Secular Institute of the Ladies of Schoenstatt, to send her MTA pictures and books. "Hardly ever did I meet a person who lives out of the belief in Divine Providence in such a deep way," shared Father Reinhold Nann, a German member of the Schoenstatt Priests' Institute, who worked as a pastor in Lima for a couple of years. The ladies who had asked Sister Liberata to give them talks on faith were excited with what they learned, and also sent their children. Later, family groups were formed. The Trujillo Schoenstatters contacted the Schoenstatt groups in Lima - where Schoenstatt had been spread from Ecuador. Both in Lima and in Trujillo, the Pilgrim Mother helped to spread Schoenstatt to wider circles.

The Schoenstatt groups from Trujillo accompanied the building of the Shrine with commitment, enthusiasm, and joy; and on September 17 they crowned the Blessed Mother as building manager of the Shrine. They made their own experience: While working on the construction of the stone Shrine, a longing was created in all of them - the longing to be living Schoenstatt Shrines and to radiate the graces of the Shrine into the places of their everyday life.

English edition: Joan Biemert, New Franken, Wisconsin, USA