Schoenstatt spring impressions: Shrine in Mount Schoenstatt Frühling in Schönstatt: Heiligtum auf Berg Schönstatt

Shrine by House Marienland: groups of Schoenstatt Mothers are taking turns for retreats Heiligtum bei Haus Marienland: Jetzt haben auch die Tagungen für Frauen und Mütter wieder begonnen

Eloisa Bragadá, Argentina, for the first time in Schoenstatt Eloisa Bragadá, Argentinien, zum ersten Mal in Schönstatt

Girls from Guayaquil, Ecuador Mädchenjugend aus Guayaquil, Ecuador

Andrés Polit: "I had to come and bid farewell to the Blessed Mother in the Shrine!" Andrés Polit: "Ich musste unbedingt noch schnell der Gottesmutter im Urheiligtum 'Auf Wiedersehen' sagen!"

Cousett Ruelas and her friend: first idea of Schoenstatt and a cup of coffee while visiting PressOffice Schoenstatt. Cousett Ruelas und ihre Freundin: erste Bekanntschaft mit Schönstatt bei einer Tasse Kaffee im PressOffice Schönstatt

Fotos: POS, Fischer © 2002

SCHOENSTATT, mkf. "Mom, look, look, the gray goose are coming back!!!" – The 10-year-old spring visitor to Schoenstatt - who enjoyed Sr. Astrid's hot chocolate in the recently re-opened "Mountain branch" of the Schoenstatt Bookshop- enthusiastically pointed to the flight of the birds in the blue skies over Mount Schoenstatt. – "The visitors are coming back!" could be an exclamation during these early spring days in Schoenstatt. The winter break – only interrupted by the "Ten Minutes by the Crib" – ended: with the first snowdrops, crocuses, and forsythia blossoming around the Original Shrine, also the individual visitors from all over the world are back to Schoenstatt!

"Please give us the weekend schedule for the Masses in Schoenstatt," said Melchora Malabag, a Philippine Schoenstatt member from Frankfurt. With her husband and children, she came early on Sunday, March 2, to attend the Holy Mass in the Adoration Church. "We are working weekdays and sometimes also during weekend so if we have the schedule and God permit us we are willing to attend the Mass. We have some petitions to the Blessed Mother and Father Kentenich! Please, until we come back, just include us in your prayers that our petitions to our beloved Mother will be answered!"

A Videotape for the Schoenstatt Friends Back Home

Eloisa Bragadá returned to Argentina on March 1, 2002, after a job-related trip to France, bringing a videotape with Schoenstatt impressions and greetings to friends in La Plata and Buenos Aires. She joyfully made the detour to spend three days in Schoenstatt – her first-time visit to the Original Shrine and the tomb of Father Kentenich. Together with a young lawyer,who had gotten to know Schoenstatt in Germany, and her mother, she had participated in the 50^th anniversary of the Father Shrine in Nuevo Schoenstatt, Florencio Varela, Argentina. "I am still so filled with all the joy and hope that I took from these moments of grace", she shared. "It was such a gift to now, short time after, be privileged to visit Schoenstatt, the place of our origin!" At the same time, a young woman from Bolivia was in House Sonnenau – her beautician had strongly recommended her to not miss on Schoenstatt when going to Europe. Instead of one day she finally stayed for almost a week in this "beautiful place".

A Piece of Schoenstatt in Our Home Shrines…

A 15-year-old girl from Guayaquil, Ecuador, on vacation in Southern Germany, worked hard to visit Schoenstatt on the first weekend in March. A weekend before, two girls from Bariloche, Argentina, showed up in Schoenstatt together with their German host family. "My mother belongs to the Schoenstatt Movement," one of them said, "for her I have to come here!" She showed the German family the Original Shrine and found out how to get to the tomb of Father Kentenich.

Soon after her arrival to Schoenstatt, Cousett Ruelas from Austin, Texas, in Germany for German studies in Koblenz (how convenient!), invited a fellow student on the same exchange program to visit her in Schoenstatt – and to see her "temporary work place" in Press Office Schoenstatt!

Andrés Polit from Ecuador - he spent a fortnight in Schoenstatt before his practical in a company near Montabaur began- on the last day of this practical came back to Schoenstatt just for some hours to bid farewell to the Blessed Mother in the Original Shrine before returning to Ecuador: "It was good to be here!"

A woman from Chile visited her daughter who attends the Schoenstatt St. Mary's School in Vallendar for some months – taking home not only memories from Schoenstatt for her own family but also two shingles of the Original Shrine for two families who awaited them since such a long time – as "a piece of our Schoenstatt in our home shrines". "To recieve these simple shingles means to really receive a piece of the land of our origin, our beloved Schoenstatt home by the River Rhine; it means to revive moments of grace experienced in this valley, means to rememner encoutners and conversations; means to think of who has been sheltered by these shingles - so many dear Schoenstatt members. Under these shingles, convenants were made, sadrifices were offered, heroic "Yes" were said, sounds of gratitudes were sung and silent prayers said... It is my home, my Schoenstatt land!"