Hermann Arendes' sharing about John Pozzobon as ally of Father Kentenich fascinated the participants of the retreat. Herrn Arendes' Berichten über Don João Pozzobon as "Verbündeten Pater Kentenichs" begeisterte die Teilnehmerinnen der Exerzitien

Long after the scheduled time, Professional Women kept asking questions and questions... the end result being a new invitation! Lange nach der vorgesehenen Zeit "löcherten" die Berufstätigen Frauen Herrn Arendes noch mit Fragen - am Ende stand eine neue Einladung!

Illumined rosary in the Father Kentenich House, by the statue of the Blessed Mother: As Father Kentenich's mother "crowned" Mary with her necklace, the Professional Women crowned her with roses and lights as sign of confidence Lichterrosenkranz im Pater-Kentenich-Haus bei der Statue der Gottesmutter: Wie Pater Kentenichs Mutter die Gottesmutter mit ihrem Kommunionkettchen "krönte", krönten die Berufstätigen Frauen sie mit Rosen und Lichtern als Zeichen des Vertrauens

Each "Hail Mary" was prayed for a special intention , or better: for a person to be entrusted to Mary Jedes "Ave Maria" wurde für ein konkretes Anliegen gebetet oder besser: für eine konkreten Menschen

Stations of the cross by the Original Shrine Kreuzweg beim Urheiligtum

After the Covenant of Love in the Original Shrine: group photo: "But in reality we were many more!" Gruppenfoto nach dem Liebesbündnis: "In Wirklichkeit waren wir ja viel mehr!"

The "hardest challenge": decorating palm branches for Palm Sunday Der Härtetest: Palmstöcke gestalten

A rose for Argentina... Eine Rose für Argentinien...

Fotos: Ruelas, Brömmel, Fischer © 2002

SCHOENSTATT, Birgit Brömmel, Petra Ververs. How many people will go into the Shrine? Each day more – this is the prompt answer given by the 17 Professional Women at the end of their "world-wide" retreat in Schoenstatt. "Love is stronger" when we are interested in others, when we are incited by others and accept them into our lives, when we allow them to join in our prayer times in the Original Shrine, the Founder Chapel, and the Father-Kentenich-House: this was the end result of the participants' reflection on these five days that filled Schoenstatt with thousands of persons from all over the world…

The retreat began with the Covenant celebration in the Adoration Church on March 18 that had a special international character this time. "A terrific experience of Open Shrine: all one in the Covenant of Love, with joy and excitement, and united internationally," said Ursel. For a couple of days, the women had left behind their intense work to come to Schoenstatt, but not to withdraw from this work and from the challenges of the time but to bring the whole world into the stronger love. A world does include the neighbor next door but does not end there. "Those who are on the Schoenstatt Internet are really lucky," said one of them, "they hardly have a chance to escape our prayers in Schoenstatt!!!"

You see the pictures of the Father Statue in Argentina on the PC and know: "This is also ours!"

Tuesday, March 19, nameday of Father Kentenich, was "Day of Argentina". "Of course we also wanted to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the Father Shrine," said Gabriele Sudermann, leader of the group. "It was also our jubilee." For those who don't yet have Internet access, one of the participants had printed all the reports about the jubilee. "It was important for us that the whole group could participate in the joy of those who had been specially involved in the process of being part of the Golden Jubilee and the erection of the Father Statue; for us, this has meant and means being touched by a strong stream of life and grace and we wanted all to become part of it," Birgit explained. "We had a slide show on a lap top and saw more than 100 pictures – but the fascination was ever the same: with each picture that showed up I knew: this is our Father statue, my name is in the base of this statue, and our roses are in the hands of Father Kentenich. We were really proud – had we not had the idea to send a bouquet of roses to be placed in the hands of Father Kentenich, he had had a lot in his hands on January 20, but no roses!!!"

In the course of the past year, the Professional Women of Northern Germany first discovered via Internet the "Open Shrine" as common value – a discovery that developed quickly towards a growing solidarity with the Schoenstatt Movement in Argentina, culminating in the active participation in the material and spiritual conquering of the Father Statue. "My name is in the foundation of the statue, this is also my, our statue," summarizes Gabriele. That life is able to incite life is documented by five more names in a little box that has crossed the Atlantic Ocean already a couple times… But the process goes on: a couple from La Plata is presently working on macramé rosaries that the German Professionals fell in love with and ordered in big numbers. This is the moment of God's smile: Raquel from La Plata who works on the rosaries celebrated her birthday just on the day when the Professionals had their Covenant of Love in the Original Shrine; and Alexa, who had first fallen in love with these rosaries and in gratitude wanted to specially include Raquel and her husband in her prayer, had adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at midnight – when Raquel's birthday began in Schoenstatt.

A Rose for my Boss

In the evening of March 19, the women had their introduction for the retreat in the Founder Chapel. "First, we thanked God our Father and the Blessed Mother for concrete experiences of their preferential love for us; each one shared one experience and offered a rose as sign of gratitude. That created a very joyful and deep atmosphere along with a growing closeness to each other and to our Father and Founder", said Petra. "Then we thought about those persons whom we personally wanted to be present during our retreat. Each one had a rose that she offered for a person or group that she wanted in these days to be touched by God's special love: her boss, her brother, the parish priest, a child sick with cancer, the friend who lost her job, the victims of the Egypt train crash…"

During the following three days, Father Mosbach gave considerations and inspirations on the year's motto: Love is stronger. Because I am God's favorite child, called by the stronger love, my life is marked by this stronger love, and I gladly and voluntarily surrender myself as instrument of this stronger love. He specially emphasized apostolic love as typical for the Apostolic Movement – an apostolic love that not only supports initiatives like the Initiative for the Protection of Human Embryos but also creates initiatives. Important, he added, is not success but commitment.

What One Person Can Achieve

On two afternoons, Hermann Arendes, Brother of Mary and yearlong companion of John Pozzobon, enriched the panorama with practical applications on stronger love, highlighting John Pozzobon's testimony of life. The effect was similar to the experience of a smaller group of members in September (who had also been the ones to invite Mr. Arendes): within minutes the life of the Brazilian Apostle of the Pilgrim Mother caught the audience. Elke who participated for the first time, a worker in a shelter for homeless persons, was specially fascinated by John Pozzobon's social dedication and the "Vila Nobre de Cardidade". Inge: "Through the commitment of one single person who could hardly read and write, who was almost blind, who said his yes to God's call, more than 20 million of people are visited by the Pilgrim Mother today! It's fascinating what one person can achieve. Imagine Schoenstatt today without his "yes" to his mission!"

The women were specially impressed that "he continued what he began and did not always start something totally new", and "that his family had priority for him, that he did his apostolate in the family, with the family, from the family". Birgit: "I could have listened for hours to what Herr Arendes shares! How lucky for us that Father Kentenich made him promise to always share about John Pozzobon when invited to do so! We'll do that!"

Record Stream of Visitors in the Father Kentenich House

"A special 'game of love' of Divine Providence were the attendant circumstances of our illumined rosary", shared Birgit. "We wanted to do it in the Shrine, but that was closed due to renovation. We wanted to do it in the House Chapel, but others wanted to be there. So we escaped to the Father Kentenich House where we were welcome. We prayed the illumined rosary be the statue – the statue before that Father Kentenich's Mother entrusted her child to Mary!" Before the statue that she crowned with the necklace of her first Holy Communion, the statue that is loaded with rosaries, necklaces, crowns, pictures that visitors spontaneously leave there. One of the women placed the picture of a girl entrusted to her in the hands of Jesus and Mary. Birgit: "Together we then crowned the Blessed Mother with our rosary, with candles and roses, like Father Kentenich's mother, and with the confidence that we placed in each Hail Mary: for co-workers, for the Schoenstatt Movement in Argentina, the Holy Land, Colombia, and Zimbabwe, for our own relatives, for several pregnant mothers fearing a miscarriage, for a child that was not allowed to live, for a young man who committed suicide..." Like usual the five decades of the rosary were not enough, therefore the women simply extended the rosary until all the roses that they had brought, over 100, had run out… It was a record stream of visitors to the Father Kentenich on that day.

Once again in the Original Shrine

On Friday, the women met for the Stations of the Cross by the Original Shrine. From station to station, they passed on a small unity cross among each other; the intentions – and people – of the one who carried the small cross were included in the prayer. It was special experience to pray the Stations of the Cross by the Original Shrine – who knows, one of the women said; maybe Father Kentenich did also walk here to pray!

The climax of the days was the Covenant Celebration in the Original Shrine on March 23; all renewed their Covenant, and Ursel and Monika offered their blank check surrender. Their dedication prayer combined the Open Shrine with the grace of having and the vocation of giving a home: Open Shrine, Home for the whole world. The Original Shrine was just that on this sunny spring morning: All who came were invited to join in the renewal of the Covenant of Love. As a sign of the new or renewed dedication, each one gave a rose to the Blessed Mother – also Cousett from Texas and Monica from Ecuador, several Sisters, a nurse from the shelter for old aged people… For the offering of the gifts, the women brought the slips of paper with the names filled in during the adoration night - hundreds and hundreds were present in this moment!

Afterwards, it was time to congratulate each other – and the feast ended with an ice cream treat in a certain ice cream shop in Hoehr… before the first participants had to return to their apostolic fields in the parish!

For those who stayed, Ursel had prepared a special surprise – they were "inspired" to decorate palm branches! A lot of pedagogical charm was necessary…

The closing of the retreat was an event of the whole Schoenstatt family, like the beginning: the Schoenstatt Fathers presented their experiences with Father Kentenich in their history.

"Now I really return to my work place with joy and ideas," Monika said", knowing that several of my co-workers were here with us. That makes a difference!"