"Mother of Bread, help us generate work for others!

Workers’ Pilgrimage to the Shrine at La Loma

Peregrinación de trabajadores al Santuario de La Loma Workers’ pilgrimage to the Shrine in La Loma Arbeiterwallfahrt zum Heiligtum in La Loma
„Madre del pan, ayúdanos a generar trabajo para todos” “Mother of Bread, help us create work for all!” “Brotmutter, hilf uns Arbeit zu schaffen für alle!“
desde el movil los jovenes acompañan From the car, the youth accompanies the pilgrimage with songs Vom Auto aus begleiten Jugendliche die Lieder
Llegada Arrival Ankunft
Misa Mass Messe Fotos: Ríos © 2005

ARGENTINA, Tita Rios. In a country strongly marked by a constant and a high level of unemployment, on June 5^th, the Archbishop of Parana, Mario Maulion, urged that places of employment be generated, committing all of society in this petition. Monsignor Maulio exhorted that "a commitment to generate work for everyone" be taken, according to our possibilities, in the situation in which we live". At the end of the sixteenth traditional Pilgrimage of Workers, during his homily in the Shrine of La Loma, Parana, he also expressed: "In this celebration where we are remembering the Blessed Mother so much as the mother of bread, let us ask her to help us generate work for others. It is a commitment. Not only do we ask for work, but we ask that we may generate work".

Days before the pilgrimage, in the streets of the city, they were awakened by the echoes of a portable sound system and sounds of music, inviting everyone to the pilgrimage. Businesses and parishes displayed posters of the Blessed Mother with the motto: "Mother of bread, help us generate work for all". Bad weather covered the interwoven sky, but it only remained as a threat, and the march began joyfully. That is how - with meditations, prayers and songs - the people and those loyally devoted to the Blessed Mother began the pilgrimage. The Auxiliary Shrine, crowned and among clouds of tulle, went out into the streets to echo the petition of her beloved children.

The pilgrimage took its usual route of 4 kilometers from the cathedral of Parana to the Shrine of La Loma, which celebrated its 30^th year of blessing on the 31^st of May.

The Shrine waited for the arrival of the pilgrims with joyful songs; from here the Blessed Mother would once again give shelter to so many beating hearts, who with excitement and weariness, with tears and hope, approached to give thanks! How beautiful it was to contemplate on the peace that had overcome them.

God always works

At that same moment, another team of musicians received Monsignor Mario Maulion, with songs of welcome. He presided the Holy Mass assisted by Fathers Carlos Baron and Blas Corvalan and the novices of the Schoenstatt Fathers.

Under the protection of the Shrine, the Bishop encouraged them that in their smallness they be producers of work in their own families and work places.

Monsignor Maulion’s reflection, of profound content, had a special echo in a society that particularly suffers from the scourge of unemployment. The last statistics reported by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (Indec) showed a moderate increase of the unemployment index in the country, that increased from 12.1% at the end of 2004, to 13% in the first trimester of 2005, although if the beneficiaries of the Plan of Heads of Unemployed Households are included, the level jumps to 16.2%

Monsignor Maulion did not take the motto of this meeting of the Pilgrimage of Workers, "Mother of Bread help us generate work for everyone", in vain, manifesting that it is "a petition to Her, the Blessed Mother, who is so attached to the Eucharistic bread, and with all bread". Although he differentiated that not everyone was in the same position to generate places of employment he affirmed that "that everything that we do has a sense of helping that others do the same."

"A mother and a father in the home, not only work. They generate work by making the child work. The teacher, in school, not only works, but he generates work by making the children work, because work is not only what we have to do to obtain our sustenance. It is above all what we have to be, to be more of a man, to be better men, men who are fruitful in the good that we do for others. And that is work. God always works, says Jesus, and he does not work to earn a salary, he works because he is very good", he affirmed.

Not only a petition for work

The pilgrimage began in 1989 on the occasion of the celebration of another anniversary of the blessing of the Shrine of La Loma, which took place on the 31^st of May of 1975, acquiring over time a more "social" aspect, until it transformed itself into what today is the Pilgrimage of Workers. In his sermon, the Archbishop of Parana recalled that the pilgrimage has always had a social sense, that is why he urged that gratitude to God be shown for those who have employment and to pray for those who do not have it. "But we must all be committed to generate work for others, within our possibilities, in the situation in which we live.

The Gospel, on this day, reminds us of God’s essence, that he is merciful, and the essence of us with God, is that we have to trust in this mercy", Monsignor Maulion stressed.

With contributions from : El Diario de Parana, 6^th of June 2005

Translation: Celina M Garza, Harligen, TX, USA