ARGENTINA, mca/mkf/Hna Celia María. On Sunday, October 30th, with approximately one thousand persons in attendance, the altarpiece of the Church of God the Father in New Schoenstatt, Argentina was blessed. "With this altarpiece, once again we assume the mission that Father left us here: Your Kingdom come; it is as if this image takes on a face today in the whole Family"…..this was the experience lived there on that day.

The ceremony as such began with words from Sister María Elisa, Provincial Superior of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary: "New Schoenstatt is clad in festivity today with the presence of the Most Reverend Bishop of Quilmes, Bishop Luis Stockler and the Christian community which celebrates the Eucharist. We begin here, in the Shrine of our Mother and Queen, this hour of graces in which the Altarpiece of the Church of God the Father will be blessed.

"We want to be grateful because Mary has manifested herself as Mother and Educatress of nations and from here she has undertaken a victorious march leading many children to the heart of God.

"In this year in which we celebrate the 70^th year of the arrival of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary to this country and the 120^th birthday of our Father and Founder, we want to offer the gift of this altarpiece which contains the mystery of the Covenant sealed with us….. a Covenant of love and of fidelity.

This altarpiece receives the impression of the mission given to us by Father Kentenich: to be and to build up Nazareth.

We want to be Nazareth but we also want to create Nazareth there where we have the opportunity to do so, so that the great convulsions suffered by the world can be overcome with Nazareth." From this Church, may a strong current which embraces the world go forth and make us exclaim: Father, your Kingdom come!"

Like another Christ in the arms of the Father

"Yesterday, I had the grace of being with my husband in the Shrine of Varela at the blessing of the altarpiece," shares Susana Hernández from Pehuajó. "Everything was very beautiful and the sunny day made everything more resplendant. The moment we marched in procession from the Shrine to the Church was very moving; it was as if Mary in this pilgrimage on earth was leading us to God the Father where he bore Christ in his arms…..a sign of pain…..but at the same time also offered us the Holy Spirit to strengthen us. I felt as if I was another Christ in the arms of the Father.

The entire Mass was very moving and the Schoenstatt Family gathered there experienced a great day."

As a result of the Delegates’ Meeting which took place on that weekend in New Schoenstatt there were also representatives from all of Argentina there.

"The final flourish of the delegates’ meeting was the blessing of the altarpiece," says Tita Ríos who along with her husband, Héctor, are coordinators of the Movement in Paraná. "It is impressive. The presence of the God rich in mercy is so great that one is stunned, the heart seems to stop. It is evident that this altarpiece was conquered by the Sisters in their fidelity, by the harmony and splendor of its beauty. Amid much emotion and many tears of joy, I imagine the final meeting with the God of life who loves us so much. The entire altarpiece speaks for itself; as one of the Sisters expressed, the reclining Jesus represents our own humanity, destitute and in need of mercy. For us, his little daughters, it was a gift from the Father who taught us everything for the Work….. in one heart and mutual surrender.

The Throne of Graces represents the Triune God. The Father has his Son in his arms and from his holy breath surges the Spirit. It is a kiss of love between the Father and his Son. It is a palpable manifestation of the eternal movement of love in the bosom of the Trinity. The Altarpiece on its own recalls the Covenant. It expresses, in its symbolic language, the driving thread of the Old and New Testament: the dialog between God and man. Our Father and Founder would invite us to contemplate salvation history. He would teach us that each child and the entire Schoenstatt Family should relive it, make it its own, gain strength from it and take it to all mankind.

The oval contour of the throne of graces signifies the origin of life. The golden background signifies the presence of divinity. Christ is resurrecting and intending to incorporate Himself, thus the movement of the knees and the white cloth which envelopes Him…..

The two sides of the altarpiece show the old and the new Covenant. It has a great richness and a great deal of originality. There is "harmony" between both parts. For example, in the Old Covenant, high above it all is the Immaculate Conception and behind her is Noah’s Ark somewhat below. On the part of the New Covenant, above everything is the dome of St. Peter (Mary, image of the Church) and somewhat below is the Shrine (the Ark of the Covenant) with the MTA and Father surrounded by the Family.

Below everything, on both sides, there is a portico: on the left side is the access to the promised land, and on the right side, the entrance to New Schoenstatt.

Also very beautiful are the paintings with the images of Nazareth. There are four on each side of the throne of graces. On the left, from top to bottom: the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Birth, and the Adoration of the Magi.

On the right: the Presentation in the Temple, the Flight into Egypt, the Losing and the finding of the Child in the Temple and a scene of daily life in Nazareth.

The experience of a God who is Father and Merciful

All of the iconography, done by María Jesús Fernández, wants to awaken in all who go on pilgrimage to New Schoenstatt the experience of a God who is Father and Merciful; who accepts our miseries and who gives back to us –once and again—our dignity as children of God; of a God who like a Provident Father is present and acting in the history of the covenant with mankind, in the life of the covenant in Schoenstatt. On the altarpiece, scenes of the Old and New Covenant are depicted which indicate that the path of all human life is a path which if we live it in a Covenant of Love with God and with our fellowmen, has only one aim: to once again bring us back to the heart of God. He, as every good Father, is always waiting for us.

The Shrine of the Father extended

This church is the Shrine of the Father extended and thus a living expression of the mission of our Father and Founder. He said, on the occasion of the installation of the Father symbol in the interior of our Shrine: "Do not forget: all our spirituality may always be Marian and it will be forever; our spirituality will forever be a devotion to Christ and to the Holy Spirit, but it should also be forever a patrocentric spirituality." (Father Joseph Kentenich –March 19, 1952—New Schoenstatt Shrine)

His prophetic words on that day have today become a great reality: "If Christ declares: I have manifested your name to my own…..you know what name that is. It is the name of the Father, even if today it no longer echoes. How many millions of men no longer have a father! They are no longer conscious of having a father, they do not have a true father. What echoes today in the word Father? Millions and millions no longer have an idea of the paternal traits of God because they have never perceived something from Him –of his paternity—in a human father. You know to what depths I have felt motivated to sacrifice everything to help that this aspect of the salvific order of God may become a realtiy." (Father Joseph Kentenich—March 19, 1952—New Schoenstatt Shrine)

1966 Cologne, Germany – 2005 New Schoenstatt, Argentina

A significant and Providential fact is that also on the 30^th of October of 1966, our Father and Founder sealed solemnly for the first time the Covenant of Love with God the Father in the Shrine of Cologne. Later, responding to the breadth of that happening, Father Kentenich said that he had had before him the entire Schoenstatt Family represented at that moment by the Schoenstatt Family of Cologne.

All present in the altarpiece

The many visits to the photo album and the audioblog give witness to the meaning this has for the Argentine Family.

"With Tita Ríos we search the altarpiece for the pilgrim image because we had been told that the artist had placed it on one side. Mariela Gazzaniga from Concepción, Uruguay found it," relates Silvia Losada from Tucumán. "If the cloth is extended on the right, almost at the feet of the Child and more to the right, there is a person who bears on the breast the contour of the Pilgrim Mother. She could not be left out on the altarpiece!"

Young Family, Shrine of Life

On the 29^th and 30^th of October, the Delegates’ Meeting took place in New Schoenstatt. A farewell was given to Father Guillermo Carmona for worked untiringly for 12 years as National Director. At the same time, a welcome was given to Father Javier Artega who will succeed him as head of the Movement.

Along with the offertory gifts at the Sunday celebration, the new motto which came forth from the meeting was offered: YOUNG FAMILY, SHRINE OF LIFE. There was a great deal of discussion which went into this motto, but in the end it came from the majority taking into consideration the three values which were mostly emphasized in the group discussions: Shrine, Youths (as the future of the movement) and Family-Life because of the attacks which they receive in daily life.

"We must conquer youths: marriages, young mothers, students from all levels," affirms Silvia Losada filled with enthusiasm, "and revalue the Shrine as a source of life for all: family and pilgrims."

Photos

On the blog

Translation: Carlos Cantú Family Federation La Feria, Texas USA