To follow true heroes

Long live Schoenstatt! Pope Benedict, Schoenstatt loves you!

El Santuario de Atibaia, lugar del Festival de la Juventud The Shrine in Atiabaia, place of the Youth Festival Das Heiligtum in Atibaia, Ort des Jugendfestivals
Fuego de su fuego... Fire of his fire... Feuer von seinem Feuer...
Teatro Theater Theater
Busco ser discipulo y misionero I want to be disciple and missionary Ich will Jünger und Missionar sein
¡Viva Schoenstatt! Viva Schoenstatt! Viva Schoenstatt! Fotos: P. Mateus Bernardes/Cassio Leal © 2007 Álbum de fotos – photo álbum – Fotoalbum

BRAZIL, Cassio Leal/Father Mateus Bernardes. After a pause, we find ourselves in the Shrine of the Permanent Presence of the Father, in Atibaia, to carry out the first Schoenstatt Apostolic Youth festival in Brazil. We had the opportunity to praise all the experiences that we shared up until this moment with the Holy Father and also to pray and to sing together in the Shrine. It was a great joy!

Our youth festival opened with enthusiastic songs and the presenters warm welcomes. We were again aware of everyone present and, most notably, that Schoenstatt does have a young face. There were youth from Santa Maria, Porto Alegre, Frederico Westphalen, Santo Angelo, all cities from Rio Grande do Sul as well as youth from Londrina, Curitiba, Guarapuava, Itambaracá, Jacarezinho, Cornélio Procópio, Ibipora and the cities from the state of Paraná. There were representatives from the states of Minas Gerais (Pocos de Caldas and Belo Horizonte), Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro and Niterói), and the Federal District (Brasilia). All of them were welcomed by the hosts, the youth from the state of Sao Paul (Sao Paulo, Sao Bernardo do Campo, Caieiras, Mairipora, Atibaia, araaquara, Louveira, Campinas, Sao José dos Campos, Camp Limpo). An of course...our brothers from Santiago de Chile! What a joy to have them with us.

I want to be a disciple and missionary of Christ today!

Many youths gathered in the Shrine to say that we want to be disciples and missionaries of Christ today. Some videos introduced us to a timely theme- especially when they proposed heroes that the media offers us today…we do not want to follow them; we want to follow true heroes! We want to follow our heroes, because they were disciples and missionaries of Christ of their times and we want to be heroes today! The last video that we saw showed the face of our Father and Founder and he asks: "I wanted to be a disciple and missionary of Christ…and you?" The conclusion of that video was when each youth who was present affirmed aloud, "I want". I want to be a disciple and missionary of Christ today!

A performance was presented that showed us what is necessary to be those disciples and missionaries: spirit of sacrifice, mission consciousness, Capital of Grace, purity and youthful enthusiasm and much love for the Blessed Mother and her Shrine. At the end, along with our Mother, we adored the Lord who calls us to be his disciples and missionaries and we received the sending forth blessing…we have been sent to the world to be disciples and missionaries of Jesus Christ! Like our Father and founder, Joseph Engling, Franz Reinisch, Mario Hiriart, Barbara Kast, Reginha, Joao Luiz Pozzobon, our beloved Pope John Paul II to be disciples and missionaries of Jesus Christ, but today!

Sent forth, we again went to encounter Benedict XVI and all the Church of Latin America gathered in Aparecida. Long live Schoenstatt! Pope Benedict Schoenstatt loves you!

Translation: Celina Garza, Harlingen, TX, USA / Christi Jentz, Milwaukee, WI, USA