October 18^th begins to radiate again at the Original Shrine!

October 18^th is rediscovered at the place of origin: a whole day around the Original Shrine. Monsignor Zollitsch will celebrate the Holy Mass, there will be testimonies, renewal of the Covenant of Love…

Afiche para el 18 de octubre Poster for October 18 Plakat zum 18. Oktober   DOWNLOAD: Plakat (PDF) Handzettel zum ausdrucken (JPG)

SCHOENSTATT, mkf. It took about five years after October 18, 1914 for this day to enter into the consciousness of the young Schoenstatt Movement as the founding day, the day of the central beginning process of Schoenstatt. Over the course of decades, October 18^th has become the main celebration of the Movement throughout the world, a day of massive and festive pilgrimages to the Shrines. Except for decades at the place of where it all began, it has been very, very silent. October Week, the Annual Meeting of the delegates from the German Movement, was in the limelight instead. This October 18^th, seven years prior to the centennial of Schoenstatt’s founding, this day will also be festively celebrated at the Original Shrine as the founding day of the International Schoenstatt Work.

Visitors from other countries often had a strange experience: while in their countries on October 18, they had to wait in line to get into the Shrine just to be there for a few minutes. At Schoenstatt they had the Original Shrine almost to themselves, while the program for October Week took place somewhere else. "I always thought that October 18^th at Schoenstatt would be sad, with the delegates of October Week in their meetings, and nothing in the Original Shrine, the absolute center of the Schoenstatt world," commented a Schoenstatter from Argentina when she heard the spectacular news. "Many times I imagined the Shrine almost deserted, with a sensation of abandonment, of exclusion... I am so happy that they decided to do this! Who did it? The headquarters of the Movement in Germany? Whoever it was, congratulations!" Yes, it was the Headquarters of the Movement in Germany!

It was not much different during the first years of Schoenstatt. There was no talking about October 18^th. The Marian Sodalists were much more conscious–at least until the year 1919 – of April 19, 1914, as the founding day of Marian Sodality, rather than October 18^th and the Founding Document. However since the beginning, the main ideas and processes of life in the Founding Document marked the development of the Schoenstatt Movement – into which the Marian Sodality was transformed – and not just for those who were present at that speech.

It has differed since 1919 when Schoenstatt after the First World War became broader thanks to the members who joined during the war and who had not previously belonged to the Schoenstatt Marian Sodality. Through the first-time publishing of the chronicles of the founding time in the MTA magazine – including the text of the conference of October 18, 1914, which was much later called the Founding Document - Father Kentenich, evidently with total awareness, created a connecting bond from the history of the first days to the place of origin, thus bringing about the process of conserving the identity during an era of restructure and decentralization. The Tabor for our time: the small Shrine, the "Little Chapel" –as it was called at that time – became from then on rooted in space and time.

As the year 2014 approaches, October 18^th will be seen in a new light as the place of origin in the Schoenstatt Movement of Germany. This will happen each year with more intensity.

"Nations shall walk by your light" (Isaiah 60:3)

Next October 18^th will be celebrated in the Original Shrine throughout the whole day, on the 93^rd Anniversary of the Founding of Schoenstatt. Everyone is invited. Everyone can participate in some or in all of the programs that are scheduled for that day. A solemn Holy Mass will be celebrated in the morning at the Pilgrims’ Church presided by Monsignor Robert Zollitsch, Archbishop of Freiburg and a member of the Schoenstatt Institute of Diocesan Priests, with the theme: "A Tabor for our time"

"Europe needs places where hope, truth, mercy are experienced, and where you can be formed," said Dr. Markus Muller during the Ecumenical Congress of the Movements and New Communities, Together on the Road, at Stuttgart. Such a place, thousands of people from all the continents say with strong conviction, such a place was born on that October 18^th at Schoenstatt. What makes the Original Shrine, what makes Schoenstatt a place with these characteristics shall come to light during the afternoon through testimonies, songs, and meditations. Some who have confirmed their attendance, among others, are Sister Anna Maria aus der Wiesche, from the Christian Community of Selbitz, (Protestant) and a member of the circle of leaders in Together for Europe.

Throughout the day, the Original Shrine will await with open arms all who want to come. There will be time for personal prayer, for renewal of the Covenant of Love, and time for common prayer and individual blessings.

At 7:30 p.m. there will be a celebration for the renewal of the Covenant of Love, which will begin at the Pilgrims’ Church and then end at the Original Shrine.

This year on October 18^th you probably won’t have to wait in line to enter the Original Shrine, but everyone who comes as a pilgrim – either physically or spiritually - with their hands full of contributions to the Capital of Grace, and with the desire in their heart to be at this holy place, won’t just be welcomed but more importantly they’ll also bring what illumines this holy place, the Original Shrine, like the Tabor for our time, as a holy place the same can also be said of the many other Schoenstatt Shrines in the world, be it Bujumbura, Tuparenda, Queretaro, Atibaia,..

Nations will walk by your light,
and kings by your shining radiance.
Raise your eyes and look about;
they all gather and come to you:
Your gates shall stand open constantly,
day and night they shall not be closed.
But shall admit to you the wealth of nations,
and their kings, in the vanguard. (Isaiah 60, 3-4)

Translation: Celina Garza, Harlingen, TX, USA /amj