Pilgrimage into Family Life

A joint holiday on the beach in Brazil

Los jóvenes The young people Die jungen Leute
Los padres The parents Die Eltern Fotos: Pimentel © 2008

BRAZIL, Sarah-Leah Pimentel. As Schoenstatters, we are accustomed to making pilgrimages, to our local shrines, to the Original Shrine, Milwaukee, Santa Maria or any of Schoenstatt’s other important places. But how often do we think of something as simple as a pilgrimage into the everyday living of ordinary Schoenstatt families?

This is exactly what three families from different countries experienced. Agustin Lombardi (Argentina), Marcos Schmid (Brazil) and Sarah-Leah Pimentel (South Africa) worked as volunteers in Schoenstatt, Germany in preparation as for the Youth Festival in 2005. During that time, we formed a special bond and dreamed of reuniting and meeting each others’ families. Summer 2008 gave us that opportunity – a joint holiday on the beach in Brazil that included the Lombardi family (12 people), the Schmid family (4 people) and Marcos’ extended family, the Nassif family (5 people).

Living together as one Schoenstatt Family where a common language is spoken – our Covenant of Love with our Mother

Prior to the holiday, the main concern was how the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking families would communicate with each other. However, the twelve days that followed were filled with intense moments of living together as one Schoenstatt Family where a common language is spoken – our Covenant of Love with our Mother. From the shared meals, grace sung in two different languages, short trips to neighbouring beaches, islands and towns, conversations (including sign language and much laughter over a misunderstanding), walks on the beach, Mass, hours of card games, tricks and jokes (on account of the rain) and trying out different foods and beverages, we discovered that we all share the same ideals and live by the same values. Our parents saw that despite the hardships of raising young people to live by standards that are different to those in the world today, they were comforted in that they were not alone in this mission. As young adults, we discovered that the values that we would like from the men and women that we will marry and form future families are also the same.

The strength to continue with the mission

These things gave each of our families the strength to continue the mission that our MTA gave us from our respective shrines. Our Mother also gave us a very special gift through this shared holiday…now we know that we are never alone in our task of building up the Schoenstatt family. We are ONE Schoenstatt Family and we can always count on each other for prayers, support and friendship, regardless of the language we speak or the thousands of kilometres that separate us.

Perhaps this is what it means to be an International Schoenstatt Family and that the experience we had may also be shared by other Schoenstatt families in the future?