Loyalty to the mission, source of graces and blessings

The Blessed Mother of Schoenstatt has accompanied her people in Providencia, Province of Santa Fe, Argentina for twenty years

Catequesis en tablas: las tres gracias del Santuario Schoenstatt introduction on pales: the graces of the Shrine Schönstatt-Einführung auf dem Lattenzaun: die Gnaden des Heiligtums
Cartel con el anuncio del rosario semanal Display with the invitation to the weekly rosary Schild mit der Einladung zum wöchentlichen Rosenkranz Fotos: Hugo Caussa © 2008

ARGENTINA, Hugo Caussa/mk.f In the city of Providencia, about 100 kilometers north of the city of Santa Fe, the Schoenstatt Family is preparing to celebrate the 20^th Anniversary of the arrival of the first Pilgrim MTA. With this title, Mary has accompanied them day-by-day on their pilgrimage of life for twenty years in a very special way.

In 1988 they received the first Pilgrim MTA of our Lady of Schoenstatt from the city of San Justo, Province of Santa Fe: it was Pilgrim MTA no. 22 from San Isidro, Province of Buenos Aires. Providencia is a community of 800 inhabitants. There is a beautiful Wayside Shrine, 300 meters north of the public square, on the edge of a public rural road. It was built about five years ago and Father Fernando Cano, a diocesan priest who takes care of the Parish of Our Lady of Sorrows, blessed it. Father Fernando resides in Elisa, a town about fifty kilometers to the north.

Presently there are twelve Pilgrim MTAs in Providence that visit different homes. The first Sunday of each month, at 9:00 a.m., the Holy Rosary is prayed at the Wayside Shrine, which is usually attended by ten to fifteen people. They have also prayed the One Thousand Hail Marys on August 14^th the eve of the 15^th for the Feast of the Assumption and also on December 8^th for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Different institutions of the town attend: two clubs, two elementary schools (a local one and a rural one), the secondary school, the cattle ranchers, from Providencia, the Gaucho group, groups of catechists, prayer groups, the Marriage Encounter Movement, the Cursillo Movement, the CEA Encounter Movement, and the retirement center. On these days all the institutions take their flags to the church, where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed, and they conclude with the Illuminated Rosary and Holy Mass.

Welcome the Movements with love

During these twenty years this area has distributed about sixty-seven Pilgrim MTAs in the neighboring areas of Progreso, Hipatia, Sarmiento, La Pelas, Maria Luisa, Emilia, Esperanza, Llambi Campbell, Felicia, Cornda, Santa Fe, Santo Domingo…The Pilgrim MTA’s are brought from the Shrines of Rosario and Paraná (La Loma).

Eight years ago they went through difficult times since the Archbishop of Santa Fe at that time did not want Schoenstatt to establish itself in this diocese; he even went to the extreme of prohibiting the presence of the Movement in this place. He had twelve pilgrim shrines with the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe made in Providencia and at La Pelada, and he insisted that the Legion of Mary take charge of visiting the homes with this picture from March 25^th to December 12^th. This custom has remained to this day. But the silent loyalty of the missionaries was rewarded: after Bishop Storni left, the new archbishop immediately implemented the recommendation that the Holy Father made just a few days ago to all the bishops of the world: "…to welcome the Movements with love."

"The Wayside Shrine of the Month" at schoenstatt.de

As a fruit of an answered prayer, the Falco Family wants to build another Wayside Shrine for Our Lady of Schoenstatt on the edge of the road on a route, which is about to be paved…so they are requesting photos of Wayside Shrines. A few years ago, the magazine, Vinculo Missionero, of the Argentinean Rosary Campaign published many photos of Wayside Shrines in the country with a variety of designs, a sign of the creativity of missionaries. Schoenstatt.de has published articles with beautiful pictures of Wayside Shrines for many years, but the request that arrived from Providencia has prompted us to ask a special favor of everyone: Send us photos of your Wayside Shrines, if possible, include some testimonies. We make the commitment to publish each and every one of them in the photo gallery on the Internet, at the same time we will also publish an article on schoenstatt.de with the Wayside Shrine of the Month!

A thousand thanks missionaries from Providencia for this new inspiration!

• Send photos and testomonies to: pressoffice@schoenstatt.de

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