Celebrating our vocation

The first 18th of the year 2009 in Schoenstatt – on the eve of Conference 2014

Misa de la Alianza Covenant Mass Bündnismesse
P. José María García Fr. José María García P. José María García
En el Santuario Original Arriving at the Original Shrine Ankunft am Urheiligtum
Tres argentinas se encontraron en Schoenstatt Three Argentineans met at the fire Am Feuer trafen sich “plötzlich” drei Argentinierinnen
La luz del Santuario... Light of the Shrine Licht vom Heiligtum, Heiligtum im Licht Fotos: Cássio Leal/K. Fischer © 2009 Álbum de fotos – photo album – Fotoalbum

SCHOENSTATT, mkf. While the Schoenstatt Family gathered to renew the Covenant of Love once more, the universal Church looked towards Mexico, where the World Encounter for Families concluded today with a message transmitted live from the Vatican to the thousands of couples gathered at Guadalupe.  The  Pope affirmed that, thanks to the new communication technology, "I have gone on spiritual pilgrimage to this Marian Shrine, the heart of Mexico and of all America, to entrust all the families of the world to Our Lady of Guadalupe"  Thanks to the new communication technology, it was also possible to go on spiritual pilgrimage, live (via www.schoenstatt-tv.de) to this Marian Shrine in the valley of Schoenstatt, the cradle, source and goal of the vocation of everyone who feels called to this Schoenstatt Family, a true family, as Father José Maria García, the main celebrant, stressed. 

Before the renewal of the Covenant of Love in the Original Shrine, he mentioned that through the communication media, and even more through the current of life and grace that binds us as a family, those present here were united to everyone in any place of the world who feel attached to this Shrine.

The Covenant of Love is our vocation

While the Church looks towards Mexico and the world centers on the financial crisis, he stressed in his sermon during the Covenant Mass celebrated in the Pilgrims Church, we renew ourselves in our vocation, that is the Covenant of Love, to give  a response to the world that seeks confidence and security; that basically seeks, the family.  We cannot renew the Covenant without looking at the ecclesial and world context. We are called in the Covenant for a concrete Church and world.  We renew the Covenant - every 18th as in 2014 - recognizing our smallness, and expressing gratitude for the greatness that God has worked in and through us. This is the context of fulfilling the mission.

Based on the Gospel for that day (John 1, 35-42), the call of the apostles, Father José Maria showed how every 18th we again celebrate the history of  a personal vocation and as a family.  Saint John sent forth the first two apostle to follow Jesus, and when He turned and saw they were following him, he asked them:  "What do you want?"  This is the  beginning of a dialogue that took the first apostles to go where Jesus lives, and then to leave their nets and everything to place themselves at His service, leaving everything for their mission.

Every 18th, we celebrate the history of our vocation. Every 18th Jesus turns to us to ask us:  "What do you, Schoenstatt Family, want, what do you personally want? and we will respond with the desire for the mission...

Father’s Family

We want to be a family, a family of the Father, because we are called to be family, to be a community of life where God acts, a true family around the people, we renew the Covenant of Love as a response to the desire of confidence, of being family...We celebrate the 18th, and we celebrate our smallness, our limits, but this does not make us small, rather that it makes us celebrate the consciousness of having been called for this world.  The grace that we received in the Covenant of Love, he said, does not want to remain in grace alone - it wants to become concrete in fruits, in deeds, in a blessing for others.

The Conference 2014, that will take place from February 1st to the 7th, will gather representatives from all the Family of the Father, as Family of the Father - a family formed by the Father, sent by the Father, open like the Father, conscious of their mission for the present world.  He asked everyone to accompany this Conference and the 100 representatives from 32 countries with their prayers, as many groups, diocesis and branches already offered to do in a very concrete way, sponsoring days, groups or subjects of the Conference.

Everyone is present at Schoenstatt

After the Covenant Mass everyone went in procession to the Original Shrine to renew the Covenant in the place where the history of the Schoenstatt vocation and that of each Schoenstatter began.  Pilgrim MTA's for Romania and Germany were blessed - the Campaign being a clear sign of the fruitfulness of the Schoenstatt mission - afterwards all went to the fire bowl to burn the Capital of Grace and all the sheets with the names for the stars - from  the manger in Schoenstatt as well as those that were sent via Internet.

So once again, the entire family was present in Schoenstatt...

Tarnslation: Celina Garza, San Antonio, TX, USA