Dare to dare a future: a Schoenstatt Shrine for Budapest
Young people are committed to new location
In Budapest, many young people from the Schoenstatt Boys' and Girls' Youth go to the university. For this reason, years ago the desire arose to have a place where they could meet as a community. At first they were able to rent a small apartment. In the meantime, the Cistercian community has given the Schoenstatt youth an unused building in the center of Budapest where they can meet daily for board games, singing and praying, but also for movies and cooking evenings together.
The community is growing steadily, as is the desire to have their own shrine in Budapest. Therefore the youth began to collect donations and pray for it. It seems that God and the Blessed Mother have taken the petitions seriously: On December 13, 2019 they received the interior of a Shrine from Schoenstatt. It comes from the closedold people’s home for the Ladiesof Schoenstatt on the Regina Hill. Father Péter Czérmak and three of his brothers celebrated a solemn Mass that day.In his speech, Father Peter emphasized the character, the characteristics and the message of the Shrine. The youth accompanied the Mass with music.
Afterwards Sister Gertrud-Maria gave a speech about the importance of a future Shrine in the Hungarian capital, especially during Advent -it is a seminal event. The celebration ended with a family gathering and with eating and drinking together.
Last year we started with a review of the anniversary. At that time, with thehelp of Father Walter, the leaders took the first two parts of his speech “The mission for the new century of Schoenstatt”: choosing the path of holiness -living firm authentic attachments. Throughout the year they worked with the motto: “You are the gift and the way of holiness for me”. This year the decision was made to focus on the third part of the mission: To this end, Father Elmar Busse was invited as the main speaker. So the theme of the meeting was “Schoenstatt, the school of the Apostles”. The participants dealt with the theme “Instrumentpiety as the fruitfulness of the striving for holiness”.
The new motto is: “Send me where you have already sown”.God is the sower and he needs workers for his harvest.
For the motto of the year we will preparea worksheet on which, in addition to the motto, a picture is printed that characterizes the motto of the year. The same picture will be printed next year on the cover of the magazine “Spoj nás” (Connect us). On the worksheet there are suggestionsabouthow to work with the motto practicallyand there is also a list of recommended literature. So, let’s getto work!
Kateřina Stejskal, Czech Republic