To celebrate the 110th anniversary of the founding of the Movement, many pilgrims from Germany and many other countries gathered on October 18 to renew the Covenant of Love in Schoenstatt (Germany). We also celebrated the 10th anniversary of the centenary of the Covenant of Love in 2014, which was a moment of great importance for the whole Church.
After the solemn Mass, celebrated in the Pilgrims’ Church during the morning, and numerous additional activities in the afternoon, the “Covenant Hour” began in the Pilgrims’ Church, which was broadcast live on the schoenstatt-tv.de channel.
Festive Mass in the Pilgrims’ Church
During a solemn Mass, the celebrant, Father Lothar Herter, recalled the 75th anniversary of the “31st of May”, a “milestone in Schoenstatt’s history”. Among other things, he recalled that Schoenstatt’s founder, Father Joseph Kentenich, had made a point to offer Schoenstatt’s spirituality at that time as a response to the essential needs of the times, which are also very relevant today. “If the sacred is missing in our world, people lose their home and their center,” Fr. Herter said.
International Covenant Hour
Fr. Ignacio Camacho, who conducted the Covenant Celebration program, mentioned the “110 years of the Covenant of Love” on this day, bringing to mind the great jubilee of 2014 and the jubilee “75 years of May 31, 1949” as important events this year. The date May 31, 1949, recalls Father Kentenich’s efforts to draw the attention of the German bishops of that time to the dangers of mechanistic thinking. His proposal to overcome it through “organic thinking, living and loving” was not understood by the Church at the time.
The three-day celebrations in the spring of 2024, with 1500 participants at the Bellavista/Chile shrine, and thus the commemoration of May 31, 1949, were shown by means of a video recording.
Sr. Andra-Maria Lingscheid, a member of the directorate of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary, who participated in this celebration, shared three main insights from her experience.
“God needs us. God needs allies,” was Sr. Andra-Maria’s concluding message: allies who are willing to enter the cracks to make room for the God of life, so that people can once again believe in God’s love.
Passing on the fire
Former 2014 volunteer Soraya Giacomi Zaldívar, from Paraguay, vividly recounted how she experienced her nine months of volunteering, during which she was able to help prepare for the Jubilee in Schoenstatt together with 20 other volunteers from 10 different countries. The main experience for her was the feeling of belonging to an international family. Even today, the volunteers from this time maintain a “close contact” with each other.
When she thinks of the jubilee, the first thing she remembers are the many beaming faces and the joy of those who had longed to come to the Original Shrine for so long and had finally arrived. “We, the generation of 2014, still carry this fire within us, this privilege of having been here, in Schoenstatt.” But from this also comes the responsibility to spread the fire.
Petition for the fullness of the Holy Spirit
In a long procession behind the presentation cross, torches and banner bearers, the people gathered in the Pilgrims’ Church finally made their way to the Original Shrine to renew the Covenant of Love and to ask for the Holy Spirit for the whole world. They had in their ears the words of Father Kentenich, which were quoted during the celebration: “May the Mother of God also implore the fullness of the Holy Spirit for all of us”.
Yes, we are all called to the fullness of the life of grace, faith, hope and love, and “to a fullness that not only fills and transforms our whole being, but overflows in all directions and enriches others with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.” (J. Kentenich, Study, 1964).
Fotos: Kröper
Translation: Maribel Acaron
Source: schoenstatt.de
