Saturday, July 12, was undoubtedly one of the most anticipated days of the year for those of us who are blessed to pray for Schoenstatt vocations. The long-awaited day of the Investiture of the Tunic of Sion for the Euro-American Novitiate of the Schoenstatt Fathers’ community had arrived. The Shrine in Tupãrenda, Paraguay, once again became the perfect and magical setting.
Two days earlier, family members began arriving from seven different countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, the United States, and Spain), joining the families of the two novices from Paraguay. In Tupãrenda, excitement and joy were growing for the long-awaited reunion… Thus began this great celebration of the International Schoenstatt Family, an event that never ceases to surprise and overwhelm us.
What is the Investiture of the Tunic?
The Investiture of the Tunic is a symbolic and profound act that unites the novices with Christ, with the members of the Schoenstatt Fathers’ community, and with their mission to serve the Church following the charism and example of their founder, Father Joseph Kentenich. After their period of formation in the postulancy, the seminarians receive the tunic at the beginning of the novitiate phase. With it, they will serve the community in various liturgical activities.
At 11:00 a.m. sharp last Saturday, the bells of the Church of Santa María de la Trinidad began to ring. The church was filled with families and delegations of young people who had come from near and far to accompany these 18 novices who, with their “YES,” gave an enormous example of love and courage.
It is time to love!*
In an atmosphere of profound spiritual joy and solemnity, where we were able to experience once again “that heaven is united with earth,” the ceremony began, presided over by Father Alexandre Awi Mello, Superior General of the Schoenstatt Fathers. In a homily that moved everyone to tears, he emphasized the following:
“You have decided to continue looking at Jesus and the Blessed Mother, you have decided to walk with them, and they promise you that from now on you will ‘see greater things’ […] I was thinking about my Investiture of the Tunic and my priesthood. I asked myself if I have really seen ‘greater things,’ and I can say that in almost 25 years as a priest, ‘I have seen the sky open up! So many times! To be a Schoenstatt Father is to witness ‘the sky open up,’ it is to see the wonders that the Lord and his Mother carry out from the Shrine.”
Father Awi continued: “Over time, I discovered that the consecrated person bears witness to something that is beyond, something ‘greater’ that can now only be seen with the eyes of faith […] Like our novices: young men who leave everything behind because they have seen something greater, something beyond what can be seen with the physical eyes! These young people ‘shout’ with their lives that heaven exists, that God exists, that the beyond exists. May the gaze of God and the Blessed Mother teach you to always look toward the horizon of the mission to which you have been called, the mission of our Founder, the mission of Zion, the mission of Schoenstatt. A contemplative and missionary gaze. Your zeal urges us on, it is time to go out and proclaim, ‘it is time to LOVE’!”
Joy shared with the 18 vocations
After this moving homily, the Novice Master, Father Manuel López Naon, called each of the 18 young men by name. After responding in their native language (Spanish, English, and Portuguese) with a loud “HERE I AM!”, they received the white tunic from Father Awi’s hands as a symbol of purity, dedication, and willingness to respond to Jesus’ great calling.
The day continued with an emotional moment of gratitude in the Shrine, where the Novices consecrated themselves to the Blessed Mother, renewing the Covenant of Love that unites them to her and to the entire Schoenstatt Movement.
Meanwhile, in the gardens of Tupãrenda, family and friends waited with open arms, joy in their eyes, and emotional tears still fresh on their cheeks, to embrace them, congratulate them, and, in some cases, to lift them up in the air to the rhythm of the hymns of the Schoenstatt Boys’ Youth, and above all to thank them for this YES and for this commitment through which God remains in each one of us.
We remain united in prayer for each one of them: “Today they are our Sons, tomorrow they will be our Fathers.”
These are the novices who received the Tunic of Zion:
Agustín Goyanes, Argentina
Andrés Pérez, Spain
Armando Giménez, Argentina
Carlos Bezerra, Brazil
Daniel Gómez, Mexico
Daniel Pérez, Ecuador
Emilio Oliva, United States of America
Emilio Woltman, Mexico
Flávio Santos, Brazil
Gonzalo Navas, Spain
Guilherme Ribeiro, Brazil
Horacio Lawes, Paraguay
José Otaegui, Chile
Juan Pablo Seré, Argentina
Mauricio Canales, United States of America
Pablo Enciso, Paraguay
Roberto Urquizo, Ecuador
Santiago Saenz, Mexico
– Watch the entire ceremony here
* The term refers to the title of a song in Spanish: Click here to listen to it.
Translation: Maribel Acaron
