For us Mexicans, the mission that our Blessed Mother proposed to St. Juan Diego during her apparition in our land, as the Blessed Mother from Guadalupe, on December 1531 is still valid. As a people, she asked us to build her “Sacred Little House,” to dare to build that place where she would give us her consolation and pour out her graces.

On this occasion, we assume the mission from the city of Monterrey. It is a different city, full of industries, innovations, warm people, and spectacular mountains surrounding Mexico’s third-largest metropolitan area, only after Mexico City and Guadalajara. A place where the Schoenstatt Family has been growing exponentially for more than 30 years, and after an arduous conquest, in 2002, the first Schoenstatt Shrine of the city was blessed, an incredible fortress on the top of a mountain, designed for the Blessed Mother to reign from above in our city, honoring her name “Mary, Way to Heaven.”

First Shrine in Monterrey

Since May 2002, when our first Shrine was blessed, the Schoenstatt Family of Monterrey (and many other cities in Mexico) has gone on pilgrimage and received countless graces, including priestly and lay vocations for the different branches of our family, the conquest, construction, and realization of the first Schoenstatt School in Mexico, Colegio Monte Reina, among many other milestones of our family.

Being Mexicans, the Blessed Mother of Guadalupe is always present and latent in our hearts and desires. As a family, we were about to celebrate 20 years of our Shrine and enjoy all the fruits the Blessed Mother gives us from her fortress, the Shrine “Mary, way to Heaven.” Our city was growing, and our concerns were also growing. While we were locked up by the pandemic, instead of our Shrine being abandoned, the pilgrimages to it began to grow unimaginably.

Something new was beginning to be born organically in our family: the need for a second meeting point, a place where the Blessed Mother could continue to work with the same graces as from the top of the mountain and, at the same time, become a place very close to everyone, an oasis in the middle of the city, a land of hope.

Conquest and construction of the second Shrine, a “City Shrine”

This is how a group of representatives from different branches of the Schoenstatt family began to meet at the beginning of 2021, with few things clear but with this common desire: to conquer and build a second Shrine, a “City Shrine” in a central place of our city, accessible to all. This place would not replace but would add to the options of meeting points to visit the Blessed Mother in her Shrine.

After some weeks of working on the idea, on January 23, 2021, this desire was announced to the Schoenstatt Family of Monterrey, and the dream began to take shape: the entire family joined. We divided into work commissions and, with fears and uncertainties, entrusted this desire to the hands of the Blessed Mother.

Then, we had the blessing of the altar as the first element we conquered for our new Shrine. It was placed along with a wayside shrine where the future Shrine would be erected. It was blessed on February 20, 2021. Its placement began to generate pilgrimages and a lot of life and hope in our Schoenstatt Monterrey family living under the pandemic.

And having our hand on the pulse of time and our ear on the heart of God, as good Schoenstatters, we were constantly reminded that, like the first sodalists, we are “children of war” and things were not going to happen without conquering them, conquering them seriously. As a family, we continued to collect contributions to the Capital of Grace. Still, we had to live our faith in divine confidence when we had to wait for the permits and the material resources to be able to begin the construction. More than two years had to pass before finally, on September 9, 2023, our family began to see this desire materialize; when the first shovelful of the work could be taken, at that moment our family began to believe that we would soon have the long-awaited City Shrine in Monterrey.

A Land of Hope

As construction began, hope grew. A basement under the shrine with niches was also planned. It was a place of grace that, even without materially existing, already had thousands and thousands of contributions to the Capital of Grace and an immeasurable longing. However, it was still a place that did not yet have a name.

Then, two titanic tasks began in parallel. The first was to send the picture of the Blessed Mother on pilgrimage to all the families who wanted to receive her, which was sent from the Original Shrine. The second was to involve the entire Schoenstatt Family of Monterrey in conquering the name of the future Shrine. As of today, the picture has visited 678 homes and has been present at every Holy Mass and important events of our family.

After months of group meetings, intense work, and much prayer, with the participation of the entire Schoenstatt Monterrey family, we discovered the name for the new Shrine: “Mary, Land of Hope,” which will be blessed during the Jubilee Year of Hope 2025.

Our Archbishop, Msgr. Rogelio Cabrera López, has confirmed that the date for the blessing of our Shrine will be March 1, 2025. The construction is in its final stage, and the material and spiritual conquest is more alive than ever. The contributions to the capital of grace have exceeded our expectations, and the family counts the days to crown what during these 4 years was merely a longing. The hope with which an idea began is that heaven and earth will unite in the jubilee of celebration because Monterrey has a new Shrine, a favorite place, from where we can feel that oasis, that land of hope in the middle of our city.

With only a few weeks left, we count on your prayers and contributions to the capital of grace.

Translation: Maribel Acaron / Sr. M. Lourdes Macías