Dear Family of the Apostolic Schoenstatt Movement
On behalf of the Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement in Corrientes, we would like to invite you to the Blessing and Inauguration of the Schoenstatt Daughter Shrine which will take place on Sunday, September 11, 2022. We hope you will be able to participate in this great feast of the Blessed Mother. She listened to the prayers of her children and wants to establish herself forever in this Shrine, in the land of Corrientes, in the heart of the Northeast and on the shores of the Parana River. It will be unforgettable to experience the moment of blessing of this holy place. We hope that the Argentinean family, as well as the families of other countries, accompany us to share this great joy, crowning an exciting and audacious history of conquering the material and spiritual construction of a Schoenstatt Shrine.
From the very beginning, our Taragüí has two icons, signs that go through all its history and give origin to its identity. It is a land adopted by the Pure and Immaculate Conception as her maternal possession, under the shadow of the sacred wood of the Holy Cross of Miracles.
Mary’s Land
The culture of Marian devotion identifies this land of Corrientes unmistakably as the “Land of Mary“, in which the inhabitants of the whole territory go to her throne, and the pilgrimages are multiplying and becoming rivers of believing life. Pilgrims gather filially to beg, thank, or simply greet the queen, who from the shore of the majestic Paraná, welcomes, transforms and encourages her children to love Jesus.
The Marian fertility of this land, which is nourished by a deep love for the Mother of God, made it possible for the Schoenstatt seed to find a home, and with time, it was able to grow robustly.
Father Héctor Pérez Olibrio
In the early 1970’s, a priest from the Schoenstatt Federation of Priests, Father Héctor Pérez Olibrio, brought soil from the Shrine in Bellavista, Chile, and left it at the feet of the Most Tender Mother of Itatí. Over the years we discovered that the Mother welcomed this simple, but foundational gift. A few years later in 1974, the Lavini couple, who belonged to the founding group “Diapason” of the Family Branch of Paraná, Entre Rios, arrived in this land because of their job. In Corrientes they met a Salesian priest friend who invited them to give a testimony on the New Man, in a conference at the minor seminary of the Archdiocese. They gladly accepted, and while they were touring the place and getting to know it, they discovered a black and white image of the Blessed Mother, a gift Father Kentenich had sent through a German priest to the diocese decades before.
Our Blessed Mother providentially showed us the place where she wanted to be, at the very heart of our church, a place of formation of our future priests. This was a sign that guided our later determined actions to fulfill the “Dilexit Ecclesiam” of our founder. The discovery of this painting for the Lavini couple was very surprising and emotional, and at the same time, they felt that SHE was asking something of them.
A month later, in the Parish of Our Lady of Pompeii, the Capuchin priest with whom they worked with couples in the Diocese of Formosa, Father José Luis Schmidt OFMC, presented them to the community and the Youth Group, asking them to take charge of these youth, and they did. They met weekly and the curiosity to learn about the “MTA” was born in the youngsters. From there, fifteen young hearts emerged that fell deeply in love with the Blessed Mother, accompanied by the Lavini couple, thus giving birth to the first youth group of the Schoenstatt Movement in our archdiocese.
One of the most significant facts was the gift of the foundational image made by the Paraná family to these youngsters from Corrientes. This gift of love from our Blessed Mother remains among us as a testimony of her silent action through the years, conquering heroic hearts for her.
The Schoenstatt Family is enriched and sustained serving the Church and the local community with:
– Holy Rosary Pilgrim Campaign.
a. The Schoenstatt Rosary Campaign in the Schools
b. Campaign for Babies at Risk “Campañita”.
– Secretariats: Sister Emilie – Father Joseph Kentenich
– Girls’ and Boys’ Youth
– Men’s Column – Madrugadores
– Men’s Federation
– Family Work
a. Apostolic League of Families
b. Institute of Families
c. Apostolic Federation of Families
– Professional Women
– Mothers’ Branch
In our Guarani land, she has been carrying out her mission as Mother and Queen for 52 years. Today she is crowned with the completion of a Daughter Shrine, a process of construction that took two years of hard work and that represents a true material and spiritual conquest of the family of Corrientes. This Shrine is located at 1411 Güemes Street.
On March 2, when few imagined that it was going to be so complicated with a pandemic, the authorization from the National Direction arrived for the construction of the long-awaited shrine, awakening great enthusiasm and deep feelings in the family of Corrientes.
During these two years of the pandemic, we have been infected not only with Covid, but with the massive contagion of faith and, within the Schoenstatt family, of love for the Blessed Mother, for our father and his mission and for the Church. We were on fire and we got to work to realize the construction of the Shrine, source and mystery of our spirituality, where through the Covenant of Love we seek to conquer and attract hearts. A Shrine where the glories of Mary are experienced: her maternal affection that welcomes, her tender gaze that transforms us and her fruitful love that moves us to share the experience. A Shrine where, in addition to having an encounter with her, we are brought together as a family to discern the path that will lead us to live the Covenant of Love to the fullest.
A work of Divine Providence
The pandemic has been a decanter in all aspects of our lives. It has revealed to us what is essential and what is not. It also served to look at reality differently and with a fresh look.
It was a time that gave us opportunity for growth and spiritual maturity, and during this time of intense learning and adaptation, new ways of communicating, working and fulfilling our mission emerged. We took advantage of the new possibilities and the new tools, and we set to work despite the limitations and necessary precautions to protect our health. It is important to emphasize that this important event, a work of Divine Providence, signifies the realization of a desire coming from the entire region. Pilgrims will go there to receive the graces of our Blessed Mother and leave transformed into apostles with the message of the Good News. We see the glorification of the Blessed Mother in the completion of this Daughter Shrine. Now we, the family of Corrientes, are the ones responsible for bringing the FATHER’s dream to its fullness, to generate from this new Daughter Shrine, a new church and society in this time of synodal discernment of the horizon towards which we are heading.
This episode of grace is for all of us. It belongs to the entire International Schoenstatt Family. We invite you to experience this milestone for the Church of Corrientes, accompanying us in this moment of grace and call to live our Shrines as Schools and Workshops of Holiness, so that all of us can relive the father’s message to allow ourselves to be educated by the Blessed Mother and in the Covenant of Love working for the “new shores“.
We look forward to your presence joyfully and confident in his victory!
Diocesan Council of Corrientes
In order to better organize ourselves, it is essential that you confirm your participation, before July 30, by filling out the Google form below: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfqLgrc1OHGr6eGJSgK0ITIMGGqY37cFl5XckVxxdtxe3K0OQ/viewform