Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement

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The Covenant of Love and the first 100% Brazilian satellite

The Covenant of Love and the first 100% Brazilian satellite

On February 28 the first 100% Brazilian satellite will be launched into space. The "Amazonia-1" was developed in Brazil by the National Institute for Space Research (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, INPE) and it was completely designed, constructed, tested, and operated by Brazil to observe planet Earth. Its main purpose is to observe and monitor deforestation, especially among the Amazon region. After many hard working years and hundreds of people involved, this satellite will be launched from the base at Sriharikota, India

By Karen Bueno
February 28th, 2021
This MTA image accompanies Marcelo in his work in India

The Brazilian team that is finalizing the project has been working in India on the final details for the launching since December. Among them is Marcelo Petry, member of the Schoenstatt Family League in Atibaia, Brazil. He is a physicist who works at INPE. He is married to Mayra Montoya Petry and is currently preparing to seal his Covenant of Love with the Blessed Mother.

 

What follows is an interview directly from India in which he tells us how the development of this satellite is also helping him to prepare for his consecration through the Covenant of Love and what we can expect from this new technology for Brazil.

 

What is your job? What exactly do you do?

 

I work at INPE and my job is to deal with the thermal controls for the satellites. To put it simply, you could say that my job is to maintain the temperature of the equipment that is part of the satellite within the specified temperature range, neither too hot nor too cold.

 

What part do you play in the Amazonia-1 project?

 

I am part of the thermal control subsystem where we have a first segment that deals with the computational analysis and architecture of the thermal project, and a second segment which deals with the physical development and implementation of the proposed solution. I am responsible for the team that works with that second segment. It is in charge of developing and manufacturing the MLI (a kind of spatial blanket) which covers the satellite. We also apply other thermal control devices such as ribbons, dyes, heaters, heat diffusers, among others.

How long have you been working on this program and what stage is it presently in?

We have been working on this project for six years and we are now preparing for the launch which is scheduled for February 28 at the SHAR launching base in Sriharikota, India.

Is there something you have learned through the Schoenstatt Movement that has helped you in your job?

Yes, it can be summarized in “Nothing without you, nothing without us.” This is the teaching that I carry with me in my everyday life. It always reminds me that I am responsible for my actions, but that I must guide those actions according to Christian principles. When the Russians and then the Americans launched the first spaceflights, Fr. Kentenich compared the conquest of space to the Covenant of Love. “It is true that through the Covenant of Love we are launched into space. We have entered the spaceship which is Mary’s heart” [1], he said. 

You are actually preparing to seal your Covenant of Love as a member of the Family League. Why do you think Father Kentenich makes this comparison? Can you see the Covenant as that shuttle which takes you to space?

When they are launched into space, astronauts are no longer walking on Earth, they are floating in space. The Covenant of Love separates us from an excessively materialistic life, which often might cause the same feelings of lack of attachment. With astronauts this requirement is met by attaching themselves to a spacesuit or a larger spacecraft, thus assuring his survival. To a Schoenstatter, the spacecraft is our MTA’s heart. Just like a spacecraft, Mary’s heart protects us during our flight, but we are responsible for the navigation. 

In Schoenstatt we claim that the inner world and the outer world -microcosm and macrocosm- should develop in harmony. The technological advances must go hand in hand with the spiritual advances. Is there anything in the development of “Amazonia-1” that has helped you in this process of inner growth?

Due to the amount of effort required to build a satellite, the process itself ends up influencing the way in which we relate to our surroundings. Just as we face numerous difficulties, there are multiple opportunities to practice our resilience, self-control and even empathy for others. It is often necessary to persevere for a long time in order to achieve the desired objective, without short cuts or detours during the journey, which makes it exhausting for those involved. When this happens, we must remember that there is a common goal and that we must overcome the barriers along the way, no matter what they are, because, if we don’t, we will all fail.

Why has this satellite been developed? What is its purpose? What benefits will it bring for Brazil?

The Amazonia-1 is a satellite that allows the photographic registry of the planet’s surface, normally classified as a tele-detection or remote sensing satellite. It was designed to observe and monitor the deforestation in the Amazon region. To fulfill this task, the Amazonia-1 takes pictures of an area in the forest, stores the images on its onboard computer and, as soon as it makes contact with one of its receiving antennas installed in the INPE units, sends the images so that the researchers can process them digitally and generate data on the forest’s deforestation. Images can also be generated to control forest fires, monitor urban growth, agricultural areas and water resources, among other things.

As for the benefits, we can approach them in two ways: a direct way and a cross-sectional way. The direct benefits are tied to the operation of Amazonia-1 per se, which consists in obtaining images that reinforce the availability and frequency of the information so that researchers may generate data that, in turn, can be used by agencies like the IBAMA (Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis). As for the cross-sectional benefits, they can be identified as the validation of the multi-mission platform (PMM), which, if we make an analogy with a truck, would be the engine part; and the satellite payload module would be the semi-trailer, which is where the equipment that performs the satellite’s mission is located. Something else to take into consideration is the creation of skilled jobs in the national industry as well as the increase in the techno-scientific capacity of the involved institutes, which allows the possibility of targeting more complex projects that correspond to society’s needs.

The satellite will be launched by mission PSLV-C51 of the ISRO at 10:24 local time in India. The information and up to date photos can be found on the Engenharia Espacial INPE: Missão Amazônia-, Facebook page. 

 

Hyperlink: https://www.facebook.com/amazonia1inpe/

 

[1] Father Joseph Kentenich. On Monday Evenings, vol.21

 

Translation: Maribel Acaron

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Heroic Childlikness: An Exciting Proposal!

Heroic Childlikness: An Exciting Proposal!

On August 20, 2020 will be celebrated the 71st anniversary of the coronation of the Mother ThriceAdmirable, Queen, and Victress of Schoenstatt at the Tabor Shrine in Santa Maria/RS, Brazil, by the founder of the Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement, Father Joseph Kentenich.

As Father Kentenich always did, he analyzed the signs of the time, the difficulties and the worries, and he prayed to know what God wanted with all of this. He realized the difficulty, which there was in general, in relating faith and daily life, that is, in maintaining a balance between attachment to God, to one’s neighbor, and to all created things.

It is part of the fundamental experience of each human being, of having bonds within a family, as a means for the development of each unique personality. God uses this same path to come to us and for each person to achieve a personal and deep bond with him.

Father Kentenich, following the teachings of  Jesus, points to being a child before God as the ideal and way of life for the Christian. He shows Mary as the one whose mission is to educate those who entrust themselves to her to live the filiality, received in Baptism, to a heroic degree. An attitude of filial surrender, in the light of faith, sees God behind every event – even the most difficult ones – and seeks in everything to do his will, always for love of the Father. Jesus is the model of a beloved and heroic Son who went to the cross for love of his Father.

When he crowned the MTA on August 20, 1949, as Queen of Heroic Childlikeness, Father Kentenich affirmed childlikeness as an essential element of Schoenstatt’s spirituality. “Accept the crown as an expression of the request: Take care that all Schoenstatt children receive and maintain, until the end of time, the grace of heroic childlikeness – and with it the guarantee of an essential element of our spirituality.”

Filiality is a current theme

This time of so many discoveries and so much progress needs childlikness. Being a child is a necessity for the people of today who are facing so many adversities!

Despite being part of a world network of communication, connected, but still separated and distant, more and more the human being feels alone in the world. Modern persons often lack a nest experience that gives security. It is also true that the deterioration of the family nucleus and the loss of strong relationships make the experience of childlikness more difficult. Usually the experience with the supernatural world is based on the experiences of relationships in daily life, especially with a father and a mother, siblings, and friends.

 

That is why we crown the Mother of God as Queen of Heroic Childlikeness, because she wants to help us cultivate even more healthy bonds to people, places, and ideas. We need to lead people to the Mother of God, so that in her arms, they reinforce their learning, what it is to be a child. This is what the Schoenstatt Movement tries to do in the covenant of love with the Mother Thrice Admirable.

 

As seven decades ago, the coronation offered by Father Kentenich is current today. In our time, in today’s difficulties, a childish childlikness is not the way. It is necessary to be guided by the Holy Spirit to the heroism of faith and filial love for God. Only those who are profoundly children before God have the strength and security today to prove the faith and apply it in daily life as mature Christians, as protagonists of this necessary social transformation. Mother Thrice Admirable must be, even more today, our Queen of Heroic Childlikeness. Let us allow ourselves to be educated by her!

 

Sr. M. Rosequiel Fávero and Sr. M. Nilza P. da Silva

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The Shrine of São Paulo Celebrates its 50th Anniversary

The Shrine of São Paulo Celebrates its 50th Anniversary

A "luminous lantern" in the largest metropolis of the Americas

Luisa Monteiro

The Tabor Shrine of Victorious Confidence in the Father, in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, commemorated 50 years of existence on July 8, 2020. The activities around this jubilee included three days of preparatory triduum, more than two million prayers gathered for opening day,  holy Masses of Commemoration – one of which was presided by Cardinal Don Odilo Scherer -, and one day of sharing shrine experiences. The agenda followed the theme “Anchored to the Father, with the Queen of the Covenant, to turn the shrine into a hidden pearl, a luminous lantern for São Paulo”.  This celebration is the apex of three years of preparation, which involved all the branches, communities, and apostolates of the Schoenstatt Work. The shrine, located in the neighborhood of Villa Mariana, was the fourth to be founded in Brazil and the second in the city of São Paulo. 

The first event on the jubilee agenda took place twenty days before the anniversary of the inauguration of the shrine. On July 18, the Schoenstatt Family of Villa Mariana, including those devoted to the Pilgrim Mother and the connected dioceses, proposed to pray one million prayers of Confidence for the Mother of God – a goal that was successfully achieved and which resulted in the presentation of 2,345,605 Prayers of Confidence as a gift to the Mother and Queen.

The Blessed Mother goes out to meet her children

The sunny morning of July 5 coincided with the festivities of Jubilee Sunday. With the current pandemic, people were unable to visit the shrine. However, they did not stop greeting the Queen. The picture of the MTA was removed and placed on the road in front of the shrine to bless the community. Many people passed in front of her, in cars and on foot – many came on their knees- and carried flowers and gifts of their offerings to the capital of grace. 

For the festivities, a small group composed of the members of the Council of the Schoenstatt Family gathered in the shrine. Those who could not attend because of health measures were fully represented as a table full of gifts, sent by the members of the Movement, was placed next to the shrine. Around the garden, dozens of signs highlighted the name of each branch and diocese. The families were also called to spiritually witness the event, and during the experience day, a scroll with more than seven thousand names of families, sent by the community during the week before the jubilee, was presented to the Blessed Mother. 

A new crowning 

The  Golden Jubilee Holy Mass, presided over by Cardinal Don Odilo Scherer, was witnessed by many from afar. It was a celebration that commemorated the history of a small  shrine, whose presence, in the words of the Cardinal “became significant in our city and for many people who found there well-being, joy, and blessing, a refuge for their encounter with God and Our Lady, Mother and Queen of us all. 

Don Odilo’s wish is that “the celebration of this 50th Anniversary, may mean a renewal, a deepening of the mission that the shrine and the Movement assume here in São Paulo. So that, in this time of new evangelization, of missionary renewal, we can radiate this presence of grace, of mercy, of the goodness of God throughout our city.

The celebration ended with a new crowning of Mother Thrice Admirable in the shrine, Tabor Shrine of Victorious Confidence in the Father, by Don Odilo. Around the shrine participants raised their pictures of the Blessed Mother, and were joined by spectators and pilgrims from their houses, in their home shrines. The day referred to by many internet users as a “day of heaven on earth”, concluded with the crowning prayer and the beautiful Schoenstatt tradition of consecration of hearts, once again, to the Blessed Mother. 

Posted by Santuário de Schoenstatt da Vila Mariana on Sunday, July 5, 2020

Posted by Santuário de Schoenstatt da Vila Mariana on Sunday, July 5, 2020