[covenant-greetings] Blessed Covenant Day

Wed Jan 18 08:10:05 CET 2012

Dear friends and collaborators of schoenstatt.org,

Blessed Covenant Day!
Forwarding the beautiful gift of the official 204 newsletter - please 
subscribe to stay touched!

  Towards 2014

      January 2012

Founding Document 18th October 1914

/Undoubtedly, we could not accomplish a greater apostolic deed nor leave 
our successors a more precious //than to urge our Lady and Queen to 
erect her throne here in a special way, to distribute her treasures, and 
to work miracles of grace. You gather what I am aiming at: I would like 
to make this place a place of pilgrimage, a place of grace for our house 
and for the whole German province, and perhaps even further afield. All 
those who come here to pray shall experience the glory of Mary and 
confess: "It is good for us to be here. Here we will build our tents, 
here our favorite place." A bold thought, nearly too bold for the 
public, but not too bold for you. How often in world history have not 
small and insignificant beginnings been the source of great and greatest 
accom- plishments? Why could that not also hold true in our case? 
Whoever knows the history of our sodality will have no trouble believing 
that Divine Providence has something special in store for it./

Editorial

Dear Pilgrims
as our offices and communication team 2014 take shape in this Year of 
the Shrine Current, so too do our possibilities to reach out to you and 
share from the wealth of experiences being made on the journey toward 
2014. Today we think of the part the Original Shrine plays on that path.

You are receiving the 2nd of our Towards2014 Newsletter. I thank 
everyone for the feedback to our first outreach - both positive and 
critical - and ask that you continue to keep in touch so we can make the 
necessary adjustments to bring you the news and info we all need as a 
family on the road to 2014. We are very aware of the regional 
differences in language - we have a volunteer team of translators and 
ask for your understanding.

Please feel free to pass this newsletter on and get as many people as 
you can to subscribe through our website www.schoenstatt2014.org 
<www.schoentatt2014.org/en>.

Will remember all of you in the visits to the Original Shrine.

Towards 2014
Fr. Andrew

With every step we take on our pilgrim way

There is only a few days left until we cross the 1000 day threshold (as 
can be witnessed on the countdown clocks on some of our Schoenstatt 
websites) on our international pilgrimage toward the jubilee of the 
Covenant of Love, from the great moment of grace, October 18, 2014, in 
the Original Shrine, in Rome, and ? as it is stated in the Message 2014 
<http://www.schoenstatt2014.org/en/message-2014/>: in "? a world-wide 
live link to the celebration held at our place of origin. In this way, 
the current of graces radiating from the original shrine and the 
extensive fruitfulness returning to the original Schoenstatt after 100 
years will be fully expressed."

What we celebrate in 2014 is the Covenant of Love. The Covenant of Love 
which has transformed this chapel into a place of grace which today we 
call our "Original Shrine" ? showing that throughout the almost 100 
years, from this beginning, hundreds and thousands of Shrines have 
emerged which multiply this place of grace. Looking towards the jubilee, 
we see the Original Shrine and the desire grows that it truly be ours. 
We pray that with the renewal of our Covenant of Love at the beginning 
of the second century in the history of the Schoenstatt Family, the MTA 
will again symbolically take her place here.

Motivated by this hope, we were negotiating with the community of the 
Pallottines. In spite of our belief that on the 1st January 2012 the 
Shrine would have already been at our disposal, the negotiations 
continue so that an agreement that is just and fair for everyone, as was 
communicated by Father Heinrich Walter in his letter to the Schoenstatt 
Family 
<http://www.schoenstatt.org/en/uploads/news/2012/01/phw-ur-en.pdf>, is 
reached. We will continue making our steps as pilgrims with everyone's 
participation and active contribution in the Current of our Shrines. The 
"steps of the pilgrimage" with which we approach the Original Shrine and 
with which we bring the Original Shrine closer to us, are given by the 
pilgrims themselves, just as we express it and pray, day after day and 
in the many languages of our pilgrimage prayer: With every step we take 
on our pilgrim way we ask you: Enkindle in us anew the fire of love for 
you, for our father and for our family.

On January 6th, feast of the Magi, I received an email entitled: If I 
were one of the Magi? how many things would I not give to the Mother of 
the Lord and the Child in the manger?..! The Magi became pilgrims, 
following the star, which led them to Bethlehem, leaving aside the 
comfort of their palaces to begin a long and dangerous pilgrimage on the 
way to humility and simplicity - a stable where a Child destined for the 
salvation of humanity had been born. And thus they went to honor him 
with their symbolic offerings of gold, incense and myrrh?.. We, as they, 
are on pilgrimage toward humility and simplicity of a little chapel 
(which is not even our own property) where we firmly believe that Christ 
will be born anew to lead humanity to the Father?.. When we arrive at 
the destination of our pilgrimage, the gifts in our hands are gold (our 
apostolic projects) , incense ( the atmosphere which we create and with 
which personally and as a community we prepare the pilgrimage and the 
"encounter" with the Child and his Mother) , myrrh ( our efforts and 
sacrifices which we prepare filled with confidence for the jar)?..Gifts 
of a "covenant culture."

Amongst the many gifts are our webpages and the work with logistics - 
from Team 2014 and the work teams - , but each pilgrim on this journey 
is certainly preparing their gifts for October 18, 2014. On that day we 
will leave ? with humility and an attitude of service ? all gifts at the 
feet of the Lord and his Mother in order for us to kneel like the Magi 
at the place of grace, our Bethlehem. When the world asks us how we 
succeeded in gathering as a renewed and renewing Family around this 
Original Shrine and then in Rome with the universal Church, we will 
respond: With each step of our pilgrimage.

I send you blessings from the Shrine,

Father José María García

/Translation: Carlos Cantú, Schoenstatt Family Federation, La Feria, 
Texas USA 01092012/

What's

  * Update on the original Shrine
      o Father Heinrich Walter, Superior General of the Institute of the
        Schoenstatt Fathers, in a letter dated January 6 ? the day of
        Epiphany in many regions of the world ? shares the latest news
        on the future of the Original Shrine. We publish the letter -
        simultaneously in five languages and on both of our websites,
        Schoenstatt.org <http://Schoenstatt.org> and schoenstatt2014.org
        <http://schoenstatt2014.org> - and ask you to share it with
        those who do not have access to the Internet.

      o Click Here
        <http://www.schoenstatt2014.org/en/original-shrine---new/>

To subscribe or unsubscribe from Kd1645-towards-2014 - Click Here 
<http://www.schoenstatt2014.org/en/mailing-list/>

We Pray Together for Each Other, on the Way to 2014 - Click Here 
<http://www.schoenstatt.org/en/let-s-pray-together.htm>

        Published by

*Fr. Andrew Pastore*
Schoenstatt International
Communication Office 2014
Pater-Josef-Kentenich-Str.1
56179 Vallendar
Germany

*E-Mail:* info at schoenstatt2014.org <mailto:info at schoenstatt2014.org>
*Web:* www.schoenstatt2014.org 		

        Contacts

*P. José Maria Garcia*
pjm.garcia at schoenstatt2014.org <mailto:pjm.garcia at schoenstatt2014.org>

*Schw. M. Luciane Machens*
M.Luciane at schoenstatt2014.org <mailto:M.Luciane at schoenstatt2014.org>

*Fr. Amdrew Pastore*
fr.andrew at schoenstatt2014.org <mailto:fr.andrew at schoenstatt2014.org>

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