Posted On 2015-02-26 In Covenant Life

Shrine of Pentecost Grace

GERMANY, usd. This is about the 100 houses of solidarity. For every shrine, there is a house as a Jubilee gift for the Blessed Mother! Of course, I also wanted to help, and the house built, thanks to my donation, would have the name of my group shrine, Shrine of Pentecost Grace. Afterwards I was thinking very much about my small shrine, which has had a special place in my home for many years. How many? The Blessed Mother has been working from here since 1978.

At that time and almost at the same time, my daughter and I were entrusted with the leadership of two groups. My daughter was in charge of a group, Mary’s Apostles, and I was in charge of a group of ladies who wanted to grow along with me in training for the Mothers’ League.

We both felt somewhat helpless despite the help of a “youth sister” or that of the Mothers’ League’s diocesan delegate. Then, without thinking about it twice we decided: The Blessed Mother has to help us!

What we wanted to ask her was very clear to us. The unpleasant situation during religious education class and the new steps in the catechesis for First Communion and Confirmation working in a group with the catechist already had us worried. Then we knew that we needed renewal and depth. For this we needed the Holy Spirit! And our Mother Thrice Admirable of Schoenstatt should request it for our work.

So as recent arrivals to Schoenstatt and without even knowing what a home shrine was, we chose the name, Shrine of Pentecost Grace. Beneath the small crowned picture of the Blessed Mother, we placed a phrase (that we wrote on an embossed ribbon):

“From here, build a world, so it will please the Father.”

We wrote a short consecration prayer, and courageously and confidently, we dedicated ourselves to the work with our groups.

Every shrine has its own mission

What came of all of this? We learned that in addition to the three graces of a home, transformation and sending forth, every shrine has its own mission.

The group work bore good fruits; the girls’ group generated several leaders. The ladies’ groups increased. During all these years, I have prepared more than thirty-five women for the covenant of love, in whose families there have been great changes.

But the “effect” was not only limited to the Schoenstatt groups.

I cannot even count the number of conversations about the Christian faith that took place before the eyes of the Blessed Mother in the Shrine of Pentecost Grace, nor can I say if my visitors knew or only suspected this, because I did not even bring up the subject in these conversations. Often I was surprised that everything developed in such a simple way.

And something else, the stream of graces is also nourished by enormous sources that are very, very far away:

It was only years afterwards that I found out that when we built our small group shrine – which was blessed on June 20, 1998 – the Schoenstatt Family in Chile was preparing to crown the Blessed Mother as Queen of a New Pentecost.

It is true that the Blessed Mother is the great missionary. From the Original Shrine, she works even in the smallest and most modest shrines. We only have to offer her the necessary framework so that she can win the world for Christ. In our home – and for that matter also in those of other families – she has taken her place in our home shrine. There we feel accepted by her; we have a home of a totally different nature, where as one might say, we feel at home. But obviously she not only seeks a place for herself, she also wants to give men/women a home.

“One Hundred houses”

During the Jubilee year for her, the schoenstatt.org team proposed to build real houses, where her neediest children, who until then, had being living in dire conditions, could live. We wanted to give the Blessed Mother 100 houses in gratitude for the 100 years of covenant. It was a number that was reached quickly. Suddenly we realized that we were mistaken when we said that one house would be built for each Schoenstatt shrine, because then there should be two hundred houses. Among the almost 150 houses which have been built until now, a good number represent home shrines.

Who knows what special graces the Blessed Mother distributes to the residents of these homes and what graces she will continue to distribute within these families?

Original: German. Translation: Celina M. Garza. San Antonio, TX USA

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