Be a Living Rosary through Your Cross of Love
We know that the missions are a means of evangelization, a way to be a Church that goes out to kindle the fire of love for Jesus and the Blessed Mother in our youth and to lead our young people to highest ideals. The missions touch hearts that are thirsting to give of themselves, to give their all to meet God who is present in those who want to receive him, but also in those who do not want to receive him. In this framework, the graces of the Schoenstatt Shrine—the grace of being at home, of inner transformation, and apostolic zeal–are given and shared to the degree each heart is open and allows itself to be used as an instrument.
During Holy Week this year, the twelfth mission–the “Via Iesum”–took place in Mendoza, Argentina. One hundred and twenty young people from different provinces, among them Córdoba, San Juan, San Luis, and Mendoza, participated. These were days of deep spiritual reflection, accompanying Christ on his way of the cross and then to his glorious resurrection. These were days of encounter, of departure, days of shared joy in our faith in Christ who gave his life out of love for each one of us.
Every year the mission has a motto that runs through all activities. This year we went to the city of Lavalle whose patroness is The Virgin of the Rosary. That is why the motto of the mission combined this particularity of the place with what is most characteristic of Holy Week:
“BE A LIVING ROSARY CROSS THROUGH YOUR CROSS OF LOVE.”
In view of this motto we discovered the mysteries of God in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus, in our own history, and in the life of the people we visited.
There were opportunities to share with people and to get to know each other
- Through visits to the different houses in the area;
- Through exchange with the people who took the image of our Mother and Queen into their homes;
- Through prayers in common;
- Through the meetings that the missionaries organized with the children and youth of the neighborhoods, playing with them, having fun, and catechizing them.
The missionaries participated every day in the services of Holy Week: the Washing of Feet, the Institution of the Eucharist, the Way of the Cross that the youth of the parish helped stage, and in the Easter Vigil.
By the end of the mission, the Pilgrim MTA had conquered the hearts of the youth. The number of Pilgrim MTA circles in Lavalle, Argentina was increased. Now the Blessed Mother is not only present during these days of mission, but she accompanies the people of this city in their everyday life.
These days of mission invite and motivate us to give thanks for so many young people who are ready to work for the kingdom of God and to grow in faith and in a life of grace.