Celebration of the Naming of the House in Belmonte Covenant House Thursday 8 December, 3.30pm, Belmonte
Greeting: Msgr. Ignazio Sanna (Professor, Pontifical Lateran University) Song Curch of God (Italian) Church of God, rejoicing people. Alleluia (2) Church of God, rejoicing people Sing for joy, the Lord is with you! God has chosen you, God calls you, in his love he wants you to be with him: spread his Gospel in the world, sow peace and goodness. God guides you as a Father: you find your life with him. Give him thanks, be faithful, until his kingdom welcomes you. Church, living in history, you are Christ s witness here below: open your doors to everyone, save our true freedom. Church, called to sacrifice where Jesus offers himself in Bread, offer your own life joyfully for a new humanity. Introduction: Bishop Gino Reali Introduction 1. Reader With great joy, we celebrate today the feast of the Immaculate Conception. The Virgin Mary is our Mother, and the image of the Church. We are grateful for her presence in this place, in our parishes, and in our families. We recall with heartfelt gratitude the consecration of our parish 51 years ago. Saint Rufina and Saint Seconda, the patrons of our parish and of our diocese, have 2
transformed the look of this region by their works. The Black Forest (Selva Nera) has become the White Forest (Selva Candida). All of this reminds us that our mission today, as the people of God, is to be the leaven of the world in which we live. Through our covenant with Mary, we, as the living Church, become the soul of our culture and of our future world. 2. Reader Today we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the solemn closing of the Second Vatican Council. We are gathered this morning, just as we were 40 years ago, representing the entire Schoenstatt family, around the Holy Father, together with numerous pilgrims, for the celebration of the Eucharist. And again as on the afternoon of 40 years ago, we have come in pilgrimage to Belmonte. We are particularly grateful for the fact that in just a few months since the dedication of the Shrine, beautiful initiatives on the part of the parish and the Schoenstatt family have grown from this shrine. We desire with living faith that the prophetic vision of a renewed Church described by Fr. Kentenich 40 years ago may be a guiding light on our journey in the Church and with the Church. 3. Reader We are the living stones with which Jesus Christ builds his Church in the world today. Just as Mary did, we wish to place ourselves completely at his disposal for the fulfilling of his project. We do this by means of our covenant with Mary: You and I for her. As the international youth of Schoenstatt, on the 10 August of this year 2005, we made a contract the Covenant of Love with Our Lady, on behalf of the youth of the world. Together we wish to realise our founder s vision of an apostolic Church on her pilgrim way through time and through nations, in order to bring the people of the world our contemporaries to Christ. Prayer: Bishop Gino Reali Great and merciful God, who foresaw the redemptive death of your Son, Jesus Christ, and thus preserved the Virgin Mary from every stain of sin from the first instant of her existence, in order to render her a worthy dwelling for your Son, may you grant, through her 3
intercession, that we too may come to meet you in holiness and purity of spirit. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever, Amen. Reading: From the first letter of St Peter (1 Peter 2:4-6) The Lord is the living stone, rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him; set yourselves close to him so that you too, the holy priesthood that offers the spiritual sacrifices which Jesus Christ has made acceptable to God, may be living stones making a spiritual house. As Scripture says: See how I lay in Zion a precious cornerstone that I have chosen and the man who rests his trust on it will not be disappointed. This means that for you who are believers, it brings honour. Hymn Magnificat (My Soul Sings) My soul sings the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in my Saviour. In my lowliness the Almighty has looked upon me, for ever all creatures will call me blessed. My joy is in the Lord who has done great things in me, my praise is to God the faithful one who has come to his people s help and who has not forgotten his promise of love. 4
He has cast out the proud, with their unspeakable thoughts, he has pulled down the mighty he has raised up the humble he has filled the hungry with good things and has opened the hands of the rich. We now listen to words from the talk which our Father and Founder gave here in Rome, 40 years ago: We know how long and how vehemently the Council discussed the features, the new features of this Church. So let us ask ourselves: How can we describe this Church when compared with that of the past? The answer? It is a Church with a new and original identity. (1) It is a Church that, on the one hand, is profoundly and wholeheartedly bonded to tradition, although, on the other hand, it is extremely free, it is detached from rigid, traditional forms. (2) It is a Church that is profoundly united in a fraternal sense, while at the same time being hierarchically governed and directed in a truly fatherly way. (3) It is a Church that has the mission to become the soul of our present-day and future culture and world. Would it be worth our while to dwell upon the details to some extent? I really don t know what I should stress in a special way. Should I remind you that the ancient concepts of the Church now retreat more strongly into the background in favour of the new features of the Church? For us it is particularly significant that the Council liked to say that the present Church sees itself as a pilgrim Church. That is to say, it is not finished, it is not completed, it is a pilgrim Church. What does it mean when we say it is on pilgrimage? It has to take up the most varied elements to the left and right of its pilgrim way, of its pilgrim existence, of its pilgrimage through history. It has to see to it that 5
these elements set their stamp in an essential way on its features, its time-bound features. It is a pilgrim Church. Further, how can we describe these features? How does the Church see itself today? Let me make use of some images. We are used to seeing the Church as an immovable rock. The Church has been built on rock. You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. The Church is a rock still today. However, we may and must interpret this picture in an essentially different way to the past. After all, the Church itself does this. In the past the peoples were invited to seek and find their way to this rock. Today this rock wants to be constantly in motion. If I may use a somewhat unusual picture, I would have to say that this rock is a pilgrim rock. It is on pilgrimage through the nations, it is on pilgrimage through the ages, and it personally looks for people, for souls, indeed it seeks to attract them. That is to say, it does not wait until they come to it on their own. Instead of this the Council Fathers far prefer another image, at least they like to use it: the Church is a ship. A ship implies movement, a ship makes its way through the ocean swells and waves, even if the waves tower above it, even if the waves endanger the ship, so that we have to fear that it will be sucked down into the depths. A picture of the Church. That is how the Church sees itself, this is how the Church experiences its reality. Can we understand the great difference between the past and the present? It will now be much easier for you to understand the heated and stormy discussion at the Council over the image of the Church. What we are looking at today is the first characteristic of the Church it is a pilgrim Church, it is a pilgrim rock, it is a ship that has set out onto the high seas. In contrast to the concept of the past, it is an extremely dynamic Church. At least as far as the emphasis is concerned, it does not stress the static elements so strongly; instead the dynamic strength and force, the dynamism of the Church has to be emphasized today. This is how we can describe the Church. It is a new image of the Church. Taize Alleluia Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! 6
Gospel From the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew (16:13-20). When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, Who do people say that the Son of Man is? And they said, Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But you, he said, who do you say I am? Then Simon Peter spoke up, You are the Christ, he said, the Son of the living God. Jesus replied, Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven. Then he gave the disciples strict orders not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. Homily: Bishop Gino Reali Procession to Covenant House, praying the Litany of Saints The Schoenstatt Shrine in Belmonte is called to be, according to the wish of our Founder, the heart of the International Schoenstatt Center in Rome, and: a symbol of thankfulness for the freedom of our Founder a symbol of the unity and mission of the Schoenstatt work for the Church and the world. It must also be the place from which Mary exercises her motherhood in the postconciliar Church, as is written on the foundation stone of the Shrine: Matri Ecclesiae (to the Mother of the Church) And so we wish now to behold the Church with the heart and the eyes of Mary, as our Founder did, and we want to love the Church as he loved her. We pray together: Response: With you, Father, we will love the Church. Or: Dilexit Ecclesiam (He loved the Church), Father, with you we will love the Church. - Church mirrored in Mary... 7
- Church praying with Mary in the Upper Room... [you can say Cenacle, but it is much rarer and more obscure in English] - Pilgrim Church, with Mary in the Visitation... R: ( ) Once we have arrived in front of the House, each one deposits their stone into the foundation, on which the Father-statue will later stand. In addition, the stones of those who have united themselves with us spiritually by email or by other means will be placed in the foundation. We then spread ourselves in a semicircle around the House. Hymn (World Youth Day 2000, Rome Italian) From the horizon a great light travels through history down the years it has conquered the darkness, becoming a memory, and illuminating our life it reveals to us clearly that we do not live unless we search for the Truth......the Emmanuel. From a thousand roads we arrive in Rome on pathways of faith, we hear the echo of the Word resounding again from these walls, from this sky through the whole world: 8
He is alive today, He is the True Man, Christ among us! We stand here under the same light, under the same cross, singing with one voice. He is the Emmanuel, Emmanuel, Emmanuel. He is the Emmanuel, Emmanuel. Blessing (Bishop Gino Reali) Let us pray: All-powerful and Eternal God, in choosing the Blessed Virgin Mary you revealed to us the beginning of a new covenant which you wanted to form in Jesus Christ. You destined your Church to be a living sign of this covenant. Bless + this House, bless its work, and bless all those who will live and work in it. Make it be a House of the covenant, in which your continuous presence among men will be felt and experienced. We ask this through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Vote of thanks: Msgr. Peter Wolf Final Hymn Enfold us in Thy Mantle/Protect us with your mantle Verses alternated in German and Italian Translation of the textbook: Simon Donnelly, Rome 9