Program

The International Male Youth Meeting, “Schoenstatt 2014 IGNIS”, will take place over several different moments in the midst of the Jubilee activities so that the youth can participate in all the main events of the Jubilee together with the whole Schoenstatt Family.

October 17th, 2014 (Friday)

21h - Gathering of the Male Youth (videos and invigoration)

Place: Garden of the Original Shrine

21:30h – Honoring of the hero sodalists and Coronation of the Queen of the International Male Youth

Place: Original Shrine and Heroes' Grave

23h – Pilgrimage of the Male Youth to the Tomb of Father Kentenich

Place: from the Original Shrine to Mount Schoenstatt (Adoration Church)

23:50h – Commitment of the Male Youth, Adoration, and Moment in the Tomb of Father Kentenich (For Groups)

Place: Adoration Church and Tomb of the Founder (Mount Schoenstatt)

0:30 – 5h - Night of The Shrine – Youth Vigil

Free Program

Place: Original Shrine

October 18th, 2014 (Saturday)

20hs - Youth Festival (male and female youth)

Place: Food tent

October 19th, 2014 (Sunday)

9:30hs – 13hs -  Challenges of the Male Youth for the next 100 years

Place: Schützenhalle

13:30hs  – Sending Mass

Place: Schützenhalle (5 minutes from the Pilgrims' Church)

Program in Rome

October 25th, 2014 (Saturday)

13:00 - Heading from the Papal Audience to the Church where the missions will take place

Place: Iglesia Santi Francesco e Caterina Patroni d'Italia (Church of SS. Francis and Catherine, Patrons of Italy)

Address: Circonvallazione Gianicolense 12  (in front of the Roma Trastevere train station)

Lunch will be offered to all those who registered for the missions with the food option.

16:00 - Official Beginning of the Missions

Place: Iglesia Santi Francesco e Caterina Patroni d'Italia (Church of SS. Francis and Catherine, Patrons of Italy)

20:00 - Closing Mass of the Missions

Place: Iglesia Santi Francesco e Caterina Patroni d'Italia (Church of SS. Francis and Catherine, Patrons of Italy)

Address: Circonvallazione Gianicolense 12  (in front of the Roma Trastevere train station)

21:30 - Dinner

Place: Iglesia Santi Francesco e Caterina Patroni d'Italia (Church of SS. Francis and Catherine, Patrons of Italy)

Dinner will be offered for all those who registered for the missions with the food option.

MEANING OF THE CROWNING AND THE PASSING OF THE TORCH TO THE MTA

The International Male Youth of Schoenstatt will gather to celebrate 100 years since the first Covenant of Love with Mary, sealed by the first members, the young sodalists, who with Father Joseph Kentenich are the founders of Schoenstatt.

The road to the Centennial has been lived differently in the various countries where the male youth are. The male youth of Germany is marked in recent years by the conquest of the “five columns” that define their identity: Gemeinschaft (Community), Lebensschule (School of Life), Liebesbündnis (Covenant of Love), Mannsein (being a man), Apostelsein (being an apostle). The Male Youth of the Latin American countries, in general, have made a common path since 2008, forming what has been called “Missionary Generation”, marked by four characteristic pillars: covenant culture, protagonism, missionary fire and international unity. Along with other impulses of life brought from the different countries, these life streams are in the Jubilee celebration of Schoenstatt in an international meeting of the Male Youth of Schoenstatt.

A symbol that unites the Male Youth in all countries of the world is FIRE. Immediately before the Jubilee celebration, the Male Youth will bring the fire from Pompeii, Italy to Schoenstatt over 9 days on a “torch run” (Fackellauf) and pass it to the entire Schoenstatt Family during the vigil leading up to October 18th 2014.

It is not the first time that Male Youth will have met on an international level. The most recent encounters have been on the occasions of the World Youth Days. In 2011, the Male Youth met in Madrid for UNANIMITER. In the spirit of the Cenacle, like the Apostles with Mary, they were “unanimous” in prayer imploring the Fire of the Spirit. In Río de Janeiro 2013, in the spirit of Pentecost, they went on mission on the beaches and the hills in an encounter called IGNIS.

This FIRE of the International Male Youth of Schoenstatt wants to continue burning in the next 100 years of Schoenstatt. Because of this, the next international meetings will be called IGNIS. With missionary spirit and profound mission consciousness, the boys of the Male Youth want to continue transmitting to the entire world, in all the different countries where they are, this MISSIONARY FIRE (Feuer der Mission) that was started in the Original Shrine 100 years ago in the hearts of the hero sodalists, and from which they – as the Male Youth – feel like pioneers. But they know their helplessness, that they cannot do it alone, that they are instruments of the MTA. Therefore, in the celebration of the centennial, the Male Youth want to ask the Blessed Mother to be the Queen of the International Youth of Schoenstatt, the Queen of Fire, Queen of the Mission that was entrusted to the Male Youth for the next 100 years.

The expression of this process will be twofold: the Male Youth will coronate the MTA with a crown (shaped like fire) and will pass the torch to the MTA (as a scepter) that she, from now onward, will be the main bearer of the Missionary Fire of the International Male Youth. She wants to continue running with us in the next 100 years of the Male Youth, to have the power, to wield the scepter, to be the Queen, to illuminate with her light, to guide us with her Fire! We pass the MTA the Fire of our generation – the generation of these 100 years, the “Missionary Generation” – and ask her to take this fire and keep it burning in the future.

The coronation was suggested by the youth at the end of IGNIS Rio 2013, and the passing of the torch is a natural outcome of the “torch run” which will have already been done for the second time. Although the coronation and the passing of the torch have not emerged as a life stream, they express the cry for help and the trust in the MTA that is in the heart of all the Male Youth looking at the enormous challenges that the future holds.

With the common ground celebrated by the participants of Schoenstatt 2014 IGNIS during the night of October the 17th to the 18th 2014, each country can join the coronation and passing of the torch in their national branches, through a common rite that will be sent to everyone. Also, the crown and the torch (small, shaped as a scepter) can be replicated and given to the MTA in every branch (local and/or national) during that night.

That night, in the Original Shrine, an International Pilgrim MTA will be blessed, which will receive the crown and the torch, and begin her journey through the Male Youth branches throughout the world, so that the Blessed Mother continues to reign in our youths and unite their hearts with the Missionary Fire.

The crown in the form of fire will have 5 points, that will symbolize the “columns” of the Male Youth of Germany and the “pillars” of the Missionary Generation, which aren't difficult to perceive in the common values expressed in them:

• Liebesbündnis – Covenant Culture
• Apostelsein – Missionary Fire
• Gemeinschaft – International Unity
• Lebenschule – Protagonists
• Mannsein – being a Man, being the Male Youth

The shape of the torch remains to be seen, but will be placed to one side of the frame of the Pilgrim MTA, representing the scepter of our Queen, expressing that it will be Her who illuminates and keeps our “Missionary Fire” burning at the service of the future of Schoenstatt and of the Church.

A concrete expression of the Male Youth and their Queen, continuing to carry the Fire to many hearts will be, a few days later, the Mission in Rome, taking the Fire of the Mission to parishes and plazas of the Eternal City.