The Shrine: Our Bethlehem

Your shrine is our Bethlehem…

The image that comes to mind is that of Bethlehem at Christmas, where we find a most holy, awe-filled place for the Holy Family. Meditating on the shrine as our Bethlehem, I place myself in the center of the shrine in awe in front of the tabernacle as if I were present in Bethlehem on that first Christmas night.

This is the place where Mary has “graciously established Schoenstattso that our times can see the Eternal Light. From there [she] wants to go through our dark world as the Christ-bearer sent by God (from Heavenwards).

It isn’t really Christmas if I don’t sit in the shrine just before or right after Midnight Mass – sitting amidst the tree sparkling with the lights all over and the moving scene of the Nativity. Each year it is different and I anticipate what element will draw me closer into the mystery of the Incarnation. It’s one of my favorite parts of Christmas Eve.

For this New Year, we pray:

[Mother and Queen,] jubilantly place the Lord into my soul anew, so that, like you, I may perfectly resemble him. Let me be a Christ-bearer for our times, that they may shine in the brightest radiance of the sun (-Heavenwards).