Shrine visits and good food :)

Greetings once again! I told you I would be posting again soon…! This way you can read little by little, or have something to look back on later once I’m home. 

Guess what…I will be home 2 weeks from yesterday! I leave on December 12^th at 10 pm, and arrive in Milwaukee on the afternoon of December 13^th. It’s really unbelievable how fast the time has flown…there simply aren’t enough hours in the day or days in these next two weeks to do everything I want to do, but I will definitely try to squeeze out every drop of life and experience that I can!!  So be prepared for more posts.

On another note: happy Advent! In these next four weeks we as Catholic Christians (for those of you who aren’t or don’t know J ) prepare for Christmas! Well, the whole world does, in a certain way. But for us the most important is that we prepare our hearts for Christ’s coming! That he may be born anew in the little manger of our hears… J <3 I will pray that he finds a warm place in your hearts as well…I know I kind of mentioned it before but it wasn’t actually Advent yet.

Ok, another quick flash back to the past! And then from yesterday. J

A few weekends ago, mis papas chilenos, Antonella (mi hermanita chilena) and I went shrine visiting. J We visited two Schoenstatt shrines that I had never been to before: Rancagua and Buin. We also stopped for lunch at a German restaurant that really reminded me of restaurants in the USA of a similar style. Especially of one that I always go to with the Dedinsky side of the family in Whitefish Bay, WI, called Jack Pandls. It’s great by the way, I recommend you check it out if you’re from the area jaja ;) 

Anyway, this restaurant chain we went is owned by the extended family of a “hero” of the Schoenstatt girls’ youth, Barbara Kast. At least that’s what they told me, haha...Pretty cool. And it had good food too, always a plus ;)

A little bit unrelated, but on another Sunday we went to a restaurant kind of in the middle of nowhere, with a campo-ish kind of feel. At the suggestion of my family I ordered “pastel de choclo”, which is basically like empanada filling with mashed corn backed on top. Actually more like shepherd’s pie but beef and the corn (in Chile they call corn “choclo” FYI) instead of mashed potatoes. Just one more essential Chilean experience before I go home! J

My pastel de choclo ;)

Mi papá chileno jeje...

Anyway, here are pictures of Valle de Maria, Valley of Mary, the shrine in Buin. J

Afterwards, we continued on to Rancagua and the shrine there, “Hijo del Padre para una Santa Tierra Mariana” is the shrine name/mission. That is, “Child of the Father for a Holy Marian Land”. Beautiful!

It’s so cool to visit different shrines for so many reasons. I mean it’s cool to write them in my shrine passport and all, but like the important thing is that one can see how special it is that every shrine has its own mission, its own Schoenstatt family, the things that make it special and yet so united to the other shrines of the world. The other day, here in my shrine, Cenáculo de la Providencia (Cenacle of Providence), I closed my eyes and imagined I was in my (other <3) shrine, International Shrine of the Father Kingdom, in Wisconsin. I could imagine everything so clearly, imagine that the outside was the peaceful land I love so much. But then again it made me sad to think that in such a short while I’ll be sitting in my shrine, imagining that I am in Providencia, remembering how it was and is, missing everything and everyone. That’s the annoying thing about traveling and experiencing another place. You leave a part of your heart there. Well, I’ll save a more sappy emotional post for later, very unnecessary at the present moment. No need to be nostalgic now, only to live in the moment!! :D

Back to the shrine visits, on Sunday I was spoiled to be able to visit 5 shrines, 3 of them new for me!! One of the sisters, Hna. M. Isidora, is so so sweet and took me around on a great…can’t think of the English word…well anyway, an adventure jajajaja. We started in the shrine in Providencia, then we went to a shrine called Nuevo Belen (New Bethlehem) in an area that is rather poor, then we went to Bellavista, the national shrine, and then!! Someone obtained special permission for me to visit the shrine Nuevo Cenaculo (New Cenacle), which is a shrine of the sisters that is usually off-limits to the non-sisters except for special occasions or exceptions, as in my case. Then we went to a shrine called Campanario for a very, very brief visit and Holy Mass. It was so great to be able to do that yesterday! Say a prayer in thanksgiving for everyone who made it possible J

Nuevo Belen!

Nuevo Belen inside. Normally around the picture it has the words in Latin "Servus Mariae Nunquam Peribit", but because of the simple, poor people of the area, here it is written in Spanish. In English it means "A child of Mary will never perish".

Hna. M. Isidora and I in the Nuevo Belen shrine :)

Santuario Nuevo Cenáculo

Me in Nuevo Cenáculo

Me in Campanario

Campanario from outside

Sign next to the door through which Fr. Kentenich, the founder of Schoenstatt, went through as he left for Milwaukee, WI, USA in 1952. A little reminder of home... :)

After Mass we quickly returned home, where we met up with my family and two other sisters, Hna. María Inés and Hna. M. Emilia, and we all went to lunch. My family wanted to invite the sisters to lunch to begin to say goodbye to me. Which is rather sad…I mean of course I’ll see them all before I leave, but to begin to wrap things up. Which makes it start to click in my brain that it’s really ending! But anyway.

The pictures are not that great, but it's the thought that counts. 

On the front right is mi mama chilena, to her left is Hna. M. Isidora, next Maca my host sister, and then her boyfriend Foco. After comes Hna. María Inés, me and Hna. M. Emilia.

Of course in the best picture you can barely see me...oh well haha.

All in all, some great adventures of little me in this big world. Many more to come, but also so many things that I could share that are part of my daily life. I will post again, soon, to share some recent super important events, and hopefully some more informal occasions too.

Love you all, I pray for you all and bring you with me in spirit everywhere!

Abby