Victory.- A new and different year in this close Marian relationship between the Victorians and the Basque Virgin will be reflected in the Novena for Aránzazu, which began on Tuesday, August 30, and will culminate on September 8 with its epicenter in the basilica of the same name.
About this instance we spoke with the parish priest Héctor Trachite, who also reflected on reaching various issues that are on the agenda of Entre Ríos today, from the economy to the burnings, through the need for greater spirituality as an alternative to a world where small actions can make a big difference.
“It is the town’s festival, because Mary has been with us since the beginning, in happiness and also in difficult times,” he began by telling parallel 32.
In this sense, the motto: “Victoria let us walk united towards Jesus, hand in hand with Mary”, as an intercessor so that we always reach him, our savior.
For this reason, the nine days of this celebration were designed with the participation of Mary in “different images of this pilgrimage to the day of the feast; For this reason, each day there will be a different phrase that identifies Mary on the path of faith, preparing our hearts for this feast”.
—This whole context of a pandemic that is changing, and what is happening with the wetland, is it present at a certain moment of the Novena?
– “Yes of course. We have a special day where the gift of life is celebrated, and the care of the common home. On which the church and Pope Francis insist so much, where precisely these issues are. Praying that we are aware of what we are leaving behind for those who come after us: the new generations.”
— The spirituality that is needed to carry this cheap backpack that weighs us down so much, surely it is another approach within these key issues, what reflection do you make about it?
— “We celebrate Mary and ask her to give us a heart of faith. All this makes sense: the Novena, the procession, the mass, the party, etc. If really in these days I open my heart and change in the name of Jesus. And from there, my small contribution, as a citizen, is extremely important.
I cannot solve the world’s hunger, but yes, with my small collaboration I can satisfy a brother who needs a hand or is in need. And not do it for any kind of propaganda, but for love of the brother who suffers.
For the latter, we from the Church also give a whole context of charity to the celebration, beyond the fact that there is not a specific day in this regard.
Trachite said that all these anguishes and intolerances—beyond the economic ones—that we go through, also affect us because “many of us are spiritually empty, we do not give it enough importance, and we seek to satisfy that absence with a lot of things that the world offers me, and since we are beings that are made to transcend, the things of that world are not enough for that task”.
— What about young people in that scenario?
— “We always make the option for children and young people, because they are the present and the future. An aged institution has an expiration date. And although we do not have a large participation of young people, there are instances that fill the soul, such as what has been happening with these meetings of those university students who visited us a few days ago as missions, and those who also come with initiatives proposing phrases and activities that include them.
This year, in addition, the Novena de Aránzazu accompanies the Anadón Museum on its 40th anniversary, and consequently to that commemorative date, it places special emphasis on the four decades of the conflict over the Malvinas Islands, “because we are members of a society, beyond some want the institution to be kept in their temples, or to be in the sacristy. We are people who have interference in society. Let the church shut up; that the priests and the bishop do not speak, or interfere! We cannot, we are citizens and we have the commitment; that others do not coincide, is another topic. Silence is not exactly the prophetic mission of the church, but on the contrary, it is announcing, without confronting or fighting.
Regarding the end, the interviewee said that it is also a special 2022 due to the return of face-to-face to praying the dawn rosary, every day from 7 in the morning around the Plaza San Martín; and the traditional procession (on the 8th at 3:30 p.m.) that had not been carried out during the previous two years due to the imposed social isolation. “In the same way, we think that this caravan of Maria through the neighborhoods is something that we will support, we will see how, or with what number of vehicles, but we intend to continue it.”