The Covenant of Love strengthens a deep bond between the Blessed Mother and her Covenant allies. This relationship is meant to shape one’ s whole life. Everything we do can become transcendental if we take the Covenant of Love seriously. We share here the experience of the Melquiades family in Brazil. The children describe what it means to them that their parents live their Covenant of Love.
With the risen Christ we celebrate Covenant Day. During this month of April, the Schoenstatt Family commemorates an outstanding episode in its history: the day on which Father Joseph Kentenich’s mother, Catherine, consecrated him to the Blessed Mother’s care when she left her son at the orphanage.
The boy was only nine years old and closely listened to his mother’s prayers. From that day on, Mary became young Joseph’s educator and instructor. Years later, Father Kentenich was able to say that this event was the seed that gave birth to the Schoenstatt Work. For before sealing the Covenant of Love, he himself had already experienced the fruitfulness of having Mary as an educator in his life.
Today, when we seal our Covenant of Love, each person experiences what our founder experienced when he was consecrated to the care of the Blessed Mother. And, like Catherine, many parents live this covenant with a profound childlike confidence, inspiring the lives of their children.
An example of this is what we find in the lives of Helena and Joaquim Melquiades’ (from the Schoenstatt Institute of Families) five children. Their children tell us about it:
Testimony of the Melquiades family
My parents’ Covenant of Love was fundamental in my trajectory of love for Christ and the Blessed Mother. It was through them that I was able to become attached to the MTA and the Shrine. A couple’s Covenant of Love bears fruit in their family life and in the education of their children. Thus, the example of a life of prayer, of fidelity to the Movement and to the Church marked my childhood and my youth. The experience of the Home Shrine as a place where joys and difficulties were offered and as a foundation for making decisions kept me connected to Christian values and seeking to follow in Divine Providence’s footsteps. This whole experience allowed me to define my vocation for marriage, motivated me to form a family of my own and to follow the Gospel teachings within the family environment. I thank God for my parents and my family.
Fábio Luiz Melquiades – Schoenstatt Family Federation
I believe that what motivated me to participate in the Movement and to seal the Covenant of Love with the MTA was undoubtedly my parents’ life example, their sacrifices and offerings to the Capital of Grace. All this devotion was fundamental for my formation as a person. In our home we always had our parents as models who inspired us to be what we are today, and all this is the fruit of the Covenant of Love sealed by them. Another very important aspect in my spiritual growth process was the freedom they always gave us which allowed us to choose Schoenstatt and follow the path that God wanted for each one of us.
Everson Ricardo Melquiades – Schoenstatt Federation of Families
The Covenant of Love sealed as a couple is a great help towards living the sanctity of marriage and towards the day-to-day search for a holy life, especially in the relationship with the children. I believe that the Covenant of Love that my parents sealed helped in my spiritual growth as a son, in always making decisions within the Christian faith and in my daily pursuit of holiness in my life. There is nothing but gratitude for the fact that my parents sealed the Covenant of Love with the Blessed Mother and that they are an example for me.
Rafael Augusto Melquiades – Schoenstatt Institute of Families
To be born in a Schoenstatt home was and continues to be a great grace for which I thank God every day. In my parents I see clearly what it means to live the Covenant of Love in Schoenstatt. Not through the theories, but through the examples they gave me and still give me in everyday life, in their trust in the Blessed Mother in the face of difficulties, in the mutual respect among themselves, their children and grandchildren, in the loyalty to the commitments they assumed, especially within Schoenstatt and the Church, in the criteria used in daily decision-making, in the intense life of prayer and self-giving to the Capital of Grace, in the freedom they gave me to choose Schoenstatt and to follow my vocation.
This experience of their Covenant of Love as a couple was and still is supported by the existence of our Home Shrine – Kingdom of the Immaculate Conception, where as a family we meet frequently to pray, chat, and make decisions. The home has always been enveloped in the Immaculate Conception’s ambiance.
My vocation was born, grew and is strengthened to this day thanks to my parents’ prayers and devotion. Faithful to their Covenant of Love, they fully live the “Nothing without you, Nothing without us”.
Ana Christina Melquiades – Institute of Our Lady of Schoenstatt
We too are called to live in a profound covenant with God the Father. The shortest, surest, and quickest path is Mary. She leads us to Jesus, to the Father. In the present uncertainty in which we live, the Covenant of Love entitles us to a safe space in the heart of God the Father.
Happy Covenant of Love Day!
Source: Schoenstatt Brasil (www.schoenstatt.org.br)
