About 30 Schoenstatters, mostly couples, gathered on Sunday, 19.01.25, to remember January 20, 1942, at the memorial of the Dachau concentration camp. Hope sprang up repeatedly that afternoon, in keeping with the theme of the Holy Year. The sunny weather also contributed to a hopeful atmosphere in a place where many had lost all hope. With our founder, Father Kentenich, it was different. He radiated confidence, as his fellow prisoners would attest. He strove to strengthen hope in them.

First, they gathered in the commemorative hall. There, next to the relief of the MTA and the picture of Fr. Kentenich, they prayed silently and remembered the coronation. Then, it was time for Holy Mass in the Carmel church. Songs from the book The Glory of God (Gotteslob) and Schoenstatt hymns were accompanied by guitar and flute.

“Where does the wine come from?”

Fr. Frank Riedl began his sermon with this question based on the Gospel. He related that for some time, someone gave wine as a gift at the shrine in Kleinschönstatt, Munich. The donor was not recognized. He probably took the inscription on the jar for contributions to the capital of grace literally: We have no more wine.

Let us continue with the sermon: Perhaps we can make the question our own: Where does the wine come from? The question might be: Where do we get the confidence, especially in challenging times? Where do we get the hope that we are headed toward a good destiny, that history is and will be salvation history in the eyes of God? Where does our joy in life come from? Where does the meaning of our lives and our world come from?

Where does the wine come from? I have often wondered how Father Kentenich could say this when there was so much insecurity given the inhuman situation in the concentration camp: “My inner attitude was one of total tranquility (…) I did not feel fear in my heart either. Some people who knew him (prisoner J. Kentenich) had the impression of having come into contact with another world. What inner experience is behind that someone can speak like that and is entirely sure and radiates that? There is an unshakable confidence that his life and the whole Movement are held and protected in God’s hands and under the Blessed Mother’s gaze.

We can look at the leap of faith of January 20, 1942, from a retrospective perspective, that is, from its effects. The origin of this faith, however, goes back a long time. For Fr. Kentenich, seeing the growth of his faith with the inner growth of the Movement was essential. Remaining in divine confidence is the starting point of the second milestone. This should also encourage us today to deepen our covenant of love and faith and our faith even more.

We have learned to have hope as our founder did

In the intercessions prepared by Sr. M. Monika März, we pray intensely for hope. For example: “We prayed for all those who travel as pilgrims of hope in the Holy Year and bear witness to their faith in a loving and human God. God of new beginnings, strengthen our hope!”.

During our stop at the Chapel of the Agony of Christ, we also heard hopeful examples from our founder’s stay in Dachau. For example, Fr. Kentenich made a melancholic prisoner smile little by little so that he became more serene and optimistic, with friendly and encouraging words.

After a personal prayer in block 26, the priests’ block, we gathered for an impulse in the warm meeting room of the Church of Reconciliation. Brigitte Krompass (Women’s Federation) began by explaining Father Kentenich’s struggle to understand and do God’s will and what led him to make the decision – incomprehensible to many at the time – not to be re-examined and written off as unfit to be sent to the concentration camp.

Invitation to a new meeting

Sister M. Elinor Grimm, inspired by the current exhibition “Victory” in the meeting room, encouraged us also to have confidence because we have the Mother Thrice Admirable, Queen and Victress of Schoenstatt as our companion! Reference was made to the new short film Ein Überleben Lang (A Long Survival), based on the secret recordings of prisoner Edgar Kupfer-Koberwitz in the Dachau concentration camp.

Sr. M. Elinor invited us to Sunday, April 6. It is the 80th anniversary of Fr. Kentenich’s liberation from the Dachau concentration camp. We would like to “meet” our founder in Dachau. In the afternoon, we plan to meet Fr. Kentenich in Schoenbrunn. There, he spent his first night of freedom in the convent of the Franciscan Sisters of Divine Providence. Therefore, like him, we will celebrate the Holy Mass of Thanksgiving in St. Joseph’s Church.

Translation: Sr. M. Lourdes Macías