Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement

Sr. M. Cacilda Becker

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Behold your Mother

Behold your Mother

It is Good Friday, April 2nd, 1915, in a small town located in Vallendar, Germany. A group of young seminarians, together with their spiritual director, Father Kentenich, had sealed a Covenant of Love with Mary five months before, had invited her to establish her home in a small chapel, and are searching for an image of the Blessed Mother to place in the chapel. During that Good Friday they relived the Passion of Christ.

Sister M. Nilza P. da Silva
April 2021

It is Good Friday; we are enveloped in the Calvary’s atmosphere.  We experience the passion and death of Christ, God’s son, who loved us until the very end.  Raised on the cross, totally stripped of his dignity, his rights, even his robes, there is only one thing that remains as his: his Mother. No one can take that away from him! She is totally his and nothing in this world can take Her away from him.,

Then, Jesus surprises us once again, even at this time of a most dreadful suffering, he willingly gives us his most precious gift: “Behold your Mother”. His love for us is perfect, he does not keep anything for himself. And John “took her into his home” (Jn 19,27).

She is and acts as our Mother

Mary assumes her role as mother of each member of the Mystical Body of Christ. As his collaborator, she continues loving and guiding each child engendered by her Son’s sacrifice. Throughout history we see how she loves us until the very end, just like Jesus did, keeping nothing for herself.  Following Jesus’ example, she gives her all so that we may experience the Father’s merciful love. She remains beside each of her children’s cross and guides them towards the morning of the resurrection.

Behold our mother, our MTA

It is Good Friday, April 2nd, 1915, in a small town in Vallendar, Germany.  A group of young seminarians, together with their spiritual director, Father Kentenich, had sealed a Covenant of Love with Mary five months before, had invited her to establish her home in a small chapel, and are searching for an image of the Blessed Mother to place in the chapel. During that Good Friday they relived the Passion of Christ. The priest and the young seminarians want to take part in Jesus’s suffering as vividly as possible. They are spiritually present at the Golgotha, on Calvary hill, as they listen once again to Jesus’ testament of love: “Behold your Mother”. (Jn 19:27)

The seminarians were busy with the preparations for that day’s sacred liturgy. Brothers Joseph and Christian went to the train station to pick up a package that had arrived for Father Kentenich: the Blessed Mother’s image which had been sent by Father Eugene Huggle, one of the professors at the Seminar, to be enthroned in the chapel. Since the brothers were not the recipient indicated on the package, the station’s chief refused to give them the package and told them to return the following Monday after the Easter celebration was over. Joseph wants to take the Blessed Mother home and is so persistent that the station’s chief finally agrees to put the large octagonal image in their cart, and it arrives at Schoenstatt within ten minutes.

She agrees to be taken home

And so, the Blessed Mother arrives to take possession of her throne of grace.  She is wrapped up, placed in a cart, without making any noise, attracting no attention. Thus, on that unforgettable day 106 years ago, that sacred moment in Christ’s passion is relived. On the day he leaves this world, he offers his mother to us as our Mother, and she arrives without us noticing. Her Son is the focus. That day they meditate on Christ’s suffering as they stand by the cross. The MTA’s image arrives as a sacred legacy of that unparalleled point in time. It feels like Jesus is telling Father Kentenich: “Behold your Mother”. Due to the Holy Week’s celebrations, the image is enthroned in the small chapel on April 11, the Sunday after Easter, on the Feast of the Divine Mercy.

He takes her home. To the small chapel, the home where she acts as educator and dispenses abundant graces.  To the home in his heart, to the home in the heart of every seminarian, and, even today, he continues taking her to the home of everyone who seals the Covenant of Love. She comes to stay with her children, in their tribulations and life’s trials, so that they can be touched by the Father’s merciful love and experience each day the resurrection to a new life in Christ.

She came to form her children in the image of Christ

She arrives with her heroic Son on Good Friday and transforms the small chapel into her own Mount Tabor.  In 1947, Father Kentenich said in Brazil: “Our Mount Tabor must radiate our Blessed Mother’s glory. What does the fullness of Mary’s glory consist of? How do we see her before us? She is the remarkable woman formed and capable of forming others in the image of Christ. Her main task is to bring Christ to the world”.

We are part of this history

As on April 2, 1915, it is Good Friday once more. Jesus gives us his mother once again, giving us her presence in the Shrine. Let us allow ourselves to be educated by her! Let us bring her into the home that is in our heart, and she will reveal her glory in us and in our family. Let us allow ourselves to be taken to the Shrine by the words of Father Kentenich, to whom the image of our Blessed Mother was entrusted:

“If you want to understand her well, you have to penetrate profoundly into these three truths: 

Christ, the ideal of our life

Christ, the foundation of our life

Christ, the form of our life.

For Mary, Christ became her life’s ideal and its foundation, to the point of adopting Jesus’ form in her life. This is the great importance that the Mother of God has for us in relation to Jesus. We do not want to focus on her. We know that her whole being and her whole person always point to Jesus. We see her as the bearer of Christ because she took the form of Christ and is capable of being formed in the image of Christ”.

Bibliographic source:

Tabor Our Mission, Words by Father Kentenich in Brazil

A new vision, a new life. Father Jonathan Niehaus

Final text by F. Kentenich: Brazil, 1947

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Being reborn in a storm

Being reborn in a storm

Pope Francis walks alone across the poorly lit empty St. Peter's Square. It is a rainy and wet evening. He speaks the blessing on the city and the world, which was actually not planned until Easter. He speaks it now in the middle of the Corona crisis, where the people expect a word.

Fr. Heinrich Walter
March 27, 2021

The Pope meditates within himself, as if he not only wants to help us to pray, but also to deepen what he believes. “We are frightened and lost… We realize that we are all in the same boat, all weak and disoriented… we are all called to row together.” 

 

Millions of viewers are nodding their heads, yes, they are. The report of the lake storm is the apt biblical story to place humanity at the time of the pandemic. Billions of people around the globe in a boat between stormy waves on the high seas. And intuitively, like the disciples of that time, we all ask the sleeping Jesus: don’t you mind? The pope answers only with the words of Jesus: “Why are you so afraid? Have you no faith yet?”

Now is the time to decide what really matters

 

Praying, the Pope leads the audience into the depths of the decision. Now is the time to decide what really matters and what is only transitory. It is a time of discernment that may lead us to look again at the Lord and to focus on the people. And then he enumerates many of these ordinary people, who in these days are suddenly experiencing a new appreciation, because they are vital for our survival, systemically relevant as we are now told. 

 

The second decision concerns the recognition that we are in need of salvation. It motivates us to open ourselves existentially to this reality and to invite Jesus into the boat. Finally, he describes the stage set of the evening as a great promise: From these colonnades that embrace Rome and the world, let God’s blessing descend upon you like a comforting embrace

To become new in the storm on the high seas, to come to oneself more deeply than God’s creatures, to find closer to one another in an indissoluble bond and learn to entrust oneself to God, that was the pre-Easter experience of this memorable evening.

 

Now is the time to eliminate inequality

 

And now after Pentecost? Everything will be different, we hear everywhere saying. But how will it be? Will we really learn from history? The Pope says clearly at Pentecost: “The pandemic of poverty in the world must be ended.” The central lesson of the crisis is: “We are one humanity”. Now is the time to eliminate inequality. All the suffering will be useless unless people work together to build a more just, equal and Christian society, said Pope Francis.

 

If this is to become a reality, it must begin in the small communities, the families, the neighbourhoods. And it must begin with appreciation, with respect for the dignity of each person. This will not happen by itself, it has to do with a decision and with determination. Nor will it be able to happen forever, but for a certain time, for which we must be born again and again.

 

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Towards the 2022 Pentecost Congress

Towards the 2022 Pentecost Congress

Survey for the 2022 Pentecost Congress to every Schoenstatt member

Fr. Heinrich Walter
March 22, 2021
Pfingstvigil 2020

Towards the 2022 Pentecost Congress

 

At the Pentecost Congress, delegates from the Schoenstatt Movement get together at a global level to have exchanges, engage in debates and go through orientation for the coming years.

We began organizing the 2020 Congress, but due to the pandemic, it did not take place.  That is why we have planned the Pentecost Congress for June 8th  through 12th, 2022.

 

We want to make the most of the time we have left until the live event so we can prepare in various phases.  We truly believe that the Holy Spirit has enlivened many during this pandemic.  At the 2020 Pentecost Vigil in the Original Shrine, we spoke of a sudden splurge of grace.  Something new is emerging in the Church as well as in society. Some of this is already evident in new forms of organizing our Christian life at home and at a much deeper global level amongst us.

In preparation for the 2022 Pentecost Congress, we recognize two main steps:

 

First phase:  from March 14 to April 12, 2021: Fields of Work – motivations – changes

 

We will begin with an online survey that may be taken by any Schoenstatt member. At this early stage in the preparation, we want to gather an ample array of opinions, a colorful mosaic of everyday life in the Schoenstatt movement around the world.  We want to identify those signs of real life and make them visible.  Through these processes, the Lord of life will guide our Schoenstatt Family towards the future.

Second phase:  Begins on Pentecost 2021: Regional Conferences

 

The different points of view expressed on the survey will be included at the diocesan, regional and continental conferences in order to identify the Schoenstatt Movement’s trends. These local events will be planned with the Movement directors and national leaders.

 

During the first phase every Schoenstatt member is called to participate in the project developed by the group he belongs to, or is involved with, in the Movement.

We have developed three questions for the global survey:

 

  1. What concrete field of action (project, lifestream) in which you participate will be of particular importance for your country in the next five years? (name only one)
  2. Why are you willing to give of your time and energy to Schoenstatt nowadays?
  3. What is God expecting from Schoenstatt in the next ten years? (use keywords)

Click on the link to access the survey where you can send your answers until April 18, 2021.

Link: https://survey.lamapoll.de/On-the-way-to-the-Pentecost-Congress-2022/

We will disclose the results on Pentecost day. 

 

Thanks for your participation.

 

We wish you a blessed preparation time for Easter.

2022 Pentecost Congress Preparation Team

Pfingstvigil 2020

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Get more clarity

Get more clarity

Bishop Ackermann wants to make the process broader

Translation of the text published in Paulinus Online
March 10, 2021

Three Questions for Bishop Ackermann 

on the Beatification Process of Father Kentenich

 

1) Last week you announced that instead of a second commission of historians, as defined in the Instruction Sanctorum Mater, a group of experts of different professions would attend to the beatification process. Why this change of approach?

With the documents and accusations presented by Alexandra von Teuffenbach in the book, possible new aspects have come to light. After working with scholars from different disciplines – in addition to historians, psychologists and experts in education were among them – I realized that we now need to take a broader approach to the process. 

 

There are two reasons that motivate me: One is respect for possible victims. Whenever there are allegations of sexual or spiritual abuse, we must take them seriously and investigate them. The second reason is respect for the Schoenstatt Movement. We have here a large, worldwide movement with a remarkably great influence in the service of the Gospel. I think I owe it to the movement to have the accusations that have now been raised sufficiently examined. And the Schoenstatt Family itself wants this.

 

2) Why do you think the new approach will help with this?

 

We will be a little freer in the way we work. Together with the researchers, I can define different work assignments that relate to historical, psychological, or pedagogical aspects, for example. We can compare and discuss interim results, and above all we can be open about them. A commission of historians in accord with the Instruction Sanctorum Mater would oblige us to secrecy. And I don’t think that is appropriate.

 

A second element: I would like to look again at another part of the proceedings that is actually closed. There is an accusation by an American citizen against Fr. Joseph Kentenich that the latter sexually abused him in the years 1958-1962. The accusations were made to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in 1994 and were also examined there, especially in the knowledge of the ongoing beatification proceedings. The investigation of the allegations by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee resulted in a report written by the local ecclesiastical court. This report expressed the conviction that there was no need to pursue the matter further at that time. As part of the diocesan phase, all documents were sent to us. They have been evaluated with the conclusion that the investigation by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee is coherent and can be considered conclusive. The allegations and their investigation are part of the documentation of the beatification process. 

 

More than 25 years have now passed since then. During this time, we have gained a lot of experience – worldwide – regarding the clarification of suspected cases of sexual abuse. Therefore, with regard to the allegation already investigated in the USA, I would like to have it examined once again to determine whether the investigation at that time can also be considered sufficient according to today’s criteria, or whether aspects have been left unconsidered that absolutely still have to be included for a final evaluation. In this case, the investigation at that time would have to be supplemented and, if necessary, its results corrected.

 

3) How will things proceed from here?

 

We will now clarify the various work assignments: both with the experts already mentioned regarding the questions raised by Ms. von Teuffenbach’s book, as well as regarding the accusation from the USA. Concerning the examination of the latter accusation, I will establish contact with America. These are the next steps toward gaining more clarity as to whether the beatification process can continue at all.   

By

Get more clarity

Get more clarity

Bishop Ackermann wants to make the process broader

Text published in Paulinus Online
March 10, 2021

Three Questions for Bishop Ackermann 

on the Beatification Process of Father Kentenich

 

1) Last week you announced that instead of a second commission of historians, as defined in the Instruction Sanctorum Mater, a group of experts of different professions would attend to the beatification process. Why this change of approach?

With the documents and accusations presented by Alexandra von Teuffenbach in the book, possible new aspects have come to light. After working with scholars from different disciplines – in addition to historians, psychologists and experts in education were among them – I realized that we now need to take a broader approach to the process. 

 

There are two reasons that motivate me: One is respect for possible victims. Whenever there are allegations of sexual or spiritual abuse, we must take them seriously and investigate them. The second reason is respect for the Schoenstatt Movement. We have here a large, worldwide movement with a remarkably great influence in the service of the Gospel. I think I owe it to the movement to have the accusations that have now been raised sufficiently examined. And the Schoenstatt Family itself wants this.

 

2) Why do you think the new approach will help with this?

 

We will be a little freer in the way we work. Together with the researchers, I can define different work assignments that relate to historical, psychological, or pedagogical aspects, for example. We can compare and discuss interim results, and above all we can be open about them. A commission of historians in accord with the Instruction Sanctorum Mater would oblige us to secrecy. And I don’t think that is appropriate.

 

A second element: I would like to look again at another part of the proceedings that is actually closed. There is an accusation by an American citizen against Fr. Joseph Kentenich that the latter sexually abused him in the years 1958-1962. The accusations were made to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in 1994 and were also examined there, especially in the knowledge of the ongoing beatification proceedings. The investigation of the allegations by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee resulted in a report written by the local ecclesiastical court. This report expressed the conviction that there was no need to pursue the matter further at that time. As part of the diocesan phase, all documents were sent to us. They have been evaluated with the conclusion that the investigation by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee is coherent and can be considered conclusive. The allegations and their investigation are part of the documentation of the beatification process. 

 

More than 25 years have now passed since then. During this time, we have gained a lot of experience – worldwide – regarding the clarification of suspected cases of sexual abuse. Therefore, with regard to the allegation already investigated in the USA, I would like to have it examined once again to determine whether the investigation at that time can also be considered sufficient according to today’s criteria, or whether aspects have been left unconsidered that absolutely still have to be included for a final evaluation. In this case, the investigation at that time would have to be supplemented and, if necessary, its results corrected.

 

3) How will things proceed from here?

 

We will now clarify the various work assignments: both with the experts already mentioned regarding the questions raised by Ms. von Teuffenbach’s book, as well as regarding the accusation from the USA. Concerning the examination of the latter accusation, I will establish contact with America. These are the next steps toward gaining more clarity as to whether the beatification process can continue at all.