The Original Shrine is the cradle of the entire International Schoenstatt Work. It was here that the first Covenant of Love was sealed on October 18, 1914. Over the years, it has become the source of many graces that unite the whole world in a chain of Shrines. The Original Shrine is a place where many languages are spoken, and everyone understands each other as a family in a place of welcome, transformation, and fruitful mission.
In the days leading up to World Youth Day, some 450 young people from the USA and from Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries visited the birthplace of the Schoenstatt Movement. We have written about the pilgrims’ experiences in the Original Shrine, but what did these days mean for those who live there on a daily basis? Schoenstatt International asked….
Right there, from your country, you can participate in WYD Lisbon – and it doesn’t matter how old you are! Want to know how? Follow the suggestions of the International Coordination of the Movement
Ten years ago, we were preparing to celebrate the 100th anniversary of our founding as a Schoenstatt Family. On October 18, 2014, we wanted to go on pilgrimage to Schoenstatt to celebrate and renew the Covenant of Love that Father Kentenich and the first sodalists had sealed in the Shrine.
Sister M. Cacilda Becker and Father Henrich Walter were interviewed by Sister. M. Nilza to gather their experiences and ideas about the seven years in which they fulfilled the task of being the first International Coordinators of the Schoenstatt Movement. Since Schoenstatt is a federative movement, their mission has been to exercise the office they assumed: coordinators, at the service of Schoenstatt’s life in the different countries of the world. Father Walter now ceases this responsibility and goes to Austria, while Sister M. Cacilda remains for a period of three additional years. Father Arkadiusz Sosna from Poland, a member of the General Council of the Schoenstatt Fathers, will take over for the Schoenstatt Fathers.
The General Presidency of the Schoenstatt Movement extended the General Statutes of the Movement for another three years and announced the evaluation and revision by the Movement’s International Coordination. In addition, Fr Arkadiusz Sosna and Sr M. Cacilda Becker were appointed as international coordinators.
Father Ignacio Camacho, a Chilean from the Secular Institute of the Schoenstatt Fathers, was appointed to this task by the Bishop of the Diocese of Trier, Monsignor Stephan Ackermann. He will be responsible for the pastoral and administrative life of Schoenstatt’s international center, its Original Shrine, for the next three years.
He says: “The most impressive thing is to see how the Shrine impacts people’s lives”
Every Mexican is a Guadalupano, every latino is a Guadalupano and that is because she, the Empress of America has chosen us as her people, her nation, her continent…
Around November 23, churches and public buildings will be illuminated in red. In prayer, Christians unite with their persecuted brethren in the faith and remember the many martyrs of our day.
Fr. Eduardo Aguirre, postulator of the cause for the canonization of Fr. Joseph Kentenich, founder of the Schoenstatt Movement, celebrated a Mass on September 15 in the Original Shrine of Schoenstatt, in Germany, where the movement was founded in 1914. The celebration took place 54 years after the death of the founder. The date coincided with the liturgical celebration of Our Lady of Sorrows.
This October 18 we celebrate the 108th anniversary of the founding of the Schoenstatt Movement. Mary accepts the invitation to establish herself in the Shrine.
This coming October 18th, Schoenstatt will celebrate 108 years of existence. Yes! 108 years since the first Covenant of Love with Mary. The international Schoenstatt family is invited to celebrate together, starting with a novena, and participating virtually in the celebrations at the Original Schoenstatt on the very 18th of October.
