Today the international Schoenstatt Family and the friends of the Shrine unite in the Original Shrine to celebrate Covenant Day. This is also true for every springtime of graces and blessings flowing from the local Shrines throughout the world.
This month we remember in particular the gift of Father Joseph Kentenich’s life, born on November 16, 1885. With gratitude and hope, we praise God for the great spiritual and pedagogical legacy he left us. Today we highlight one of his main life lessons, engraved on his tomb in Schoenstatt. “Dilexit Ecclesiam – he loved the Church!”. Therefore, we fondly look at the Church which he taught us to love with his life testimony. In times when the Church is once again delving into its essence and mission, we renew our commitment as missionary disciples in the spirit of Schoenstatt.
Synodality: Loving the Church Today
In the month of October, we observed a significant time in the Church: the Synod of Bishops, with a significant participation of clergy, religious and laity. The main theme was synodality, which is characterized by listening within the Spirit and walking together as a pilgrim Church. In a way, all Christians were able to take part in this process, since it was a Synod that, before being held in the Vatican, offered opportunities for a broad participation of the whole Church. During its duration, it was also present in the media.
Now is the time to turn your conclusions into practice! We are sent as missionary disciples to help renew the world, that is, to transform human realities in all dimensions of life. Here we strike at Schoenstatt’s essential vocation: the vocation to the apostolate. The ultimate meaning of Schoenstatt’s pedagogical system is formation for the apostolate. If we want to be witnesses of Christ, we need to prepare ourselves for this mission.
What does Father Kentenich tell us?
The final document of the second session of the Synod speaks of the necessary conversion in different areas of the Church: conversion of relationships, conversion of processes, conversion of attachments… Yes, it is a question of conversion, of the transformation of processes, but also of a profound interior transformation, whether personal or that of a whole community. This is the only way we can be missionaries.
What the Father and Founder of Schoenstatt said after Vatican Council II still holds true today: “In fact, the entire conciliar and post-conciliar period must be a constant and effective renewal of the Pentecost moment, of the Cenacle moment, of the spirit of the Cenacle and of the fruits of the Cenacle”[1] We need the Holy Spirit for the discernment necessary to illuminate human realities through the light of the Gospel. Pope Francis says: ” The Holy Spirit is a sure guide, and our first task is to learn to distinguish His voice, for He speaks in everyone and in everything.”[2]
A journey of conversion begins
The conversion desired by the Pope for the whole Church, as Fr. Joseph Kentenich also teaches us, is an organic, profound and permanent conversion. Conversion is not a spectacle, a fire that burns today and goes out tomorrow. So many began their life in the Church with great enthusiasm and then disappeared after a while. Authentic conversion, permanent and effective interior transformation, can only happen through the power of the Holy Spirit.
In this sense, Fr. Kentenich says: “If the spirit of the Cenacle does not fill the Church…. And what kind of spirit would that be? It is the spirit that the living God has generously given us in recent years. What kind of spirit is that? It is the spirit of the perfect transformation of the human being and of society.”[3]
This is also the proposal of the Synodal Church, which wants to be an effective transforming presence in society. It is made up of Christians who recognize their weaknesses and know how many challenges lie ahead. The Church is both holy and sinful. Hence the importance of ongoing discernment and, consequently, of the new decisions necessary to guide the way forward in every time and place.
“Everyone walking together, everyone, is a process in which the Church, being docile to the action of the Holy Spirit, sensitive in welcoming the signs of the times (Gaudium et Spes, 4), continually renews herself and perfects her sacramentality, in order to be a credible witness to the mission to which she has been called, so as to gather all the peoples of the earth into a single awaited people at the end, when God himself will make us sit down at the banquet which he has prepared (cf. Is 25:6-10).”[4]
We are learning together
In his final greeting to the Synod, Pope Francis acknowledged the need for continuous learning by everyone for conversion to take place and for the synodal Church to be built. He said:
“Listen, convene, discern, decide and evaluate. And in these steps, pauses, silence and prayer are necessary. It is a style that we are learning together, step by step. The Holy Spirit calls us and sustains us in this apprenticeship, which we must understand as a process of conversion.”[5]
“Here am I, send me” (Is 6:8). We are sent because we aspire to holiness, not because we are saints. We are always in the process of inner transformation. From the Shrine of the Mother and Queen, our source of strength and place of the Covenant, we want to set out as missionary disciples to proclaim the Good News, cultivate the covenant culture and implore a new Pentecost for the new times of the Church.
Translation: Maribel Acaron
[1] Kentenich, Joseph. Dedication of the Cenacle Shrine, May 14, 1967. Women’s Union: Digital Archive.
[2] Pope Francis. OpeningAddress to the 2nd Session of the Synod on October 2, 2024. In: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/es/speeches/2024/october/documents/20241002-sinodo-vescovi.html
[3] Kentenich, Joseph. Lecture 1966. In: Propheta locutus est. Lectures and speeches of Fr. J. Kentenich from the last three years of his life. Volume XIII: 1966, Berg Sion, 1998, p. 5-32.
[4] Pope Francis. Speech 02 October 2024. In: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/es/speeches/2024/october/documents/20241002-sinodo-vescovi.html
[5] Pope Francis. Final Greeting, 26 October 2024. In: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/es/speeches/2024/october/documents/20241026-sinodo-vescovi.html
