Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement

Jesús

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International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest

International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest

The 52nd International Eucharistic Congress will be held in Budapest, Hungary, from September 5-12, 2021, under the motto "All my springs are in you" (Ps 87:7).

Dr. Péter und Orsi Török, Sr. Gertrud-Maria Erhard
10. August 2021

The 52nd International Eucharistic Congress will be held in Budapest, Hungary, from September 5-12, 2021, under the motto “All my springs are in you” (Ps 87:7). The Congress was to be held in 2020, but, due to the pandemic, it was postponed for a year. It will be quite special since Pope Francis will be present on September 12, 2021. 

For two years the Schoenstatt Movement in Hungary has been preparing for this event, expanding on the awareness of the mystery of the Eucharist. 

Using Father Kentenich’s approach, we sought the connection between theological truths and everyday life. Our annual Schoenstatt conference, in view of the mystery of the Eucharist and of the sacrament of Marriage as well, has formulated this year’s motto: “One with you“.

One with you

Love for the Eucharist and adoration has become a real current in our Movement in preparation for the Eucharistic Congress. Young people and families meet regularly for hours of adoration. At all the family gatherings that take place at our Schoenstatt center in Óbudavár during the year and especially in the summer, it has already become customary for those who wish to do so to come to the shrine for adoration before breakfast and before the evening program. This way we experience the blessing of having young people and couples praying together before the Blessed Sacrament. 

Further development as a source of grace

As a contribution of the Hungarian Schoenstatt Family Movement to the Eucharistic Congress and to the Church in general, we see the need to explore, witness, practice and convey the connection between the sacrament of Marriage and the sacrament of the Eucharist. The desire to develop the profound connection between the two as a source of grace was given to us many years ago by Father Tilmann Beller. 

Christ is present not only in the sacrament of the altar, but also in the sacrament of Matrimony. We genuflect before the Blessed Sacrament. This gesture of faith brings us closer to God, who is hidden in the Eucharist. Since Christ is also present in the sacrament of Matrimony, Father Beller once genuflected before every married couple at a family gathering. To this day, the passion and devotion for Christ in the sacrament of Marriage is still alive in these couples. 

A New Marriage Route in the Light of the Eucharist

A spark ignited, spread, and gave shape to our lives. Thus, the idea of developing a marriage route in the light of the Eucharist was born. We were inspired by Father Kentenich’s organic thinking and the writings of the popes during the last decades. The route consists of 15 “stations”, with 15 panels, places where the text presented helps to meditate on a particular aspect of married life.

God gives himself to us in the sacrament of Marriage and in the Eucharist. Each station of this marital route focuses on an aspect of this connection. The God of life, who created us as male and female, wants us to experience affection and tenderness not only with our intellect, but with all our senses. We can experience God’s fire and the intimacy of love in marriage and in the mystery of the Eucharist. Just as the Church assures the presence of Jesus in the sacred Host, we are assured of his closeness in the domestic Church through the sacrament of Matrimony. This includes love and fidelity, the giving of life, time together, cross-bearing, care for sick and elderly relatives, ….  As in the Holy Mass, we also experience “life’s mass”: Sursum corda, Credo, Adoratio, Communio, Confessio, Passio, Dominus vobiscum, Ite missa est.                                                                                        

15 panels of the new marriage route illustrate this. In Óbudavár, the Hungarian Schoenstatt Center, there is already a second “marriage route”. The panels are located around the Shrine, each with an accompanying pew, facing in the direction of the Schoenstatt chapel, expressing the longing to grow in the love of Jesus on the path of marriage. 

The missionary cross as symbol of the Eucharistic Congress

The central symbol of the Eucharistic Congress in Budapest is a bronze cross, more than three meters high, containing the relics of 16 Central European saints. It is called the Missionary Cross and has been touring Hungary for two years for the cause of Christian renewal. This cross was made in 2007 by goldsmith Csaba Ozsvári, a member of the Hungarian Schoenstatt Family Federation, who died unexpectedly in 2009 after a solemn mass in Óbudavár. Csaba had offered his life for the spiritual renewal of Hungary at the Mass before his death.

On July 4, 2021, a replica of this cross was erected in Óbudavar. The cross expresses for us that we want to be united with Jesus, with the Church, and with our spouse, and this often means carrying that cross. The missionary cross is a constant invitation to apostolic work and to our renewal in the Eucharist, because: “All my springs are in you”.

You can also read:

The Matrimonial Route: Our way to the Shrine

Strengthen Your Marriage

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St. Joseph inspires us to live with joy the Holy Family’s ideal

St. Joseph inspires us
to live with joy the Holy Family’s ideal

St. Joseph has always been important in Schoenstatt. He is an example with regard to the ideal of the Holy Family; he gave up everything for Jesus and Mary. He teaches us to strive for the ideal of holiness in our family.

Sister. M. Ana Paula Ramos Hyppólito
19 March, 2021

Joseph, a just, silent and unknown man. He is so discreet that he insists on remaining in the background and letting all the light shine only for Jesus and Mary. He stays behind, in silence. But today we want his shining light to ignite us. We want to reveal a little of his brightness and contemplate the growth of his importance in our Schoenstatt Family, the importance our Father and Founder gave him.

In 1928, Father Joseph Kentenich reviewed the history of the devotion to St. Joseph in the Catholic Church: “The Church also experienced a growth in this sense, in the devotion to St. Joseph. From the theological point of view, there was still a long way to go before the veneration of St. Joseph penetrated more deeply into the whole Church. The veneration of St. Joseph came about earlier in the East than in the West. Reichenau’s martyrology dated around 1850, mentions St. Joseph for the first time. The mystics and theologians from end of the Middle Ages began to deal with his place in the history of salvation. It was not until 1479 that his feast was included in the Roman breviary”.

Father Kentenich adds: “In the history of the Church, wasn’t St. Joseph also neglected? In the fourth century  paintings of him began to be made and his figure became more exposed. It wan’t until the 19th century, the century in which Mary was profoundly venerated, that the Holy Spirit intervened so that St. Joseph would be given  a central standing and would be solemnly acknowledged as the protector of the Church”.

Our Father and Founder always sees St. Joseph in perfect unity with Mary. That is why he expressed in 1950 that “God speaks through situations.” Could it be that the Blessed Mother, through actual facts, wants to call our attention to St. Joseph?

From Schoenstatt’s origins

At the beginning of our Schoenstatt Family’s history we faced great difficulties, so, trust in St. Joseph’s help was naturally fostered. In 1950 the Founder spoke of the fortunate fact that “St. Joseph – since we proclaimed him as administrator of all our financial concerns – has fulfilled his task brilliantly”.

 

St. Joseph’s organic vision in Schoenstatt

Father Kentenich then adds:  “With this, we not only put ourselves on the same level as the Church, but somehow we surpass it, above all because of the organic vision of the figure of St. Joseph and the integral way of worshipping him. We do not venerate him only in one particular sense or another, only as protector of the inner life and purity, only as builder, or only as minister of economy. This broadness gives a special character to the devotion to St. Joseph in our Family”.

The way we worship St. Joseph in Schoenstatt, as referenced by Father Kentenich, is wide-ranging. Our founder presents several characteristics of Mary’s husband. St. Joseph is the one who loved the Blessed Mother the most and was her faithful husband; he is also Jesus’s father, who protects and educates him; therefore, Joseph is a model as head of the family, a model of a father, husband, companion, with all the virtues needed to be part of the Holy Family. 

Father Kentenich also expresses how God acts through “secondary causes”. In the history of salvation, Jesus is the main character and Mary is the one who gives her “yes” so that this story becomes a reality. But it’s St. Joseph, a “secondary” character in the story, who becomes the head of the family. Even in his smallness, he becomes a key figure in the salvation of humanity.

The more importance we give to spiritual and inner life, as well as the cultivation of virtues and striving for perfection and holiness, the more we ask for St. Joseph’s help and the more we are called by his holiness, his virtues, as we learn from his example.

San José en el Santuario Original
To him we entrust everything

When the dangers to body and life are more numerous, when the worldly spirit wants to invade us and turn us away from our ideal, then we strengthen our trust in St. Joseph’s protection.

The greater the economic and financial woes become, even if they become grievous, the more we seek St. Joseph’s help in these afflictions and concerns as well.

The more we experience our limitations and shortcomings in our professional responsibilities and in the positions we occupy, the more numerous the problems that overwhelm us, the more we seek refuge in St. Joseph.

The more distressed and frightened we are because of age, sickness or the affliction of death, the more we place ourselves under St. Joseph’s protection trusting in his aid.

However, our Father and Founder gives us a warning: “It would be out of place, that is, it would be insensitive on our part if we thought: when we need him, then we’ll love him” (1928).

Yes, we can and we want to love St. Joseph. And the more we love him and make him our friend, the closer the Blessed Mother and Jesus will be to us, because the three of them form a union of hearts, they are one family, the Holy Family!

This is confirmed by our Father and Founder: “St. Thomas Aquinas once formulated it very clearly: each saint possesses a certain authority in his task – from each one we can receive a certain grace. However, from St. Joseph we can get everything. […] The time will come when St. Joseph will occupy a position of much greater strength and glory than he has had until now…. He must be included in the circle of love of our Family.”

San José en la Casa de la Alianza
May our love for St. Joseph grow

May our relationship with St. Joseph continue to grow, that is, may it become alive, vigorous and original again. This corresponds well with our Father and Founder, since he himself affirms: “It is very important for St. Joseph that we love him personally much more than we have loved him up to now” (1934).

Fr. Kentenich had already given us the following guidelines in 1932: “What do we want to do? To trust St. Joseph more deeply. To give more value to his images and statues. He must be included in the circle of love of our Family”.

Let our love for St. Joseph grow. Let us try to renew, deepen and enliven it. Let us not allow St. Joseph to remain in the corner, in the corner of a Shrine or a Home Shrine. Let us give him the place of honor that corresponds to him, above all, a small favorite place, a small preferred niche in our hearts.

In the same way, we trust that he will inspire many solid vocations for the holy Church and for the Schoenstatt Work, that he will take care to preserve in all consecrated persons the joy of their vocation and that he will guarantee in each one the growth in their ideal and sanctity.

That is why we want to say with confidence: St. Joseph, pray for us! We want to show St. Joseph our gratitude for all that we receive daily as material and spiritual blessings. How, then, can we repay him? How can we make him rejoice? St. Joseph, what gift do you want to receive in this, your special year? No doubt, St. Joseph’s answer will be: “Become the one I love the most! Become a little Mary! Each Schoenstatt child, each one is the greatest gift to me! Every Schoenstatt child, striving to become like Mary.

 

Source: santuariodeatibaia.org.br

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The Light of Bethlehem in Schoenstatt

The Light of Bethlehem in Schoenstatt

A light travels through Europe, wanting to remind all those who see and receive it, of its contribution to peace in the world

December 22, 2020 - Claudia Brehm
Original Shrine

Every year, an Austrian boy lights a candle in the grotto of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Israel. It represents the angels who proclaimed peace in Bethlehem when Jesus was born, a peace that is to be brought to the world. From Bethlehem it is flown with a special lamp to Austria, and then spread to other countries in Europe. In the Original Shrine it will also be waiting for them, so that the people can receive it there and take it home. 

From Bethlehem, the Light of Peace in Schoenstatt

What happens in the Original Shrine? People arrive from various places with baskets in their arms with lamps and candles. They stand on the threshold of the Original Shrine, and then they open a large lantern that contains a lighted candle. From there, they light the candles that they themselves had brought. One woman said, “I come here to seek the Light of Peace from Bethlehem. My neighbors have asked me to bring them here as well. So I came with a basket full of lanterns and I leave with a basket full of lights for peace. But first I will go to the Original Shrine, to be with Mary, the woman who is light and peace”

What brings the light of Bethlehem?

It is a light that comes from the grotto of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, which should bring peace to the whole world, as it was announced by the angels two thousand years ago in the meadows of Bethlehem. This was the idea of the initiators of the campaign “The Light of Peace from Bethlehem”, which originated in Austria in 1986. 

When they bring the original light from Bethlehem it is accompanied by hundreds of participants, as well as a delegation of Austrian politicians. Since 1994 the light has also reached “all people of good will” in Germany, through the Girl Guide and Scout associations. This year it will take place under the motto “peace transcends borders”. 

By plane from Israel

The Light of Peace is transported by plane from Bethlehem to Vienna. From there, it is taken by a German delegation of young scouts to Germany for the third Sunday of Advent and then distributed in that country.  This year, no one was able to travel to Vienna because of the pandemic. For this reason, the Light of Peace was delivered at the border of both countries, from there, it was taken in several cars to the different parishes. This is how it arrived in Berlin, and in countries like the Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland and most European countries. She even found her way to the United States. 

The light also awaits us in front of the Original Shrine, to be taken to the homes of the people and thus be bearers of peace. Of course, it is not only about evoking peace, but also about becoming aware of our responsibility to work for it.

A light for politics 

The visit to the capital of Germany and epicenter of its political activity, has become a long tradition. In addition to delivering the Light of Peace, the leaders take the opportunity for young Germans to talk with federal ministers, parliamentarians and state secretaries about the meaning of peace in politics. Now, the Light of Peace also shines in the Federal Ministry of Justice for Consumer Protection, Economy and Energy, Environment and Health. In previous years, this light was also given to three popes, many heads of state and political leaders. Additionally, this year there were many screen shots taken from Zoom, which made it possible to deliver it in digital form. But this does not mean that the message of the Light of Peace is any less effective.

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Novena in Adoration in the Original Shrine

Novena in Adoration in the Original Shrine

24 hours of Adoration accompanying Jesus

In this time of crisis, sadness and uncertainty, the Mother and Queen of Schoenstatt calls us to strengthen our faith even more. Abandon our doubts and put our full trust in God. To recognize ourselves as children and to abandon ourselves freely to the will of God the Father.

Our Lady of Schoenstatt invites us to act and also to make us present with our prayers. In this way, a novena of Adoration began from the Original Shrine, in which we desire to involve the entire Schoenstatt Family of the world.

For 9 weeks, 24 hours of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament will be offered, which will take place every Friday to Saturday from 8 p.m. to 7 p.m. of the following day, beginning on July 24 and ending on September 18. This novena invites us to gather as a family to pray for the needs of our brothers and sisters, for the health crisis in all countries, for the end of the pandemic, and for the concerns of all members of the International Schoenstatt Family.

There are two ways to participate:

In person: 

Please register in this form:

http://urheiligtumschoenstatt.gebetonline.ch/

Virtually from Webcam:

Please register in this form:

https://schoenstattdev.wpengine.com/adoration-in-original-shrine/

To access the webcam directly, please click on the link below:

http://urheiligtum.de/EN/10-Service/99-Webcam.html

Nothing without You, nothing without us.