Original Shrine

October 18, 2020 By Luciana Loyola

Covenant of Fraternity

This year, the small and invisible virus Covid 19, has created a world-wide bond that neither politicians nor industrialists, neither great thinkers nor church leaders could have created.
We are one big family. The virus takes the form of a mirror in front of people: Who are you? What is the dignity of the human being? Who is your neighbor?

By: Fr. Heinrich Walter

We celebrate the founding of Schoenstatt in this context. We will renew the Covenant of Love. We will do so in 2020 as a response to the challenges of this time. In this process, we hear the voice of the Pope who addresses humanity as “fratelli tutti”. In February 2019 he signed a document on human brotherhood with the great Imam of Cairo, Ahmad Mohammed Al-Tayeb. It describes the goal of peaceful coexistence in the world. Dignity and brotherhood among peoples is based on faith in one God as the father of humanity.

In the new encyclical “fratelli tutti” the Pope develops this approach. It is about how we live brotherhood in a free society. This is reflected in how we treat the weakest members of society. The Pope reminds us of the biblical story about the Good Samaritan: Who is my neighbor and how do I treat him?

We are all part of humanity, our identity arising from social and cultural relations. But this needs to be lived out daily through our actions, which Pope Francis describes with four verbs: welcome, protect, promote, and integrate. No doubt his gaze is directed at all types of migrants, but not only at them. The four verbs can motivate us through the alliance, in the daily life of the new community that we want to form.

This effort and motivation can be the melody that accompanies us during the day of the alliance. The meaning of all historical dynamics is found for us in the covenant with God. Since we do not know what tomorrow will bring and what our life will be like the day after tomorrow, this covenant gives us strength and security, a home and protection.

This year, the renewal of the covenant has a great social dimension because of the pandemic. In the Shrine we experience again and again the transforming power of love that connects us to many people. We also think about the people we hear or read about, because that destiny touches us. Our solidarity is expressed in small gestures of charity, prayer, mutual support and renunciation.

We collect these contributions so that the climate around us changes, so that fraternity grows in our society. Mary strengthened the spirit of brotherhood among the disciples in the Cenacle. In many paintings, throughout the centuries, she is represented as the woman and mother of the brotherhood. This may be our current plea on the day of the foundation in the year of the pandemic: Educate us in the spirit of brotherly care for others!

October 17, 2020 By Luciana Loyola

To the Schoenstatt Family

A letter from the General Presidium on the Covenant Day

Dear Schoenstatt Family,

On this 18th of October, we wish you, throughout the world, many blessings on this Covenant day.

We celebrate our founding day and renew our Covenant of Love with Mary, especially united in the Original Shrine and with all of the daughter Shrines of the world. This year, we renew our Covenant of Love in a very special context.

The coronavirus pandemic has profoundly shaken the entire world and has brought grave consequences for all people, in all aspects of life: health, economic, social, and psychological. Time and time again we have wondered what God is saying to us through this and how we are responding in the Covenant of Love. In these last months, we have experienced again the value of personal bonds and we have learned to cultivate them through new technological means. We have rediscovered the importance of the family and of the home. Especially for our spiritual life, we are much more conscious of the importance of the Home Shrine, prayer as a family, etc. And we have experienced the challenge of living our Covenant in solidarity with many people who are suffering. It is in these circumstances that we crown Mary as the Queen of our physical and spiritual health.

Pope Francis published “Fratelli tutti,” his encyclical which calls us to give our concrete support to the “universal fraternity and social friendship” among peoples, cultures, classes, and nations, through the Covenant of Love and through covenant culture. Pope Francis speaks of a “pedagogy of fraternity.”

The debate around Father Kentenich, which ignited at the beginning of July, has awakened a great interest to more intensely study our Founder – his person, his life, and his charism – to more profoundly understand him and to make him known. This is also part of the context in which we renew our Covenant of Love this year. In the framework of the process of beatification, the diocese of Trier, which is responsible for the cause, has announced the creation of a new historical commission. Many people of our communities are studying these issues in depth, including the Media Commission of Communication – led by the International Presidium – and their information team. Even other historians outside of Schoenstatt are also investigating the history of our founder.

The International Presidium, which gathered some days ago for their annual conference at the Josef-Kentenich-Hof in Hillscheid, Germany, has created an International Investigation Group to thoroughly address these issues. Prof. Alejandro Blanco, Secretary General of the International Federation of Priests, coordinates this interdisciplinary investigation team which includes men and women of our different communities and countries.

The postulator for the cause of Fr. Kentenich, Fr. Eduardo Aguirre, has already been able to work for three weeks in the archives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, to see and to study the documents of the Holy See of that time, which recently have been made accessible for the period up until 1958. It will take some time for these documents to be properly evaluated. In any case, nothing has been found thus far that calls our conviction into question about the person, life, and mission of Father Kentenich.

We wish you all a felicitous and fruitful celebration of the 18th of October. May the Covenant of Love become more and more a source of life and mission for a Schoenstatt that goes out to the peripheries for a world in which we can all live as brothers and sisters as one Family.

In the name of the International Presidium

Fr. Juan Pablo Catoggio

October 15, 2020 By Luciana Loyola

Schoenstatt Movement establishes International Research Group

By: Heinrich Brehm, Media Commission

This summer, the General Presidium of the International Schoenstatt Work established an international research group intended to ensure a coordinated, joint investigation of key themes and processes in the history of Schoenstatt that led to the exile of Schoenstatt’s founder, Father Joseph Kentenich, in Milwaukee. The members of the research group were officially appointed at the Presidium meeting on October 12, 2020.

The goal is to develop a critical edition of various texts and ways of acting of Father Joseph Kentenich in keeping with the present status of scholarly discussion.

In doing so, the pastoral, psychological, and pedagogical theory and practice which he developed during his time and which are rooted in Tradition, theology, and Christian anthropology will be taken into account. The research group, whose work is initially on a two-year timetable, will identify the topics in question and agree on a common approach to handling them.

Fr. Alejandro Blanco, Argentina, Director of the International Schoenstatt Federation of Diocesan Priests, is responsible for the coordination of this work and is the liaison between the research group and the General Presidium of Schoenstatt.

The other twelve members of the research group come from five different countries, and almost all of them belong to one of the core communities of the Schoenstatt Movement:

Mónica Asprella and Rodolfo Concia, Institute of Schoenstatt Families, Argentina,
Manfred Gerwing, Schoenstatt Family Federation, Germany,
Joachim Söder, Joseph Kentenich Institute, Germany,
Alicja Kostka, Schoenstatt Women’s Federation, Poland,
Sr. Virginia Perera, Secular Institute of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary, Argentina,
Myriam de Soto Falcó, Institute of the Ladies of Schoenstatt, Spain,
Fernando Alliende Luco, Schoenstatt Family Federation, Chile,
Ignacio Serrano del Pozo, Schoenstatt Men’s Federation, Chile,
Fr. Raúl Espina, Institute of the Schoenstatt Fathers, Chile,
Fr. Patricio Moore, Institute of the Schoenstatt Fathers, Chile.
Daniel Jany (Schönstatt-Priesterbund, Argentinien)

If necessary, additional persons from the various countries can be invited to research or work on individual topics.

September 8, 2020 By Luciana Loyola

The greatest love: a YES to God’s call.

Against all odds and with the blessing of our Mother in Heaven, three young women from Brazil arrived at the Original Shrine to present their formal postulation to the Schoenstatt sisters.

By Luciana Loyola

With more than 10 hours of flight time and after a long road to cross the continents, the postulants of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary arrived at the Original Shrine in Vallendar to begin their course of preparation for the beginning of this blessed process. Representing Brazil, from São Paulo, Paraná and from the interior of the State of São Paulo, the three young women arrived with much enthusiasm and predisposition for what will be the beginning of a stage of profound formation.

Under a rigorous control and healing measures due to the pandemic that affects the entire world, the girls of the Girls’ Youth were finally able to participate in their first Mass from the Original Shrine as candidates given to the entire will of our Father God and our Queen of Schoenstatt.

Aline, Thalita and Larissa are the new postulants who even during a pandemic have firmly accepted to fulfill the will of our Father. An unprecedented journey to reach this place of grace that is the Schoenstatt Shrine.

In the video below you can appreciate the arrival of the 3 heroic young women from Brazil. The international Schoenstatt family wishes them much strength and encouragement in this new beginning.

To all viewers: please select the correct subtittle in the video, in the configuration button, in this way you can enjoy the content in your language of preference.

August 18, 2020 By Luciana Loyola

Our Dear Mother and Queen continues to conquer new hearts

Latin American youth seal their Covenant of Love with the Blessed Mother in the Original Shrine.

Even in this time of uncertainty, our Mother in Heaven continues to conquer hearts and to attract new people to her. From the Original Schoenstatt Shrine in Vallendar, three young adults from Latin America freely decided to seal the Covenant of Love with the Blessed Mother and to offer all their Capital of Grace.

Three months ago, these youth would not have imagined that they would be participating in such a noble ceremony in which they exchange hearts and interests with our Mother and asked her to establish herself as Queen in their lives.

For Jorge and Eliana, a young couple from the northwest of Argentina, their connection with Schoenstatt is present even in their first steps in marriage.

The ceremony in which they sealed their love before the eyes of God was preceded by Father Guillermo Cassone in the Wayside Shrine of the city of Lules in the province of Tucumán. Their adventure began a few days after their wedding, when they decided to visit Germany. It was during their stay in the city of Vallendar that the obligatory confinement due to the Covid-19 was put in place, without the possibility of being close to their family and loved ones. It was precisely during this time of isolation, that the Blessed Mother again came into their lives and in this way they were able to visit the Original Schoenstatt Shrine for the first time.

It was thanks to Father Pablo Pol, Rector of the Original Shrine and Sister Carolina, coordinator of the mission, and Spanish speaking pilgrims, that Jorge and Eliana began the road of preparation for the Covenant of Love. What began as a stop along the way, ended up being their destination, their home.

These young couple from Argentina were also blessed to be formed by Father Alejandro Blanco, Father José Zabala, the Güsewells, and in a special way by Father Ángel Estrada. In their loyal commitment to the Schoenstatt Movement, Jorge and Eliana now collaborate as volunteers in the Original Shrine and they contribute positively in the organization of activities for the community.

During this same time, the life of Brazilian student Lilian Almeida was transformed by the arrival of the Queen of Schoenstatt in her life. Even with a strong presence of the Schoenstatt Movement in Brazil, it was in Vallendar that Lilian met a Shrine in person for the first time.

Just when Lilian believed that her plans were paralyzed due to the pandemic and the critical world situation, the Blessed Mother showed her a way and better plans for her. Attracted by the activities in the Shrine, this young woman learned about the Schoenstatt charisma in depth through the rosaries and Masses taught in her native language.

Under the tutelage of Sister Isabel, coordinator of the Portuguese speaking activities, Lilian prepared for her Covenant of Love with the Mother and Queen of Schoenstatt, which she officially sealed on Sunday, August 16th, during a Mass preceded by Father Antonio Bracht.

“Getting to know Mom better was a great gift from God at this time! I am very grateful for all the blessings I have received from Her and very proud to call her my dear mother!” – expressed with great affection, Lilian.

A life of prayer and loyal contributions to the Capital of Grace are the commitments that these three young men have freely decided to undertake with this Covenant of Love with Mary.

May the methods of self-education that the Father and Founder taught us be a source of inspiration to attract more hearts to our Shrine and to expand its graces to every corner of the world.