Shrine

July 18, 2021 By Sr. M. Cacilda Becker

Capital of Grace and serious aspiration for holiness

How much is your contribution
to the Capital of Grace worth?

The value of each sacrifice we offer to the Blessed Mother so that her graces may bear fruit from the Shrine

By Sister M. Nilza Silva
July 18, 2021

Our place of grace -the Shrine- supposes a collaboration between God and us, between the Virgin and us. That is why, those of us in the Movement who want to further our participation in it, must never desist. This is the permanent imperative: Cooperation!

Have you ever wondered how much a small offering to the Capital of Grace is worth? How about two offerings? How about three? Little by little we can fill a basket and help the MTA in her mission from the Shrine. What follows is Father Kentenich’s reflections on this topic.

Nothing without me

Father Kentenich’s reflection:

Nothing happens in Schoenstatt without me; in other words, the current of grace cannot grow and flow without me. When we talk about the contributions to the Capital of Grace this is exactly what we are talking about. All of us have this task.

The more religious we are, the clearer it becomes that things depend on God; and regarding my offerings, not on the actions I take, but on the degree of love I put into them. If I am sick and I have a great love for God, how much will I be able to offer to the Capital of Grace and how much will I get in return? In this way, the individual activity is oriented towards the heavens.

This is mentioned in the Founding Document: Schoenstatt ceases to be a place of pilgrimage, and ceases to carry its mission in this world, when there are no new contributions to the Capital of Grace, when the contributions made are spent and there are no new contributions being offered.

I still remember well when we said: We don’t want the Blessed Mother to act without us, we want to attract her, make her descend in virtue of intense apostolic activity. We believe that our Founding Document was signed in heaven.

When we get to Eternity, we will know who has served the Movement the most, and perhaps we will have a very different picture of reality from what we currently see. This world appreciates more those who are in the forefront. There are always leaders, some who talk constantly but they are not always the most needed. I am convinced that deep down, there is a multitude of simple individuals without whom Schoenstatt could not exist. The most needed and most important are those who constantly and in the greatest measure give offerings to the Capital of Grace, who unite the current of their heart and blood with the current of heart and blood of the Capital of Grace.

Capital of grace — Foto: Pedro Dillinger

God expects personal saintliness from us. The Blessed Mother asks of us personally, not in general, a high degree of holiness, a strong aspiration to holiness. In virtue of this aspiration of ours, we will make her descend. A precious stone is worth more than a whole mountain of ordinary stones. If the Family does not generate such persons, what do we expect from Schoenstatt? Schoenstatt depends for its existence on a serious aspiration for holiness. Other places of pilgrimage can do without it. Schoenstatt, on the other hand, depends on people who truly aspire to holiness and connect that aspiration to our Shrine.

This is how the mystery of Schoenstatt is presented to us: the Blessed Mother’s universal fruitfulness stems from the forces of divine grace, which act freely. We admire the generosity of divine grace.

Do you think that I attribute everything that was done here to personal endeavors? No! I will explain it with an example: a child wants to help his mother carry the laundry basket. The child wants to help her and puts his little hands and his whole body in the basket. He wants to have the honor of helping his mother. And the poor mother must carry not only the basket, but also the child.

A powerful current of graces flows from this place, we can collaborate with it, but without thinking that everything has been achieved by virtue of our actions alone.

Father Joseph Kentenich, Christmas Day Conference, Schoenstatt December 28, 1933

Book: His mission, our mission, Peter Wolf editor

Source: www.schoenstatt.org.br

May 11, 2021 By Magdalena Rosario Lira

What is the meaning of the jug in the Shrine and why is it there?

In most of the Schoenstatt shrines, there is usually a jar which stands in front of the altar. Throughout each month it is filled with slips of paper placed there by many people who visit the Mother Thrice Admirable, Queen and Victress of Schoenstatt.

Karen Bueno
May 11th. 2021

What does this jug represent?

This symbol makes reference to the Gospel text about the wedding at Cana where Jesus transformed water into wine: “There were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim.” (John 2: 1-11)

What is the relationship between the jug and the Shrine?

Just like water is essential for living things, the capital of grace is the nourishment for the spiritual life of the Shrine. The capital of grace gathers the personal contributions of all those who offer their sacrifices and joys, especially in the field of self-education; those who wish to be everyday saints.

These personal contributions to the capital of grace, when united with Christ’s sacrifice, have an immeasurable value. What we place in the jug are the gifts of love which are offered to the Blessed Virgin’s capital of grace so that She may distribute them to those in need. Capital of grace is the name given to the treasure that the Blessed Virgin distributes from her Shrine.

What are those pieces of paper in the jug?

Throughout each month, the members of the Schoenstatt Movement write their contributions to the capital of grace in notebooks or pieces of paper as a written expression of their offerings. These slips of paper, which represent one’s effort to reach a saintly life, are placed in the jug.

Following the example of what took place in Cana, the imperfect contributions of each one of us are united with Christ’s perfect donation so that a miracle may happen: Jesus transforms the water (our offerings) into good wine and the Blessed Virgin distributes it from the Shrine.

In many places, on the 18th day of the month, these slips of paper are burned in a bonfire, raising all the contributions to heaven.

April 23, 2021 By Vanessa Franke

Jubilee shrine, Guayaquil’s archbishop’s favorite place

Jubilee shrine, Guayaquil's archbishop's favorite place

Monsignor Luis Cabrera visits the Schoenstatt Shrine as a simple pilgrim

Sister M. Melissa
April 23 2021

In the morning of Holy Saturday, I went to the shrine to offer the closing of the Holy Week’s virtual retreat with the Feminine Youth to our MTA. This shrine is the one in Guayaquil, the National Schoenstatt Shrine in Ecuador. As I entered the shrine, I was overcome with joy when I saw Guayaquil’s archbishop, Monsignor Luis Gerardo Cabrera. He was praying just like the other pilgrims who had visited our place of grace that morning.

Moments later we met outside the Shrine with Father Jose Luis Nieto, Schoenstatt Father, and the three of us had a lively conversation. The archbishop asked us about our communities and thanked us for the paschal lamb he had received from the Sisters as an Easter gift. Then a family who had been visiting the shrine with the monsignor exited and he introduced them to us saying they had come to visit him from Quito, and he had decided to bring them to his favorite place in Guayaquil, and that is why they were there that morning.

I told them about our coming golden jubilee and the opportunity to obtain plenary indulgences. We told them about the other shrines in the country that they could visit as well.

A very simple and unexpected visit.

The archbishop and his guests toured every corner of our Schoenstatt Center. It was evident that he had taken deep ownership of the place and was very glad to show it to others. By the way, our archbishop is Franciscan.

It was a very simple visit, unexpected and very intimate on monsignor Cabrera’s part. One could feel our Father Kentenich’s “Dilexit Ecclesiam” embraced by our Church through its archbishop, who so willingly joins us for so many of our Schoenstatt Family celebrations in Guayaquil.

The archbishop is Franciscan and is the current president of the Episcopal Conference of Ecuador. He has cultivated a personal relationship with our MTA in the shrine and owns several books written by our founding father, whom he admires.

May the Queen give the Church our charisma from this jubilee shrine so that many others can also say that “this is their favorite place“.

March 26, 2021 By Magdalena Rosario Lira

4th Anniversary of Schoenstatt Shrine in Costa Rica

Four years ago, on March 20, 2017, the Schoenstatt family in Costa Rica celebrated the gift of having the first Schoenstatt shrine in Central America. The Shrine is in the municipality of Santa Ana in San Jose. On that day, there was a great celebration with a mass presided by San Jose’s archbishop, Monsignor Jose Rafael Quiros while the Schoenstatt family rejoiced thanking God, the Blessed Mother and each person who made that possible

Lisandra Chaves Leiva, Communications Schoenstatt Costa Rica
26 March 2021

“The day the Shrine was blessed, there were Schoenstatt members from over twenty countries in America and Europe. The faith we have in Schoenstatt, in its mission at the service of the Church and the world, is supported by our faith in the extraordinary current of grace flowing from the Shrine. All of us, united as a family, experienced a sliver of heaven on earth”, said Catalina Cabezas, who, along with her husband, headed the project and are currently the coordinators for the Apostolic Federation of Families.

The Shrine’s blessing was a “blue flag” event, that is, it complied with all the requisites to be eco-friendly and in accordance with Laudato si. Everyone was wearing white and beige attires, just as they did when they sealed their covenants. Additionally, 250 MTA medals sculpted in agate, were received from Germany.

Dirk Sander, responsible for the shrine’s construction, remembers: “It was an honor, as if the Virgin was telling me “do this”, and I agreed immediately. It was a challenge because it was done in a short time (three months). With the Blessed Mother by our side, everything was perfect. We had the blueprints, the land. I had never built a shrine before, and the challenge was to interpret what is behind the design of a shrine which is a replica of the original shrine in Germany. This had to be better than any other project. The Blessed Mother was the designer and the one who guided us to do everything right”.

This year, due to the pandemic, the 4th anniversary celebration could not be as crowded or well attended, but the Schoenstatt family united in prayer and celebrated a mass in the Shrine following all the guidelines provided by the Health Department. Mass was presided by Monsignor Daniel Francisco Blanco, auxiliary bishop of the San Jose archdiocese, together with Father Jose Luis Correa Lira, national advisor for Schoenstatt in Costa Rica and Central America and continental coordinator for Schoenstatt in America. They were joined by a deacon and two seminarians.

“Mary is the path to reconciliation. She intercedes for us before her Son so we can be reconciled with the Lord. In the Blessed Mother, we can contemplate the loving and giving mother who has always been mindful of our difficulties. We see her promptly going to Isabel’s house. We see her concern for the newlyweds who ran out of wine. She is totally aware of what we need, of our lives, and guides us to her Son, to renew our hearts and continue on our way to the Father. She is a refuge for sinners, and we come to her as a mother and mediator who takes our hand and leads us to her Son. To celebrate the Blessed Mother’s maternity implies a commitment. We ask for strength to imitate her, especially by taking care of each other’s needs”, said Monsignor Daniel Blanco during his homily at the 4th-anniversary celebration.

As the mass ended, Monsignor Blanco said: “Thanks for the invitation to this 4th-anniversary celebration. We are grateful for everything that is being done from this Shrine. May this Shrine be a place of encounter, prayer, and blessing. It is a gift for the San Jose archdiocese and for all the Church”.

February 12, 2021 By Sr. M. Cacilda Becker

Daring to yearn for greatness and working to achieve it

Sister Erika-Maria Bukovics, along with four other Sisters of Mary from the filiation house in Timisoara, the third largest city in Romania, speaks with us about the joys, needs, and projects of the small, but highly committed Schoenstatt Family in Romania

Interview by Claudia Brehm
28. Februar 2021

Sister Erika-Maria, what are your current thoughts, efforts, concerns, and joys in the movement?

In 2019 we opened our first filiation here in Romania at Timisoara. It’s a great joy for us to be able to keep on building the Schoenstatt Movement in Romania, as has been done before by the Sisters of Mary. Currently there are five sisters, four of them are Romanian and one is German. Our movement here in Romania is still a very small family; we have a Family branch, Schoenstatt youth, the Pilgrim MotherApostolate, seven Sisters of Mary -one is in Germany and two of them are in Austria- and approximately ten priests who have sealed their Covenant of Love. We hope to make the Schoenstatt Movement better known in Romania so that it can continue to grow in our country.

What activities do you perform?

At this time, most of it is online. We get together monthly on the 18th for the celebration of the Covenant Day, for youth and family events, and for the Pilgrim Mother meetings which are held at the chapel in our house. For the time being, those are virtual encounters.

Our ministry includes reaching out to people on the streets. We establish contact with the local parishes and priests. Three of our sisters work in the Timisoara diocese doing pastoral work and getting involved in local projects. Furthermore, we get involved, with Germany’s cooperation, in social projects among the people in our country.

Every big project starts with a wish and a dream. What are your hopes and dreams?

Our biggest hope is to build a Schoenstatt Shrine and a small Schoenstatt Center here in Romania. The Blessed Mother will let us know if this will remain as a dream or if it can become a reality. I read that “The future begins with you” in the song for the women and mother’s movement. I really liked that because we should not wait for others to shape the future while we just wait to see what happens. We should help to make our dreams come true ourselves. We must believe in the future of the Schoenstatt movement in Romania, even if it is still in its infancy. Even though we don’t have the land or the money for a Shrine and a Schoenstatt center, we firmly trust in the Virgin’s power. If the MTA wants to establish herself here in Romania, as in the Original Shrine, she will show us the way. I am truly convinced of this.

There are many challenges in your country which you must face with courage.

Yes, we do have many challenges here: unemployment, emigration, parents who have to live somewhere else to find work in order to sustain their families. This sometimes results in broken marriages. We also have to deal with the loss of faith. For our events, the diversity of languages is a big challenge. Even in Timisoara we have to deal with three languages: Rumanian, Hungarian and German. Having to take this into account at every event demands great effort.

But we are certain: it is precisely for these difficult times that we have Schoenstatt offering a home for everyone with stability for their faith and their families. Our founder, Father Joseph Kentenich, once said: “Without hardship, without sacrifice, without battles, nothing great will emerge from us. Great individuals always grow on the cross.” So, we keep taking courageous new steps in our country and we rejoice for each person who is called by the Blessed Mother to the movement.

In Germany we have always heard about Romanian hospitality. What is your experience?

Yes, it is a great joy for us to see that the people here are so open, hospitable and helpful. They enjoy helping with social projects. For example, I am always touched by the fact that poor families, young people, or the elderly, like to share what little they have with others. I was recently traveling on the tramway and started a conversation with a woman beggar. She said that she was glad she could help another woman who couldn’t go begging because she was too frail. She had received a blanket and gave it to the other woman because “she needed it more.” She trusted that someone else would give her a blanket, and so it was. When I asked her if she needed another one due to the very cold weather, she said “Not at this time since I already have one and that is enough.” These experiences really move me! Here, in this country, you can clearly see that there is solidarity amongst its people, concern for the wellbeing of others. There are exceptions, of course.

What has the pandemic brought in terms of challenges and opportunities to make new things out of old ones?

One of the greatest problems is that many people have lost their jobs because of the pandemic and this, of course, exacerbates poverty. Online schooling is a great challenge for many children, as well as for the teachers and parents; it requires a larger effort in the children’s upbringing. Nevertheless, there is also a positive effect. The students I’m responsible for have often expressed how nice it has been to spend more time with their parents at home or to do things as a family, like taking small trips, for example.

Furthermore, during this time various virtual prayer groups have flourished that strengthen the bond with others and trust in God. The longing for community is growing strongly. One comes to appreciate more what was possible in previous times. In addition, several social projects to help people in need have emerged.

Tell me about an initiative…

At the end of November 2020, the Sisters of Mary launched a Christmas campaign in cooperation with Germany. We wanted to help the people of Romania with disinfectants and protective masks. It was a great joy for us to receive support from so many people. Thus, we were able to deliver the packages to children’s homes, homeless shelters, some social institutions, families, and single people. We are so grateful to our many and generous benefactors, both in Germany and Romania. This was a very special experience for us.

How do you envision the future?

We should not be afraid of the future, even if we are going through great hardships in our country. If we only believe that the good Lord holds each one of us in His hand and knows our future much better than we do, we can continue moving forward. Our task is only to walk with Him.

Thank you, Sister Erika-Maria, for your time. We are deeply grateful for having the opportunity to meet the Schoenstatt family in Romania. I am sure that some of our readers will keep you in their hearts and pray for you from now on, especially for the Romanian Schoenstatt family’s great desire to build a shrine. I will be delighted to take you, your sisters and our fellow Romanian brothers back to our Blessed Mother’s Original Shrine.

Translation: Maribel Acaron