Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement

Shrine

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rEVOLution – the world is not too big?

rEVOLution – the world is not too big?

The "Night of the Shrine" (NdH), the faith festival of the Schoenstatt Youth, has taken place in defiance of Covid19, even in 2020. Only a little bit different than in previous years, when normally up to 500 youth met in Schoenstatt, Vallendar, around the Original Shrine at the founding place of the Schoenstatt Movement for encounter, inspiration, strengthening in faith, friendship and much more.

The former kitchen in the Covenant House in Schoenstatt, Vallendar, is not recognizable. Spotlights system, loudspeakers and stage decoration. In between are furniture and a large live monitor. Several cameras stand on tripods and a lot of cables reach the control desks, where computers, mixing desks and large control monitors are placed for sound, light, video editing and live transmission to the Internet. There is also an editorial workstation where the feedback of the participants from Germany, Austria and Switzerland is collected via social media channels and brought into the live event.

In 2020, the first “Night of the Shrine” took place on the first weekend of September, digitally via live streams, where everyone could join, not only at home in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, but also at some regional Schoenstatt Centers. On site in Schoenstatt, many contributions were produced during and before the Week of Service. In preparation for the event, there were digital sessions three times a week since August 18th, a podcast and workshops on the topic and “Impulses for Sunday”.

Musical contributions were pre-produced in high quality

The central, offered digital events that took place on September 5th. A six-person technical team, which under the given circumstances had a special responsibility, was in charge of the interaction between live production and pre-produced contributions. In the opening event, moderators Kerstin Eichenlaub and Alexander Steiger presented several aspects of the topic “rEVOLution – the world is not too big? 

The contents of previously broadcast podcasts with Elisabeth Hanke (ROCK YOUR LIFE! 

Project), Michael Rosenberger (RELIGIONS FOR FUTURE project) and Carsten Leinhäuser (“Faith can bring change”) will be featured.

Sustainable changes take time

In the motto talk, the second point on the program, the moderator Alexander Bersch discussed the motto with his two guests Philipp Wittershagen, co-initiator of “Schoenstatt for future”, and the child and adolescent psychotherapist Verena Groß. For young people today, being revolutionary means having an eye for grievances, demanding authenticity and having the courage to open your mouth. Precisely because profound and sustainable changes take time and concrete steps do not always show immediate success, each individual contribution is important. This can be learned from children’s developmental psychology as well as from ecological projects.

“With God there is no social distancing”

The highlight of the Night of the Shrine, the nightly celebration of the Covenant of Love, was preceded by an almost one-hour fun trip through Germany, during which the two moderators visited places in the (arch) dioceses of Fulda, Augsburg, Freiburg, Trier, Rottenburg-Stuttgart and Regensburg Local NdH live meetings took place in the evening.

The experience of the Covenant of Love celebration was impressive. The live program as well as the recorded contributions created an atmosphere of connection with one another and with God: “With God there is no social distancing”.

Those who were celebrating on the screen were taken along on the path of renewing the Covenant of Love for the youth of the world and for adoration of the Eucharistic Lord through good and meaningful texts, excellently produced song contributions, speaking testimonies and simple symbolic actions. And of course, everyone was invited to write their Covenant of Love letter and send it to the jar in the Original Shrine.

“Revolution out of love, change begins from the heart. Have the courage, you can dare to carry God’s message into the world. ”These sentences from the motto song not only resonate as catchy tunes, but will make the digital night of the sanctuary 2020 noticeably sustainable in everyday life.

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Cor Unum in Patre: One heart in the Father

Cor Unum in Patre: One heart in the Father

On the weekend of August 14-16, an international marathon of 48 uninterrupted hours of prayer of the Holy Rosary was held to ask the Mother Thrice Admirable and Queen of Schoenstatt to intercede before our Eternal Father God for the canonization of the Founding Father of our family: Joseph Kentenich.

By: Lorena Escobar for the Father's Secretariat in Paraguay

This initiative has emerged from the Father’s Secretariat in Paraguay, and we have had the technical support of the group of the Salufe Family Branch, and it has received great acceptance from our brothers and sisters in the Covenant of Love from 20 countries, who have actively participated throughout the weekend, raising prayers that have undoubtedly reached heaven. 

For this marathon, Fr. Eduardo Aguirre, postulator of the cause of canonization of Father Kentenich, has prepared a special ejaculation for us: “Mother and Queen, manifest your power and love, intercede for the canonization of Father.

Thus, on Friday, August 14th, the marathon began with the opening words and the blessing of Father Martin Gomez, National Director of the Movement in Paraguay and Advisor of the Father’s Secretariat of our country. Then, the marathon continued with a total of more than 2483 rosaries and more than 7138 prayers of canonization for the Father and Founder.

Every hour, we saw people connecting simultaneously from their home shrines (an average of 27 shrines per hour), to lead and accompany the prayers that were transmitted from the YouTube channel of the Father’s Secretariat in Paraguay, which during the marathon received a total of 5486 visits from 19 countries around the world. All this offering to the capital of grace was made in the original shrine, through Sister Maria Resia, who is in charge of the Father’s Secretariat in Germany.

There have been very moving moments, as each time we saw our priests and sisters of Mary from different countries join the cause. Among them, Father Eduardo Aguirre led one of the rosaries. 

To crown the weekend of so many graces, Providence gave us a Gospel very much in line with what we experienced, where we saw the foreign woman asking Jesus with much insistence for the healing of her daughter. In this context, during the Holy Mass with which the marathon ended, Fr. Reginald Ibe reminded us of the universality of the Church, the same one that united us to so many people in prayer.

Let us continue united in asking for the honor of the altars for our beloved Father Kentenich, offering capitals of grace, rosaries and prayers of canonization. Those who have not yet registered for the Silence and Prayer Groups of the Covenant of Love PJk, can do so by contacting the Father’s Secretariat in their country. It all adds up to our great mission: to canonize the Father and Founder. “We remain faithful! 

“If we constitute a community of hearts based on the community of hearts with God the Father, with this we have laid the most solid foundation for the history of the Family in future times. Amen. (PJK, 25/12/1967)

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Heroic Childlikness: An Exciting Proposal!

Heroic Childlikness: An Exciting Proposal!

On August 20, 2020 will be celebrated the 71st anniversary of the coronation of the Mother ThriceAdmirable, Queen, and Victress of Schoenstatt at the Tabor Shrine in Santa Maria/RS, Brazil, by the founder of the Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement, Father Joseph Kentenich.

As Father Kentenich always did, he analyzed the signs of the time, the difficulties and the worries, and he prayed to know what God wanted with all of this. He realized the difficulty, which there was in general, in relating faith and daily life, that is, in maintaining a balance between attachment to God, to one’s neighbor, and to all created things.

It is part of the fundamental experience of each human being, of having bonds within a family, as a means for the development of each unique personality. God uses this same path to come to us and for each person to achieve a personal and deep bond with him.

Father Kentenich, following the teachings of  Jesus, points to being a child before God as the ideal and way of life for the Christian. He shows Mary as the one whose mission is to educate those who entrust themselves to her to live the filiality, received in Baptism, to a heroic degree. An attitude of filial surrender, in the light of faith, sees God behind every event – even the most difficult ones – and seeks in everything to do his will, always for love of the Father. Jesus is the model of a beloved and heroic Son who went to the cross for love of his Father.

When he crowned the MTA on August 20, 1949, as Queen of Heroic Childlikeness, Father Kentenich affirmed childlikeness as an essential element of Schoenstatt’s spirituality. “Accept the crown as an expression of the request: Take care that all Schoenstatt children receive and maintain, until the end of time, the grace of heroic childlikeness – and with it the guarantee of an essential element of our spirituality.”

Filiality is a current theme

This time of so many discoveries and so much progress needs childlikness. Being a child is a necessity for the people of today who are facing so many adversities!

Despite being part of a world network of communication, connected, but still separated and distant, more and more the human being feels alone in the world. Modern persons often lack a nest experience that gives security. It is also true that the deterioration of the family nucleus and the loss of strong relationships make the experience of childlikness more difficult. Usually the experience with the supernatural world is based on the experiences of relationships in daily life, especially with a father and a mother, siblings, and friends.

 

That is why we crown the Mother of God as Queen of Heroic Childlikeness, because she wants to help us cultivate even more healthy bonds to people, places, and ideas. We need to lead people to the Mother of God, so that in her arms, they reinforce their learning, what it is to be a child. This is what the Schoenstatt Movement tries to do in the covenant of love with the Mother Thrice Admirable.

 

As seven decades ago, the coronation offered by Father Kentenich is current today. In our time, in today’s difficulties, a childish childlikness is not the way. It is necessary to be guided by the Holy Spirit to the heroism of faith and filial love for God. Only those who are profoundly children before God have the strength and security today to prove the faith and apply it in daily life as mature Christians, as protagonists of this necessary social transformation. Mother Thrice Admirable must be, even more today, our Queen of Heroic Childlikeness. Let us allow ourselves to be educated by her!

 

Sr. M. Rosequiel Fávero and Sr. M. Nilza P. da Silva

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The Shrine of São Paulo Celebrates its 50th Anniversary

The Shrine of São Paulo Celebrates its 50th Anniversary

A "luminous lantern" in the largest metropolis of the Americas

Luisa Monteiro

The Tabor Shrine of Victorious Confidence in the Father, in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, commemorated 50 years of existence on July 8, 2020. The activities around this jubilee included three days of preparatory triduum, more than two million prayers gathered for opening day,  holy Masses of Commemoration – one of which was presided by Cardinal Don Odilo Scherer -, and one day of sharing shrine experiences. The agenda followed the theme “Anchored to the Father, with the Queen of the Covenant, to turn the shrine into a hidden pearl, a luminous lantern for São Paulo”.  This celebration is the apex of three years of preparation, which involved all the branches, communities, and apostolates of the Schoenstatt Work. The shrine, located in the neighborhood of Villa Mariana, was the fourth to be founded in Brazil and the second in the city of São Paulo. 

The first event on the jubilee agenda took place twenty days before the anniversary of the inauguration of the shrine. On July 18, the Schoenstatt Family of Villa Mariana, including those devoted to the Pilgrim Mother and the connected dioceses, proposed to pray one million prayers of Confidence for the Mother of God – a goal that was successfully achieved and which resulted in the presentation of 2,345,605 Prayers of Confidence as a gift to the Mother and Queen.

The Blessed Mother goes out to meet her children

The sunny morning of July 5 coincided with the festivities of Jubilee Sunday. With the current pandemic, people were unable to visit the shrine. However, they did not stop greeting the Queen. The picture of the MTA was removed and placed on the road in front of the shrine to bless the community. Many people passed in front of her, in cars and on foot – many came on their knees- and carried flowers and gifts of their offerings to the capital of grace. 

For the festivities, a small group composed of the members of the Council of the Schoenstatt Family gathered in the shrine. Those who could not attend because of health measures were fully represented as a table full of gifts, sent by the members of the Movement, was placed next to the shrine. Around the garden, dozens of signs highlighted the name of each branch and diocese. The families were also called to spiritually witness the event, and during the experience day, a scroll with more than seven thousand names of families, sent by the community during the week before the jubilee, was presented to the Blessed Mother. 

A new crowning 

The  Golden Jubilee Holy Mass, presided over by Cardinal Don Odilo Scherer, was witnessed by many from afar. It was a celebration that commemorated the history of a small  shrine, whose presence, in the words of the Cardinal “became significant in our city and for many people who found there well-being, joy, and blessing, a refuge for their encounter with God and Our Lady, Mother and Queen of us all. 

Don Odilo’s wish is that “the celebration of this 50th Anniversary, may mean a renewal, a deepening of the mission that the shrine and the Movement assume here in São Paulo. So that, in this time of new evangelization, of missionary renewal, we can radiate this presence of grace, of mercy, of the goodness of God throughout our city.

The celebration ended with a new crowning of Mother Thrice Admirable in the shrine, Tabor Shrine of Victorious Confidence in the Father, by Don Odilo. Around the shrine participants raised their pictures of the Blessed Mother, and were joined by spectators and pilgrims from their houses, in their home shrines. The day referred to by many internet users as a “day of heaven on earth”, concluded with the crowning prayer and the beautiful Schoenstatt tradition of consecration of hearts, once again, to the Blessed Mother. 

Posted by Santuário de Schoenstatt da Vila Mariana on Sunday, July 5, 2020

Posted by Santuário de Schoenstatt da Vila Mariana on Sunday, July 5, 2020

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The Matrimonial Route: Our way to the Shrine

The Matrimonial Route: Our way to the Shrine

A road full of special experiences that lead to the Shrine, the route contains themes for couples that invite the marriages to deepen the dialogue and to strengthen the bonds of love.

The Matrimonial Route is a 1.5 km lane through the forest whose point of departure and arrival is the Shrine.  Along the way there are fifteen stations which represent the different tasks, concerns and periods through which each couple must pass during their married life.  The tasks and texts which are found on the stations motivate the couples to reflect on their lives and to dialogue.  The benches they find along the way also invite the couples to remain seated for a while.

The Matrimonial Route is born from a suggestion from Father Tilmann Beller.  Many artists and professionals worked on its construction, as well as many families of the Family Federation in Hungary.  Along with the wooden stations designed with ceramic plaques, a guidebook with reflections and songs was created.

The Matrimonial Route wants to help the persons reflect on their relationships so that the couples can meet themselves anew, discover their common vocation, educate their children well, and that they may enjoy a full and happy family life.

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The Stations

 

 

The 15 stations of the Matrimonial Route are:

1.    We have met each other forever

2.    Our home is our kingdom

3.    We give life – we receive life

4.    Love also hurts

5.    Difficulties help us grow

6.    Educating strong children

7.    At the midway of our life

8.    Together we are strong

9.    We are sent

10.   We remain faithful

11.   We allow our children to find their way

12.   Along with our previous generation

13.   We age and we reap

14.   Everything has meaning

15.   We give thanks

To renew the families

The Matrimonial Route was blessed by the family Bishop Laszlo Biro on July 3, 2007.  In his discourse, he said:  “the Matrimonial Route takes us from the Shrine toward the Shrine, as our life and our marriage go through many stations which spring from God in order to return to God.  The Matrimonial Route also reminds us of the Stations of the Cross where from the beginning, Jesus embraces the Cross.  Marriage also begins with a loving embrace and is also made up of encounters with children, with people who cry, with persons who nourish us as Simon of Cyrene, with falls and getting ups  and in the end, the radiance of the gift of life in the light of the Resurrection.  The stations of the Route want to guide us toward that prayer which is the source of all action.”

With the Matrimonial Route, the Family Federation in Hungary has made a project to renew the families and the entire country a reality.  Participants of the family workshops in Obudavar happily turn to the Matrimonial Route.  This Route also attracts families from other movements, couples by themselves and also family groups.  Families from parish communities come on busses to Obudavar to nourish and renew their lives on the Matrimonial Route.

Future vision

The Matrimonial Route is supported in prayer and sacrifice by the Schoenstatt families.  During its inauguaration, Father Tilmann Beller said:

I hope that the time will come when alongside each parish there is a Matrimonial Route. And that is how in the parish of Horvatnadalija,Hungary, a Matrimonial Route like the one in Obudavar has been built.  In many other places there are also preparations for the construction of Matrimonial Routes.  Schoenstatt Centers in other countries have also shown interest.

Information and Contact

Where to find it:

Fo u.11.
8272 Obudavar

Web: http://csaladok.schoenstatt.hu/hazasparok-utja

Contact: korso@schoenstatt.hu