19 April 2021 · 2021-04 newsletter
Family, be what you are: Domestic Church
Dear Schoenstatt Family and Friends,
Greetings and blessings for this Covenant day – 18th April. Once again we unite as Schoenstatt Family here in Australia and also as part of our international Schoenstatt Family to renew our Covenant of Love which Father Kentenich and the small group of boys first made with our Blessed Mother on the 18th October 1914.
As many of us are still not able to go to the shrine on this day to renew our Covenant of Love, we do so in our homes – in our Home Shrines. These sacred spaces have become even more important to us during this past year with the impact of the restrictions imposed because of COVID-19.
In a talk in 1966, Father Kentenich spoke about the Home Shrine and its importance as a sacred space for families. In this year when we are looking at the importance of the family as the domestic Church, with its centre being the home shrine, I think these words of Father Kentenich are particularly apt at this time: He said:
“….the home shrine – is it not something that reaches quite deeply into the supernatural world? The talk of a worldly world means a world that no longer wants to have anything to do with the supernatural reality. And that is the great mission and task we must fulfil as Schoenstatt children. In this worldly world in which everything is profane and permeated and penetrated by the worldly, in the midst of such a world, what does it mean to live in a “sacred space”?
To live in a world that is thoroughly penetrated by the divine…….. What is at stake here is the fact that in the midst of a worldly world we need a sacred space, and in a sacred space we need a sacred atmosphere. But [the daughter shrine] is not enough. Divine Providence – and Our Lady’s guidance in the covenant – knows of today’s dangers in a secularized world, a profane world, an unholy world with such a pagan atmosphere!
We therefore have the fruit of the home shrines. What does it mean? If the starting point for renewing a shaken social order is and must be its nucleus – the family – then of course everything depends on the family being able to grow completely into the supernatural world. So that this can take place more easily there is not only the daughter shrine, but also the home shrine. The home shrine! One room in our home wants to be seen above all others as a shrine. And the deeper reason for this: We who must constantly go out into the profane, unholy atmosphere need a sacred atmosphere.
As social beings we are greatly formed by our surroundings. Therefore – and we want to remember this: What a great sign it is from the Blessed Mother that she has shown her loyalty to us by inspiring, encouraging, indeed almost forcing us via the shrine to take the sacred atmosphere with us into our homes! To take it just a little step farther – you will probably understand this quite well: The Original Shrine, daughter shrine, and home shrine ultimately want to see to it that we ourselves become living “churches of St. Mary”, living churches of the Blessed Trinity!”
(Talk on April 24, 1966 to the Schoenstatt Mothers’ and Women’s Leagues of Bavaria)
United in Covenant loyalty,
Shirley Hall
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