19 May 2022 · 2022-05 newsletter
“Schoenstatt’s Way: Authentic Witness to Holiness”
Dear Schoenstatt Family and Friends,
Greetings and blessings on this Covenant day – 18th May. The month of May is a special time when we celebrate Mary as the Mother of Christ, as the Mother of the Church and as our Mother. During this month we want to give special thanks to Our Blessed Mother for all the gifts and graces she has given us through our Shrines and for leading us through our Covenant of Love to the Heavenly Father.
During this month we will celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the Opening and Blessing of the Kew Shrine. The actual date is the 11th May, but the celebrations will take place on Saturday 21st May. Therefore I thought it might be fitting to look at an extract from the letter that Fr. Kentenich sent for that occasion.
“The picture of our dear Mother of God should stand before the minds of people in a splendour of light and colour and be imprinted in their hearts in such a way as has happened only seldom in the past. She goes through the world as the great educator of the people. Everywhere she wants to bring forth Christ again, in order to save the endangered Christian personality, human society and the whole world. Hence she selects places from where she may develop her educative activity in an outstanding way.
Today she solemnly chooses this Shrine to be her favourite place, the place where she offers graces and is especially active. From here she will distribute her treasures, and take in hand the education of the people and their leaders. She does this under the title of Mother Thrice Admirable and Queen of Schoenstatt……
Wherever she goes she awakens new, fresh, bubbling life. Everywhere she gives to those who honour her the grace of transformation, of a home and of fruitfulness in rich measure. SHE does this; she of whom Blessed Vincent Pallotti said: "She is the great Missionary. She will work miracles!"
Everywhere people find their way to her Shrines. However they do not come with empty hands; they bring rich gifts. They do not grow tired of offering to God’s Mother the sacrifices of their serious efforts in self-education which co-operation with grace demands of them in everyday life.
Large numbers of people offer these sacrifices especially on the 18th of each month. From these gatherings they return home enriched in spirit with new incentives and actual graces for the great work of their transformation into Christ.
From today onward, the Mother of God also expects such earnest co-operation with grace from us. She calls upon us in a similar way as she did in 1914 at the Shrine in Schoenstatt: Do not worry about the fulfilment of your wishes. Ego diligentes me diligo… Prove first by your deeds that you love me …, then I will prove that I love you.
Thus, today, we enter the covenant of love with our dear Mother of God. We entrust to her the destiny of our people and our country. Generously we offer our sacrifices as contribution to her capital of grace. In all situations we will find our way to her Shrine. We go into the future full of confidence and will not grow tired of repeating the words …. "Mater habebit curam". She will take care of our salvation and of the well-being of our people and country. Of this you may be quite sure, and you may be joyful in this knowledge all the days of your life. Therefore I congratulate you on today’s celebration and wish from all my heart that it may leave a deep impression on your heart and mind, and that it may prove to be a milestone in the history of your life and your people.”
During the month of May, Joseph particularly wanted to honour his Blessed Mother (or his “Little Mother” as he called her) and bring her his ‘May blossoms.” He wanted to prepare a spiritual bouquet of blossoms – these were all the sacrifices he made. Each day he carefully tallied them. They included the difficulties he encountered, time he spent reading about Our Lady, apostolic deeds, striving to improve himself and his relationships with others. Indeed every little sacrifice and gift was tallied and at the end of May 1916 he had tallied up 1712 contributions to the capital of grace that he could offer to his Blessed Mother in a spiritual bouquet of May blossoms.
We are also reminded that on the 19th May 1968, our national shrine at Mt. Schoenstatt, Mulgoa was blessed and opened and Father Kentenich sent a letter also for that occasion. It read in part:
“The sentiments that deeply move the hearts and minds of our Schoenstatt Family gathered here, can be summed up in the simple phrase: "Today salvation has come to this house" (Lk 19:9), that is, to our little Shrine. Today our Mother Thrice Admirable, Queen and Victress of Schoenstatt has made her home in this place in order to educate the people and leaders of Australia and to enable them to carry out the post-conciliar mission of the Church in their own continent as perfectly as possible. She has done this by entering into a significant covenant of love with Schoenstatt as a place and with the Schoenstatt Family. What she did in 1914 in connection with the original Shrine in Germany and later repeated in other countries and continents, according to God’s plan, she has done here today.
…….There is no doubt that the Mother Thrice Admirable, Queen and Victress of Schoenstatt will loyally fulfil her obligations. She is the ‘Virgo Fidelis’ (the faithful Virgin). In every country where, up to the present, she has made her home she has proved her loyalty to the covenant in the most wonderful way. She will do this here too. On this we build in trust and confidence. However, as our gift in return she expects us to repay loyalty with loyalty and heroic loyalty with heroic loyalty.”
Through our Covenant of Love, Our Blessed Mother asks us to give her our contributions to her capital of grace – our sacrifices, all the frustrations, the anxieties, the struggles, as well as all the many gifts we receive – the smile of a stranger when we are out walking, a kindness unexpected, enjoying a beautiful day. And we know that in return she will shower us with graces from her Shrines.
Joseph Engling (5.1.1898 – 4.10.1918) was one of the founding generation of Schoenstatt. Father Kentenich said of him, that he was one of the first of the boys to really understand the Covenant of Love and what Fr. Kentenich meant in the Founding Document when he said on behalf of Our Blessed Mother:
“Diligently bring me contributions to the Capital of Grace. By a faithful and most faithful fulfilment of your duties and a life of ardent prayer, earn many merits and place them at my disposal.
Undoubtedly, we could not accomplish a greater apostolic deed nor leave our successors a more precious legacy than to urge our Lady and Queen to erect her throne here in a special way, to distribute her treasures, and to work miracles of grace. You gather what I am aiming at: I would like to make this place a place of pilgrimage, a place of grace for our house and for the whole German province, and perhaps even further afield.”
During this month of May, you might like to reflect on what you can give to our Blessed Mother as a contribution to her capital of grace, so that our Schoenstatt Shrines may continue to be places of grace. What is my special gift to our Blessed Mother during this month?
In a spirit of unity through our Covenant of Love, I wish each of you many blessings and graces from our Shrines on this Covenant Day and for the remainder of May, this special month of Our Lady.
I know that you will join me in congratulating our Schoenstatt family in Melbourne on the 70th anniversary of their Kew shrine and pray that from there “She (Our Lady) will continue to work miracles!"
Shirley Hall
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