18 November 2022 · 2022-11 newsletter
Dear Schoenstatt Family and Friends,
Greetings and blessings for this Covenant Day – 18th November. During this month we remember two significant dates in our Schoenstatt Family history. The first is November 16th – the anniversary of the birth of Father Kentenich (1885). The second is the 20th November – the anniversary of the death of Venerable Sr. M. Emilie Engel (1955).
During this year we have been looking at what being an authentic witness to holiness means for us through our Schoenstatt spirituality.
During his life, Father Kentenich believed that he and his spiritual family had been given a mission to proclaim the message of a merciful, loving Father to the Church and world. Father himself was a transparency for us of the image of the merciful, loving Father God and an authentic witness to holiness.
We are called to keep alive Father’s “founding spirit” and place ourselves anew on the foundation he laid so that we can answer the present challenges we face in our society and our Church. Above all we want to promise Father our availability and loyalty: loyalty to him and his charism, loyalty to his work and his Family, loyalty to his mission for the Church
We are reminded of our responsibility for realizing his charism and mission for the Church and world, and making it fruitful. However, it is never separated from him as a person.
As we remember father’s birthday on the 16th, we pray that the mission he was given by God, through Our Blessed Mother may be fulfilled in today’s world. In speaking of this mission, on the occasion of his 73rd birthday he said:
“Just as St. Paul had the mission to proclaim the mystery of Christ to the world, so it has become my task to proclaim the mystery of Mary to the world…. I may truly say that all of you, my dear Schoenstatt Family, have been drawn into this mission of mine. It has not only been placed upon my shoulders, but upon the shoulders of all Schoenstatt children….. God has called you also to help me fulfil this great mission. Today each one of you is given by the birthday child the mission, the mission of our Mother and Queen of Schoenstatt. It is comforting that the mission does not rest on my shoulders alone but that all of you want to help me fulfil this tremendous task.”
(Conference for Married Couples in Milwaukee, USA, 16 November, 1958)
November is also the month in which we remember and pray for all those who have died. In particular we want to remember the members of our own families, and our close friends and we give thanks for the example they left us and all they did for us during their time here on earth. We also remember in a special way the members of our Australian Schoenstatt Family who have died and who through their lives contributed to the mission of Schoenstatt here in Australia.
“One Heart in the Father for the Family of God”
I wish you many blessings and graces from the shrine for this covenant day – 18th November.
United in Covenant loyalty,
Shirley Hall
Filed underNewsletter · Reflections