17 May 2024 · 2024-05 newsletter
Walking Together, Loving the Church
Dear Schoenstatt Family and Friends,
"Let’s reach out to each other"- This is the motto for the celebrations that will take place at the place of Schoenstatt’s Third Milestone – the 31st May, 1949, in Bellavista Chile. Now 75 years later, the International Schoenstatt Family will commemorate this event, with the self-critical question of how much have we succeeded in contributing to the development of an organic way of thinking in relation to the mechanistic way of thinking diagnosed by Father Kentenich in the Church and society at that time.
Fr. Kentenich had characterized the inner meaning of May 31 as “standing in divine strength” or an act of heroic love. In this sense, the third milestone is an important reminder that the entire vigour of heroic faith shown on January 20 is not disconnected from a mission and a responsibility for the Church. That Fr. Kentenich was willing to risk everything for the well-being of the Church signals to his followers that they must love the Church, even heroically.
Because of May 31st and its consequences, Schoenstatt became more conscious of its calling to help build an organic Church, culture and society, where the natural and supernatural, faith and life, culture and religion, etc. are not separated but integrated.
(Extracts from “200 Questions about Schoenstatt”, by Fr. Jonathan Niehaus)
What meaning does the 31st of May 1949 have for Schoenstatt today and into the future?
In this Jubilee celebration we celebrate Mary’s mission. She teaches us to follow Jesus Christ and to open our hearts to the Spirit who makes us Church. It is an invitation to cultivate a vital current from our Shrines and with Mary, to commit ourselves to the transformation of the world through an encounter with Christ. We now want to understand the voice of God in our times. To do this, we must look both in the Church and outside the Church, to find more clearly what God is telling us and to discern what God is asking of us, today, from our Shrines. What are the doors that God is opening for us?
(Extracts from the 31st May website, Chile)
In constant union
I would like to include here a story told by Father Alex Menningen (1900-1994) to American pilgrims visiting Schoenstatt, Germany in 1980. (Fr. Menningen had originally been a student at the Pallottine College where Father Kentenich taught, and later became one of his most trusted confreres). I believe that it illustrates how much Father Kentenich lived in constant union with his Schoenstatt Family, and with the Holy Church….“Walking Together – Loving the Church”
"In May of 1951, Fr. Kentenich came to Rome to [appear] before the Holy Office. By this time the exile was a certainty; the only question was whether Father would leave voluntarily and retain the remote possibility of returning or be forced into his exile with no chance of return.
I was the only other member of the Schoenstatt family in Rome at the time. Fr. Kentenich came to my room in Casa Pallotti, sat on the bed, and related how Rome had put the alternatives before him. He then asked me, ‘What are we going to do? I have never acted without consulting the Schoenstatt family, and you represent this family now.’ Father prayed from Heavenwards and we offered ourselves anew to the Blessed Mother. Father asked heaven, ‘Do you wish to take this child from me?’ He said, ‘We must put Schoenstatt, like Isaac, on the altar.’ ‘ I was not at all comforted and expressed the dangers: Schoenstatt could become extinct, or crippled and separated. Our conversation continued as I said, ‘How can you agree to this?’
‘Certainly, if God expects it.’
‘But Father, if the sisters are dissolved, and our other communities as well, we would not exist. It is not possible for me. If you do it, it is heroic. If I do it, it is heroic talking.’
At this point Father asked me sternly, ‘Alex, do you go along?’ He left and returned with a letter from one of the sisters, and asked again, ‘Alex, do you go along?’ With this he left me to my thoughts for the evening.
"By morning my choice was clear. I would remain with Fr. Kentenich. When I told Father, he said, ‘Alex, we go now together.’
"We spent two days of silence and prayed together. Then, after Mass at the tomb of St. Vincent Pallotti, Fr. Kentenich said to me, ‘I know what I must do. If they were to leave it up to me, I would never go, but if they say I must, I will go into exile.’
With these words Father accepted his exile."
In this new era of the Church, we too are asked: "Alex, do you go along?" We want to give our "yes" and make our contribution to the stream of life and graces which will bring about this healing and fruitfulness for the Church.
(pp.152-153, The 31st of May, The Third Milestone, Fr. Jonathan Niehaus)
This thought was also reiterated in the talk which Father gave to the 20 Schoenstatt Sisters present in the newly constructed Bellavista Shrine on 31st May, 1949 when said:
“Whoever has a mission must fulfil it, even if it leads into the darkest and deepest abyss, even when it requires one death leap after another. A prophet’s mission always includes a prophet’s fate.”
May the spirit of the 31st May continue to inspire us as a Schoenstatt Family here in Australia as we too strive to live our mission and to love the Church as heroically as did Father Kentenich. May we continue walking together, united with our Blessed Mother, and with our father and founder in our Covenant of Love.
United in our Covenant,
Shirley Hall
Filed underNewsletter · Reflections