16 September 2024 · 2024-09 newsletter
Walking Together, Loving the Church
Dear Schoenstatt Family and Friends,
Last Sunday, 15th September we not only celebrated together our Covenant, but we also commemorated the anniversary of the death of Father Kentenich on 15th September 1968.
As members of the Schoenstatt family, we are challenged especially on this day, to keep Father’s “founding spirit” alive and visible in the Church and society. In accepting this mission, we might ask ourselves how we might live this mission and pass it on to others.
Father Kentenich understood “mission” as sharing in the mission of Jesus Christ. This explains his deep understanding of our apostolate. It highlights not just the apostolic action, or the valuable service of proclamation and administering the sacrament of baptism; it emphasises the living witness and influence of the apostle based on his or her Christlikeness. What matters is making Christ increasingly present in our modern world.
This also explains the emphasis he placed on formation and self-education in the Movement. According to our Founder, the grace of apostolic fruitfulness that Schoenstatt expects relates to the Blessed Mother’s education and formation of the members in the Shrine, which remains the source of life for the apostolate. During a Conference in Rome (17 November 1965), Father Kentenich said:
“Today people say: The most important thing is to make Christ present in the world. How are we to make Christ present? First of all, through the way we are, through bearing the divine life within ourselves…. We Catholics today have to do more to exemplify and demonstrate this complete way of making Christ present, than just talking about it.
That is why we do not try as in the past to drag others to join us. We have far more respect for each person. So how can we describe the apostolate? It is, as was often said in the past, the apostolate of exemplifying the fullness of religion.
Everything has to be exemplified! I can no longer remember the definition of the apostolate in “Everyday Sanctity” in detail, but it is the overflow of divine life from an inner fullness. So, I have to live. I must pass on my life. I may do so through what I say, but the most important thing is the apostolate of what we are.
(Quotes from: “His Mission, Our Mission”, ed. Peter Wolf).
FOR REFLECTION: Can I say of myself that God has given me a great mission in Christ and through the Blessed Mother? Must I not also learn to say of myself, must I not also educate myself in such a way that I can honestly and truthfully say with full and clear knowledge: I have chosen the better part, I have accepted this mission?
May Our Blessed Mother continue to be with each of us and help us to fulfil the mission we have been given for Schoenstatt, and for the Church.
In covenant loyalty, we remain, as Australian Schoenstatt Family:
One Heart in the Father for the Family of God.
Shirley Hall
Filed underNewsletter · Reflections