18 November 2024 · 2024-11 newsletter
Walking Together, Loving the Church
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 the 16th November – 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)
November is a month in which we remember in a special way all those who have died. In particular we remember the members of our own family and 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, all those members of our Australian Schoenstatt Family who have died, and who through their lives contributed to the mission of Schoenstatt here in Australia. We pray for the repose of their souls. We can best repay them for their contribution to Schoenstatt by remaining loyal to our MTA, to our father and founder and to our Schoenstatt Family and by striving to live our Australian mission: One Heart in the Father for the Family of God.
On the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of Ordination of Father Kentenich (8th July 1935, but celebrated on 11th August 1935), he said he wanted to use the celebration to thank “all Schoenstatt children, the dead, the living and generations to come.”
“I thank those who had worked and given their lives for Schoenstatt”, Father Kentenich said. “Our deceased are not dead, they are with us today. The work that has been created here is just as much the work of those who co-operated with me. I am inconceivable without you. My whole work cannot be explained without your most personal and profound co-operation. This applies in the first place to our dead… We want to be faithful to our deceased… I know what this loyalty to our dead means to our generation. The Family has brought forth great people. We want to remain true to them. Faithfulness to them is faithfulness to our MTA, to our shrine, to our ideal.
Father Kentenich continued:
“Our departed work on through their heroic example; they work on because they embodied, sometimes in an heroic way, what we see today as a great idea in the heavens of our lives. We hope to God, and admit with great gratitude, that they work on through their intercession, through praying for us together with the Mother Thrice Admirable of Schoenstatt. Yes, the hymns of thanksgiving have to rise to a crescendo far more than they have done until now”.
On that occasion Father Kentenich especially thanked Our Blessed Mother for all that she has done through Schoenstatt. I think that we can join him when he said:” I think that the gratitude expressed to me in these days, and which I have returned to you, has also to be taken up by the whole Family and directed into the heart of our dear Mother Thrice Admirable and Queen of Schoenstatt.”
On November 16th we remembered the anniversary of the birth of Father Kentenich (1885).
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.
On this feastday of the birth of Father Kentenich, please join me in wishing him a Very Happy Birthday, as we continue to pray for his canonisation:
Eternal Triune God, for love of you and your holy Church, Schoenstatt’s founder always strove to do your will and win many hearts for you. Through the intercession of Mary, the Mother Thrice Admirable and Queen of Schoenstatt we pray that he may soon be raised to the honours of the altar so that he may work even more fruitfully than while on earth for you and your kingdom. Amen.
May Our Blessed Mother Thrice Admirable continue to be with us all to help us in living the Schoenstatt mission that we have been given from the Shrine.
United in our Covenant,
Shirley Hall
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