30 September 2025 · 2025-09 newsletter
United in the Covenant – Pilgrims of Hope
Dear Schoenstatt Family and Friends,
Blessings and greetings for this Covenant Day – 18th September. Just a few days ago, on 15th September we commemorated the anniversary of the death of Father Kentenich in 1968. In 2018 when we commemorated the 50th anniversary of father’s death, much was said about the charism / mission he had been given for Schoenstatt and the Church, and our challenge to continue this mission into our current times.
Whoever studies the life of Father Kentenich more closely will notice that from time to time he acknowledged that he had been gripped by a divine mission in a very personal way. However, he did not claim this mission for himself alone but saw it as a mission for the whole Schoenstatt Family. Such was his conviction, that he devoted all his energies to serving this mission. He said he needed to be gripped by this mission in order to sustain his commitment. This is true of him as the prophetic leader, but also for the members of his Movement. To uphold our faith in our mission, we too need to be gripped by this mission.
According to Father Kentenich, faith in having been given a mission is not just a special quality of great saints. For him, all the degrees of belief in a mission, even to the point of being gripped by a mission, are part and parcel of the essence of Christianity. Already early on he tried to awaken a vital awareness among the young people in the mission Association, the Sodality and the Apostolic Federation, that they had been called and given a mission.
Until the end of his life, Father Kentenich considered an important justification for his faith in his mission was that it was not based on some vision or miracle, but solely on faith in Divine Providence.
“Whoever knows the history and soul of our Family will also know that our victorious belief that we have been given a mission is rooted in our faith in Divine Providence, … Every degree of faith in a mission, even to the point of being gripped by a mission, is part and parcel of Christianity……
When we talk as a Family about our mission, we mean a mission and task we have not selected for ourselves, but one that has been given to us by God. God is behind it, not human ignorance, presumption or arrogance. We can see this through faith in Divine Providence from the history and insufficiency of the instruments, the magnitude of the opposition and difficulties, and the results achieved.
One of the fundamental forces that can overcome the world and today’s life challenges is faith in Divine Providence and our mission. Both are given new nourishment each day, and we rejoice with all our hearts over the many ways God has validated through the fateful history of the Family in the past years……So, our attitude of faith should never tire of assimilating, holding onto and savouring with greatest care all the great and small proofs of God’s guidance and dispensation. God is a faithful God, and he will not break the Covenant of Love we entered in 1914. For our part, we must try repeatedly, believingly, and willingly, to show the same faithfulness. Then, even more than before, our history will be a unique and powerful victory of God’s power, kindness, and faithfulness.
Fr. J. Kentenich, The Spirituality of a Marian Instrument. Dachau concentration camp, 1944. From: His Mission Our Mission, Mons. Peter Wolf
Each Covenant Day when we renew the covenant with our Blessed Mother, with our Father and with one another, we do this united in hope and full of trust.
We pray that each of us, and as a Family, we may continue the mission which Father Kentenich has given us for Schoenstatt and for the Church. Father Kentenich continues to challenge us to continue his mission.
In gratitude for our Father and founder, and united with our Blessed Mother, may we remain steadfast in our loyalty to our Covenant of Love and the mission we have received for Schoenstatt and the Church.
“One Heart in the Father for the Family of God”
United in Covenant Loyalty,
Shirley Hall
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