17 November 2025 · 2025-11 newsletter
United in the Covenant – Pilgrims of Hope
Dear Schoenstatt Family and Friends,
Greetings and blessings from the Shrine on 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 November 20th – the anniversary of the death of Venerable Sr. M. Emilie Engel (1955).
November is also a time when we remember all those who have died. We remember the members of our own families 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 remember the members of our Australian Schoenstatt Family who have died, particularly those who have died during the past twelve months and reflect on the contribution they made to Schoenstatt in Australia.
On the Silver Jubilee of the Ordination of Father Kentenich (8th July 1935, but celebrated on 11th August 1935), he said that he wanted to use the celebration to thank “all Schoenstatt children, the dead, the living and generations to come.”
This address sheds light on the specific originality of Schoenstatt’s spirituality – the interweaving of destinies and the organism of bonding. In this address he 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.
Our departed work on through their heroic example; they work on because they embodied, sometimes in a 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 must rise to a crescendo far more than they have done until now.
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.
But we also want to remain true to the coming generation. We have a task to fulfil for the coming generation. We bear responsibility for the coming generation, for our future history.
Yet we also want to swear that we will be faithful to one another…… How much mutual faithfulness we need when we are out in the world! ……. We need faithfulness if our whole Family is to become an organic entity at a time when so many conflicting trends are at large. The less we can live our way of life together, the more we want to swear simple faithfulness to one another. Loyalty for loyalty, love for love!
So let it be, we remain true!”
Here in Australia, we remember those Sisters, Fathers, members from all States and from all branches- the Families, Mothers, Women, Men, Young Men, Young Women, Girls and members of the Pilgrim Mother Apostolate, who are no longer with us and who witnessed to Schoenstatt through their loyalty to their Covenant of Love. We give thanks for their faithfulness to Schoenstatt’s mission and for their contribution to Schoenstatt in Australia.
“One heart in the Father, for the family of God”
May the lives of Father Kentenich and Sr. M. Emilie continue to be examples for us of the way to live the mission we have been given in Schoenstatt, through our Mother Thrice Admirable, Queen and Victress of Schoenstatt, and we give thanks for the graces and blessings she showers on us from her shrines.
United in our Covenant,
Shirley Hall
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