31 January 2024 · 2024-01 newsletter
December 9th, 2023, was a special day for our Family Branch in NSW. For the first time in more than five years, two families entered into the Covenant of Love and one family renewed their Covenant which they had sealed in 2009.
Preparation
The family group to which the families belong spent the year preparing for this day. Each month they looked at different aspects of Schoenstatt’s Covenant of Love and spent time discerning God’s call to deepen their Baptismal Covenant through entering into a Covenant with our Mother Thrice Admirable of Schoenstatt.
Fr. Pawel Barszczewski OP who accepted their Consecration assured the couples that “through the covenant of love with Our Lady their baptismal and marriage covenant is deepened and renewed”. (Rite of Consecration for Associate members of the Family Branch)
The celebration
During the celebration they responded to the question as to how they intended to live out their consecration:
“Through the Covenant of love with Mary we wish to renew and enliven our baptismal and our marriage covenant. Our whole life as a couple and a family shall be penetrated by a deep spirit of faith. We want to reach out for the Catholic ideal of marriage as outlined by our Popes and placed before us by Fr. Kentenich, our own Father and Founder, and in this way give witness to others of the effectiveness of the covenant of love in our lives, leading us to everyday sanctity.”
To a further question about how they see their task and mission the response was:
We believe that our most effective apostolate is the sanctification of our own marriage and family, for in this way we will be contributing towards the renewal of the Church and of society from its very roots, from within the family.
The Covenant celebration took place during Holy Mass and members of the other Family Groups joined in solidarity with those entering into the Covenant for the first time.
Following Mass all gathered in the Home of Light to congratulate the couples and to join in fellowship with each other at the end of another fruitful year.
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