14 October 2022 · 2022-10 newsletter
“Schoenstatt’s Way: Authentic Witness to Holiness”
Dear Schoenstatt Family and Friends,
Greetings and blessings in this special month when we come together to remember and celebrate the Founding Day of Schoenstatt on 18th October 1914. As a Schoenstatt Family, this is a day on which we celebrate both Schoenstatt’s founding and the day of the Covenant of Love which inspires its entire spirituality.
In 1966 Father Kentenich said:
The meaning of the Covenant of Love with Our Lady is that it should be an expression of the Covenant of Love with God the Father. Secondly, it should safeguard the Covenant of Love with the Father, and thirdly, it should be a means by which to enter into the Covenant of Love with the Father in an ineradicable and indissoluble way. All this is included in the mission of the beloved Mother of God.
…. The more solid, the more deeply-penetrating our Covenant of Love with the Mother of God is, the safer, the more solid will be our Covenant of Love with our Lord and God the Father. So the Father wants Our Lady to lead us to him, it is his will that the Covenant of Love with her should result in an outstanding way in our making a Covenant of Love with him, the Father.
(From: “Rediscovering the Father” (Fr. Joseph Kentenich, P135)
And where do we find Our Lady? In a special way we find her in the shrine where she dwells and from where she distributes her graces and blessings.
But the shrine is for us not simply a place of pilgrimage, it is especially a place of grace where we come to find Our Blessed Mother, together with the Triune God. It is a place which offers us peace, security, a home and many blessings. It is also a place from which Our Blessed Mother educates us. But of course, all this isn’t possible without the contributions we make to the Capital of Grace and offer to Our Blessed Mother in her Shrine… “Nothing without you, nothing without us”.
Father Kentenich said in 1933:
“Our place of grace (the shrine) is the result of the co-operation between God and ourselves, between the Blessed Mother and ourselves….
A constant imperative is Co-operation! Nothing without me! Nothing in Schoenstatt may happen without me, that is to say, the river of grace may not be increased or directed out from here without me. The concept “contributions to the capital of grace” expresses the same truth. We all have this task…..
This is laid down in the Founding Document. Schoenstatt will cease to be a place of pilgrimage, or to carry out its task in the world, unless the capital of grace is increased, or if what is there is used up and nothing new is added….
I am convinced that there are a huge number of very ordinary people in the background without whom Schoenstatt would not exist. The most necessary and most important people are those who constantly care most for the capital of grace, who unite their hearts and bloodstream with the heart and bloodstream of the capital of grace. …..
Schoenstatt stands or falls with the people who really strive for holiness, and who connect this striving for holiness with our shrine. These are things that have always been there and have always been at work. …”
(Extracts from J. Kentenich; talk during the Christmas Conference, Schoenstatt, 28 January 1933 From: “His Mission Our Mission, p.64-68)
Father Kentenich often said, “No one will be lost who is loyal to his Covenant of Love” and he also said, “If you look for me you will find me in the Shrine.”
This year we are especially conscious of the uncertainty surrounding the Schoenstatt Shrine in Kew, Melbourne. I invite you to unite with our Melbourne Schoenstatt Family to pray that Our Heavenly Father and Our Blessed Mother will guide them and help them to discern the way forward.
We pray that Our Mother Thrice Admirable, Queen and Victress of Schoenstatt will bless each of us and all who visit our Schoenstatt shrines.
In Covenant loyalty,
Shirley Hall
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