16 October 2020 · 2020-10 newsletter
21. 10. 1995 – 21.10.2020
In 1995, after a year of preparation during which the crown for our Blessed Mother travelled through the different States and to the various groups, representatives from WA, VIC, QLD and NSW crowned the Blessed Mother in the Shrine at Mulgoa as Consors Patris (Helpmate of the Father) during the Annual National Movement Conference.
As the crown travelled through our country, we could experience how our Mother and Queen united the hearts of all members of our Australian Schoenstatt Family. Several members sealed their Covenant of Love or made the Blank Cheque Consecration as their personal crowning gift to the Blessed Mother.
The Crown had first been offered to our MTA by the Sisters in 1958 in Riverton WA during a very difficult period of our history. The sisters’ great petitions connected with this crowning were the freedom of Fr. Kentenich from exile in America and for the possibility to build a Shrine replica in Australia. Within time, both these petitions were answered and in 1968 the crowned picture was installed in the newly built Shrine at Mulgoa. Thus, the crowning renewal 25 years ago was an opportunity for members of the National Schoenstatt Movement to give thanks for the many blessings received since the crown had first been offered.
On 21st October 1995, the vigil of the 30th anniversary of the day when our founder was officially freed from all decrees which brought about his exile, the year of preparation for this coronation in the Shrine reached its climax as the Australia Schoenstatt Family offered our Mother Thrice Admirable, the great Consors Patris, the crown anew.
We may ask what effect a coronation has. In Schoenstatt’s history the practice of crowning the Mother Thrice Admirable as Queen has brought wonderful and mysterious results. Not only does the Blessed Mother accept the self-offering of her children and act on their behalf, as Fr. Kentenich liked to say, she always gives “a crown for a crown”. Thus, in return for visible crowns, Our Lady of Schoenstatt places invisible crowns on the heads of her children, making them “royal children” of a royal Mother. The psychological effect of an act of coronation is typically a deeper sense of self-worth, of human dignity, of personal value; a deeper awareness of being loved by God and others. This affirmation, in turn, leads to greater magnanimity and selfless service. Thus, the offering of a crown to Mary not only helps to petition for her assistance in the multiple needs of our lives, it also answers the central underlying human need to love and to be loved.
In the words of Fr. Kentenich, “all love crowns”, all true love sees and honours what is good and beautiful in another person. To crown the Blessed Mother, to honour her wonderful greatness as a Queen, opens us more and more to see her image and the features of Christ in ourselves and others. Therefore, crowning is not an isolated act. It expresses and increases the longing to belong to Mary and to resemble her in our being and acting: “Mother, you are beautiful. Gladly my heart turns to you. My greatest joy shall ever be to form your image within me, until your features, one by one are reflected in my being…”
So after 25 years we want to offer the crown anew to our Mother and Consors Patris Queen and renew our petition to her to “educate the people and leaders of Australia and enable them to carry out the post-conciliar mission of the Church on (this) continent as perfectly as possible.1” As we move towards the Plenary Council next year, let us entrust the realisation of our Australian mission: “One Heart in the Father for the Family of God” to our Consors Patris Queen.
1 Crowning Prayer 21.10.1995, taken from Fr. Kentenich’s letter for the blessing of the Shrine at “Mount Schoenstatt”, Mulgoa. 19.5. 1968.
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