GERMANY, mda. A Jubilee 2016? Ever since the news came out that the Pallottine Society had given us the Original Shrine on 22 May, many have become aware of another date: On 22 May 1916 Fr Kentenich wrote a letter to Josef Fischer about an idea of Vincent Pallotti to create a network of all apostolic initiatives in the Church. At the time the Schoenstatt Movement was only two-years-old! But this is not the jubilee we are thinking about. On 30 October, to the surprise of the Schoenstatt Family assembled at that time in the Cologne Shrine, Fr Joseph Kentenich entered into a covenant of love with God the Father. The shrine in Cologne no longer belongs to Schoenstatt. Nevertheless, as some young couples believe, the covenant and its mission continue. They are prepared to go public, taking it quite literally onto the streets.
Celebrating a jubilee in a shrine that doesn’t belong to us, and accompanied by wistful sighs as we recall “the good old days”? By no means! Ignoring the jubilee and doing nothing? Even less possible! Diana and Lukas Schreiber, both of whom were Schoenstatt members in the diocese of Fulda, have been living for quite some time in the Archdiocese of Cologne, and have discovered the mission of the Cologne Shrine for themselves. A covenant with God the Father; living in a covenant with a God who has revealed that he is the Father, requires quite a bit of trust. “If you can trust, you have everything.” That is a “FatherSaying” in their living room. This gave rise to an idea, a project: This covenant is meant for the streets, it is meant for the people. You can set out on pilgrimage with this covenant – from Cologne to Schoenstatt, with others. On the way you can touch people with this trust, with this conviction that God is close to us, he is interested in us and trusts us – and we can trust him. It gives rise to a saying based on what people say and do. “You have to trust God.” People say it possibly without really thinking about its meaning. You can trust in God.
Schoenstatt.org asked Diana and Lukas Schreiber, members of the Family Federation, what is happening with this project, who can join in, and how it is connected with the Jubilee 2014 and the wind of renewal in the Church since the election of Pope Francis.
The worldwide Schoenstatt Movement is preparing for the Jubilee 2014 with apostolic projects. Your project is directed to 2016. Is it also a project for the Jubilee of the covenant of love for you?
To start with the incentive to initiate the project Trust in GOD did not come from the great jubilee in 2014, but from the Cologne Shrine itself. It was there that Fr Kentenich entered into a covenant of love with God the Father on behalf of the whole Schoenstatt Family on 30 October 1966. It is for the jubilee of this event that we are planning the project Trust in GOD.
However, there is naturally a connection between the great jubilee in 2014 and the project Trust in GOD. Seen organically, there is only one covenant of love. The covenant of love with the Blessed Mother finds its ultimate meaning in leading us ever more deeply into a vital and personal relationship with God, our loving and personal Father. So the covenant of love with God the Father is the real goal of the whole of Schoenstatt’s spirituality.
The centenary of the covenant of love on 18 October 1914 gives us additional energy and drives us on to carry the mission of the Cologne Shrine, the covenant of love with God the Father, into the whole world, and not allow it to slumber in the background any longer. We also reckon with it that the large international celebrations in 2014 will generated a wave of enthusiasm and missionary drive. In view of that it will be a good thing to point into the future with the project Trust in GOD. In November 2014 if anyone asks, “What now?” our answer will be, “Trust in GOD.”
Pope Francis follows a great theme: Go out to the periphery, go out from the interior of an inward-looking Church. How does that motivate you for the project Trust in GOD?
In what we aim at with the project Trust in GOD we feel absolutely confirmed by our Holy Father. He encourages us and gives us additional motivation through his massive incentive to go out. Most recently in his wonderful sermon on Pentecost Sunday our Holy Father challenged us not to close ourselves off in our groups, but to allow the Holy Spirit to open us for the mission. We want to be open for God’s surprises, as our Holy Father put it, and we should not be afraid to follow the new paths along which the Holy Spirit wants to lead us. With our project Trust in GOD we want to follow new paths, we want to reach people who have so far not heard about the covenant of love with God the Father. We will quite literally be walking new paths on our pilgrimage from Cologne to Schoenstatt. Throughout the planning and preparations for the project, this openness for God’s surprises must be followed up like a golden thread. We don’t know what the project will be like in detail. With childlike trust in God the Father we want to allow him the show us his plans for the project one step at a time. It will be really exciting.
Pope Francis wants a poor, pilgrim and missionary Church united in solidarity – so did Fr Kentenich. In which of these features of the new Church do you find your project?
Through our project Trust in GOD we want to make the missionary features of the Church a bit more of a reality, and quite literally be a pilgrim Church.
Do you already have ideas of the people and places to which you want to bring Trust in GOD?
We still don’t have any concrete plans of the places we want to visit during our pilgrimage. A first meeting will take place on 16 June in Maria Rast near Euskirchen. We have invited everyone who feels attracted by the idea of the project, and who wants to join in somehow. Only then will our plans gradually become more concrete. There is one place that can already be considered settled, and that is Gymnich. The house where Fr Kentenich was born lies almost on the way between Cologne and Schoenstatt. Gymnich not only has a central place in our Founder’s biography, it is also a place that is very profoundly connected with Trust in GOD.
We don’t know which people we will meet. Let it be a surprise. However, we want to offer God our project so that he can reach many people through it – people in whom he wants to awaken the longing for a vital relationship with him as their Father, who loves them and is merciful. Among them there are sure to be Schoenstatters, but we also hope there will be many Christians who have not yet got to know Schoenstatt. It would make us particularly happy if some people come into contact with the Faith through this project.
Is Trust in GOD a project only for people from Cologne, or is it open to others? To whom?
We hope that a large movement towards a more loving closeness to God the Father in everyday life will go out from this project. The epicentre of the movement is definitely Cologne. However, we hope that the shockwaves proceeding from Cologne will also be felt at the other end of the world. The message of the Cologne Shrine about the covenant of love with God the Father is a global message directed to all peoples, because everyone is a beloved child of God.
What has fascinated you most in the “covenant with God the Father”?
The covenant with God the Father contains for us the liberating message of Christianity. We are convinced that the more alive, vital and heartfelt our personal, loving relationship with God the Father is, the more free and relaxed, but also joyful, we will become. People who are quite spontaneously convinced that God is always with them, and that nothing can happen in their lives without the agreement of a kind and loving Father, will retain the radiant eyes of a child to the end of their lives. They will neither become bitter, nor paralyzed with fear. God’s covenant with humankind is the subject of the Bible as a whole. The life and message of Jesus Christ always centred only on the Father, and aimed at leading everyone to a living relationship with the Father. If with Fr Kentenich we now talk about a “covenant of love with God the Father”, it provides an original access to ways by which this covenant relationship to the Father can grow and have an increasingly formative effect on our personal lives.
What has fascinated you most in Fr Kentenich’s talk in 1966?
On 30 October 1966 Fr Kentenich justified the covenant of love with God the Father by saying, among other things, “Our hearts are longing for it.” We believe that this statement contains a great truth and is extremely topical. We people of today, in the first quarter of the 21st century, are characterised by tremendous pressure towards perfectionism – not just at work, but in every other area of life. Underlying this is the conviction that we are personally responsible for our own happiness and fate, and that we must ultimately redeem ourselves. The relationship to a loving Father, who is personally concerned with us as persons, and who wants our lives to be a success, in fact answers a tremendous longing. The covenant of love with God the Father is the Good News for our times.
Translation: Mary Cole, Manchester, England
Contact: Diana and Lukas Schreiber.
More information soon here: www.gott-vertrauen.net
