mkf. Sent: this is what still resounds – after more than two weeks since August 20th – in the more than 350 Schoenstatt Federation members who, after participating in the congress, the celebration and the pilgrimage, have returned to their countries of origin and their areas of apostolate. Sent and encouraged to assume a dynamic apostolic spirit ….. a spirit of freedom and a federative community spirit ….. and shared responsibility ….. as was expressed by Fr. Heinrich Walter in his words of greeting and motivation: “We need a holy and healthy spirit of competition to assume effective apostolic initiatives.”
“Five years before the Centennial of our Schoenstatt Family, we celebrate the founding of the Apostolic Federation 90 years ago at the Conference in Hoerde in 1919. Rightfully so, this is the reason for our conference. It seems to me that the Blessed Mother is now preparing us through this celebration for our jubilee in five years.” This is how Archbishop Dr. Robert Zollitsch highlighted the way toward a broader horizon in the solemn Holy Mass celebrated in the Adoration Church.
After the intense days of the Congress, the international conference of the Federations concluded with a celebration in the conference room of the Adoration Church on Mount Schoenstatt which was followed by the Holy Mass and the sending forth. Representatives of the Schoenstatt Movement were also invited. Prof. Manfred Gerwing of the Family Federation in Germany was the moderator for the celebration which was accompanied by classical music and meditation.
A mission for the future
In her presentation, Prof. Perla Piovera, from the Federation of Women in Argentina, highlighted that it “corresponds to federation members to demonstrate – from the experience of our Covenant of Love with Mary – that God is Love and that He wants goodness and happiness for every person.” Her point of reference stems from the Conclusive Document of the last Latin American Bishops Conference which took place in Aparecida, Brazil with the demand for “an ethical and coherent presence” of Christian personalities in the new highest courts of the times. It is the hour of everyday sanctity which “knows how to blend in a healthy way: ….. personality and world, moral conscience and human progress, renunciation and correct use, and enjoyment of material goods.” The truth – and not relativism – should be the instruction for life.
The relationship of the person and the community – the original goal of Schoenstatt in the ideal of the new man in the new community, assumed in a classic mode by the form of attachments of the Federation – is today as true as it is rare: “Freedom alone can live among the others without submitting – that is the freedom of those who love without allowing others to dominate them.” Simultaneously, the era begs for persons who have a place – like apostles – in the changing relationships and are able to convince through the experience of life, since: “The new generations expect in their hearts this bid for truth and happiness in order to steer their lives towards a destiny that is not misleading, rather, one that is worth risking and surrendering everything..”
The right time
Looking retrospectively at the fortieth anniversary of the Conference at Hoerde, Perla Piovera closed her presentation with a quote from Father Ernst: “Precisely, why did the Federation have the results it did? Why did certain things happen after Hoerde? How come the seed did sprout? Humanly speaking, we could not expect much, taking into consideration the inexperienced men who participated in the convention and who made Hoerde’s program their own plan for life.
- The right time
- The right message
- The right man, as founder and prophet
- The right grace”
Perla Piovera continued saying, “Today, we can say exactly the same. The present time, with all its challenges and possibilities, with its needs and demands is a new ‘kairós,’ for us at this our right time. We possess precisely the universal message of the Covenant of Love with our Mother Thrice Admirable just as it was construed at the International Conference in preparation for 2014. The right man, our father and prophet, who blesses us and helps us from Heaven, and the right graces, flowing from the cosmos of our Shrines with the royal treasures we possess as Schoenstatt Family. All we have left, then is to move forward [with impelling force] into the future once again, ‘joyful in hope, sure of victory into newest times.’ We may not forget that our father, your father, my father was a prophet and that from Heaven his words echo in our souls.”
The attentive expectation for a healthy and holy competition to assume effective apostolic initiatives remains which Fr. Heinrich Walter gathered in his programmatic words of greeting and which end with the wish “May the Federations be workshops where the strong and creative characters of the time unite and are formed as apostles for this era. Schoenstatt is grateful to the Federations. Schoenstatt needs strong Federations for the road toward the future.”
Also today, Mary sets out anew and takes us with Her
The celebration concluded with the Eucharist – with classical music accompaniment – in various languages. The main celebrant, the president of the German Bishops Conference, Archbishop Dr. Robert Zollitsch, in his homily called everyone to set out: „
“If I look at the challenge of this hour, then I see the challenge not only for the Federations in the future, for a new beginning within our Church. This new beginning demands new seeds to be sown, new missions within our own countries. We have to become new apostles and set out on new initiatives just like St. Paul. With gratitude and joy, I see how our Family Federation is growing. The family is ‘foundation and crown’ and points toward the future. At the same time, so too does Our Lady. The development and growth of the Pilgrim Mother Campaign shows us just how much Our Lady is Mother of emergence and Queen of Apostles, willing to set out again today and take us with her. If the Federations, our Federations, are the actual leaders and leading communities within our family in accordance with our founder’s idea regarding our apostolic efforts, then we have a great many challenges before us as a Federation. Now let us set out anew!”
It depends on you
Each Federation formulated its petitions according to their special mission, giving a view of what moves it at the present time. After the lively final hymn “Caminando en la Alianza” (whose author is Father Esteban Uriburu), the sending forth ceremony ensued which “helps us to see our history with gratitude and challenges us to go forward….. filled with confidence toward a new future…..the hour for a new, clear and consequential decision.” This all concluded with the renewal of the Covenant of Love and a profound and silent moment at the tomb of Father Kentenich. At the tomb, each Federation read words from the foundation and sending forth from Father Kentenich which were directed to each one of them and anew, they placed themselves as Federation at his disposition. “Father, our hand in your hand…..your legacy, our mission.”
The legacy of Hoerde, the legacy of (he) who was not present at the founding of the Federation and who entrusted the youths all of the responsibility for the budding Schoenstatt Work: “Now all of the Work belongs to you and should remain this way…..its existence depends on you, the extension and fruitfulness of our Federation.”
Archbishop Robert Zollitsch: Homily
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Translation: Carlos Cantú Schoenstatt Family Federation La Feria, Texas USA 091509
