PUERTO RICO, PARAGUAY, GERMANY, Edgardo L. Rivera • During the weekend of April 28th to May 1st, the missionary motorcyclists from Germany, Paraguay and Puerto Rico went on pilgrimage with the Blessed Mother through the highways of their countries. It seems that they planned it, but no, it was all the work of the Holy Spirit who, through the Heart of Mary, moved them to carry out the mission. — The third grace received in the Schoenstatt Shrines, the apostolic sending forth, leads us to go out of our comfort
Read More GERMANY, Renate Siebenkäs • Every month, the “Covenant Celebration Night” is the highlight in the program of the Schoenstatt Center Marienberg in the Archdiocese of Bamberg. On covenant night on March 18, as is the tradition, the close connection to St. Joseph was emphasized. — Fr. Andreas Hornung welcomed the faithful at the beginning of the Holy Mass and joyfully explained: “On December 8, 2022, a Joseph – Dr. Josef Zerndl – chose St. Joseph as the patron of the pilgrim groups of the Archdiocese of Bamberg. For the men
Read More GERMANY, Editorial Team schoenstatt.org / Press release of the diocese of Fulda • Where tensions and pressures are clearly experienced in the Church, the seriousness of synodality becomes evident, emphasizes Fulda’s Bishop Dr. Michael Gerber. He sees the fifth and last synodal assembly of the Catholic Church in Germany as a test of a synodal church. In a statement, Bishop Gerber formulates his expectations for the assembly, which will convene in Frankfurt from Thursday to Saturday. — “Synodality lives from listening, from taking my counterpart seriously and from trying to
Read More GERMANY, Cordula-Maria Weidtmann • St. Joseph has proven to be a faithful intercessor for many people. Therefore, we have called upon him for a special request. On his feast day, March 19, we would like to share our experience with you. — We were looking for the first tenants for a condominium. A prospective tenant dropped out 3 weeks before we were to move in. Acquaintances of ours had placed a note under the statue of St. Joseph several times while looking for an apartment. Our note, dated December 7,
Read More GERMANY, Peter Hagmann • In Marienberg in the house Tabor in Schoenstatt, 21 men gathered and some other participants from all the men’s communities, connected, for the 2nd Marienberg Forum on the topic “Being men today – listening to God as men”. — Father Elmar Busse celebrated the opening mass on Friday evening. In his homily he explained that on that same day he had to remove the wilted roses from the vase, whose capillaries were clogged because the water was in bad condition (Fr. Elmar Busse has an article
Read More GERMANY, Renate Siebenkäs • On the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, on January 1, 2023, solemn sending forth services took place in St. Martin’s and Transfiguration of Christ. A total of four Pilgrim MTAs were sent out in the two parishes of Forchheim. — How did it happen? On October 1st, 2022, a great jubilee was celebrated in Schoenstatt: 25 years of the “Project Pilgrim Shrine” (in Germany, this is the official name of the worldwide Campaign of the Pilgrim MTA initiated in Brazil in 1950) in Germany. For
Read More GERMANY, Renate Siebenkäs / Maria Fischer • When I learned about storytelling and oral history in my communication studies and then was amazed to discover how Father’s communication concept is based on telling real stories, I had to think of the “story of the crooked apple tree” and the “story of the little leg” with which my grandfather used to tell us children about the world, events, and even such difficult realities as physical disabilities; exciting, personal, touching, and real. — Good journalism does not necessarily require events or interviews.
Read More GERMANY, Renate Siebenkäs • Today, on the Fourth of Advent, we look with the whole Church to St. Joseph. Quite wrongly, as it was said today in the Holy Mass in St. Hippolytus in Troisdorf, so often portrayed as an old man or unworldly baroque. Whoever is looking for a representation of St. Joseph that shows him dynamically and as a man, father, and craftsman, will find what he is looking for in the Schoenstatt shrine of the Bamberg diocese on the Marienberg near Scheßlitz. And here, a few weeks
Read More GERMANY/SWITZERLAND, Melanie and Ulrich Grauert • From the 27th of November to the 01st of December it was time again. Finally! Silent retreat for leaders with Fr. Michael Hagan of the Schoenstatt Fathers. The business year was slowly ending, the budgets for the coming year were more or less finalized, the forces were once again strained in the final spurt towards Christmas, and this short time out from Sunday evening to Thursday noon came just at the right time. — You could just about cut yourself out of the densely
Read More SYNOD ON SYNODALITY • On August 5, 2022, the German Bishops’ Conference published its report on the preparation of the 2023 World Synod of Bishops. The three-year global preparatory process for the Synod of Bishops, which opened in Rome in the fall of 2021, addressed the national level in the first phase. — The results of this diocesan synodal process are being pooled in the bishops’ conferences in these weeks and passed on to the Vatican. “In our journey towards a #ListeningChurch, we should take today’s reading as an opportunity
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