COSTA RICA, Martha Herrera • On Friday, September 23, 2022, a new and historic moment was experienced in Schoenstatt Costa Rica, because with great pride and joy, our first group of the Women’s Apostolic League has conquered their Home Shrine. — It was a very emotional process, of great learning, where there was an opportunity to share life experiences among the members and their respective families. This helped to visualize what each one of them expected and/or desired from their Home Shrine. This was also strengthened with the valuable opportunity
Read More GERMANY, Brigitte Oelschner • “Only the prayerful can still succeed / In stopping the sword above our heads / And wresting this world from the judging powers / Through a sanctified life.” I am reminded of this quote by Reinhold Schneider, often heard during the Second World War, these days when I follow how much politicians and representatives of social society are trying to end the disaster in Ukraine and to come to the aid of the suffering population. — In many German schools, children had the day off from
Read More HUNGARY, Orsolya Török Endrédy / Maria Fischer • Today, Covenant Day, June 18, a remembrance of Rita Godany, founder of the Hungarian Schoenstatt Family along with her husband Robert and Father Tilmann Beller, appeared in the Catholic News Portal of Hungary, written by Orsolya Török Endrédy from the Schoenstatt Family Movement. Rita passed away on Sunday, June 6, four years after her husband Róbert. This couple was the dream of Schoenstatt in Hungary personified. — Rita Gódány, maiden name Rita Gregorich, was born on February 13, 1946 in Horvátzsidány. Her
Read More AUSTRALIA, Bernard Toutounji • Amidst pandemic restrictions our Sydney family group (made up of five families) was – thanks be to God – finally able to consecrate our Home Shrines on 1 January 2021. We had been working toward consecrating the Home Shrines in early 2020 but, like so many things, Coronavirus put it on hold. — In preparing for the blessings, we made use of the book My Home, A Shrine which was written in 1986 by Sr Thomasine. We were additionally helped by Sr Mary Agnes and Sr
Read More COSTA RICA, Lisandra Chávez • This year 35 families started the workshops to obtain their home shrines, which were blessed on December 5th, 2020. One of those groups is from El Salvador, which was a gift for everyone. — The preparation consisted of a total of six sessions with chats and subjects such as “Faith in Providence”, “Marital Dialogue” and of course, the subject of the Virgin Mary and Father Joseph Kentenich could not be left out. “There was a workshop where the couple defined the grace they wanted to
Read More NICARAGUA, Adriana Truque and Carlos Manuel Odio • The celebration of October 18, 2020 was a memorable day for the entire Nicaraguan Schoenstatt Movement, since fourteen families were able to relive what happened in 1914, when they asked the Mother Thrice Admirable and Queen of Schoenstatt to establish herself in their homes, through the blessing of fourteen home shrines, the first ones in this country.— After concluding the year in which they discuss Marriage Sanctity, fourteen families began to prepare to carry out the home shrine workshop, which would
Read More PK4U, María Fischer • “God is simple and plain in his unity and tremendously rich in his plurality.” This is a phrase from Father José María García Sepúlveda’s homily during the Mass for the Feast of the Holy Trinity at the Shrine of Pozuelo, in Madrid, which comes to mind when I look at the photos from my visit a couple of days ago to the workshop of Juan Fernández, Father Kentenich’s sculptor and author of the first and many statues of him. “I made them all with the same
Read More EASTER 2020 in the time of the coronavirus, Maria Fischer • A recycled Easter candle from last year, in my home shrine; an LED flame candle with an Easter cross attached (for the first time in my long life, it’s acceptable) for a relative in a nursing home that I haven’t been able to visit for weeks. A bottle of holy water found in some corner of the house. And the most important thing on this Easter night of 2020: a candle in the window of my apartment, to be
Read More ÜBERLEGUNGEN UND EIN KONKRETES TUN IN ZEITEN VON CORONAVIRUS, von P. Elmar Busse • The Rhein-Zeitung reported about it this week. Today, on the 5th Sunday of Lent, he did it again. In Germany, walking alone or in pairs is allowed. He walked in twos, in Dernbach, where he worked: Father Elmar Busse, Schoenstatt Father, or in reality three: together with Jesus Christ in the monstrance. Why he does this and what it means for him, he wrote down for schoenstatt.org. — When God revealed His name to Moses at
Read More ARGENTINA, Diana Hernández • It is in moments of crisis that creativity is born, grows and develops. Hundreds of Masses, Rosaries, Stations of the Cross, messages on line… Thanks to the disposition of so many priests we are living these graces. — It is an original way of living communion in this “quarantine”, in Lent. The initiative of the Spanish family, to which we are all invited, to crown the Blessed Mother as Queen of physical and spiritual health, is to place everything in her hands and also to tell
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