Kentenich Tag

Fr. Guillermo Carmona • For our Schoenstatt Family, Father Kentenich is one of his most central truths – “a point of contact,” we say – along with the Blessed Mother and the Shrine.  He is also an example of the “Covenant that transforms.”  His life history could have transformed him into a bitter person, rancorous, and vindictive. He could have ended up depressed and tormented, like so many prisoners from the concentration camps, renouncing even the Church like those who suffer from the injustice and authoritarianism of some of itsRead More
CHILE, María de los Ángeles Miranda Bustamante • Embraces between Schoenstatters from different generations and cities were the beginning for the 70th anniversary celebration of the Movement’s Founding in Chile on that rainy 27th of June 1947, in the house on Pasaje Quinta # 28, on the Valparaiso plan. The Document signed by the Founder On that occasion, a group of ladies and Father Kentenich signed the Founding Document, where they committed themselves to always carry forth the founders’ ideal which called them to distinguish themselves from the masses whereverRead More
GERMANY, Josef Tasch • What, don’t you know Kentenich?  The saying comes from a question, a song line – a motto for the youth vigil in Oberkirch.  It is really understandable only in German, but the temptation to make it into a play of words has continued for decades. A great festival was celebrated 50 years ago in Oberkirch on June 18 for the occasion of the visit of Father Joseph Kentenich in the Schoenstatt center “Marienfried.” On this occasion, the Schoenstatt Youth uses the annual pillar festival in orderRead More
Fr. Oscar Saldivar • Dear brethren: Once more, the Liturgy of the Word presents us a selection of Jesus’ parables, and in fact, today´s Gospel (Mt.13: 24-43) contains three parables. We are used to hearing them and trying to understand their message. However, what does it mean for us that Jesus chooses to teach in parables? At least two things: Jesus shows us that the daily routine, the daily language of man and his reality, can speak about God and his Kingdom. “Using imagery from situations of daily life, theRead More
BRAZIL/ROME, Fr. Rodrigo Ríos, from the Archdiocese of Maceió, Brazil • As a child, my mother once took me to church, and giving me a scapular as a gift, she told me that Our Lady of Mt. Carmel was my godmother, and she would take care of me.  That image remains in my mind as the surrender of one mother to another.  Therefore that simple and beautiful picture always accompanied me.  In my youth, being part of a group of youths, I remember that we would make the consecration toRead More
ROMA BELMONTE, Maria Fischer • May, Mary’s month in Italy as well as in many countries, had a celebratory touch at the Belmonte Schoenstatt Shrine. The penultimate day of the month also ended with a touch of celebration. This 30 May was celebrated on the eve of the Feast of Mary’s Visitation, with a Mass with Bishop Guido Marini, the Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations. Approximately fifty people among them Belmonte Shrine pilgrims and Schoenstatters from Cor Ecclesiae Shrine, Rome, gathered in front of the Shrine, decorated with a hostRead More
PARAGUAY, Sonia and José Zaracho • After a great deal of contemplating as to how we could weave together some lines about everything that she has taught us, transmitted, and shown us about our Father and Founder… today, almost a month since her visit, I can transcribe what Maria Fischer’s visit, on 13 March, meant to the Diocese of Encarnación. For the third consecutive year, her visits to our country have now become customary; Maria enters Paraguay at the same place, Posadas, Argentina, the place from which our Father andRead More
PARAGUAY, Horacio Chávez • Some months ago, Maria Fischer, a communicator and leader of the schoenstatt.org team, confirmed her visit to Paraguay. We contacted her to arrange a talk in Tupãrenda. There were great expectations about this event because of the proposed subject:  “To see how you see and to speak like you speak; communicate heart to heart like Fr. Joseph Kentenich,” an excellent subject and a beloved speaker in Paraguay. Months of preparations and adjustments were made preceding the great day of 26 March. Very early that morning ourRead More
GERMANY, Sr. M. Elinor Grimm 75th Year Anniversary of Father Kentenich’s arrival to the Dachau Concentration Camp – March 13, 1942:  On this occasion, a day’s event was offered at Dachau Memorial Center on Saturday, March 11.  March 13, 1942 was the day when Father Kentenich arrived with the prisoner’s transport from Koblenz to Dachau concentration camp. We know there were unexpected clandestine encounters during his departure on March 11th, especially at the Koblenz train station.  An evangelical supervisor from the Gestapo Jail, known as the “small messenger,” waited onRead More
Interview with Fr. Angel Strada who was Postulator for the Cause of Beatification for Father Joseph Kentenich until January of 2017. The interview, first published on the German national website in December, and later in five languages on schoenstatt.org, had a strong reaction, and is among one of the most read articles on schoenstatt.org during the last twelve months. There are topics on Father Kentenich’s personality as a human being and on moments that imply doubts about his way of acting that are rarely shared in Schoenstatt.  What reactions resultedRead More