renewal Tag

CHILE, Gonzalo Díaz and Barbara Brain • “We invite you with great hope to unite with us in mobilizing yourselves this Pentecost. At such crucial moments in the life of the Church, we want to ask the Holy Spirit to renew us with his light, warmth, and strength and to make of us credible witnesses to the gospel.” – This simple and direct call, from a small group of Schoenstatt members in Chile, grew from a trickle of enthusiasm among various groups of our downcast Chilean church. Wounded by casesRead More
 ORIGINAL SHRINE, Roberto González • As of February 1st, the Original Shrine has re-opened, resuming all its activities as usual.— The interior restoration of the Original Shrine is finished and some stages are lacking on the exterior, because they could not be completed as planned due to the recent cold and snow. Our beloved shrine with its open doors and refurbished, bright interior, welcomed us back home on the eve of Candlemas.   All spiffed up During three weeks, the Blessed Mother and Jesus made a short pilgrimage throughout allRead More
Maria Fischer • His nose just about reached the rim of the baptismal font if he stretched hard enough. It didn’t satisfy him, so he hopped and jumped again and again while his eyes shone with irrepressible joy and impatience. During the Litany of the Saints we would have loved to pour over him a whole bath of baptismal water and soak him in a completely unorthodox way. … The sight of this young catechumen, and the thought of the bath of baptismal water, gave rise to so much joyRead More
by Sarah-Leah Pimentel • As we bring to a close this series on Pope Francis’ message to the Schoenstatt Family, we reflect on his encouragement to carry forward Schoenstatt’s mission for the Church, the last of the five areas of apostolic activity that the International Schoenstatt Movement takes forward into a new century. Eucharistic unity – “That they maybe one as we are one” Pope Francis begins by speaking for the need for renewal within the Church, but I have chosen to start where he ends – with the sacraments.Read More
Press release of the German Bishops’ Conference, www.dbk.de • Today (=Sunday, August 30, 2015)  Cardinal Reinhard Marx called for a committed profession of faith and witness to the Christian faith. Christian witness to the world shows that “we are there with disinterested love, and accept the needs and cares of the people”, Cardinal Marx said in his sermon during Holy Mass for pilgrims at the place of pilgrimage, Schoenstatt, near Koblenz. He invited the people to ask what constitutes the faith: “What do we believe, whom do we confess, whoRead More
Today Fr Leonhard Erhard, retired parish priest and member of the Priests’ Federation, who is working at the Schoenstatt Centre in Memholz, Germany, will answer these questions. “As an end-of-range model with some mobility, who is just about able not to stand in the way of active life, I no longer fit completely into the optimistic Jubilee spirit of a new start. When they look back at the answers offered until now, people could arrive at the idea that a photo from Granny’s album has got lost.” That was howRead More
“Pope Francis looks ahead and calls for a Church that sets out, because “God’s word constantly shows us how God challenges those who believe in him ‘to go forth’” (EG20). Those who only look back and want to preserve it, will lose the future. That is why our Holy Father urges us “to move from a pastoral ministry of mere conservation to a decidedly missionary pastoral ministry”.” Archbishop Emeritus Robert Zollitsch from Freiburg, and Head of the German Bishops’ Conference up until 2013, chose “Evangelii Gaudium” as the theme forRead More