Opening of the October Week in Schoenstatt

Covenant Renewal by the Original Shrine

(mkf) In Germany, "October Week," the Schoenstatt Movement's annual Leaders' Convention, is opened on October 18, Schoenstatt's Founding Day. Approximately 1,000 participants from Germany stay in Schoenstatt until October 22 to evaluate the experiences of the Holy Year and to look ahead to the upcoming Schoenstatt year and its chances and challenges.

After the introductory talk (7:00 PM) and a Holy Mass in the Pilgrims' Church, all participants in the October Week activities will process to the Original Shrine and there renew the Covenant of Love, representing the whole Schoenstatt Movement at this place of grace.

The Founder's Charisma - the Network of Shrines

This year's October Week is focused on the charisma and mission of Father Kentenich and at the same time on the network of Shrines. The challenge to ensure Father Kentenich's lasting and vivid presence as Father and Founder is given over 30 years after his death. Encounters with other spiritual movements, especially with the Focolare and Sant' Egidio in 1998, created a growing awareness of the Founder's importance for the identity and missionary vigor of any movement. On Friday, October 20, top representatives of the Focolare Movement and Sant' Egidio will share with Schoenstatt October Week attendees their movements' special charisma and the life of their founders.

The other focus is the network of Shrines. The German Schoenstatt family and its friends will gather on October 22 from 2:00 - 4:00 PM by the Original Shrine, the daughter shrines in Germany, by wayside shrines, at the places of the monthly covenant celebrations, and in home shrines to renew the Covenant of Love and erect an embracing Net of Shrines. Father Beller, the German Movement Leader, says about the objective: "Whereas in times past Christianity covered the world and characterized it, now a new world has arisen. In this new world, Christ will be born anew in the net of Shrines. And this net we consciously erect on October 22, 2000." In this newly awakened consciousness of the powerful reality of the world of shrines bound together, the German Schoenstatt Movement aims to make this net a center which radiates Christ's love, a world of love.

Early in the morning of October 18, at the 8:00 AM Mass in the Original Shrine, many Pilgrim Shrines will be blessed and afterwards taken to the Founder Chapel.

On their way back from Rome, families from several countries came to Schoenstatt for a few days and used the opportunity to experience the Covenant Day here.

English edition: Joan Biemert, New Franken, Wisconsin, USA