The Family Apostolate – Love!

Margaret Steinhage Fenelon, Milwaukee, USA, on the apostolate of Schoenstatt families

A young couple visited us the other night. We had dinner together, told stories, answered their questions about our home shrine and our involvement in Schoenstatt, got to know each other better and laughed – a lot. The next day, I received a delightful email from the young woman thanking us for our hospitality and the love they had experienced in our home and among our family. She said that being in our home was "like a breath of fresh air" and that the love we "radiate is inspiring."

The young woman’s email touched me deeply and I’m grateful, not only for her kind words, but for the opportunity to welcome these two wonderful individuals into our home. We were as much gifted and inspired by them as they were by us!

Later in the day, I spent some time meditating on her message. I don’t consider our family extraordinary – I think all families are beautiful and inspiring in their own way. So, I asked myself what it was that so affected our visitors. And the answer came to me in one word: Love.

Isn’t that the apostolate of all families, especially Schoenstatt families? Are we not called to love after the example of our Father and Founder?

In his talks to Schoenstatt couples in Madison in 1953, Father Kentenich urged them to "strive for something in the strength of the covenant of love with our Mother Thrice Admirable and Queen of Schoenstatt."

An atmosphere of reverence and love and a readiness to sacrifice

And how is that lived out? He tells us that it’s through an atmosphere of reverence and love and a readiness for sacrifice.

"Sacrificial love! You see, the genuineness of our love must be proved by sacrifice, not just in what we do at work, but in bearing and forbearing with one another…We have to learn to bear with one another, complement one another, to acknowledge what is good and noble in the other, to understand each other’s weakness," he said.

On the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the love of families to the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Angelus. He compared the family to the Holy Trinity, saying that it "is called to be a community of love and life, in which differences must come together to become a parable of communion."

He went on to say that, guided by the Holy Spirit, believers can know "the intimacy of God himself, discovering that he is not infinite solitude, but communion of light and love, life given and received in an eternal dialogue between the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit – lover, beloved, and love."

So, too it is in the family. We strive to know, love, and serve God in, with and for one another. In our daily lives – and especially in the atmosphere of our home shrines and living shrines – we enter into an eternal dialogue with the Father and Son in the Holy Spirit.

Our family is the apostolate

"And it is in this love," the Holy Father stated, "that the human being finds his truth and happiness."

That’s our family apostolate. Our family is the apostolate. Not only do we share our love and devotion with the Triune God, our Blessed Mother and each other, but also we share it with all whom enter our home. No one is ever turned away from our door and once inside, all are loved unconditionally regardless of who they are, what’s been left behind, or what’s transpired in the world outside of our walls. In our home, we constantly strive to reflect the Blessed Trinity by living an atmosphere of reverence, love, and readiness for sacrifice.

That doesn’t mean we have a 100 percent success rate. Believe me, we have our moments. But it’s exactly those moments that make us realize how dependent we are on the Triune God in our human frailty, how important the covenant of love is to us and how much we really do love and need each other after all. Experiencing those "moments" in our own family helps us to understand, accept, and forgive them in others. It’s a continuous cycle of trying, falling, and getting up again – each time a bit stronger than the last.

The family apostolate looks different in each family. For some, it’s more active and extroverted. For others, it’s more contemplative and introverted. For others, it’s a shifting combination of both. But for all families, it’s a call to do our best to reflect the Holy Trinity in all that we think, do, and say. With the guidance and education of our Mother Thrice Admirable, and through the graces of the covenant, may all who enter our homes find them to be a breath of fresh air and may all whom we encounter be inspired by the love that we radiate.