Schoenstatt Is Synonymous with the Shrine

Father Angel Strada’s Homily in the Original Shrine on September 19, 2006

There are places we dream of visiting and these places are difficult to leave behind – difficult to bid farewell to. This is such a place. Surely many of you dreamt many times about coming to this place. The days went by and now we must say good bye.

At the introduction of holy Mass, it was said that you would be leaving a part of your heart here. It would be better that you leave your whole heart here. Ask Blessed Mother for the grace to return, but especially ask her for the grace to take the Shrine with you.

This is the place where everything began. Schoenstatt is synonymous with the Shrine. In many movements, the beginning of that movement is the beginning of an initiative, of an idea, of an event which took place. In our case, Schoenstatt begins, develops, and is summed up with the Shrine. This was a small shed for storing the garden tools – you have heard this many times, now you have a very concrete idea: the garden was there and here were kept the tools --, which before had been the little cemetery chapel (…..) Perhaps on your journey to Munich and Dachau you might see a chapel similar to the Shrine. That is because in Germany, this form of architecture is very common for cemetery chapels.

The Father and Founder says that after he read the article on the Virgin of Pompei and Bartolo Longo – the lawyer who had donated his money during his conversion to build Mary a place of grace – he (F. Kentenich) meditated a great deal on whether he had to do the same. He decides to do so and affirms: "It is the greatest risk of my life, even more risky than going to Dachau. In many events in my life and in other episodes of my biography, I was able to see the wide-opened door through which God wanted me to enter. In some cases, God opened large portals and I could see His plan clearly. In other cases, the door was more or less ajar. But in the case of the Founding Document and the foundation of the Shrine, there was only a small crack. I could barely see the other side. I could barely see that that was what God wanted. It was the greatest risk in my life." It was also the risk of greatest importance in his life.

Going to Dachau is certainly important – you will be able to experience it tomorrow or the day after – and it brings many graces to him and to the Family. The time in Milwaukee is an extraordinary time of his heroic virtues. But the greatest – if you will – the greatest undertaking, the greatest thing the Father and Founder did was this: to believe that Mary wanted to settle in this place. He lived in the strength of that conviction of faith: Mary is here; Mary is present in this place. Not only is she present in many places, but she is present here. He says: "It is certain that Mary is active in Fatima and Lourdes, but she is active here and we are responsible for Mary’s action in this place."

One must consider: that was Father’s life. If we were to ask him: What was your secret, what was your source of strength, what gave you life? He would answer us: the Shrine. He did not sanctify himself by any means which was not through faith in the Shrine. We admire the holy life of the Father and Founder. One must think: the strength which led him to holiness was the confidence and faith that Mary was present in the Shrine and that she was present in a particular way, in a special way. That was revealed to him in time: that Mary was present as an Educatress; she is present as a Mother; she is present as a Queen; she is present as a Helper, but she is especially present as an Educatress.

Thus it is good that we bring to Mary in the Shrine our concerns, our sorrows, our joys, what we experience. We must come to the Shrine to talk to her and to ask her. Surely you have brought dozens of petitions and at this moment you have dozens of names for whom you wish to make petitions. There are so many needs, so many crosses, so many afflictions. We come to the Blessed Mother and entrust everything to her here. The Shrine also has that function. The greatest joy for Mary is when we come to the Shrine to tell her: Where do you want me to change? Where do you want me to grow? Where do you want me to best invest my talents? Where do you want to educate me more? Therefore, the prayer of our Father and Founder is most beautiful –surely many of you know it by heart – he prayed it in the concentration camp: "Make us more like you." He does not only say: "Console me in this matter or I need your help." That also is important and we have the right to ask that way. Without a doubt, as a good mother, Mary receives all petitions. But she is happier when we say: "Make me more like you, see that I become like you. Teach me to walk through life like you." Look at the virtues which Father names: simple and kind, strong and noble, spreading love, peace and joy.

Once a lady told me: "Father, do not preach so much about that because I am always screaming and throwing out punches and jabs…..and hopefully my husband will not hear you because daily he will repeat that I do not have to scream." Mary wants to educate us. The Father and Founder said that if any woman – also a man, but especially a woman – through his teaching would really become like Mary, like an image of Mary, then he would consider that his priesthood had been fruitful. He really valued women who were strong and noble, simple and kind who spread love, peace and joy. In this way they prepare the way for Jesus Christ.

The greatest joy we can give to Mary, along with giving ourselves to her as children and entrusting to her what we are and have is to petition her: "Make me like you, that I become more like you, show me where I can become more like you -- help me to help you that I may be your instrument." The Shrine is not only a welcoming little chapel – usually it is very clean and it is usually very pleasant to pray in the Shrine. A Marian atmosphere was very important to Father Kentenich. He calls the Shrine "the workshop of the new man," the workshop of the new woman. It is the place where the new man and the new woman are formed and educated. We have this as a gift for the Church. The best Schoenstatt has for the Church are the Shrines, this source of graces which God has wanted to give for the renewal of the Church. Thus the greatest apostolate we can have is to bring people to the Shrine, to take the Shrine to the Homeshrines, to take the Pilgrim MTA – there is the genius of Don Joao Pozzobon, the fact that he took the Shrine, he took Mary to the families and the families return to visit the Shrine to encounter Mary. May the Shrine – that is our wish and our Father and Founder dreamt with that reality – become a great source of renewal for the Church, a great source of life for all Christians, for all men of good will.

I am impressed by an anecdote on the life of the Father and Founder. They relate that he arrived in Brazil in the summer time and in Brazil, in the summer –and not only in summer – there is usually something like a whirlwind, and if I am not mistaken, it is somewhat psychological, it is very warm and somewhat depressing. That wind was blowing then – they call it a north wind – and he was preaching a retreat for priests. The Sister who had prepared his living quarters realized on the third day that she had not given him any toothpaste. Worriedly she looks for the toothpaste and after Father had prayed his thanksgiving after Mass, she goes to him and says: "Father, please forgive my carelessness. I did not provide you with any toothpaste and you have not been able to brush your teeth and here we have this inclement weather. Please forgive me." Very serenely Father says: "Sister, I knew you would bring me some toothpaste today." The Sister says: "No, Father. You did not know anything about it because I told no one of my carelessness. I could not bear to let anyone know of my carelessness." "As I prayed my thanksgiving in the Shrine I told Mary: Mary, for three days I have been working for you; it would be good if you now worked for me. Please see to it that they bring me some toothpaste today. I knew I would receive some toothpaste today, I knew Mary would do something." He was working for Mary and Mary was going to work for him in the Covenant of Love, the lived Covenant of Love.

One might say: OK, fantastic, no one dies if they do not brush their teeth for two or three days. It is just a little something in daily life. In another situation where life itself was at stake, in the Dachau Concentration Camp, an enormous famine was raging -- there are Movement leaders who die of hunger and Father loses a great deal of weight – at one point, Father tells one of the priests who was with him: "within two weeks all will have ended." He probably had the feeling: I can last one or two weeks. In a dramatic situation, he gathers the Schoenstatters in the barracks and says: "We face the possibility of dying of hunger. Mary is the Mother of Bread. Let us crown Mary so that she may help us." They begin a novena and from a few strips of wood from the barracks they fashion a small crown and "within nine days we will offer this little wooden crown to Mary and we will ask her – daily we will ask her – that she manifest herself as Queen and Mother of Bread so that we may survive." On the fourth day, the concentration camp leader allows relatives and friends to bring in food to the prisoners so that they may not die of hunger. Father Kentenich receives his first package. If I am not mistaken, I think it had 300 grams of butter and three slices of bread or something like that. There is a report on what the package contained which had been sent to him by the Sisters. What does Father do? He thanks the Queen of Bread and he shares; he takes some for himself and shares the rest. Even the smallest amount he shares there with his own. Following a Virgin who is a woman of solidarity, he does not keep the things for himself, he gives them away, he shares them. In a household matter like toothpaste and in a dramatic situation like famine, the answer is the same: the Covenant of Love with Mary.

Take with you as a gift from the Shrine the grace to return. Take with you the joy of all you have experienced here, and take with you especially the desire to ask Mary in the Shrines which you normally visit and where you meet with others: "Be a Mother, manifest yourself as Mother. Especially manifest yourself as Educatress. Help us to become more like you and help us to become more like you so that we can help in the renewal of the Church and so that we can help our country to find the ways to peace, to find the means for progress, to find the means to dignify the person. Recently, I came across a letter from our Father and Founder to a priest in Brazil. I think it was 1953, and he greatly praised the Marian devotion in Brazil – he had confirmed it in Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina -- , he had been very surprised by the childlike love of our people for Mary, and he says: "That is extraordinary, but take care that Mary is not only seen as a Helper and not only as Mother; she is a Defender of the human person’s dignity. Preach on this. Study that reality. Make it known. See to it that Mary appears as the Defender of human dignity." And in another letter to this same priest he says: "See to it that Mary is not isolated. Always incorporate her to Christ, to the Holy Spirit, to God the Father because then Marian devotion is stronger. It conforms much more to the Gospel and is so much more effective.

Therefore, we still have much more ahead of us. Friends of Father Kentenich, do not forget that he sanctified himself thanks to the Shrine. That was the source of energy which he had to become holy. Along with asking God for the grace of Father’s canonization, also ask Him that everyone aspire for holiness. Ask Him that from the ranks of the Family, many men and women come forth following the footsteps of sanctity of our Father and Founder. So be it.

Translation Carlos Cantú Family Federation La Feria, Texas USA