There are many reasons to go on pilgrimage to Milwaukee.

Impressions and experiences of the pilgrimage retreat in Father Kentenich’s exile land

Santa Misa en el Santuario del Exilio, Milwaukee Holy Mass in the Exile Shrine, Milwaukee Heilige Messe im Exilheiligtum in Milwaukee
En el Santuario de la familia Horn – las participanrtes de la Rama de Profesionales In the Shrine of the Horn Family – the participants from the Women’s League Im Heiligtum von Familie Horn – die Teilnehmerinnen aus der Gemeinschaft Berufstätiger Frauen
Camino al Santuario del Exilio On the way to the Exile Shrine Weg zum Exilheiligtum Fotos: Rasch © 2007
Participantes de la Federación de Familias Participants of the Federation of Families Teilnehmer aus dem Familienbund
Encuentro con el Padre Encounter with the Father Begegnung mit dem Vater und Gründer Fotos: Wieland © 2007
Misa de despedida en la Casa del Padre Farewell Mass in the Father House Anbschiedsmesse im Father House Foto: Rasch © 2007 Albúm de fotos – photo album – Fotoalbum

UNITED STATES/GERMANY, Martina Rasch. There are truly many good reasons to travel to Milwaukee, and those who do not know them are cordially invited to "borrow" some of the reasons that the German pilgrims share, who recently returned from their pilgrimage – retreat to Milwaukee. One small reason is enough to immediately think about undertaking the trip. April 17^th-27^th, 30 German, Schoenstatt pilgrims did it. They departed from the Frankfurt airport to North America. It was a spiritual retreat with the theme: "Victoria Patris, growth and transformation of our vocation in the encounter with Father Kentenich".

Why did they take this trip? One pilgrim answered this question on the return flight:

"Milwaukee, an encounter with Father Kentenich that is totally different. My expectations: in preparing for this spiritual retreat of the pilgrims to Milwaukee, Father Birkenmaier cited one of Father Kentenich’s phrases in a letter: The degree of the desire is the degree of the result. I traveled to Milwaukee with great eagerness and with a great openness of heart.

I was able to interiorly experience that someone was waiting for me at this place. Father Kentenich gave me this gift abundantly like a Father. He answered my greatest desires. I am very grateful".

You are going to North America to carry out spiritual exercises?

The motivation of the thirty pilgrims who went to Milwaukee was varied. "When I was given the invitation, I thought that it would be good to go". "It was a long cherished dream!" "I had already been there several times, it is simply wonderful. There are never enough visits!"

But the basic meaning was the same for all the pilgrims: the great desire to have a personal encounter with Father Kentenich, the Father and Founder of the Schoenstatt Family. It was a desire to follow in his footsteps, to understand a little more and to better grasp the great mission and spirituality of Schoenstatt.

But it began with an explanation to the relatives. What? You are going to travel to the United States for such a short time, since counting the two days of travel, there will not be enough time to do anything! Spiritual exercises in North America? Well, aren’t the ones you do here convincing enough?

One couple who traveled said: "We are truly mad. Who travels to the United States on vacation for ten days? But as soon as we arrived the panorama was very clear. They were waiting for us! Father was waiting for us!

The people who spoke to us about Father, be it Sisters, priests, men or women – radiated something special. Father Birkenmaier’s conferences, the silence on some days, the prayers, the songs, the community, everything contributed to this experience. We felt that something had changed. A new time was beginning. We had found our place in the heart of Father and of the Blessed Mother in the Shrine."

You have to experience Milwaukee

The program gradually introduced them to the theme, motivating the thirty participants – members from different Schoenstatt groups – to slowly explore the place where they were. Often they felt that their heart stopped before such great emotion. Spontaneously they remembered the biblical phrase: "Remove your sandals, because you are standing on holy ground."

Everyone knew something about Father Kentenich’s exile and that Schoenstatt had experienced "a hard time". They had seen photos, they had read much, they had heard the testimony of people who knew Father, and surely they had many images in their minds.

But in the United States there is a change of gaze or of focus. Somehow, one finds himself within the event. One has the sensation of seeing the Father and Founder in the window, and then he comes down the steel staircase and he goes with us to the Shrine. His presence is felt and during these days one can almost experience him at one’s side. He accompanied them to the places where he lived: the cemetery of Holy Cross, the parish of Saint Michael, Lake Michigan and many other places.

Of course, in the first place, there are the Shrines. The Exile Shrine, for example, was providentially built in front of his residential window and it is the one where he celebrated Holy Mass more than three thousand times. It is uniquely the time to strongly experience his presence.

One of the participants shared his impressions: "You have to experience Milwaukee! All the reports, narrations and photos cannot transmit what awaits you at that place. It is Father himself who is waiting for you. He comes out to meet you and he loves you like a son.

More than anything you experience his closeness. You feel his presence in the extensive grounds that Father loved so much. For him it was home in a faraway place. Nature is intact, the birds and the animals praise God the almighty creator.

When you enter the Shrine, Father greets you and he leads you to the Mother and the Son that she carries in her arms. The Father House is truly beautiful and welcoming, from the kitchen to the winter garden of the Father, the room where he celebrated the Holy Mass that has his prie-dieu where he prayed for his children. There are many photos with testimonies of families, priests, Sisters, from different people and above all children who tell about Father’s love. And when you experience the cordial hospitality of the families and their very enthusiastic narrations about Father and about their Home Shrine, one can understand that he was truly a Father for them and he continues to be their Father.

When one arrives to the place where Father lived during his exile, you feel like you are in an enclosed atmosphere, but in front of the Shrine where Father Kentenich celebrated Holy Mass hundreds of times and the Blessed Mother consoled him in his solitude. It radiates peace.

Then there is the walk through the cemetery. Father accompanies you closely or he sits with you on a bench and he listens to what you carry in your heart. And you find a little place in his heart. The sheltering and the joy that Milwaukee radiates makes you feel happy".

More than a trip through the United States

"Milwaukee is more than a trip through the United States; Milwaukee is more than a tourist trip with Schoenstatt highlights. Milwaukee is more than ten days of cordial North American hospitality, Milwaukee is more than a beautiful community experience, Milwaukee is a Father experience!

Father waits for us with overflowing love and he welcomes us with open arms. He spoiled each one of his children surprising them daily with his paternal affection. He dedicated many hours of private conversation with each one. He was always available for everyone. He looked at his children with love and he sheltered them profoundly in his heart.

He touched their hearts in such a way so that the love the Heavenly Father, merciful and kind, could work miracles in them.
He was very close; he was felt in the people who gave testimony about him in each of the places that speak of him.
These footsteps immediately go to the Father.
Milwaukee is the direct road to the heart of the Father.
Milwaukee is more than a sea of Father’s love.
The different visits and the vital encounters with families who in part – be it a couple or those who, as children, knew Father- joined the many testimonies of the North American Sisters who were witnesses of his days when the young and German Sisters of Mary, far from their country, undoubtedly contributed to this ‘experience of the Father’ in Milwaukee.
For many it was a revealing experience to listen and feel how that for many families the exile time was an enormously happy time in their lives. They had no idea of the vast Movement that Father Kentenich had founded or the reason he was in North America".

The grace of being a child

A couple relates: "Our pilgrimage took us to the heart of the Father. We could listen to the Sisters as well as to the families, about their experiences with Father during his time of exile. Through their testimonies they made us participants in Father’s kind and human manner, of his care and of his understanding love, and of his attentiveness to others. His paternal cared moved us deeply and it awakened a filial feeling, a great love for him as a Father. We were conscious that Father was waiting for us, that he saw our poverty, and he loved us without limits.

The beauty that surrounded us, the multiple little gifts and the attention we received, prayer and silence, and the affectionate and joyful community made us ‘the most beloved child of the Father’. Milwaukee answered our desire to be filial since we found a nest in Father’s heart. Here we were given the grace of being filial".

A priest who made the trip looked at the pilgrimage in retrospect: " For me, Milwaukee was above all the ‘place of saints’, the Holy Cross cemetery, the International Center, the homes of the Horn and Fenelon families with all their members, Sister Carol and many more people imprinted a new face on Schoenstatt and our Father. This stirred in me a desire to be more filial and paternal (fatherly). Father had an innovative kind of fatherliness that is relevant in our times". And another pilgrim added: "The encounter with Father Kentenich in this exile place through the vital testimonies of the sisters and of the families were a very profound encounter for me. It was a close and concrete encounter with Father.

"The trip surpassed my expectations. Through the witnesses of that hour I could grasp a little of what that time was like when Father was in Milwaukee. Father Birkenmaier’s conferences and the moments of silence of the retreat were very interesting; they prepared our hearts. In Milwaukee I could intensely experience Father Kentenich as a Father and I discovered a little place in his heart where I could be his only child".

Not only silence and prayer…

Maybe you are thinking that the pilgrims were deprived of the "worldly" pleasures of North America. That would be a mistake. It is enough to mention the many birthdays that were celebrated, at which they could taste, thanks to the Sisters of the house, North American cakes and ice cream (delicious!). There were spontaneous excursions, because of bad weather, to a brewery where some drank beer and others "tasted the coffee" and Triple Chocolate Cake.

And finally, there was the legendary dinner at an outdoor restaurant. There were mixed groups, experiencing community in completely cordial and a very beautiful manner. There was much laughter and joking, which made it very pleasant to converse and to pray in common.

It was a time of abundance and everyone is very grateful for everything that they experienced.

Vastness

In Milwaukee a vastness was experienced. It is enough to see the extent of the grounds. It is interesting, when one sees the grounds of the International Center in Waukesha, and one hears its history to imagine how it was before when the Sisters visited it with Father and when he saw it for the first time: it was pig farm. Father immediately perceived the vastness, with his gaze lost in its infinity. He thought that the Sisters could be comfortable in this place. It would remind them of Schoenstatt. He told them: You have to see the country with my eyes. Think about the grounds and the place where these stanzas were written (he was referring to The Home Song of Heavenwards)".

Today in Milwaukee, the pilgrims experienced the breadth of heart. "If I find my place in the heart of Father and he in mine, then my heart will become bigger than before", someone said. "In this way there is much more room in it for those people who, perhaps before, I did not allow to enter. It is an open Shrine, where the door is never closed. Hopefully in Schoenstatt there will be more and more open Shrines…"

"Personally I am firmly convinced that truly there are graces attached to these ‘holy places’ for those who travel to Milwaukee with an open and willing heart and with a great filial desire. I believe that for us, the Schoenstatters, that in Milwaukee, there is a large special gift with an extra large bow. We should discover it and it will fill us with joy.

Our Father and Founder truly wants to be a Father to us- for each one and undoubtedly also for the larger Family. This is the great gift that he gives us and all the Church. With his Dilexit Ecclesiam, he not only wants to affirm his loyalty and that of the Family to the Church. He wants us, the Schoenstatters, to insert ourselves into the Church and for us to support and enrich it from within. There was a phrase from someone who had already been there in the invitation for the pilgrimage that shook me, and it describes his experience: ‘Whoever goes to Milwaukee returns transformed’. We want to make good use of the graces of Milwaukee. We want to free our Founder from his exile in our thinking and to allow him to be our Father and a Father of our Family. Then instead of constantly turning to our small mutual wars we can concentrate much more on our mission and our task for the Church and the world."

Hopefully everyone will find more than one reason for traveling to Milwaukee soon.

Translation: Celina Garza, Harlingen, TX /Christi Jentz, Milwaukee, WI, USA