Schoenstatt: One Heart, One Shrine, One Church.

Founding Day Activities 2007, Milwaukee

Apostoles comprometidos: Mark y Margaret Fenelon Committed apostles: Margaret and Mark Fenelon Aktive Apostel: Margaret und Mark Fenelon
El P. Francisco ofrece „pasaportes de Santuario“ Father Francisco offers “Shrine passports” P. Francisco verteilt den “Heiligtums-Pass”
La JF a cargo del Rosario Vivo Girls Youth leading the Living Rosary Mädchenjugend beim Vorbeten des Lebendigen Rosenkranzes
Conferencia: P. Gerold Langsch Conference: Fr. Gerold Langsch Vortrag: P. Gerold Langsch
Navidad Nativity Bethlehem Fotos: Jentz © 2007

USA, Christi Jentz. Founding Day 2007 took place at the Exile Shrine in Milwaukee on October 23.  Fr Gerold Langsch announced the Motto and gave a reflection prior to morning Mass. Father Dieter Haas offered more reflections during his sermon. Afterward, participants shared enthusiastic conversation over lunch.  A power point presentation on the significance of the Exile Shrine followed, then the Girl's Youth Branch and Schoenstatt Sisters welcomed all to join in a Living Rosary walk which began just outside the Exile Shrine. They asked young children and teens present at the event to join in acting out the various scenes from the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary. The day concluded with Benediction in the Shrine.

Fr. Francisco Rojas asked everyone to please take a Shrine Passport booklet with them as a gift on this day. The booklet looks like an official passport- the kind you need when traveling outside your country. With this one, though, visitors get the Shrine's official "Shrine stamp", not a Country stamp.

It is still possible for our Blessed Mother to work in us

We are called into a Covenant that has been sealed in the Shrine, Father Langsch said in his conference. We have been a given a mission that unfolds each day. We ask to be united as one. With this introduction, Father Langsch, began to unfold this year's motto, One Heart, One Shrine One Church.  As part of the unfolding for the year 2014, it was decided that for each of the last seven years leading up to the 100th anniversary, a different Daughter Shrine would be honored. It began last year with the Founder Shrine in Madison, and this year we focus on the Shrine at Saint Vincent Pallotti East, often referred to as the Exile Shrine.

Father Langsch told the story of a couple's rosary group that he recently met with in the neighboring State of Illinois. It was an unplanned meeting that brought forth some unexpected fruits. In the course of explaining a few things about Schoenstatt, the couples soon asked Father Langsch what the Mary of Schoenstatt actually does. He explained that at first she was in the Shrine and now she travels to homes because she wants to take each one of them, to form and to lead each of them in a good holy life. She wants to work in their homes and at their jobs.  These concepts were new to the couples and impressed them so much that they began their formation that very night. "Some of us, who have been in Schoenstatt for 200 years though", Father joked, "must believe that it is still possible for our Blessed Mother to work in us", she would like to transform us even further. We want to begin that task again this year. With this in mind, we look at our new motto.

One Heart 

Preliminary ideas for the motto were first expressed with words like "interwoven", "united", "togetherness", "new community", and "one family".  Father Langsch recalled a letter that Father Kentenich sent from Germany to the community in the United States after his return from Exile.  In it, he expressed the need for unity and remarked how disastrous it is when those called aren't together for "the task". Unity enables a little group to be completely effective. The goal is not primarily unity, in the sense of coziness but, rather to be "up to the task".  And that task is to bring Schoenstatt's mission to the Church. Today in Schoenstatt, even if we struggle with our different cultures and languages, we still share the same task.  With the Pallottines (a representative is present) and with other movements, we also share tasks. In this case our unity means strength. The tasks that await us are often too difficult and too important to attempt on our own. With all of the modern developments, there are countless struggles, and still more will confront us in the future.  There is confusion in a manner as we have never faced before. 

"In a small group like Schoenstatt can we bring about answers? Yes, we can live it! In the laity are there answers? Yes, we can live it. Are there answers to true womanhood? Yes, we have tried to answer them, and we want to live it. On the other hand, if we cannot provide those answers we will vanish as something useless and of no importance. That is why we turn to our Lady.  We recognize our limitations. We offer them to her, and we ask her to use them for her great task for the Church of today." We want to have One Heart.

One Shrine

We ask what Milwaukee means to others. In a talk Sister Carol offered in July at an event with Archbishop Dolan and the Schoenstatt community she emphasized how Milwaukee sparks something in pilgrimage visitors to the Shrine. Why? There is the interest in the Exile legacy. Also, there is the need for a deeper encounter with Father Kentenich, which in reality cannot be found at larger gatherings. Pilgrims seek to visit places where they will find this intimate encounter with the Founder and people come to this little Shrine from all parts of the world. "The Founder now is gone, that's true, but he still lives through us." Schoenstatt members who encounter those pilgrims become his living witnesses. They (the pilgrims) want to see something, and Milwaukee impresses them. Those who visit this Shrine don't return unchanged, and those hosts they leave behind are changed too.  Here in Milwaukee, Father Kentenich's loyalty to the Church was tested. The pilgrims see how he lived love and lived loyalty to the Church.

We want to renew our eagerness to go to the Shrine. (Here Father Langsch explains the "Shrine Passport"). We also want to find meaningful ways to celebrate the 18th of each month. In Paraguay, they have a saying that every day the Blessed Mother comes to you, now you must come to her- at least one time per month. 

One Church

We are for the Church. "The simplest way to put is this- that we give the Blessed Mother a chance to work. We should offer what we have received to others- our Schoenstatt spirituality, pedagogy, lifestyle and mission." One of the mothers in Illinois group asked Father Langsch, "How? How can I meet all of the needs in my daily life? I have four children and some days I just can't make it. I am pulled left and right. How can I do this?" This is the role of the Blessed Mother, he told her. She can help the family in so many ways. First through her person she will educate you individually, and then secondly she takes action. She helps us all to live our faith.  When we live our faith, we find God. We are effective for the Church.

Continuing the motto, one could say - one heart, one shrine, one Church, one Schoenstatt - one schoenstatt.de: Heartfelt thanks to the Schoenstatt Movement of the USA for their generous donation for schoenstatt.de