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The First Milwaukee Exile Seminar
Nachrichten - News - Noticias
 published: 2008-08-08

The First Milwaukee Exile Seminar

Participants from nine states studied Father Kentenich's Exile legacy

 

In den Spuren des Gründers zum Exilheiligtum

Huellas del Padre en Milwaukee

Participants follow in Father Kentenich’s footsteps to the Exile Shrine

In den Spuren des Gründers zum Exilheiligtum

 

Sr. Petra zeigt Pater Kentenichs erstes gedrucktes Exemplar von Himmelwärts

La Hna. Petra presenta el „Hacia al Padre“ del Padre Kentenich

Participants are shown Father Kentenich’s first printed copy of the prayers Heavenwards

Sr. Petra zeigt Pater Kentenichs erstes gedrucktes Exemplar von Himmelwärts

 

Gemeinsames Gebet im Exilheiligtum

 

Oración en el Santuario de Exilio

Participants pray with Father Kentenich at the Exile Shrine

Gemeinsames Gebet im Exilheiligtum

 

Referentin: Schw. M. Petra Schnuerer

 

Conferencista: Hna. M. Petra Schnuerer

Sister M. Petra Schnuerer, presenter

Referentin: Schw. M. Petra Schnuerer

 

Podium

 

Panel

Panel presenters in Conference  Hall

Podium

 

Teilnehmer aus Miami

Participantes de Miami

Miami participants in Exile Shrine

Teilnehmer aus Miami

Fotos: Schnuerer © 2008

 

 

 

USA, Sr Marie Day. "It was overdue. We have been waiting or this for a long time," Dr. Kathy Asanza of Florida said, expressing the sentiments of many of the participants of the first Milwaukee Exile Seminar to be hosted at the Schoenstatt International Center in Waukesha, WI by the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary.

Led by Sister Petra Schnurer, the seminar began July 31 and concluded August 3. During this time, the 59 participants from nine states, Puerto Rico, and a visitor from Paraguay, were given "a fantastic opportunity to know Father (Kentenich) and to make him known in the USA," opined Dr. Luis Asanza.

Marge Roland, from Oregon found it helpful that the encounter with Father Kentenich in Milwaukee was presented by means of categories. The categories were selected according to the fact that in Milwaukee, people overwhelmingly experienced Father Kentenich as exceptionally fatherly, as a total father, as a holy and priestly father through whom one experienced in a very personal manner the attributes of our Eternal God and Father. Hence the categories were his transparent countenance, his compassionate countenance, his peaceful countenance, his joyfully radiant countenance, his prayerful countenance.

What we can learn from Father Kentenich

Through her charismatic ability to retell past events, Sister Petra "brought to life a personal side of Father," commented Mary Moore, likewise of Oregon. The experiences of the past that she narrated were the main threads of a beautiful tapestry composed of music, media presentations, personal testimonies, prayer, silence, conversation, discussion, and the opportunity to walk at the Exile Shrine in the footsteps of Father Kentenich. The tapestry revealed the countenance of Father Kentenich in Milwaukee during the years of his exile. "[The organizers and planners] gave us a chance to have a personal encounter with Father at the Exile Shrine and in the cemetery (where Father Kentenich took a walk almost daily for fourteen years)" said yet another participant. A highpoint of the seminar was an evening in prayer at the Exile Shrine, an evening that Nancy Swaggert, another participant from the west coast, described as "a real experience of his presence."

"I have learned how I can be a better father to may own children," Dr. Carlos Everett of Texas, related to the group at the conclusion of the seminar. "I have always been the disciplinarian," he told us, "and I have had high expectations for my children." He said that according to the example of Father Kentenich, he learned he can express warmth, compassion, love and mercy to his children without compromising his fatherly authority.

Walking in the footsteps of Father Kentenich

"What we learned (about Father Kentenich and his fatherliness) applies to every country, and we can take this home with us," added Hugo Caseres, our guest from Paraguay whose profession requires him to spend very much time in Washington D.C. One participant, for whom the seminar was her first visit to the Schoenstatt International Center in Waukesha, and the Exile Shrine in Milwaukee, told us that when she arrived at the seminar she joined strangers, but by the time it ended, "There were no strangers. We had become like a family."

Spending four days together walking in the footsteps of Father Kentenich and prayerfully encountering him at the place he lived for almost fourteen years was an experience of encounter with a holy priest of God, and at the same time, a community-forming experience. As during the time of Exile, a diversity of people came to him from far and wide, and in the warmth of his holy, priestly, fatherly love, and care left secure and at home in the heart of our MTA and her shrine, filled with love and zeal for the mission she entrusted to Father Kentenich. The Exile Seminar proved to be an excellent means of helping us live our year’s motto as Schoenstatt family in the USA: One heart, one shrine, one Church. We look forward to the next Exile Seminar.

 


 

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