June 2020 l Vol. 1 | No. 8

Schoenstatt Movement

Australia

1. Heart Speaks to Heart

Greetings and blessings for this Covenant day – the 18th June.

On this day we come together spiritually to renew our Covenant of

Love with our Blessed Mother and through her, with our father and

founder, with each other and ultimately with the Heavenly Father. It

seems fitting that after renewing our Covenant of Love, this month

we then commemorate the solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of

Jesus and on the following day (20th June), we celebrate the

memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

With this in mind, when renewing our Covenant of Love, we might

consider these words of our father and founder:

“The Blessed Mother has been given to me as my Mother. And I have

acknowledged her as my Mother by making the Covenant of Love. I

have given myself to her and she has given herself to me as Mother.

What should I therefore do? Maintain this inner contact with her and

do so with the explicit intention that she should take me by the hand,

take me into her heart so that she will lead me deeper into the heart

of our Lord and into the heart of the Heavenly Father. (...)

We do this in order to learn to let God love us in all the circumstances

of life; also, in order to learn anew to love God deeply and to fulfill

God’s commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your

heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Mt 22:37).

“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love, Just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy be complete. This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you”

(Jn.15:9-12)

“ We learn to love to the extent that we know we are loved”

(From: “God my Father”, Fr. J. Kentenich- P.80)

1. Heart Speaks to Heart

2. Important Remembrance

Days

3. Living the Covenant –

Susan O’Regan

June 18 2020 l Volume 1, Number 8

4. Links

June 2020 l Vol. 1 | No. 8

Exchange of hearts. Thus is the meaning and the present condition of our devotion to the Sacred Heart of

Jesus. We surrender to Him, we give Him our sick heart and expect a profound transformation and we ask

that He unite our heart with his, that He makes it like His. We ask Him for an exchange, a transplant of our

poor heart, replacing it with His, filled with treasures.

May He take from us that penetrating selfishness which dries up our heart and leaves our life useless and infertile! May He set our heart afire with the flame of love which makes our human existence genuine and great!

We should also join ourselves to the Blessed Virgin Mary with her Immaculate Heart. Her heart is so great that she can be Mother to all humanity. With her loving maternal heart, may she lead us in our efforts toward a true love without selfishness and without limits! (From “Reflections by Fr. Nicolas Schwizer, 1.6.2010)

O Mother in your holy heart deeply inscribe each name

And as a sign that they are yours, write it with blood and flame.

In love and childlike gratitude your name shall also be

Deeply inscribed in my heart for all eternity. Amen

(Heavenwards, P.173)

For reflection:

* Where do I see the love of God in the everyday situations of my life?

* Do I reflect this love in the way I live my life?

* How do I share this love with others?

I wish you all many blessings and graces from the shrine for this covenant day. May we continue to pray with

each other, and for each other during these difficult times.

“One heart in the Father, for the Family of God”

In covenant unity,

Shirley

“We learn to love to the

extent that we know we are

loved”

Fr J. Kentenich

June 2020 l Vol. 1 | No. 8

2. Important Remembrance Days

During the next month we celebrate days of remembrance which are

important for our Schoenstatt Family.

June 29 Feast of Saints Peter & Paul.

The wooden carved statues of Saints Peter and Paul are found to the left

and right of the Shrine altar, just below the image of our Mother Thrice

Admirable. They are a reminder to us that Schoenstatt is an apostolic

movement and we are all called to be apostolic and to serve the Church

with our unique, individual gifts and talents.

The statues were placed in the Original Shrine in 1935 for the 100th

anniversary of the founding of St. Vincent Pallotti’s Catholic Apostolate.

They also remind us that Mary is the Queen of Apostles and that the Shrine

is a new Cenacle. (Adapted from 200 questions: Fr. J. Niehaus)

Fr. Kentenich, on his 73rd birthday, made the following reference to St.

Paul in relation to his own mission:

“If we asked St. Paul what mission he had, he would tell us: I received the

mission to proclaim the mystery of Christ to the world; Christ, the

Redeemer, the Mediator, the Head of the Mystical Body. We immediately

ask: What mission did I receive seventy-three years ago?

With one eye on St. Paul, I may say: It was and is my mission to proclaim

the mystery of Mary to the world. It is my task to proclaim the Blessed

Mother, to make her known to our time as the permanent Helpmate of our

Lord in the entire work of redemption, as the co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix

of all graces; [to proclaim] the Blessed Mother - deeply united with our

Lord, joined in two-in-oneness – with the specific mission which she has

from her Schoenstatt Shrine for today.”

(J. Kentenich, Milwaukee, 16 November, 1958).

July 8 Priestly Ordination of Father Kentenich

We are grateful for the gift of our founder’s priesthood and the

fruitfulness of his priestly service over 58 years.

Joseph Kentenich’s priestly ordination took place on Friday, July 8, 1910.

On this day the bishop ordained eight new priests in the house chapel of

the Limburg Mission House. The youngest, not yet 25 years of age, was

Joseph Kentenich.

Joseph’s ordination card placed a kind of headline over his life’s vocation.

The motto he chose was: “Unite, O my God, all minds in truth and all

hearts in love!” To this he added: “Heart of Jesus, I trust in you. Sweet

Heart of Mary, be my salvation”.

If we asked St.

Paul what

mission he had,

he would tell us:

I received the

mission to

proclaim the

mystery of Christ

to the world;

Christ, the

Redeemer, the

Mediator, the

Head of the

Mystical Body.

June 2020 l Vol. 1 | No. 8

Ordination Photo

On Sunday, July 10, in the house chapel, Fr. Kentenich celebrated his solemn First Mass. Fr. Kolb, the provincial superior, was the assisting priest. A solemn First Mass in his home parish in Gymnich followed on July 24. The Mass took place in the local parish church of St. Cunibert’s and afterwards the family gathered to celebrate at the home of relatives. Joseph’s ordination and First Mass were a cause of great joy for his mother.

After many years of sacrifice and prayer she saw him reach his goal. For the

occasion she gave him an ornate 4-foot (120 cm) wooden crucifix.

She had this dedication hand-carved in ornate letters on the back: Dear

Joseph! Your Mother gives you this Cross for your First Mass. It was a

fitting gift for a son who was determined to follow the Savior’s call – as he

had written in his “rule of life” – “Whoever wishes to come after me must

deny his very self, take up his cross and follow me”(Mt 16,24; Mk 8,34).

Love of the cross would be a hallmark of his whole life. As his cousin

Henriette put it fifty years later: “Joseph is on the cross from cradle to

grave.” (From “Brushstrokes, Vol.1, P.159-161, Fr.J.Niehaus)

Fr. Kentenich saw the role of a priest as being a “Man of God and a Builder

of Bridges”.

“The challenges of the times need to be addressed. The key lies in our

profound awareness of being called, in our profound consciousness of

having a mission. Father Kentenich encouraged priests again and again to

keep the story of their own priestly vocation alive, to take it seriously as a

personal calling and the source of a healthy mission consciousness.

Especially in times when religion and Christianity threaten to evaporate and

fade away more and more, it is crucial that with their ministry and their

existence, priests are totally committed to God and keep their focus on

God. Their task of being “bridge builders” becomes increasingly relevant,

the more the modern, earth-oriented person loses sight of the other shore;

that is, the world of God, or seems to lose all awareness of its existence.”

(Wolf, P. Called, Consecrated, Sent. Selected Texts of Father Joseph

Kentenich about the Priesthood, 2009. p.40)

Fr. Kentenich himself, in a retreat for priests, had the following to say:

“The main thing … is that we draw nearer to God again – the eternal God,

the infinite God, the God who is so persecuted today. To this God, who so

intimately circles our life, who so envelops us with his love, we want to give

all glory during these days, we want to learn to glorify him anew in a heroic

manner, both through our being and through our actions.

People’s longing to experience the priest as a trustworthy witness, in fact

as a “man of God,” will only find an answer if priests themselves live out of

a deep consciousness that they have been called and that they have a

mission to fulfill.” (Ibid. pp 45-46)

“Unite, O my

God, all minds in

truth and all

hearts in love!”

From Fr. Kentenich’s

ordination card.

June 2020 l Vol. 1 | No. 8

With this year’s motto, I realized how easy it is to live a double life. To

practice covenant solidarity with those you know have their hearts in

the shrine is the easy part, to talk to, pray with, and have a friendship

with others who have made their covenant of love is wonderfully

fulfilling. To have one’s belief and feelings ratified over and over again

is truly gratifying. The tough bit is to stand strong in the light of our

Mother Thrice Admirable in the darkness we often find ourselves in day

to day living.

In the job I recently left, I found it very easy to omit my religious belief,

instead of admitting them over and over again, I would downplay my

beliefs because I persuaded myself it saved arguments. Every Monday,

Holy Mass was available to all Catholics who worked at the university,

which I would attend and avoid telling people where I was going - again

because I did not want to be question (or was it disliked?). But my

colleagues, most of them who were feminists, socialist and very anti-

patriarchal organization (and I suspect the Catholic Church was right up

there) were to prove me wrong.

Eventually in a crowded lunchroom, someone asked me outright,

“Where did I go on Mondays?” I felt like hours passed, until I said “I go

to Mass.” There really was a silence in which you could hear a pin drop,

but someone said “ what a waste of time” and then someone else said,

“she wished her Church (the Church of England) had something during

the week in which she could go to.” And the rest of lunch time was

taken up by a lively discussion about religious beliefs, why some had

lost their faith, why some never had any, and I even found another

Catholic, who said she would like to go to mass on Monday (but I never

managed to get her in).

So courageous covenant solidarity to me, has come to mean, to walk

openly with our whole Mother for all the world to see, to risk division

and scorn, to live my beliefs in solidarity with her and if having some

people think I’m stupid or as someone told me brainwashed by an

outdated concept or having a notion of unconditional love flowing from

heaven into my life is what I have to suffer, then I can cope with that.

Our Lord was tortured to death for love of us, some of the saints

suffered torment of death in great loneliness for their love of God and

we have great freedom because of this. Freedom, to choose, freedom

to worship, and freedom to live our lives according to our conscience.

And my conscience is demanding that I live my life in the spotlight of

love coming from the shrine. So I admit it, I have made my covenant of

love with Mother Thrice Admirable for which I am forever grateful and

proud. I only hope she can be just as proud of me.

Susan O’Regan.

3. Living the Covenant in Everyday Life - Susan O’Regan

Sue passed away 18 March 2020 after a

long battle with cancer. She belonged to

the Mother of Comfort group, which was

formed in 1982 in St Bernadette’s Parish,

Lalor Park NSW.

Sue wrote this May, 2004 as a contribution

to the Mother’s magazine.

May she rest in peace.

June 2020 l Vol. 1 | No. 8

NOTE: Please check the websites for updated opening times of the Shrine. Mulgoa Shrine https://schoenstatt.org.au Mt Richon / Armadale Shrine https://schoenstattwa.org.au The Kew Shrine is still closed at this stage

LINKS

Official Schoenstatt Website The Schoenstatt International Coordinating Team has announced that the official Schoenstatt

Website for our international Schoenstatt Family is now live. This site is not replacing the

schoenstatt.org website but has been commissioned by the General Presidium to be the official

site for international news and communications from Schoenstatt.

You may like to check it out: http:// www.schoenstatt.com

The team responsible for this initiative has fulfilled a request of the Pentecost Conference in

2015 which picked up echoes from our Centennial Jubilee Celebrations in 2014. It has the

following wish: “May the homepage become a symbol of the synergy that Schoenstatt can

develop in the service of the Church and society.”

Our Melbourne Schoenstatt Family prepares for its annual Family Celebration. Because of COVID 19 restrictions the annual nine-week novena is being prayed every Sunday at

3pm in our Home Shrines instead of at the Kew Shrine. For those who wish to join our

Melbourne Schoenstatt Family in solidarity, you will find the novena on our Australia Website:

www.schoenstatt.org.au

Links for Reflections for the upcoming feast days are as follows:

• 19 June – Sacred Heart - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16AUPkADu3g

• 21 June – Covenant Sunday - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnDJBMT5z0o

For further reflections during the next month visit the Schoenstatt Australia YouTube

Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBRl6fXivUauklFAg0AKQvg

The Covenant Renewal Prayers from April are valid each Covenant Day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k19yxZB2nmI.

The Sisters singing the consecration prayer may be viewed at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O29tXet2DQQ.