Pray with us!! Click here to download the covenant renewal prayers!

To watch live, go to: https://www.facebook.com/schoenstatt.s.rockport

Because of the COVID-19 regulations, we are currently not having the Covenant Holy Mass on the 18th of the month in our Confidentia Shrine.

The Shrine is open everyday from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. Masks are required in order to come in.

Our store is open on the following days and hours:

Tuesday through Sunday

• 10:30 am – 12:00 noon
• 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Questions?? Please contact us at (361) 729-2019

The story of our home shrine under the title of Childlike Acceptance began with the purchase of our first home in Corpus Christi in 1986. We married that same year. Both of us were members of the Schoenstatt Movement prior to our marriage so it was very natural to invite the MTA into our new home as newlyweds. The main desire was to always be faithful in our marital commitment and faithfulness to our Church.

In 1987 and 1989 we welcomed our first two children, Anna and Philip respectively. In between Anna and Philip, we experienced a miscarriage that deeply saddened us but through prayer and belief that our MTA takes perfect care, we were soon blessed with our son Philip. Our home shrine was an integral part of our lives especially during the times when our children were little. One experience that we will never forget is when our oldest daughter Anna contracted a very unusual autoimmune blood illness that almost took her life in 1990.  It was on a Saturday night in the hospital that together our family, Schoenstatt couple’s group, and Schoenstatt Sisters and Fathers all connected through the Confidentia Shrine, home shrines, and heart shrines that Anna pulled through. The path to full recovery took about six months and during this time our home shrine became the place where our worries, joys, successes, and setbacks were placed daily in our MTA’s care. We asked especially for Father Kentenich’s prayers to help in healing our little Anna and also to protect Christel as we were at the same time expecting our third child. It’s in this way that we realized how important it is to have that special little place in our home where we experience our Mother Thrice Admirable’s motherly love and care for us!

Our home shrine has moved a few times since our first home in Corpus Christi. We were blessed now with four children (Anna, Philip, Clara, and Magdalena) and of the joys and challenges that come with raising a family. We formally dedicated our shrine in May 1993 in Corpus Christi, TX. We invited the Blessed Mother to help us understand God’s will that eventually led to a move to central Texas. We chose “Childlike Acceptance” as our home shrine’s mission because like the Father and Founder of Schoenstatt we wanted to always remain open to what God has in store for us in our life together. This also led to temporary moves to China and Germany.

Just like the Original and Daughter Shrines, the home shrine is where the Blessed Mother takes care that we always remain faithful to marriage and family. As with many families there are so many instances we can recall where the MTA led us to feel the love of her Son and to understand God’s will for us. Whether we experience issues related to health, financial struggles, job, faith crises, or raising teenagers – for examples – we learned to trust in a childlike way to accept the challenges that present themselves in life, but always knowing that we can expect the graces needed to endure and overcome these. Our home shrine has been and continues to be an important part of our home!

Servus Mariae nunquam peribit!

Christel and Ruben Montez
TX Family Federation

Greetings from the Confidentia Shrine!

We have a new motto! Everywhere during the past weeks local Schoenstatt families gathered to be introduced to the guiding theme of the coming year and to fill it with meaning. What is so special about the motto? It was found during several sessions of virtual meetings of diocesan and district leaders from every state where Schoenstatt is present.

The leaders identified four areas for our focus during the coming year: Leadership, Fatherhood, Apostolate (outreach), and how does God speak to us through the voices of our time. There is much to look forward to as we unpack this motto in our groups and workshops.

For us Schoenstatters all our being and acting receives its flavor from the shrine; be it a daughter shrine, our home shrine, or ultimately our heart shrine. From there we receive the pilgrimages graces of home, inner transformation, and apostolic zeal, in addition to the grace connected to the mission of the shrine.  In the Confidentia shrine, for example, the MTA intercedes graces of unshakeable trust in God’s providence.  In these uncertain times, we desperately need this grace. We invite you therefore to make a physical or spiritual pilgrimage to the Confidentia shrine. You may also send us your intentions which we sisters entrust to Our Lord and Our Lady during our daily adoration hours before the Blessed Sacrament.

Tomorrow, we celebrate the birthday of our father and founder, Father Joseph Kentenich. Let us show him our gratitude for having sealed the first covenant of love on October 18, 1914, which has become our life.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary

Join us through our Facebook page: facebook.com/schoenstattshrinerockport

Pray and sing with us! Click here to download the text for the songs and prayers

In-person attendance limited – all slots filled!

Imagine the anxiety I felt when my daughter called recently to say that her teenaged son, my grandson, had been exposed to Covid 19 through contact in the high school band.  They had just received the news and she was nervous, asking for prayers.  Her husband was driving them now to have my grandson tested and following that, he would need to be quarantined for the next two weeks.  I assured her that, of course, we would pray, and then she added this bright spot.

“Mom, thank you for the Blessed Mother picture you sent to Aidan.  He says he took it out of his wallet right away and began asking for help.  He texted the image of the MTA to his mom with the caption, ‘So much praying.  Tell Grandma thanks.’ It warmed my heart to know that the efforts I have made recently (due to the Covid pandemic), to reach out via mail and email to my grandchildren, had made a little difference in his life.  Since we cannot see them in person, like we used to, I send a little note to each of the grandkids every month, with words of encouragement, bible verse, and assurance to them that God and our Blessed Mother are watching over them.  These moments of joy are gifts that come with an otherwise troubling time.

Kate Otto, San Antonio TX,

Family Federation

As I sit and contemplate the gifts given to us …, I must include what God has placed in our path during the pandemic. For most of us, even those of us who have been able to retire, life was a hectic series of events. We had meetings, outings, appointments, and just plain things to do. Suddenly, the breaks were applied to our lives in all things. No more going out, no more meetings, no more church and mass. We had to sit back and wait. What were we given in place of all of this – Time!?

Suddenly, we had time to sit and talk with one another. We began to miss our family, our children, and grandchildren. Maybe we also began to appreciate them a bit more because they are more distant. Face Time and Zoom have become necessities. Our need for each other may have grown because we can no longer be together. And there is YouTube also. How many Sunday Masses have been attended and how able have we been to at least participate together?

Look also at the reading time and all the puzzles that have been made. There have been family game nights over the internet.  Hopefully, a lot of laughing and joking together has taken place, maybe more often than before. Maybe there has also been time to sit and wonder. Maybe in our home shrine, we contemplated Mary and the Child. She is the one so sweet and calm amid the fears and anxieties of this time. Maybe we tried to burn her image into our hearts so that we can say: “Yes Father” when he calls. Do we find Our God and Lord in the songs of the birds that we hear in the mornings and evenings because we have slowed down?

Do we smell the roses that bloom along the way? As the storms roll through there may be fear and concern. Also therein is the power and strength of the Father followed by his love as rain renews the earth. In the blue skies, his smile, in the billowing clouds, his smile as he reminds us, he is near us always. His is the hand that reaches out to us. His is the arm that holds us when we stumble and fear the world around. With Father and Mother, we should not fear or give in to anger. Hand and hand, we can walk far and help others to come with us.

Rick Otto, San Antonio TX,

Family Federation

Greetings from the Confidentia Shrine,

During this month of the most holy rosary, we also commemorate the founding day of Schoenstatt on October 18, 1914. In three days, the Schoenstatt Family all over the world will gather at our shrines to renew the covenant of love which Father Kentenich and the sodalists sealed 106 years ago in the Original Shrine in Schoenstatt!

We are grateful that we may belong to the Schoenstatt Family! A covenant day is always also an occasion when we can ask ourselves, “Where would I be without Schoenstatt?” Or perhaps even more personal, “Who would I be without Schoenstatt?” As our answer of love, we surrender ourselves anew and include ourselves in our father and founder’s way of thinking when he told us, “I have made it a custom to use the 18^th of each month to formally renew the cove

nant of love with the entire family whether I think of this world or the other world; of the militant, the suffering, or the triumphant Church; by Church I now mean the Church on the small scale: Schoenstatt! On the 18^th of each month I try to deepen within myself the communion of love with the entire Schoenstatt world and with that the responsibility for each and every one.” (1950)

With our father and founder, we ask you, dear Blessed Mother: Renew your yes to the covenant of love. Grant that the work may undergo a continuous renewal deeply grounded in the source of grace released through the covenant of love. In this way, Schoenstatt will keep growing into the height and depth, the width and breadth. Trusting in this covenant we go with joy and hope, confident of victory into the newest area.

Throughout the year we have been guided by our annual motto: “Joyful Apostles, Living the Covenant!” It has been a fruitful and apostolic time, in spite or perhaps because of covid-19! The many apostolic episodes which we posted each month give witness to our outreach.

Please join us for the covenant renewal in the Confidentia Shrine on October 18^th at 11:30 am. 

We firmly trust that no one will be lost who lives the covenant in loyalty!

Yours,

Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary

As all of us know and have experienced, countless changes and transitions have taken place due to our current circumstance. Even the simplest things of our daily lives have had to undergo certain changes, some of which require sacrifice on our part.

I, along with the other Schoenstatt leaders, knew that we could not have our summer camp at Lamar this year. However, despite all that was and is still taking place in our world, we realized more than ever that we had to do something for the Schoenstatt youth to remind them that nothing can stop the Blessed Mother from entering our hearts. We withhold the ability to live out the apostolate in all of life’s circumstances.

With much planning and guidance from the Blessed Mother, we created a virtual summer camp experience. Of course, we all missed the girls and would have loved for camp to be in person, but we were willing to make that sacrifice for our MTA.

We received a large response from the girls. Our goal as leaders was to make this experience as similar to the real thing as possible. By brainstorming and combining all our ideas and creativity, we did just that. The girls received their Schoenstatt t-shirts and booklets in the mail, along with many other goodies that would be incorporated into our four-day virtual camp. We were still able to have our talks and slideshows as well as fun games and crafts. The girls especially loved the tea party and fashion show! Not only that, we had the opportunity to visit the shrine virtually, united in love and prayer. It truly was a beautiful experience for all of us.

Another question that crossed our minds as we continued to plan our virtual camp was how we were going to put our camp theme into practice. Well, the physical distance was no hindrance to our spiritual unity. We lived out the camp theme Together, We Shine for Christ, by making our homes and our families our mission territory and by the offerings to the capital of grace that we made individually and as a whole.

These are things that each of us will carry beyond our virtual summer camp experience. We were blessed to have had this time to grow and further understand that as little Marys we can set the world ablaze from anywhere we may be.

Cecilia Yeretsky, Yorktown, Texas

Greetings from the Confidentia Shrine!

Today, as the church celebrates the memorial of the Sorrows of Mary, the Schoenstatt Family also recalls the homegoing of Father Kentenich fifty-two years ago. Just in time, Brushstrokes, volume 5 becomes available in our Schoenstatt stores. It’s subtitle, Accompanied by a Father, was chosen to set the stage for encountering our founder during his exile in Milwaukee (1952-1965). Though the material for this book, like the previous volumes, was collected and prepared by Father Jonathan Niehaus, it was up to his siblings Father Mark and Sister M. Deanne to meet the challenge of organizing and editing the text for publication. They did so “as Father Jonathan’s siblings and covenant partners” and the result is a highly recommendable compendium of the relationships our father and founder fostered during the Milwaukee years and which in turn formed him “into an accessible, yet profound image of fatherhood” (xxiii). Watch a trailer  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-8NBIlGb8M&fbclid=IwAR022CWNfIx-BZD6u2C_l95spFpKXKiSaAz01ATvSfLvKkvBQnCaGBm8ShM

As Texas Schoenstatt Family we continue to follow the inspirations of our father and founder as they become concrete in our year’s motto. Please enjoy the story from a member of our youth who describes the ingenuity of joyful and youthful apostles living and bringing the covenant to Texan girls through a virtual camp experience.

In three days, September 18, we are invited again to renew our covenant of love. We Sisters are grateful to visit the shrine daily and to bring all your intentions to our Covenant Queen. Above all we pray for your safety and good health as well as a quick end to the pandemic.

United with her in the covenant of love,

Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary

Pray with us!! Click here to download the covenant renewal prayers!

To watch live, go to: https://www.facebook.com/schoenstattshrinerockport