A year ago, I would have never predicted the global pandemic we are experiencing today. My involvement with the Mothers’ branch warms my heart like a familiar warm blanket. During these trying times I have become more personally prayerful as our more normal traditions of worship have been restricted. It was in those moments that I turned to my Home Shrine and visits to the Confidentia Shrine for the comfort and reassurance of Our Blessed Mother. Still, this journey is made more difficult with the absence of attending Holy Mass or receiving the body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord.

A theme that has emerged during these difficult times is one of distrust and hostility in our beloved nation. Even more so, I turn to our Blessed Mother in gratitude for her guidance and strength. I was well on my way from recovering from foot surgery and enthusiastically looking forward to resuming my normal Schoenstatt activities, when the first cases of coronavirus began to appear in our country. We all had to hit the pause button. Everyone seemed fraught with uncertainty yet determined to proceed in faith and with prudence. All the while, I felt drawn to walk more closely with Our Blessed Mother.

By the grace of God, I felt a sense of humbleness and gratitude for the opportunity to share a bit of my story. Through God’s kindness I am blessed to be in the position to accompany and assist other mothers in their relationship with Our Blessed Mother. I realize many of our mothers do not have access to computers or other electronic devices. In my position, I am able to distribute material related to Schoenstatt activities and events. I am able to make hard copies of electronically generated material and personally deliver the information. In this way, the mothers have the opportunity to spiritually connect and know they are highly valued.

During these times it has become highly necessary to be effective apostles by living the covenant of love. Through the capital of grace, we can be effective apostles. In the spirit of Divine Providence, we have heard from medical experts that we need to care about each other. As Dr. Anthony Fauci states, “Now is the time to care selflessly about one another.” We offer our contributions to the Blessed Mother so that she can procure for us and for many people the gifts of salvation, the graces we need for the fulfillment of our immediate task in this life and to attain eternal glory. “I firmly trust that no one will be lost who lives the covenant in loyalty” (Father Kentenich).

A.D., Mothers’ Branch, TX

August 15, 2020

Greetings from the Confidentia Shrine! Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lady’s Assumption into heaven! It gives us much joy to think that one of us is in heaven with body and soul. Mary, the most joyful apostle, who followed Christ to the utmost, without the least failing, has received her recompense in her infinite and complete participation in the life of the Risen Lord.

We rejoice because heaven is open, and heaven has a heart, and this motherly heart beats for us who have made a covenant of love with her! In the consecration prayer we give ourselves totally to her: our eyes, ears, mouth, heart, our entire self without reserve. Our body is important for our humanity. It is the vessel for our soul and thus our body and soul are mutually dependent on one another. The harmony of body and soul keeps us healthy, holy, and young at heart! reetings from the Confidentia Shrine! Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lady’s Assumption into heaven! It gives us much joy to think that one of us is in heaven with body and soul. Mary, the most joyful apostle, who followed Christ to the utmost, without the least failing, has received her recompense in her infinite and complete participation in the life of the Risen Lord.

We need our bodies to be joyful apostles and we need to keep our bodies healthy and fit so our soul is well protected and able to influence our actions. In the midst of this pandemic we are more aware of the gift of health.

A week ago, we celebrated the centennial of the first women joining Schoenstatt! We rejoice and give thanks for the strong, firm women who did not give up until Father Kentenich opened the doors of Schoenstatt’s holy halls to women. And now in hindsight, we may rejoice: Where would Schoenstatt be without the many single and married women and mothers!? And thanks to those who have brought their husbands to Schoenstatt and together have started the Family Work! Schoenstatt is much richer and more apostolic because there is room for every joyful apostle who lives the covenant.

With prayers from the Confidentia Shrine,

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

Who would have thought that our motto for this year would relate so well to the difficult times we are experiencing? The coronavirus has turned our world topsy-turvy, interrupting our lives which we thought to have under control. Adjusting to a state of confusion and disorder has become the new norm. Staying at home, instead of doing our daily errands, and keeping the social distance away from our loved ones is important for everyone especially those over the age of 60. Yet, one of the most difficult and hardest things to do during the pandemic has been staying away from our Church. Unable to physically receive Jesus in Holy Communion was disconcerting and even fearful, but haven’t we been listening? God is in our midst. He says, “Do not be afraid! I am with you!”

Joyful Apostles Living the Covenant. Thanks be to God we have Schoenstatt; we have our home shrine and we are prayerful people. Our Mother Thrice Admirable has been crowned many times over in our homes and around the world. If we remain loyal and faithful to our covenant of love, Blessed Mother will be victorious over all evil powers. She will see to it that we return to a normal state of life and mind.

The Holy Spirit is prompting us to put our time to good use and our motto into action, not only being apostles but being joyful apostles, living out our covenant of love in the best way we know and from wherever we are. The Holy Spirit inspires us to use our creativity and talents to help others in need. For me, it was to sew the essential face masks for workers, friends, and family. I truly looked forward to the evening when I would sit at my sewing machine to work on the essential mask. Although they are easy and fast to make, it gave me a sense of purpose knowing I could do something to help others stay safe. I will continue to make them for as long as they are needed, adding a variety of patterns, colors, and materials. In the end, seeing how many people, both young and old, have come back to the lost art of sewing, even if it’s just to make face masks, is wonderful.

Greetings from the Confidentia Shrine,

Father Kentenich often quoted a word from Blaise Pascal: “God writes with lion’s claws”. All the reactions stirred up by the corona pandemic give the impression of such a powerful handwriting. What is happening now is beyond the ordinary. Many, even those who don’t seek and ask for God behind the events of history, feel that it’s about fundamental questions. What is happening at the moment is gripping us more than usual in the depth of our hearts. More and more voices are coming forward, trying to decipher and understand the message of corona.

The image of the “lion’s claws” points to the power that is in a lion. Like the thread of being attacked by a lion, covid-19 is shaking our self-confidence and comfortable lifestyle, which doesn’t worry about the resources of the world as long as we have it all.

Jesus himself speaks of the signs of the times that we should learn to see and interpret. By that he means more than a good analysis of trends and developments. It goes beyond to respond practically to a wide range of challenges. It is a real spiritual task to discover in the signs of the time the handwriting of God. Whether we think of the biblical plagues in the Old Testament or think of the call to repentance which pervades the sermon of Jesus. At issue is growth of a more genuine faith, a more unreserved trust, and of a greater love.

As joyful apostles living the covenant, the claws with which God writes through corona or through the recent accusations of our father and founder have a personal message to each of us. Are we willing to grow even if this growing involves pain? Can we believe that the current trials are part of God’s plan of love to open new horizons? Do I believe that God uses corona to deepen my faith, hope, and love? In Schoenstatt we have the experience of Dachau, exile, and now corona. Do we trust that ”the mighty stones which were meant for our destruction [will become] a powerful stairway which lead us safely to God and into the world of our mission and task? (cf. 2^nd Founding Document). Will the current sufferings destroy us or give us wings to fly?

In the Confidentia Shrine we pray that all our wings grow stronger,

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

Greetings from the Confidentia Shrine,

After weeks of lockdown, contact restrictions, with the economy stagnating and going into a tailspin, with sport events being suspended and families struggling to make ends meet, many can no longer tolerate the regulations. We want to lead a normal life again. But the question is whether this normality of everyday life can be the old one or whether it will and must take on a different character.

In a video message on the vigil of Pentecost, Pope Francis describes the coronavirus as one of the great trials of mankind. And he tells us frankly: “If we get out of this pandemic, we won’t be able to go back to the way things were before. No, everything will be different.” He asks that we prepare for a “new reality” in which a more just and equal society is created. Otherwise, the suffering of the past few weeks will have been in vain.

And how do we Schoenstatters get ready? Our year’s motto clearly shows the way. The reality of the covenant of love assures us that no matter what the outcome of the pandemic will be, our MTA will see us through. She also wants to use us as her instruments to be and remain joyful apostles leading many to Schoenstatt. The example of Laura Schuckenbrock can inspire us to be apostolic wherever we are.

We continue praying for you and your intentions in the Confidentia Shrine,

Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary

Nos cum prole pia…

This year’s motto has a deep meaning for me. It gives life and meaning to everything I do. In times of pandemic and social unrest it reminds me of what I am here for, and whose I am.

Who is our source of joy? Is it really God? If God is our joy then nothing or no one can take that away.

I am secured in our father’s love for us.

As joyful apostles and in spite of covid19 we continue fulfilling our mission in North Texas and very specifically at St Gabriel the Archangel in McKinney.

We have been meeting faithfully every Tuesday via zoom and praying the Schoenstatt Rosary, the Prayer in Time of Need to end the pandemic, Hold the Scepter in your hands, and many others prayers.

We have also been doing the Schoenstatt Workshop with Sister M. Emilie called: “Finding my Inner Balance.”

This is a very helpful workshop since it is a program where Father Kentenich helped Sister M. Emilie to overcome fear and anxiety and lead her to the freedom of God’s children, free from compulsions and disorders.

Our times are marked by universal fear, a fear which we will be overcome only through simple, genuine childlikeness. In simple childlikeness there is an overcoming of the world

and an absolute overcoming of self.

Only a child who kno

ws of the Father’s love and might can let go and fall into his hand.  Sister M. Emilie Engel experienced this time and again.  For her, childlikeness did not mean subjection and dependence, but concentrated strength, fearlessness and the deep knowledge, when looking at Christ, the child of the Father, that unless you become like children you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. To be a child of the great God in Christ is the greatest gift that the heavenly Father could give us if we make ourselves available to Him.

Now that our Churches are starting to ope

Let us say with her: “Behold the Handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your word dear Lord”

n we meet after morning holy Mass by the wayside shrine and pray there.

Early May we decided that it was time to clean up Blessed Mother’s garden as we do every year, and we gave Blessed Mother a beautiful new garden.  It was a team work. I’m very grateful to the volunteers that made this possible.

On Saturday, May 23, the Mothers’ Branch crowned our Mother Thrice Admirable at a new parish in Fort Worth.  The name of the Church is Immaculate Heart of Mary.  It was a beautiful celebration lead by Fr. Oscar Sanchez Olvera.  Blessed Mother was crowned under the title: “Queen of Physical and Spiritual Health” by over 150 parishioners.  Our hearts were filled with joy.  It was wonderful to see so many new faces and so open to receive our heavenly mother’s love.   I was very moved to see the priest so open for Schoenstatt and I learned that he grew up going to the shrine in Querétaro, Mexico as a young boy.  He is a Marian child through and through.

In everything we do we try to be a little handmaid of the Lord and bring joy to others. We are here to serve the Church and world in whatever capacity we can through our apostolic life and through a life of deep prayer in the sacraments.

The greatest sacrifice was asked of us this past Lenten season. It was not easy to not be able to attend daily holy Mass and the sacraments as usual but I could see God’s hand in this. We were ask

ed to sacrifice for a world so deeply in need of God. A world that is thirsting for Him and does not know it.

Our dear Blessed Mother has warned us again and again in her many apparitions.  She continues to call us to pray, do penance and sacrifice.  To turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.

To turn away from self-seeking pleasures of the flesh and give our time to God in prayer and good deeds.

We are reminded in sacred scripture that is not those who say Lord, Lord, who will enter the kingdom of heaven….but those who do the will of the Father, Jesus tell us.

From Schoenstatt Blessed Mother Thrice Admirable continues her great visitation in her pilgrim shrine and fulfilling God’s will.

She goes into homes and brings the same graces she brought to her cousin Elizabeth, She doesn’t go alone, and she brings our dear Lord with many gifts and graces.

May we all become more aware of the divine activit

y Blessed Mother wants to do from Schoenstatt and give her a willing ‘yes” to be her instruments, from the smallest things to the greatest.

This year we, the Mothers’ branch in Texas, celebrate 50 years. How proud I am to be a part of this wonderful school of education that Schoenstatt is with Blessed Mother as our teacher.

I also want to thank all those who are part of it. Each of you are an inspiration to me and all of us.

Laura Schuckenbrock

Join us as we renew our covenant of love on this May 18.

Pray with us! Download prayers here: Renewal of the Covenant of Love May 2020