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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

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.