OUR LADY OF SHOENSTATT

Day 159: October 18

Mother Queen and Thrice Admirable Conqueror of Schoenstatt

In a valley on the banks of the Rhine, there is a small Shrine dedicated to Our Lady that takes its name from the site where it was born: Schoenstatt, which in German means "beautiful place."

On October 18, 1914, Father Josef Kentenich, together with a group of young seminarians, decided to consecrate themselves to Our Lady by asking her to transform an abandoned chapel into a place of pilgrimage. In return, they would offer her their sacrifices, their joys and their prayers for the transformation of the world, in short, everything that characterizes the struggle for holiness in daily life. Our Lady accepted this consecration, later called the "Covenant of Love", transforming the chapel into a place of pilgrimage for thousands of people. Later in the 40's, many other similar ones were built scattered in many countries. The small shrine thus became the spiritual source of an international movement within the Church.

It was the reading of an article on the history of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii that encouraged Father Kentenich to discern God's will for the Schoenstatt Chapel, since he learned that that Shrine in Italy was not the result of an apparition or an extraordinary manifestation, but of a consecration.

With Our Lady's visit we are invited to place our actions, our sacrifices and prayers in her hands so that she may manifest herself in our families. Nothing without her, nothing without us. Our Lady will do everything, but she needs our one percent!

The original painting of the Virgin and Child entitled "Refugium peccatorum" (Refuge of Sinners), used as a Schoenstatt icon, was painted in Italy in 1898 by the Piedmontese painter Luigi Crosio (1835 – 1915).

Mary is venerated as the Mother Queen and Thrice Admirable Victoress of Schoenstatt. It is a title consolidated throughout the history of the Movement.

Mother: Mary is our Mother, she was given to us in the testament of Jesus in agony on the cross, according to what is reported in the Gospel: "Jesus, then, seeing the Mother and there beside her the disciple whom he loved, said to her: 'Woman, behold your Son!' Then he said to the disciple, "Behold your Mother!" And from that moment the disciple took her into his house" (Jn 19:26-27). On this word, humanity receives Mary as a precious inheritance. The Mother of God is also our Mother.

Queen: because of the dignity of Mother of God, the Virgin is above every creature. God created her Immaculate, full of grace and conceived without original sin.

In her Assumption into heaven, the Triune God crowned her Queen of heaven and earth, as a collaborator of Christ the King of the Universe, in the history of salvation.

Victoress: You have the power granted to you by God to fight with our help the problems and difficulties that beset us, and to bring our inner struggles to a successful conclusion.

Thrice Admirable: par excellence of your special relationship with the Holy Trinity. "Admirable", in fact, as Daughter of God the Father, Mother of God the Son, Spouse of the Holy Spirit.

of Schoenstatt: it recalls the name of the place where the small chapel is located in which that hour of grace took place, later called the "Covenant of Love", which gave rise to the Movement of the same name.

Thousands of faithful visit the Shrine every year, both in Schoenstatt and in all the places where it is faithfully represented, experiencing God's closeness in the tangible love that accompanies them along the path of life. Our Lady, through her maternal intercession, grants from her Shrine three graces in particular: 

(1) the grace of welcome

In our time so confused and uncertain, in which millions of people live in distress and defenseless both materially and spiritually, the Blessed Virgin wants to give all of us, from the Schoenstatt Shrines, the experience of Her maternal protection that leads to the heart of Christ, refuge and support with the Father, making us feel that God loves us personally with an infinitely merciful love. It is the grace that gives us the awareness of being children and that teaches us to live in trust.

(2) the grace of inner transformation

The Christian life is a continuous process of inner transformation in Jesus Christ, so that His light in us "may shine before men" (Mt. 5:16). Our Lady of Schoenstatt, as Mother and Educator, transforms us into the image of Christ through daily life. With this he makes effective the exhortation of St. Paul to free ourselves from the old man in order to put on the new man (cf. Eph 4:24).

(3) The grace of apostolic fruitfulness

The Church needs to revive her missionary spirit in order to bring the Good News to a world that is distancing itself from God. Our Lady wants, from the Shrine, to send us into the world to transform it. She makes each of us an effective instrument in Her hands.

In Italy, on September 8, 2004, the Shrine of Our Lady of Schoenstatt in Rome was blessed, built on land visited by Father Kentenich during the closing days of the Second Vatican Council. On December 8, 1965, the Solemn Closing of the Second Vatican Council took place.

On the same day, Father Kentenich blessed the Symbolic First Stone of the future Shrine and Center of Rome. And he himself gives this Shrine, on this day, the name of: Matri Ecclesiae.

St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"After each act we reverently entrust it to Mary, so that she can preserve for us the merit and the increase of grace, which, purified from all human imperfection, will be placed in the heavenly treasury, so that one day the soul can stand robed before the throne of God."

(Ascension, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, New Jersey, 1997, pp. 375-376)