It is with great joy that we announce announce this years' motto! For the Schoenstatt movement in Nebraska. On October 15th a collection of national leaders settled on the following "umbrella statement" for the Schoenstatt Family of the USA:
ANCHORED IN THE COVENANT
These words will be contained in the motto of each area. As a Nebraska leader's circle we discovered the following motto to guide us through the coming year:
QUEEN OF HOPE – LEAD US
So, our complete motto for 2024-2025 is
ANCHORED IN THE COVENANT – QUEEN OF HOPE, LEAD US!
How perfectly they fit together! In this article we want to offer just a brief explanation of the various parts.
Anchored in the Covenant
Each family, each individual, the entire Schoenstatt Family should be anchored –
attached, secure, firm, steadfast in the covenant of love. The anchor is a symbol of
hope. Our covenant of love is a sure sign of hope, our anchor. In living our covenant of
love, we can be a sign of hope for many people.
Father Kentenich confirmed this in the statement:
Not in any case do we have reason to be unsure or become pessimistic. After all, the covenant of love is not any empty phrase for us. It is a reality. Therefore, the Blessed Mother has the right to expect our blind confidence, unwavering hope and vigorous engagement. It is demanded of us by the prayer; I trust your might…
Queen of Hope
This year we begin a YEAR OF HOPE. The holy door at St. Peter’s will be opened on December 24, 2024 thus inaugurating the Jubilee which will go until December 28, 2025. In the Bull of Indiction, a formal papal document that announces the start of a Holy Year or Jubilee, Pope Francis quoted Romans 5:5, "Hope does not disappoint." His papal document is rich, is filled with many treasures to ponder and to find answers
in these times.
This year is also a Jubilee year for us. It will be 25 years on December 10, 2024 since
we crowned the MTA picture for our future Shrine with the petition: Please show us
where you want us to build your Shrine in Nebraska. We experienced the miracle of this
crowning. We received this land and our Shrine.
Our country and world need in so many ways to be healed, transformed, saved and we
stand very helpless before our mission to bring about the moral and religious renewal of
the world. What do we, what does our country and world, our Church and all families and
individuals need more than hope when we see what hope is and does, especially
against the background of the present times!Therefore, Father Kentenich gives us the answer:
To the extent that we love Mary, everything will turn out for the best. In all situations, even when we are so helpless and perplexed, we know only one answer: Grow into the Blessed Mother. We could just as well say: Crown her anew! Have you ever noticed that we are becoming more aware of our helplessness day by day? I know of no better answer to our helplessness and perplexity that continuously repeating the coronation of our dear Mother. You understand why I myself am sincerely happy that you feel the need to crown Our Lady. I do the same thing: I crown her each time history goes wrong. At the last minute when the vessel is about to tip, all of a sudden it is upright.
Is the Blessed Mother inviting us into a crowning stream from our Shrine throughout the
dioceses and in our home shrines to bring the hope of her power and victory to our poor
country and world? She certainly is calling us to crown and proclaim her QUEEN OF HOPE!
"With hope and joy, confident in the victory, we go with Mary into the post-modern age."
(Fr. Kentenich, 1968)
Lead Us
We wish to turn to our covenant partner and ask her: Lead us. We do not wish to tell her
where to lead us or how to lead us but that we simply surrender to her, put the reigns of
our lives into her hands, let her guide us, show the way, escort as we hold on to her
hand. She promises in the covenant of love to take us into “my hands”.
It is our great longing to be secure in God’s hands, to be well cared for and to leave
matters in his hands. As the Mother of God, Mary takes us by the hand and leads to the
Father. There we find protection, power, confidence, trust, and hope because, as we know, He has written our name on the palm of his hand. (Is,49:15) There is hope!
Mary also, in our covenant of love, takes us by the hand and offers us her guiding and
helping hand whenever we need it. When we are safe in her hand no evil power will
harm us, confuse us, or take hold of us. No evil power will snatch us out of her hand
and exercise its destructive power over us. In her hand we are absolutely secure.
With her hand to guide us we will never stray away from the path of Christ.
As we pray - lead us - we hold fast to the hand of our Father who is God and to the
Blessed Mother who is the Mother of God. There we find HOPE!
ANCHORED IN THE COVENANT – QUEEN OF HOPE – LEAD US!
~ Sr. Marie Day
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