Dear Schoenstatt Family and friends:

I hope you had a wonderful Covenant Mass yesterday at Addie Roy as we slowly start to come back after the summer break. As some of you know, I am currently in Schoenstatt, Germany spending the summer months with my course at the “Father House” (or General House) of our Community in a three month retreat called “Tertianship” and continued formation course. It’s really a gift to be able to be here in Schoenstatt, at the very place where it all started with the first sodalists and be renewed in that first original grace. Apologies for being relatively allergic to the machine of late, but the breathing room – our spiritual exercises and continued formation -- has been a tremendous, and tremendously needed, gift. Thanks for your prayers and Email greetings from all. I do have you and your intentions present in my visits to both the Original Shrine and our Founder’s tomb. My three months retreat is also soon coming to an end as I now have a few weeks left before I come back to Austin.

SAVE THE DATE: The next Covenant Day Celebration in Austin will be a memorable one! Please Save The Date: September 19th, 2010. On that day we would like to make an important announcement that will definitively make an impact to our Family. With this announcement we would also like to invite for a Community Celebration to launch the Year of the Family, especially our Schoenstatt Family "On the Way to Bethlehem". An official communication from the Movement will be coming out soon.

As some of you might be asking "What's happened in Schoenstatt at Austin during the summer?" suffice it to say – well, as someone kindly wrote to me -- you've been under terrific pressure lately, and maybe it's inhuman! Here we go…

• USA Nat’l Leaders’ Convention: Some of our branch leaders from the Diocesan Committee attended the Leader’s Convention held in Milwaukee from July 8th to the 11th. "About 230 representatives from 18 states were gathered at the National Leaders' Convention for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Fr. Kentenich's ordination to the priesthood. During our convention at the International Center, we presented our priestly Father with many gifts for his anniversary and planted a tree in his memory at the Shrine. From among the five suggested areas of our apostolic priorities we chose the strengthening of the family as our striving during the remaining four years till 2014. Then our discussion focused on one of the precious gifts of the Blessed Mother during the exile time, the birth of the Home Shrine. Our special gift from the United States for 2014 is OUR LIFE WITH AND IN THE HOME SHRINE.....the Home Shrine as our gift could invite us to deepen our own covenant life in the Home Shrine and from the Home Shrine to reach out to others and be apostolically active." I invite you to read the entire article on the website. Here’s the link:
http://cmsms.schoenstatt.de/en/news/305/53/USA-National-Leaders-Convention.htm

• Youth Conference: Two of our SUM attended the international Youth Conference in Paraguay where they continued to talk about how we can unite with all the Schoenstatt Youth to be a “Missionary Generation” as we anticipate the possibility of venturing to World Youth Day in Madrid as a branch next August. They discussed how this applies to us as a branch and how the concept of the “Covenant Culture” of Schoenstatt can continue to be a gift to the world around us as we prepare to celebrate the 2014.

• Alb Reception: On July 17th Juan Pablo (Operation Mario Team 2), Mark Leatherman (SUM) and many other Schoenstatt seminarians received their albs in the “Toma de Tunica” or Alb Reception ceremony in Paraguay. A representative from SUM, a family from our Movement in Austin, as well as Mark’s family, Fr. Christian and many past Operation Mario guys attended the ceremony and said it was absolutely amazing. Friends and families of all the novices were present from countries all over the world. Let us continue to be so, so proud of Juan Pablo and Mark as we pray for them and for all they are doing!

If you are missing some of your Schoenstatt Fathers, you have a couple of opportunities to see two of them soon. Are you ready?

Tomorrow, August 17th, 2010, at 6.00 p.m. (local time in Schoenstatt) Fr. Jonathan Niehaus, currently stationed here in our Father House in Schoenstatt, will be celebrating Mass for the Feast day of the Assumption of Mary from the Shrine of the Families, Shrine Nazareth, in Schoenstatt. The service will be prepared by the Schoenstatt Institute of Families with songs and texts in different languages.

The next day, August 18th, at 7:15 a.m. (local time in Schoenstatt)I will be saying Mass together with my course (the fathers in my same year) for Covenant Day from our Sion Shrine next to our Father House in Schoenstatt. The Mass will be in Spanish and English.

But how can you see us if we are in Germany? Log on to http://schoenstatt-tv.de/EN/index.html and watch us live as these masses will be broadcasted on the internet. You can always go back and click on the “Media Center” on the menu and watch the recordings.

As I visit the Shrines here in Schoenstatt, I take you all and our Family in Austin in spirit. On the way to Bethlehem,

Fr. Jesus Ferras
Movement Coordinator

Dear Schoenstatt Family and friends:

Greetings from Schoenstatt, Germany! On this day we want to join the Schoenstatt Family worldwide in celebrating the 100th Ordination Anniversary of our Father and Founder, Fr. Kentenich. It has been a gift for me to be able to participate in the closing of the Year for Priests in Rome and to be here in Schoenstatt participating in the Conference celebrating Father’s Ordination Anniversary.

Today, July the 8th, there will be a solemn Holy Mass at the Limburg Cathedral with the Most Reverend Tebartz von Elst, Bishop of Limburg. It will conclude with an encounter in the place where Father Kentenich was ordained, the Mission House of the Pallottine Fathers in Limburg. In the afternoon, a walking pilgrimage for the intentions of the Year for Priests will take place from Limburg to Schoenstatt. The pilgrims will arrive on July 10th, the 100th anniversary of Father Kentenich's first Holy Mass.

In this spirit I would like to share with you words of Fr. Heinrich Walter, President of the International Schoenstatt Work and General Superior of the Schoenstatt Fathers:

"In this Year for Priests proclaimed by the Pope, we see an open door to demonstrate to the Church the priestly richness of Father Kentenich. We are proud to have a founder who - as a priest - has been so fruitful in his life.

He was a priest who matured through a crisis in his youth. He accepted the great challenge of risking his life and was not afraid to face the hierarchy of the Church. He was a priest who spoke about God as if he were exactly next to Him. His love for Mary awakened all the powers of his soul and impregnated his entire pastoral work. His heart was so big that he was able to unite himself deeply with each person he encountered. His priesthood was a source of joy for us. This is what we want to manifest publicly.

In reality, Schoenstatt was born one hundred years ago with the priestly ordination of Father Joseph Kentenich. The group of sodalists was formed around that young priest, who, as such, lived as a shepherd amid his flock.....a flock which is a family which has a Father.

He was not only a dispenser of the sacraments: he was a creator of relationships, a former of persons, an expert in covenants, a strategist in organization, a prophetic interpreter of the times.
His priestly being is always attached to all of us. It is a joy for all of us and a task for the entire Family to present his priestly profile today. Each pastor, each diocese, the entire Church, should experience the richness which his priestly life embodies.

The key is to give to the Church, in the present challenges, all which has made fruitful the priesthood of our Father Kentenich. Would it not be possible that with the present crises of the priests, the entire Schoenstatt Family would become enthused for helping the Church, manifesting an image of that priesthood which has confirmed its fruitfulness so that it can be a model for many?"

It is very appropriate that the centennial celebration of the ordination of Father Kentenich fell "precisely" during this Year for Priests. It is the overwhelming example of a priest who has lived and has worked as a "man of God." We are very grateful for him and we can present him to the world.

As a Schoenstatt Family in Austin we have lived in a special way this Year for Priests called by our Holy Father and as a gift from the Providence we have added Father Kentenich’s Centennial of his ordination. I can say with certainty that we have had the opportunity to grow in our love and attachment to our Founder as we strive to conquer our future Shrine through our Capital of Grace and the many Covenant Sundays and fundraiser opportunities. I want to assure you that the leaders of our Movement are working hard to making this wish and longing of ours a reality. There will be a Movement wide invitation soon to give you an update on our advance in this work entrusted to us by you all and to talk about the next steps in this process. We also want to officially place a picture of Fr. Kentenich in the Movement house when we come back from the summer break as a symbol from this year of his Anniversary.

I would also like to ask you to pray for two intentions that are happening now over the summer. One is the annual Boys Walk from Corpus Christi to the Confidentia Shrine in Lamar. This walk happens every year in the weekend of Father’s ordination and is organized by the Boys Youth in Texas. The other event happening this coming weekend as well is the National Leaders Convention at the International Schoenstatt Center in Milwaukee, Wi. This is an opportunity where all the diocesan leaders of the Movement in the US will gather to receive input and share about the life of the Movement nationwide. As a preview, one of the very important announcements will be the blessing and dedication of the new Schoenstatt Shrine in Miami, Fla. in December this year. On behalf of our Diocesan Committee and the Movement Board we are grateful to be very well represented by David and Lizette Anglin of the Family Branch, Christel and Ruben Montez of the Board, Rachel Gardner of the Professional Women and Paige Ingersoll from SUW as well as Father Christian. Thank you for representing us and sharing with our sisters and brothers in the Covenant of the life of our Movement in Central Texas.

I will have you all very much present today as I participate of the Mass and the events in Limburg and as I pray for you and all of your intentions from the Original Shrine in Schoenstatt. Yours in the Covenant,

Fr. Jesus Ferras, ISP
Movement Coordinator

Dear Schoenstatt Family and Friends:

May 31st is just around the corner! This 31st of May we celebrate 61 years of F. Kentenich's moment of audacity, trust in Divine Providence and love for our family, which resulted in the heavy cross of the exile but brought the victory of our movement being recognized by the Church as a work of God. *This May 31st will be a three-fold celebration for our Schoenstatt Family, as we celebrate *

- *the third milestone in Schoenstatt history, *
- *the third anniversary of our wayside shrine at Addie Roy*
- *and also as we join in spirit with the Schoenstatt family in Ecuador to celebrate the movement's 50th anniversary. *

We will celebrate with *Mass at 11am on Monday, May 31st (*Memorial Day) at the Chapel House. Please bring a dish to share! After mass there will be a short video presentation by Carolina Alvarez on the Movement in Ecuador, about their initial struggles and all the life that the movement brought to the country.

To commemorate the third anniversary of the wayside shrine, we will also lift up final count of all our *Hail Mary's offered as our Capital of Grace for the Shrine*! Please find the April Covenant Mass totals at the end of this email. Let us dedicate ourselves in this last week in the spirit of the mission of May 31st, to continue to show the Blessed Mother through our Hail Marys that we desire to build her a shrine, that she may bring about a renewal of organic loving, living and thinking in our Austin Diocese and even further.

- *PLEASE REMEMBER EITHER TO BRING YOUR HAIL MARYS to the Mass or report them online by sending an email to cog@schoenstatt.us by Sunday, May 30th.*

Finally, here is a brief paragraph on the history of this third milestone in Schoenstatt history:

May 31st 1949

"After the war Fr. Kentenich started traveling to countries where Schoenstatt had become established. During this period he wrote a letter called the ‘Epistola per Longa’ [latin for ‘very long letter’] on ‘mechanistic thinking’ to Church authorities in Germany. In this letter he pointed out the dangers of contemporary theological thought which separated the idea of God from the life of God as opposed to organic thinking, loving
and living which sees things in their God-willed context. He placed this letter on the altar of the shrine in Bellavista, Chile for the healing and the mission of the Church.

The response to this letter was a Visitation of Schoenstatt by Church authorities who decided to separate Fr. Kentenich from the Schoenstatt work. He was exiled to the Pallottine Province House in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for over 14 years"

We hope to see you at the celebration!