MY COVENANT WAY
You belong to the Schoenstatt Family. You made the covenant of love with the Mother Thrice Admirable, Queen and Victress of Schoenstatt, and you participate in one of the Branches as an associate member. You have experienced how enriching it is to know you are accepted by the Mother of God and by our founder, and are allowed to participate in a work of God, for the grace of the Church. Now you would like to deepen your covenant of love through the membership dedication. Deepened and intensified will be at the same time the apostolate, self-education, and the spirit of community.
What does it mean to be a member of the Apostolic League?
- As a member, deeply living the covenant of love, I make myself available for the mission of our founder. Father Kentenich describes this mission in this way: “My mission was and is to proclaim the secret of Mary to the world. My task is to make the Mother of God known, to reveal her to our time as the permanent helpmate of the Savior in the entire work of redemption, as the co-redemptrix and mediatrix of graces; the Mother of God, deeply united with the Savior, a two-in-oneness with the specific mission she has from her Schoenstatt Shrines for our time.” In the membership dedication, we consciously let ourselves be taken into this mission of our father and founder. As he did, we too want to love our Blessed Mother and surrender ourselves to her even more fully. We take up the road of greater love and give her blank check dedication. Chapter two gives detail about the Blank Check dedication. Life with God and with the Blessed Mother requires prayer, this most of all. You will find thoughts about this in the first chapter. Prayer is indeed the first & most important, it is the pre-condition for the original way of striving for sanctity which the members want to take.
- As a member, I let myself be called to practical apostolic work. Schoenstatt is an apostolic movement. The Mother of God gives to those who put themselves in the covenant of love at her disposal, the grace in the Shrine, to be active as her apostles for the mission of Schoenstatt. The members consider themselves as a responsible circle in the apostolate. “To be an apostle at all times” is how the eighth chapter of this book summarizes the thoughts and inspirations regarding the apostolate.
- As a member, I let the Blessed Mother guide me in my sincere self-education to the way of holiness. We offer ourselves to the Blessed Mother as her instruments, and we want to be even more active for her. In doing so, we notice that our apostolate is credible to the degree to which we sincerely strive for holiness. Father Kentenich has shown us a way to sanctity, the way of the personal ideal, which we try to walk in small steps, with the help of the special resolution, the spiritual daily order, and the monthly account to the spiritual director or confessor. Chapters three to six describe this path. Holy Confession, chapter seven, helps us in all our imperfections and weaknesses not to lose sight of the ideals, but with trust in divine mercy to continue single-heartedly. We may trust that the Blessed Mother in the Shrine, especially also in our Home Shrine, is close to us and gives us the grace of inner transformation, so that, as people with formation, we can act convincingly. “Let us reflect your image!…In us go through our times and make them ready for Christ.” (“Heavenwards”, p. 163).
- As a member, I stand in a living relationship with the community, with my branch. Our father and founder speaks of the Marian-apostolic community spirit which should mark every Schoenstatter, especially also the members. Community spirit means to carry in myself the awareness that I do not stand alone, but that I am on the way with the entire Schoenstatt family. Marian is this community spirit because it grows out of the covenant of love with the Blessed Mother. All who make the covenant of love are connected with the three contact points: The Blessed Mother, her Shrine, and the founder. They are united in the same center, and so, they are also united with each other. Apostolic is the community spirit because all who make the covenant of love engage themselves for the realization of the mission of Schoenstatt. As the founder has formulated it, the members of the League want to be apostolically active in their life circle in an ongoing way.
- As a member of the League, I let the Blessed Mother guide me in my sincere self-education to the way of holiness. The most important thing is that I experience: “The Mother Thrice Admirable, Queen and Victress of Schoenstatt speaking to me. She wants to enter into a dialogue with me, that I can grow into the covenant of love more deeply. Father Kentenich will help in this process. The inspiration to deepen the covenant of love ultimately comes from him.
Here are chapter summaries:
CHAPTER 1 – A Way of Prayer
CHAPTER 2 – A Way of Greater Love (Blank Check)
CHAPTER 3 – A Very Personal Way (Personal Ideal)
CHAPTER 4 – The Small Steps on the Way (Particular Examination)
CHAPTER 5 – Day by Day Accountability to Self (SDO)
CHAPTER 8 Being an Apostle at all Times