Our Spirituality
According to the thoughts of our Founder, we are Fathers community of Fathers. Our identity as a Community is Marian and Apostolic. We are heralds of Mary’s mission in the modern world and especially on the shores of Africa. The Blessed Mother Mary at the Shrine is at the center of our life and apostolic activities. As Marian instrument we follow the foot-steps of our Founder, Fr. Joseph Kentenich who right from his childhood was consecrated to Mary. This bond with Mary grew into a covenant relationship. This covenant relationship is what is today known as the Covenant of Love in Schoenstatt; this covenant with Mary in the shrine entails the free and total disposal ourselves out of Love to Mary and Mary’s reciprocal disposal of herself to us in all things.
Our charism is majorly Marian, as our spiritual way of life as a community, we emphasize and encourage profound love of Mary, love of the Church, and love of the mission of Christ. The covenant of love with Mary in the Shrine is the base of our Marian spirituality. Our Marian spirituality is lived in three ways: covenant spirituality, instrument spirituality and everyday sanctity. In covenant spirituality our relationship with God through Christ, and our horizontal relationship with others is fostered and nurtured through Mary. Instrument spirituality reminds and encourages us on our call to discipleship as Christians and the need to take more seriously our apostolic responsibility within the space we find ourselves in the world (practical instruments in the hands of Mary). Everyday sanctity is an invitation to live and keep each day holy; trusting and accepting with faith and hope God’s divine providence.
In sum our spirituality is expressed in threefold of love:
1. Love of Mary
We love the Blessed Mother. She is at the heart of our spirituality as the “Mother Thrice Admirable, Queen and Victress of Schoenstatt,” or “MTA” for short. Our spirituality is anchored in the form of Marian consecration particular to Schoenstatt, namely a generous and mutual covenant of love with the MTA in the Shrine.
2. Love of the Church
From our founder, Father Kentenich, we have a strong love for the Church. He devoted himself untiringly to the mission of the Church in our times. We for our part make the inscription on his tomb our mission: Dilexit Ecclesiam-He loved the Church.
3.Love of the Mission of Christ
As sharers in the one priesthood of Christ, we are especially bound to Our Lord and Savior. This does not only express itself in love for the Eucharist (like our founder, we cherish the daily celebration of the Mass) and our striving for sanctity, but also in our desire to share Christ’s mission of proclaiming his Father. This proclamation takes special form in our understanding of the priesthood as a “priestly fatherhood” in the service of Christ and the Church. We strive to find God the Father’s voice in our times and in our lives and to live a “practical faith in Divine Providence.” This demands of us a strong spirit of prayer and active listening to what God might be trying to tell us through the events of everyday life.
Our Mission
Our mission is to form a new man in a new society. And consequently bring about the renewal and transformation of the Church and the world through our covenant culture and the pedagogy of self-education inspired by our founder under the tutelage of the Blessed Mother Mary in the Shrine.
