Greetings from the Confidentia Shrine!
During the month of September we celebrate Our Lady’s birthday (Sept. 8), her holy name (Sept. 12), and today we reflect on her Seven Sorrows, which of course also reminds us of the day Schoenstatt’s founder, Father Joseph Kentenich was called into eternity in 1968. Today, we commemorate Schoenstatt’s founding.
The covenant of love with the Mother Thrice Admirable, Queen, and Victress of Schoenstatt is at the core of Schoenstatt’s mission. From her shrines she forms us into free and firm personalities who like her bring and serve Christ. Sr. M. Emilie expressed it this way: “In the consecrated space of her heart, may our living and loving, praying, and working, and – if it pleases God – our silent hanging on the cross now take place.”
Through our motto Sursum corda – we lift up our hearts to the Lord and place them spiritually on the paten during the offertory of holy Mass so they may be consecrated and be in communion with Christ. Sursum corda – lift up your heart – serves as an inspiration to live from the Eucharist throughout the day.
The Blessed Mother portrays the Sursum corda to an exemplary degree. Her lifting up her heart reaches its climax on Calvary. There she united herself with a maternal heart to Christ’s sacrifice and lovingly consented to the immolation of this victim which she had brought forth (cf. LG 58). We know, that Mary is not only an example for the whole Church in the exercise of the Sursum corda but she is also our teacher. “As early as the fourth century, St. Ambrose, speaking to the people, expressed the hope that each of them would have the spirit of Mary in order to glory God. May the heart of Mary be in each Christian to proclaim the greatness of the Lord; may her spirit be in everyone to exult in God.” And her “yes” is a lesson and example for all of us of lifting up our own will to the Heavenly Father.
United in our Sursum corda!
Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary
