In the service of our Catholic faith and through the intercession of our Blessed Mother, the Schoenstatt in Central IL community seeks to inspire each other to a profound love for God, in the midst of our daily lives. We seek to place God firmly at the center of our communities and homes, by inviting our Mother and Queen to take up residence in our midst and mold us into the unique ‘free, firm, and priestly personalities’ our Father created us to be.
What is Schoenstatt?
Schoenstatt is a Vatican approved Catholic Apostolic movement focused on renewing the church through education and formation of the laity in the image of the Blessed Mother. Through a ‘covenant relationship’ with the Blessed Mother, members strive for everyday sanctity, spiritual smallness, and trust in Divine Providence as ways of growing closer to God. Through Schoenstatt Shrines, the Blessed Mother is implored to aid her children in forming themselves into the saint which our Father created them to be.
The Schoenstatt movement is comprised of many branches focused on specific groups (sisters, priests, men, women, families, youth) which are united in their ‘Covenant of Love’ with the Blessed Mother to form a ‘new community’ of little Mary’s in the midst of the world. Together, they aspire to bare Christ to the world as our Blessed Mother did and does.
The Schoenstatt movement has a specific focus on the formation of holy families as the method God designed for the education of saints, with a specific focus on inspiring fathers to be a living reflection of Fatherly Love in the family. In Schoenstatt, families aspire to make themselves into ‘living shrines’, places of encounter with God’s grace in the midst of the world.