The Schoenstatt spirituality is one modeled after characteristics of the Blessed Mother. Schoenstatt members make a ‘Covenant of Love’ with the Blessed Mother, through which they agree to actively work for personal sanctity and invite her to form them into saints. This actively lived ‘Covenant of Love’ gives a practical means for catholics to strive for holiness in everyday life and grow into the saints God designed them to be.
Trust in Divine Providence
A hallmark of the Schoenstatt movement is an emphasis on trusting in Divine Providence. God lives outside of time and shapes events to ensure that His will is achieved. As such, he can use every event in our lives (large and small, good and bad) to guide us along a path and give us the opportunity to be the person who He designed us to be (our personal ideal). We can trust in this divine intervention in our lives (as it is the purpose of our existence). We should not fear or fret about the potential calamities which the world may have in-store for us, as these may be the tools which God will use to shape us into the saints we are called to be. Like a sculptor chiseling away to expose the artwork underneath, Our Father uses the events of this world to form His children into the beautiful expressions of His love which He aspires for us to be.
A deep trust in Divine Providence gives us the opportunity to experience joy, as our constant focus on anxiety and worry is relieved.
Childlikeness
Another core characteristics (intertwined with Divine Providence) of the Schoenstatt spirituality is childlikeness (spiritual smallness). Fr Kentenich identified the lack of ‘Childlikeness’ as one of the core problems of our age. We should aspire to recognize our relative smallness compared to the greatness of God. A father is drawn to his children when they recognize their smallness and need of him. When we aspire for our own greatness and ‘bigness’, we prevent God from being a Loving Father. As such, it should be of great concern for us to continually strive for spiritual smallness, so we truly experience God as Father.
The recognition of our smallness and the greatness of God’s Love for us should inspire us to go forth from ourselves and serve His children as his instruments. Schoenstatters strive to serve the church and their brothers and sisters in humanity with a Childlike Trust, Joy and Spirit.
Everyday Sanctity
In Schoenstatt, we are obliged to strive for holiness with great earnestness. We should find in everyday activities (small and large) opportunities to sacrifice ourselves and give ourselves fully and completely to the service of God through our relationship with our Blessed Mother. A Schoenstatter sees everyday activities as part of the road to becoming the saint which God is crafting us into. We work to offer our daily activities as ‘contributions to the capital of grace’ which our Blessed Mother can use as the Mediatrix of all grace to work miracles of Inner Transformation. By focusing on making our everyday activities ‘contributions’, our everyday life is ‘sanctified’ and our everyday life becomes a route to profound holiness.
Instrumentality
Combining all of these characteristics, we aspire to continually ‘die to ourselves’ and grow smaller and smaller in childlike love and trust. Through this. we make ourselves available to the Blessed Mother to be instruments in the world which Our Father can use to renew the church. A Schoenstatter aspires to be nothing more… then a useful instrument (as our Blessed Mother was and is).