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.
“As a family movement within the Church, Schoenstatt offers an answer to the family’s need for community. When we speak of the family, we mean first of all the married couple. As the primary unit of the family it is the husband and wife who, in wishing to educate themselves, seek help in this formation. Through formation they can, in turn, educate their children so that together they may become, as much as possible, an image of the Holy Family.”
http://schoenstattwisconsin.org/branches/family-institute/
Pilgrims, Leagues, Federations and Institutes
The Schoenstatt movement is organized in 7 branches which in turn are organized in separate levels of commitment.
Family Institute
The highest level of family membership in Schoenstatt Institutes which are similar in commitment level to holy orders, though still lay movements. Membership in the Institutes is by invitation and requires an exemplary catholic life style and background.
Within the institute, each family belongs to a course of families. However, not only are the couples united as one course family, but each course is united in a larger community, bringing together, at this time, 300 families from twelve countries around the world. All are united as one, striving for the same ideals, with common forms of living the evangelical counsels, and in this way hoping to prove that the Nazareth family ideal can be lived in a community that spans all cultures and generations.
http://schoenstattwisconsin.org/branches/family-institute/
Family Federation
Family Federation courses strive for holiness using the evangelical counsels of poverty, marital chastity, and obedience, with each course selecting specific actions to remind us of these ideals and to encourage us in our striving. The development of a federation course takes ten years with a series of continually stronger covenant commitments by the families to each other and the Blessed Mother, culminating in a consecration for life. Each course selects a name which reflects its particular mission and ideal. It is out of magnanimity and freedom that the families strive for these high ideals.
http://schoenstattwisconsin.org/branches/family-federation/
Family League
The majority of families participating in the Schoenstatt movement are part of the Schoenstatt Family League. It is the entry point for families in to the Schoenstatt movement and where most of them live out the Schoenstatt ideals through their lifetime.
The league is the broad organization of those who make the aims of Schoenstatt their own, live its spirituality, and engage themselves apostolically according to their possibilities and state in life. Entry into the league formally takes place when one makes the covenant of love. One can belong to the league as an “associate member” or “member.”
(200 Questions About Schoenstatt, Fr. Jonathan Niehaus, p. 105)
As families within the branch of the Family League, the couples strive first to build holy marriages, for the marriage is the pillar of the family. Couples are encouraged to faithfully follow the hierarchy in marriage—God, spouse, children, work—and in this way become holy couples who then form holy families which lead to a holy Church and world. To secure this hierarchy in our very busy society, the couples set aside a time each week for each other to deepen their love, their faithfulness to each other, and to work out any difficulties that may have arisen. Living out of Schoenstatt’s spirituality—the covenant of love, everyday sanctity, and instrumentality—also helps the couple to reflect Mary and Joseph within their “Nazareth” family.
http://schoenstattwisconsin.org/branches/couples-league/
Schoenstatt Families in Central IL
The Schoenstatt family movement began in the Peoria diocese through the work of several families (Walsh, Olsen, Hendrickson) and Sr Marie Day of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary. In coordination with the diocese, Schoenstatt was active through mini-retreats led at the Walsh home for years and at Historic St Patrick’s parish through the work of the Walsh family in 2015/2016. In 2017, the Olsen family started the ‘Schoenstatt @ Epiphany’ community, which focused on calling young families to the ideals of holy marriage and domestic church building. In 2018, 12 new families (from Epiphany and beyond) made the Covenant of Love and joined the Family League.
