In October, when the national leaders decided on the new year's motto the Holy Spirit urged them to keep the same motto from 2020-2021. This motto is packed full of many things we were unable to fully unpack during our first year with it. May the Holy Spirit, our Blessed Mother, and our father and founder help us to unpack the riches they have stored for us within this motto.
In light of this, we would like to share once more a reflection published about this motto in January 2021.
Reflection on the Year’s Motto January 18, 2021 Words from Father Pushpa
We hope that with this new year with its challenges, we can go the way with our father and founder. We commemorate January 20, 1942, the second milestone of our history. A most important step for Father Kentenich. It was not easy for him to make his decision; it was a process. It was a difficult and painful process. The decision to go to Dachau is the second milestone in his own history and in the history of our Schoenstatt Family. For me, that decision is a process where his whole life from his birth in1885 all the way through his struggles of youth and especially from the moment when his mother offered him to the Blessed Mother, come to a climax. The two moments of January 20th and when his mother consecrated him, make me think of the reading where we see Samuel and Anna. Ann, who had not had a child offers her prayer. Her plea was heard. That is why she named the child Samuel: God heard. She gave him back to God.
The most important thing in the process of decision-making which Father Kentenich shows us on January 20, is that we do not need to listen to our advisers such as when friends and family tell us what to do, as much as we need to listen to God. Father Kentenich had to take in what everyone had to say to him, but when the moment of the decision came he only listened to the Blessed Mother, as God spoke to him through her.
We take this as our message for the road today. No difficult decision can be made by solely listening to everyone around us. That is why Father Kentenich remained at peace because he foremost listened to God. He kept his ear close to the heart of God. Also, he kept his hand on the pulse of time. At present, our hands are feeling the pulse of time, especially through all the means of communication that we handle. But we need to take our hands off the sole direction of these things and place them on the pulse of time in order to feel out what God wants to tell us through them. This is the message for today. Let’s make it a habit to listen to God by putting our ear to the heart of God. If that is not the case it may be like the cry of a child who pours its heart out without any results. We need to listen. When there are difficulties we need to listen to God’s voice. If we want to give God the importance he has in our lives, we need to listen. If we think we are important we are not willing to listen. There might be families who have difficulties in this time of the pandemic. Keep in mind that we need to listen to each other, too. For Father Kentenich it was a process. We, too, need to take the time to listen to others. Trusting in Divine Providence, as our year’s motto invites implies that listen to God, through the Blessed Mother, and with her make our decisions. Lead from the shrine, with trust in Divine Providence and charity to all!
If we want to lead others, we need to put our ear in the heart of God. That is what happened in the life of Father Kentenich and it is meant to happen in our lives, too.
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