Welcome to
Schoenstatt Families USA!
A place where passionately Catholic families can gather and inspire each other to build ‘Domestic Churches’ in the midst of the world.
Schoenstatt Families USA is an outreach of the Schoenstatt Family League of the United States.
With HQ at the International Schoenstatt Center outside of Waukesha, WI.
Father Joseph Kentenich
Servant of God
1885 – 1968
Schoenstatt is a Catholic Apostolic Movement of international expansion. It was founded on October 18, 1914, in Vallendar, Germany, by the Servant of God, Father Joseph Kentenich (1885-1968). The founding act took place in a chapel dedicated to St. Michael, today known as the Original Shrine.
Together with a small group of students from the Marian Sodality of the minor seminary of the Pallottine priests in Vallendar, Father Kentenich begged Mary to be active in this chapel and to make it a place of grace and pilgrimage. Convinced of Mary’s role in the plan of salvation, they offered their striving for holiness to the Blessed Mother, by sealing a covenant of love with her. This was to be their contribution for the religious and moral renewal of the world.
The covenant of love with Mary
is the founding act and the core of Schoenstatt’s life. Out of this experience flow all other forms of apostolic activity, of spiritual growth, of commitment, and of collaboration. The covenant of love is an act of consecration which also includes an exchange of hearts, interests, and goods with the Mother Thrice Admirable, Queen and Victress of Schoenstatt. It is also the way in which any baptized person may participate in the stream of life and blessings of the Schoenstatt Movement.
The founder was convinced that from the shrine, the Blessed Mother wanted to actively participate in shaping the approaching new times. With more than 200 shrines replicas of the Schoenstatt Shrine around the world, Schoenstatt has become a Movement of renewal connected to this place of grace. Each Schoenstatt Shrine is the spiritual home and cradle of sanctity of the Apostolic Schoenstatt Work.
Schoenstatt Families also dedicate their homes to Mary, ensuring the presence of God by reserving an area of their house for prayer and deeper spiritual encounters. Through the sacramental power of the Church’s blessing and the human collaboration of the family who opens the doors of their home to God in this way, we know these places are extensions of the Schoenstatt Shrine. The founder of Schoenstatt proclaimed this reality in 1963.
Spiritual Formation
Schoenstatt couples and families participate in events, workshops, and/or regular group discussions in order to strengthen their spirit, grow in their faith, and ready their hearts to fulfill their God-given mission.
Aware of the timely calling which families have to form the human person of today, the Schoenstatt couples and families are assisted by clergy and consecrated persons, as well as leader couples in organizing events, retreats, workshops, or any other apostolic outreach.
Although belonging to a group is not required, the families may regularly come together for discussion sessions and formation. Material for these sesions, private conversation, or personal enrichment is provided.
