The home shrine is at the center of our married and family life as a domestic church. We form our daily life according to the covenant with our Blessed Mother. We practice a dialogue with each other, with our children and with God and develop our own unique family customs. As parents and children we educate each other to an active responsibility for all tasks of life (job, school, parish, politics, etc.).
In order to keep our relationship with God and with each other alive we uphold the following:
- the celebration of the Eucharist,
- couple communication,
- study of writings by our founder
- regular periods of personal reflection.
As a Secular Institute within the Church we follow Christ according to the evangelical counsels. With this in mind we have developed appropriate modern family forms.
A further element of the community is the encounter with each other. We meet regularly to share and discuss how we are getting on in life. We meet for training as well as the chance to deepen our spirituality. This all provides us with direction, strength and motivation to commit to the areas within our own life.
We bear witness to a spiritual experience that God and the Blessed Mother are present in our home and are effective.
“Take the picture of Our Lady and give her a place of honor in your home. This will then become a shrine in miniature where the picture of grace proves the effect of its graces by creating a holy family land and forming holy family members.”
The well-known corner with a cross hanging in it in catholic-speaking German areas has its form transferred to our home shrine. The effectiveness of this home shrine is based on the reality of the founding event in Schoenstatt, Germany on October 18, 1914 where Our Lady took up her abode in the shrine and began to spread her graces from there. During his family work in Milwaukee/USA a mother once asked Fr. Kentenich: “Can we not ask Our Lady, as in the original shrine, to take up her abode here, in our home, and work her miracles of grace?” This was the trigger for Father Kentenich to pick up the signs already present and to found the home shrine.
For many, many families this has now become a spiritual experience of the presence and work of God and the Blessed Mother in their home.
One custom which has developed over the years is to bless the originally styled home shrine and to include in the consecration prayer all the family’s intentions. This then becomes the central point within family life and the children grow into this world. It is here that the year of the Church can also be experienced with its many different customs in a family-like way.
This also bears significance apostolically, to all those who enter the home and experience the radiating warmth from this home shrine. Life around the home shrine has become for our families a major help to cope with an ever increasing pluralistic and Godless world. In the middle of their daily lives this helps them to experience God and in His covenant and form their lives accordingly.
Secular Institute
We live in our world and strive after the perfect fulfilment of love. We contribute to the healing of the world by living as a “convento moderno” (modern day convent).
With the constitution of “Provida Mater” on February 2, 1947 by Pope Pius XII, a new type of consecrated life in the world was formed: the Secular Institute or World Community. In this form the laity (and priests) should lead a life consecrated to God among the demands of present day society. They do so without the usual secure forms (known at the time) of life in a religious order (Cloister, community life, vows, habit, etc.) in order to set an example to people in the world what it means to be a Christian.
Father Kentenich was deeply convinced that the Church of the future, with all due respect to the celibate life, also needed married couples who lived an exemplary life according to the evangelical counsels. We hope that one day the Church authorities will recognise secular institutes for couples. Until then we will try to make them aware and bear witness through our lifestyle to this new form of consecrated life.
We create our own specific unique family and marriage culture where the natural and supernatural forms live side by side.
Our home shrine is our center for covenant reality. The symbols of the home shrine play a specific and very special role within our marriage and family spirituality. The truths of our faith can be found therein. Clear religious symbols (cross, picture of the Blessed Mother, pictures of saints, holy water, etc.) are easily connected to our daily experiences of life. The atmosphere of the Church’s year is also emphasised. We celebrate special family days such as weddings, birthdays, baptisms, name days, as well as special events at work or in school. Every family has its own unique customs. We try to connect new unique forms with the many inspirations provided by tradition.
Whenever possible we pray our daily prayers in our home shrine as a couple, as well as a family.