Transformed by Mary
Schoenstatt Pilgrim Mother Movement members Susan Ortega and Maria Elva Garcia transfer a travelling shrine at St. Francis of Assisi in Grapevine. (NTC/Rodger Mallison)
For many families, the center of their home is in the kitchen or around the television. But in a growing number of homes in North Texas, a small shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Schoenstatt calls everyone together.
“It is where we gather,” Andrea Woolums told the North Texas Catholic about the “living shrine” that embodies the ideals of the Schoenstatt movement within the family unit. “When the kids were living at home, we had family prayer there at night, and then when they were teenagers and always gone, we had prayer there in the morning.
“It’s where we brought everything — each of the baby’s sonogram pictures went there, and any troubles that we had and have, we bring it there,” said Woolums, director of religious education at St. Mark Parish in Argyle.
The Woolums are one of many families around the diocese receiving graces through participation in the Schoenstatt movement, driving deep devotion to the Blessed Mother.
The Schoenstatt movement traces back to 1914 when Father Joseph Kentenich and a group of seminarians made a “Covenant of Love” with the Virgin Mary in a small chapel in Schoenstatt, Germany.
The beautiful chapel soon became a popular location for pilgrimage, prayer, and meditation as Mary was known to grace visitors with her presence and lead them to a deeper love of Christ, her son, explained Marcie Yoder of St. John Paul II Parish in Denton. As visitors shared word of the graces received, the movement began to take hold, and “over time, it turned into a shrine,” she said, “and now we have over 200 of those shrines all over the world.”
Yoder has visited the Texas shrines located in San Antonio, Austin, and Lamar.
“They’re beautiful, beautiful shrines. Not very big. They fit about 20 people inside, but they’re absolutely beautiful,” she said. “If you haven’t had a chance to visit one, I would highly recommend it.”
Echoing her invitation is Father Jeff Roedel, ISP, a Schoenstatt priest based in the Austin Diocese. “For many people, a steppingstone toward creating a really intimate connection with God is a personal, intimate relationship with Mary,” he explained. “We believe Mary is truly present in the Schoenstatt shrines.”
Recently assigned to moderate the movement in North Texas, Fr. Roedel will travel to North Texas several times a year to dedicate shrines to Schoenstatt, visit with groups, and provide spiritual direction to couples and families. His first visit in early October saw him dedicate four new home shrines for parishioners at St. Mark in Argyle and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Keller and celebrate the anniversary of the movement’s Oct. 18, 1914, founding.
Fr. Roedel said he hoped to see a pilgrimage for the Schoenstatt families of North Texas to travel to “visit Blessed Mother’s home in Austin. It’s such a special place, a very small chapel, fits maybe about 30 people or so, but so many people have found comfort and solace in the shrine.”
Two diocesan parishes are also home to small wayside shrines at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Grapevine and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Keller.
To receive graces
There are various branches of the Schoenstatt movement for the faithful to receive graces from the Blessed Mother: family, couples, and youth devotional groups; installing a personal shrine at home, like the Woolums; or joining a traveling shrine Rosary rotation.
“All of these are tied to that same goal of bringing people closer to our Lord Jesus Christ through our Blessed Mother and gaining that grace through participating in that relationship, that covenantal relationship,” explained Yoder.
At the head of the diocesan Schoenstatt Pilgrim Mother Movement, Yoder coordinates more than 60 traveling shrines across 14 parishes in the diocese. The traveling shrines look like smaller replicas enclosed in a wood casing. Within groups of four to 15 people, the small image of the Blessed Mother with her Son travels weekly, moving from home to home. In the week a family has the shrine, they will pray the Rosary before the image.
“The traveling shrine’s primary purpose is to increase the praying of the Rosary and to bring the Blessed Mother’s graces into each home,” she said. “She brings us peace and strength to carry the burdens of everyday life and gives us inner conversion and unity in our families.”
Sometimes, it’s hard to let Mother Mary go because of the joy her presence brings, Yoder said.
“When she comes to our homes, it calls to mind a deeper presence with Christ and Mary, which is what it’s all about, so we find a deeper love of God and genuine joy,” Yoder said.
A family transformed
When Woolums first encountered Schoenstatt in 1993, she was a parishioner at St. Francis of Assisi in Grapevine and learned of the movement after becoming involved in a mother’s group, where some Austin-transplant members were devotees and shared about the graces. From there, Woolums and her husband, who had recently converted, joined a Schoenstatt couples’ devotional group, “and the rest is history,” she said.
As her family grew, so did their devotion.
“Looking backwards, it’s phenomenal,” she said. “My husband and I didn’t know much about the faith at all. We have literally been transformed.”
Woolums and her husband attribute their nine children’s active lives of faith to the graces of the Blessed Mother through the devotion to the movement, which included participation in individual home shrine devotions and daily family prayer.
Even as Woolums continues to participate in a couple’s group at St. Mark, her son and his wife are starting up another group for younger couples.
“Schoenstatt has been an amazing gift to our family, and I am humbled and grateful for that gift in our lives,” she said.