Mount Schoenstatt
All are welcome for visits to the Shrine:
Weekends: Saturday - Sunday 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Weekdays: Monday - Friday 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Hope Religious Store is open on the same schedule for the Shrine.
Sursum Corda – Cor unum in patre
Dear Schoenstatt family from San Antonio!
We started the month of February with a cold snap in this part of Texas. Hopefully it won't wreak as much havoc as in years past.
At the end of last year, the Diocesan Committee, looking and reflecting about the signs of the times and currents of life, combined the general motto of the Schoenstatt movement in the US with the ideal of the Schoenstatt family in San Antonio on the 2023 motto.
Sursum Corda is the general motto that has been taken up and inspires us to “lift up our hearts”. It is the expression that we use at the beginning of the preface in the mass, before the Eucharistic prayer. It leads us to prepare for the great mystery of Jesus who is given to us in the consecrated wine and bread, his body and blood.
With our motto we join one of the intentions of the American bishops, a three-year eucharistic revival that will culminate with the National Eucharistic Congress in 2024. Our motto provides us the awareness of having the Lord in the sacrament with us.
After years of difficulties and anxieties caused by Covid, Sursum Corda is an invitation to look to the future with hope. We must announce, in word and deed, the vital hope that springs from Christ and his mother, Mary. For us, the shrine is the source of life that gives hope and dispels sadness; it is the source where we recover strength and renew our love for God and our brothers.
To the US motto we include the ideal of the Schoenstatt Shrine of San Antonio, Cor Unum in Patre, One heart in the Father!
The great gift for our time is the unity that must exist in the Church and in Schoenstatt in particular. It is a great service to be managers of unity and peace. The unity around the Shrine and the Blessed Virgin are a grace for the Church and the people who visit the Shrine.
Let us ask the Lord through the intercession of Mary Most Holy to give us the gift of being builders of unity and peace.
Blessings!
Schoenstatt is a Roman Catholic International Movement that strives to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the example and guidance of Blessed Mother Mary. She is at the heart of the movement and is very active in the Schoenstatt shrine, a place, of grace and source of life for our spirituality and work. Schoenstatt is deeply Marian and has repeatedly experienced how this spiritual love opens new avenues to a vibrant relationship with Christ, to the Holy Spirit, to God the Father and to a renewal of love of neighbor and self.
Schoenstatt, a German word for “beautiful place,” is a movement that involves lay people, priests, and religious, with special branches for boys’ and girls’ youth and for the sick. The Schoenstatt Movement offers formation and spirituality in the Catholic faith including monthly group meetings and days of reflection for women, couples and youth serving the Archdiocese of San Antonio and the surrounding areas including Brownsville, Laredo, Del Rio, Victoria, Amarillo and northern Mexico. Schoenstatt serves thousands of visitors to the Cor Unum in Patre shrine, Mount Schoenstatt center and Hope Religious store, located in Helotes, Texas, yearly. In nearby San Antonio, a city Wayside shrine is located on Ave Maria Street. All are open daily through the generous commitment of dozens of volunteers.
Our charism as a community might be summed up with these words: love of Mary, love of the Church, love of the mission of Christ for the world and society.