About

We are excited to announce the launching of the New Shore Magazine, a publication of The Kentenich Institute for the New Person in the New Community. Our purpose is to bring into dialogue the thought of Father Joseph Kentenich and the Schoenstatt spirituality with the American culture and context. Each of the contributing authors of this magazine has had our lives marked profoundly by Father Kentenich and by their involvement in the Schoenstatt Movement. This experience has moved us to share the gift we received with the world. The “new shore” was a term used by Father Kentenich to describe the new era to which he felt society was being guided by God. We are called to be participants with God in the creation of this ark that will bring us to the new shore which we believe is done by building the movement of Schoenstatt. Father Kentenich summarizes the goal of Schoenstatt as “The formation of a new person and a new community in the sense of the shores of a new era.”

In general, there is a feeling of crisis in our society, in the church and in so many individuals living in modern times. Many good publications and authors have done work in identifying the causes of this crisis and in giving certain solutions to solving it. Each of us at the New Shore has experienced the crisis of our times in a different way and have found an answer in the thought of Father Kentenich and the experience of the Schoenstatt spirituality. As Father Kentenich liked to say, “Gifts are tasks!” Therefore, having experienced the remedy and healing in our own lives, we feel it our responsibility and calling to try to offer that to others. 

Specifically, we have identified a society and culture in crisis because it has lost its sense of roots. What does it mean to be an American? What relationship should we have to technology and what response should we give to the radical changes it produces in our society? Why has there been such a profound loss of faith in the West and is there a possible way to renew that faith? How will the renewal hoped for in the Church come to fruition? How can we become collaborators with God in the renewal of the Church and world? All these questions and more are what we at The New Shore hope to explore and give answers to through the Schoenstatt perspective. 

In this first issue, we are publishing an assorted collection of essays that represent for us those questions and answers that have most impacted us in our experience as members of the Schoenstatt Movement. We have chosen to reflect on those parts of Father Kentenich’s thought which represent for us as individuals a voice important to be heard by our culture now. In the future, we hope to publish collections of essays centering on specific topics vital to the crisis of our times, giving an answer from the thought of Father Kentenich and the way it takes form and shape in the life of the Schoenstatt family. We hope that in reading this publication your faith will be enriched, and you will find inspiration and hope that the building of a better future for our Church and our society is possible.