Boys Youth
As Schoenstatt Boys we have two main goals. One is the covenant of love with our Mother Thrice Admirable, and the other is fostering a spirit of fatherliness and community. Other goals include: leadership in the church and society, self-education, learning to discern God’s will, spreading the Marian spirit of Schoenstatt.
The covenant of love with our Blessed Mother gives each boy a key to his spirituality for the rest of his life. The goal of “becoming fathers” corresponds to our vocation as we grow up to be men: knowing what God wishes and putting it into action, be it as a family man, a priest, a leader, an educator.
Our members range from six-year-olds to university/college men and we learn at different levels: “Knights of Jesus and Mary” (age 6-9), “Schoenstatt Boys” (age 10-18) with special accents for high school, “University/College Men” (age 18 and up). Permanent groups are formed: the boys work together, choose a name, prepare for the covenant of love with Mary.
In time they also learn how to use such tools of spiritual growth as the Particular Examination and the Personal Ideal. The culmination of this curriculum is the invitation to make a covenant of love with God the Father. Boys also begin to learn and practice leadership as they begin to take on leadership responsibilities.
The University/College Men is a recent development in the U.S. The groups (five so far since 1999) have been in Milwaukee and Texas. We now have four groups at Marquette University where the Schoenstatt University Men is a registered student organization.