Family Federation

In the Family Federation, we follow an axiom from Father Kentenich: Ordo essendi est ordo agendi meaning the order of being begets the order of action. The Family Federation offers the opportunity for families to more deeply live their covenant with the Blessed Mother.

Family Federation courses strive for holiness using the evangelical counsels of poverty, marital chastity, and obedience, with each course selecting specific actions to remind us of these ideals and to encourage us in our striving. The development of a federation course takes ten years with a series of continually stronger covenant commitments by the families to each other and the Blessed Mother, culminating in a consecration for life. Each course selects a name which reflects its particular mission and ideal. It is out of magnanimity and freedom that the families strive for these high ideals. There are no juridical bindings.

Our first course, Heart of Father’s Exile Legacy, consists of nine couples who made their final consecration in the year 2000. Their course ideal reflects Father Kentenich’s time in Milwaukee during a period when the Church restricted his contact with the movement he founded. Through the exchange of hearts with the Blessed Mother, they wish to become a spiritual haven here on earth through their home shrines and their combined efforts to live the spirituality of the evangelical councils.

Our second course is Victorious Living Nazareth. This course, composed of eight families with growing children at home, strives to be living, active models of a Catholic family. Victorious indicates a continual striving against the ungodly influences in society that undermine families. Nazareth shows a quiet dedication to the work of raising a family, much of which takes place away from public notice.