Dec 22, 2020 | POSITIVE IMPULSES
Silence is an instrument which is very powerful and very useful in our daily life. The power of silence is more than what we think because silence is immense. Silence can be the starting point of all virtues. The magnitude of silence depends upon how much you can listen to your self, your needs, your aspirations, your complaints, your inspirations… In silence you discover your self. Take time to be silent and listen to your self. Silence is swimming deep in to your self. Learn to be silent and enjoy your inner beauty in the presence of your Creator. Not only in silence you listen others too.
Don Giorgio
Dec 20, 2020 | NEWS
During her visit to Tanzania, the Superior General Sr. M. Alma asked me if I would like to go to Germany. I was very happy about it and asked myself: “Me, to Germany, how is that supposed to work?
A trip to Germany. A trip to Europe by plane was a big challenge. Sr. Bakhita and I took off on December 12th and arrived in Berlin on December 13th. It had snowed, what a surprise for us. We didn’t have warm jackets and were very cold. Sr. M. Carla picked us up from the airport and finally we were in the house and in the warmth. The second challenge was the language. It was very difficult for me and I spoke with my hands and feet (sign language), but the sisters understood me.
The language school started in January. It was a disaster. I didn’t understand a word and then we also got homework. Ojee! I came home like before. It was a difficult time for me and I thought I couldn’t learn this language.
Patience! Patience! All strength lies in rest. After four months a lot was better. Here I learned that I need time to understand any foreign language. It took me a lot of time, but I am very grateful that it went so well. My motivation was – Never give up. Never give up. Even when I was a novice, my dream was to become a nurse. I was allowed to do my training in Cochem. Mother Patience was always there.
I’ve been in Germany for eight years now. I work in our nursing home and for that I am very grateful and very happy. It is hard work, but it is joyful and satisfacting. I like working with old people. Some are happy to see an African woman as a religious sister at her age. I am very happy when I can give hope again to people who have already given up. I notice this in their statements, such as: You belong to my family, you are like my mother, you are like my sister etc. “. Then I think of the good shepherd who had 100 sheep and was looking for the lost one.
I live in Kreuzberg in a small community with 5 sisters. We try to make the best of it together; and we enjoy every day as a gift from God. Wherever there are people, it is normal that there are also disagreements. That already shows that we are not angels.
I love my congregation. I love our founder and I love my fellow sisters.
Sr. M. Josephina Kilawe
Dec 19, 2020 | POSITIVE IMPULSES
- In the first reading we find the God who really wants to be our father. A Father who protects us, who corrects us, who respects us and a Father who will never abandon us. (2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8-12, 14, 16)
- From the second reading we recognize that in Jesus, the mystery of the face of this Father is revealed. That revelation demands faith, and that faith demands the obedience. Because He wants to be our only Father. (Romans 16:25-27)
- In the response of Mary to the revelation of Angel Gabriel we understand what the obedience of faith is. It’s the consent to be what God wants based on the faith on the Word of God. Bringing the impossible to the realm of possible by cooperating with God. Permitting the action of the Holy Spirit in us. Being ready to be in the shadow of the most high. God becomes the protagonist in your life. (Luke 1:26-38)
Don Giorgio
Dec 19, 2020 | FORUM
Jubilee Advent
I have on my desk right in front of my eyes – a picture of the cheerful sister Dulcissima. The smiling God’s handmaid, whom we say is a Child of Grace, barely survived 26 years, or 25 advents. However, not least to say that it was the Silver Advent, it was fortified for her in longing for heaven. Sister Dulcissima was raised by two Advent, spiritual wings. Maranatha! It’s a form of waiting for the birth of the Lord Jesus, and a great longing to meet with Christ coming in glory. Yes! Sister Dulcissima in Advent she waited for Eternity.
All those I have to leave, do not be afraid of death, for life eternal awaits. (…) Just don’t forget to pray that I may also bring you there where God is happy. What a joy to see that I am going to meet Him! In a letter of December 15 to Mother General Clotilde Mende, confirms this fact to the sister who took care of her, sister superior, Lazaria Stefanik, when she writes: (…). Sr. M. Dulcissima longs for heaven very much and constantly asks St. Teresa, to help her go to Jesus. Sometimes he endures suffering that is impossible for human beings and yet helps us at home.
Green glasses
The time Sr. Dulcissima was waiting for Christmas was also struggling with disease. Advent of 1933 is a time when our sister’s eyesight deteriorated. Because of this she started seeing less and less, and this caused limited possibilities in her independent movement. Then she put on green glasses to ease the head pain, and in her heart she contemplated Jesus and waited for the moment when she will see him face to face . The sister lived with hope, looked with hope, loved the present moment in hope to meetHim in eternity. It is hope that increased her desire to be joyful to meet with Jesus in her heart.
Violet days
The terrible suffering of Advent 1934 was offered for the Congregation of the Sisters of Mary Immaculate and her superiors. In prayer, she also remembered priests and the souls in Purgatory. Apparently her sufferings were very strong and severe, as mentioned on December 8 in a letter to superior, Sr. Maria Lazaria,in December adds: More and more the Savior is demanding from Sr. M. Dulcissima. The pain is gradually increasing. There will come great riots. In one country, in other country persecution will stop (…) Sister Dulcissima had a cry for help which she couldn’t forget. He saw priests and religious who were imprisoned by their enemies. Imploringly asks for help for these people. We should also be helped if they treat us like this. As nuns, we can pray, offer a lot, collect merit and give them to others. The world hangs in a thread and that hair is the sacrificial soul. For Sister Dulcissima, the next Advent of 1935 is an experience of abandonment by a spiritual friend, Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus, who had promoted so much to her, now she does not come to her throughout Advent. This is how it allowed sister Dulcissima to go her own way to the children of Bethlehem.
They intensified that there was pain in the heart and spasmodic crying day and night, and so on for three and a half weeks – almost no sleep. God’s handmaid became like helpless, little child, not only in speech, but also in all her behavior. The glow of the Star of Bethlehem While waiting for the Nativity of the Lord, Servant of God, sister Maria Dulcissima Hoffmann pleaded for the grace of hope, looked with hope, and bore hope within herself. With hope it is more than optimism. It is the way of living and giving. It is the bridge between faith and love. Let God shake us by the surprising newness of the Light He will reveal.
Let the question of the Bride of the Cross about Advent’s hope lead us to celebrating Christmas in the light of the star of Bethlehem. Let us be guided by the words of the Sister who was sanctified in her religious life: Soon there will be a Christmas celebration. What does Christmas mean for a soul? Christmas means: the coming, the birth of Jesus Christ in our Souls. Your heart should also already be adorned with graces of Holy Communion because he will also knock on you and ask for entrance. What do we want Him to give? What treasure of grace and cross he will bring us? As God wills, yes should! Just have the courage and think often: I want, I must and I can be a saint! Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus! And when Christmas comes, according to Sister Dulcissima’s words: Let us often approach the Blessed Sacrament and take a lot of treasures, strength and courage for the New Year. We will receive everything there: trust in God and submit to God’s Will.
S. M. Małgorzata Cur SMI
Dec 17, 2020 | NEWS
“And everything to the dog’s kennel without love”
Fr. John Twardowski
Klenica is a small village in the west of Poland. Life flows ordinary here . A few small shops, the rectory, a church, a forgotten palace of The Polish Nobel Prize winner, a fire station, a tiny primary school, two bus stops … and house for orphan. Helpless people live here. Kids from all walks of life, with many burdens and difficult stories, in his short biographies one could say – a facility like an institution, if not for the fact that its founders and leaders of the center are the Sisters of Mary Immaculate. Sister Veronika managed the house for several years – a person with a big heart and great courage. She and her sisters had to face what was the most difficult. With take-off in difficult circumstances. Today the house is restructured. It changed the leading body and became a local government institution which the leading authority is the County Office. As Heraclitus of Ephesus used to say, “everything flows and nothing remains the same “, however, despite many changes, the sisters continue. Why? Reply is simple – they love people. Working with sisters is extraordinary for us, educators experience and discover what is important to them.
A few weeks ago, and this short text is being written in early December 2020, Our house started to receive gifts. At the beginning, thanks to one of online social networking sites, then through various television. We came up with an action on the occasion of St. Nicholas – we asked Internet users to donate gifts for our kids … and to our surprise, things started to happen good and incomprehensible to us. Couriers, postmen, parcel lockers and couriers became for a few weeks our inseparable companions. We have received so much good that it is difficult for us to deal with its measure. Every donor made a gift from the heart, sister Zelia did not stop chatting and constantly answering questions: what for Zuzia? What kind of hat for Kuba?
Cuba is size M or better L? I bought a doll for Lenka, would a stroller also come in handy? St. Nicholas was full of childish smiles. There was endless joy, but it wasn’t everything , good has fallen from everywhere. Mrs. Ania offered to buy new mattresses, one of the personal trainers from Zielona Góra brought a few bags of healthy food, two restaurants made the kids happy in the form of delicious dishes from their own menu, a representative of a large cleaning company in Ireland wrote a project to his company, and donated money for sports activities for kids, a large company production company – sent poufs and seats, Ela from the hairdressing salon dedicated the entire Saturday to our kids by treating us like “top-shelf” customers. One of our foster child – Cyntia became pregnant and she immediately experienced the care – we told the doctor of gynecology from Poznań and offered free, private care for the future mother and her baby to be born. Anyway, she visited us with her husband – they brought a wonderful gift and immediately Mr. Paweł – an orthopedic doctor offered to examine everyone and helped the charges if there was a need. Such things happen with us all day despite the pandemic, after all. Why? The answer is very simple – love we share in real life.
***
The sisters pray daily for the well-being of our friends. For consent and understanding in our team. For a smile. For smart solutions. The whole team we show that we can do beautiful and valuable things, even in spite of differences. We teachers, we do everything to help our pupils in a few or a dozen years, they said – it was not a wasted and terrible time. How it will be – the future will show..
ps. I wrote the text on the night shift thinking well of all the sisters ever in this place stood in my way.
PAUL
