Feb 19, 2021 | NEWS
The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, or the Feast of Our Lady of the Candlemas, Sisters in Tanzania gathered in Nanjota to accompany Sr. Dorotea making her Perpetual Profession on that day.
Perpetual profession, i.e. eternal vows of chastity, obedience and poverty, our sister placed in the hands of our Regional Superior, Sr. Agnes.
The liturgy was presided over by Fr.Bishop Filbert Felician Mhasi. He prayed during the Holy Mass for the help of the Holy Spirit in strengthening the Sister in fidelity to her vows. In his homily, Bishop Filbert emphasized that perpetual vows are a humble and sincere dedication to God forever, they are the entrustment of their entire future to Him and the desire to live faithfully in the spirit of the evangelical counsels and the religious constitution.
Sr. Dorotea discovered the secret of her vocation in her hometown of Chikukwe. She came to our house many times for the meetings of the Children of Mary group. Now she has given her life to God in our religious family forever. May Mary support her with her grace in fulfilling her vocation.
S.M. Monika Kowarsz
Feb 18, 2021 | FORUM, NEWS
“I will instruct you and show you the way you will go,
I will strengthen my gaze on You… ”Ps 32: 8
This gaze of Jesus is very important to me. I look at Him, Present in the Eucharist, and He looks at me… He looks into my heart. In fact, it penetrates my heart and soul, restores my life, heals what is weak and sinful. And it strengthens me on the path that she shows me step by step …
I know that he guides me… these are different ways, but I know that they are His ways for me. And that’s enough for me.
It is amazing that this gaze of Jesus engraved in my heart is like a seal that somehow marks me that I belong to Him, that I am in His Hands.
Here, in the place where I am now, in the orphanage in Klenica, his gaze is especially with me through Mary.
Because I minister among children who need a home… and a warm look at them, at their lives, stories, cares and joys.
And to think that once I wanted to start my own family orphanage. God, however, founded it for me in some way …
I feel strongly that there is a space in my heart that I can call HOME and I know that it is related to accepting into the heart people whom the Lord places on my way of life and vocation. It is also a space for listening, caring for another human being, it is a place of sharing the heart, which becomes a home .. Or maybe otherwise… a home where I would like to welcome everyone is born in my heart.
So I try to shape them and open them every day …
And now, at this time, my thoughts are constantly connected with the mystery of Mary’s gaze on Jesus.
When I look at Mary, I feel as if I am hidden in her gaze, sheltered in it and devoted to God. I pray that I will be able to look at other people, at the children among whom I am, through the eyes of Mary. And I am asking Mary to look for me, to love, to serve me … to give me her eyes and a gentle look, full of care and love, from which life is born …
The awareness that God’s eyesight is watching over me makes me safe and I trust that everything that is happening is in His Hands. The hurt and suffering children I work with just am, need a sense of security and experience that they are important and loved. There is no need for big words in this ministry … When I start my duty, prepare breakfast for children, iron their clothes, help with study or cleaning … When we go shopping together, play games or drink tea together … when I gently stroke their heads, or hug them. I admonish them, always looking at my children and asking in my heart that Mary’s love will envelop them all and touch their hearts also through me. Because Mary can do anything … She delicately touches the most painful wounds and transforms them into pearls … And she knows the right time to heal. I only tell her about children in a whisper and she fights for every child …
In this silent service to my children in the Orphanage, the Lord’s Will is being fulfilled for me at this time … Praise Him for everything He gives and how He guides!
S.M. Teresa Fatyga
Feb 15, 2021 | FORUM
Nothing new under the sun
I am looking at the epidemic situation related to Covid 19, which continues to open up many new questions for us related to the topic of the pandemic. While looking for the word plague in the Bible, I encounter the prayer of Josaphat:
“If misfortune befall us, a punishing sword, pestilence or famine, we will stand before this temple and you, because your name resides in this temple, and we will cry to you in our tribulation, then you will hear us and save us” (2 Chronicles 20 , 9)
“I have seen everything that happens under the sun. And here it is: all this is vanity and the pursuit of the wind ”(Eccl 1:14). – says Kohelet, starting his theoretical considerations under the joint title “Nothing new under the sun”.
The prayer of Josaphat is complemented by the request of Sr. M. Dulcissima Hoffmann: “Jesus, show people that You are the Lord of everything.
Direction to Heaven
While experiencing the difficulties caused by the pandemic, we seek God’s help. And He, who is the Lord of time and history, tears us out of our everyday lives, organizes us and directs us to Himself. Global pandemics have been accompanying mankind for years, awakening from sleep and introducing new tasks, the search for effective vaccines. Experiencing a pandemic has been a call to love God and neighbor for centuries. The times when the handmaid of God, Sr. M. Dulcissima Hoffmann, lived was not free from the pandemic. Humanity has been hit by an epidemic of cholera, Spanish flu, typhus and dysentery.
Cholera
The horrifying cholera epidemic was an acute, infectious and contagious intestinal disease caused by bacteria, first diagnosed in Calcutta, India in 1817. It arrived in Silesia at the end of the 19th century. The outbreak of the Great War in 1914, related to the displacement of the army, contributed to the reappearance of the contagious disease in Gliwice, Mysłowice, Stare Bieruń and Pszczyna.
Typhus, dysentery and smallpox
The main epidemiological threat in Silesia, however, became spotted typhus and dysentery, which was associated with the so-called The “starvation winter” of 1916/1917 and the translocation of the army. Smallpox appeared at the end of the First World War. In the absence of effective medicines, only routine measures were taken: separation and disinfection.
Spanish
In the years 1918-1919, the epidemic that wreaked dreads was the global flu called “Spanish flu”, which is considered to be the greatest pandemic known in modern history. The mutant H1N1 flu virus, the influenza A virus, has infected as many as 30 percent of the world’s population. The “Spanish” flu killed twenty million people in Europe, and estimates show that up to half a billion people around the world have become infected.
Typhus in the Hoffmans’
At the end of January 1919, another epidemic of typhus broke out. The contagious disease affected the inhabitants of Silesia, including the family of the “Bride of the Cross”. Her mother, Albina nee Jarząbek, accompanied by her uncle Francis Hoffmann, father’s older brother Józef Hoffmann, paid a visit to her parents’ home in Gąsiorowice near Strzelce Opolskie. After returning to Zgoda, Franciszek fell ill with typhus. Nine-year-old Helena found herself in a completely new and uncertain situation. The house was closed by the police. The whole family was placed under quarantine, and Albina Hoffmann and her children were transported for observation to the hospital in Nowy Bytom. We ended up in the hospital. We were separated and locked in a room with barred windows. We were well looked after for the first days – reports Helena. January 1919 was exceptionally difficult for the Hoffmans’ family. On January 8, Józef Hoffmann died at the age of thirty-two, orphaned his nine-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son. Albina was widowed at twenty-nine. This young woman with a sore heart was anxious for her and her children’s future. After a few days of observation in the hospital, doctors realized that Albina Hoffmann was insolvent and there was no person to pay for the treatment costs. They offered her a job at the hospital: she scooped up coal with a shovel, and with buckets she used to draw water from the tap in the morgue located in its basement. Tired of serving among the sick, she did not doubt because she wanted to secure the existence of the children. Sister Dulcissima in her childhood notes recalls: God looked after us. After five weeks of hospital observation, Albina and her children were released home. The apartment was looted while she was absent from Zgoda. She found herself in a terrible situation. Helena watched her mother closely and noticed that her eyes were wandering towards the cross; she also heard her mother’s words: Honestly and courageously, I will start all over again to remain the same mother. Albina did God’s will without complaint. It was then that she decided to fulfill the will of her deceased husband – she was to marry his eldest brother – Francis.
Will God Stop the Pandemic?
That’s an interesting question. In the background, we hear the Lord’s Psalmist cry: “Stay, and in me, recognize God exalted among the nations, exalted on earth!” (Ps 46:11). God is the Lord of our lives. Let us not be afraid to surrender all our anxieties and difficulties to Heavenly Father. “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you” (1 Pet 5: 7). The epidemic continues and starts the pandemic of good, and trusting prayer rises to God like incense (Ps 27). The handmaid of God, Sr. M. Dulcissima, stands up to the task and intercedes for all of us who invoke her in prayer. Here are some examples:
“I am asking for prayers for my grandfather Stanisław through the exhibition of my sister Maria Dulcissima, who was diagnosed with cancer relapse. Grandfather gives Sister Dulcissima great praise for the favors received. Some time ago, he was telling me with tears in his eyes that in the face of the disease which was gallbladder cancer, he prayed for her intercession and felt a surge of warmth, he felt so “nice and blissful” and heard the words, after all today is my birthday ” and it took place on the anniversary of sister Dulcissima’s birthday. After these events and surgeries, the disease disappeared and my grandfather regularly visited my sister’s grave. Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with relapse. Please pray for relief from suffering and recovery. “(Daniel – Poland, December 2020).
“I am asking for prayer for my father, Józef, for the gift of confession and conversion, as well as physical and spiritual healing” (Ania – Poland).
“Please pray for a young mother who was hospitalized because of the coronavirus.” (Maria – Poland).
“Through the intercession of Sr. Dulcissima, please pray for Halina, who was affected by Covid-19 and was taken to hospital in Gliwice” (Janina – Poland).
“I am asking for prayer for my husband, he has been diagnosed with cancer and it turns out that he has contracted the coronavirus. Let Sr. Dulcissima help us, she can ask for so much. We know it! ” (Beata – Poland).
“I’m trying to get a holy card with relics from Sister M. Dulcissima Hoffman. A few months ago I had a heart attack and since then I feel like my thirst has increased …. Can you help me? (João – Portugal).
“Honorable <bridesmaids> [nuns], I am Silesian, therefore this title is given to you. As a child, my Grandmother scared me that if I wasn’t polite, they would take me. But seriously, Sr. Dulcissima is my guardian and <friend>, when there is a problem and you think humanly that this is the bottom, I always pray to my fellow countryman with the words: <sister, get to work and help me because the dark night is drawing near, and it has never let me down before. From the moment the documentation is handed over to the Vatican [in my house], the lamp next to her photo is on, and it will stay on as long as my friend. will not be declared blessed. I am asking for prayer at the grave of my <friend> (Wojciech – Manchester, for 15 years in exile in England, January 2021).
Prayer:
Lord, the deaf regain their hearing and the blind eyesight, no one has left the tomb of your servant unheard. And do not despise my prayer, but deign to hear it. Amen
Sr. M. Małgorzata Cur SMI
Feb 13, 2021 | NEWS
When new residents move into our senior citizen center here in Cochem, I visit them in the first few days to welcome them to our place.
Many of them come from this Moselle region and have known us Sisters of Mary from earlier, when the Marian Hospital was still located on the Klosterberg.
I recently visited Ms. H. to greet her.
She was very happy and said: “It is not easy when you get old and have to leave” at home “because you can no longer cope with everyday life on your own and you don’t want to be a burden on the children either …..
But, I loved moving here – I know St. Hedwig. When my friend was still alive, I visited her once a week in the St. Anna living area and then we always went to the house restaurant for coffee and of course we also treated ourselves to a glass of wine.
Yes, and “we Cochemers” have good connections with the Sisters of Mary anyway, because all of our children were born here in what was then the hospital.
Sister Odilia was “in the baby room” (today one would say on the maternity ward).
She was always there. At that time, men were not allowed to be present at the birth.
I am still thinking about when she came to me with my first daughter and said: “Here is your little angel, she is weak, we will baptize her in a moment and… Sister Odilia baptized her. Anna developed splendidly.
After the birth of my other two daughters, Sister Odilia was with me immediately afterwards and that was so good!
When the second daughter was born, I had a wonderful experience with my sister, because she asked me – what should the girl be called? My answer – Marion. …. Well, what kind of name is that, you can’t walk your child around with this name all your life. Call her Margarete …
I thought “Margarete” well, but if the sister says that, it will be good for our child. I agreed – so my daughter’s name is still Margarete to this day.
Only my husband wondered about this name back then and asked me whether I had exchanged the child – she should be called Marion … but it doesn’t matter – the main thing – healthy.
(Well, that’s the way men are!)
Years later it turned out that Sister Odilia had been baptized in the name of Margaret herself. So it was a good name choice for our child too.
And something else:
When a child was born on the Klosterberg, we were all happy and that’s why the sister was always given something. She could ask for something from us. And… ..she wished for light blue or pink wool so that she could knit jackets and hats for the next babies… isn’t that wonderful?
There are so good memories that have come to my mind – since I’ve been here again.
Yes and the nice thing is:
Something “became” of all of my three daughters.
I am proud.
Sister Odilia has definitely prayed for all the many “Cochem children” and now she will also accompany us from heaven. ”
It was really a precious conversation with this lady for me.
I am happy to say here in public:
“There were really wonderful sisters
who were role models for so many people
and – although they have died, they are still present. ”
“Let’s not forget these.”
Sister M. Felicitas
