Apr 28, 2021 | NEWS
Psychotherapy doM is a place where you can express problems, difficulties that are perceived by strength and willingness to live.
It is a place where you can experience the dignity of yourself, discover your beauty, feel that you are loved.
This is the place where Mary, the patroness of the office, wipes the tears flowing down her cheeks herself, and bends over every human story.
It is a place where, apart from me and the person who comes, Mary is present in a special way. I feel grateful that SHE Herself, through my superiors, trusted me, entrusting each person in this and no other job. I know that every person who comes to the meeting is here not by accident. It gives me such confidence that it is a good time.
The office is a meeting place, it’s TIME. A time that is often fraught with feelings, emotions, memories, where everything becomes alive and real again, where you can experience yourself. Each pain is a profound experience. We fight it so often because it is unbearable. But being with this pain helps you accept it, helps you experience yourself.
To experience yourself in a difficult situation is to know that even if everything is falling apart, I AM, you can feel deep support, even though there is nothing stable around. It is to touch your innermost being, which is stable, calm, confident, despite the fact that it is hard outside and various turbulent feelings. This pain can often help you make your way back to yourself.
As a sister, I cannot help but write that this innermost being is the holy place of the saints in us, where God resides. The time when we are with our own pain, when we experience it, sometimes deeply, truly and vividly, allows us to meet ourselves. It allows you to peel off all layers that have covered like dust, what is most beautiful in us. The layer of expectations of others towards us, unfulfilled hopes, all feelings that today are so different tomorrow, bad words about us, wrongs … what we have, God makes the way to Himself. We begin to enjoy ourselves as we are, with our wounds.
Pain and time to be with it, to reach the depths of yourself.
Difficult experiences, well lived, often leave the most beautiful trace.
We experience a time of joy in the Octave of Easter, Jesus stretches out His wounded hands,
shows His pierced side, these wounds are all Love
This is my job, my service – I am with another person in their pain, worries and sadness.
Sr. M. Dominika
Apr 25, 2021 | SPIRITUALITY
Maintain and deepen unity
In the last month’s talk we spoke about the fact that unity is not an external matter, but an inner relationship that connects people with one another. We have seen that such a relationship has to be renewed and deepened again and again. Therefore, we were reminded by Sr. Sybilla to be vigilant in order to maintain and deepen this oneness. Today we want to think about how this can be done concretely: maintain and deepen the unity.
Convert us … (GL 266)
During the Easter period of penance – commonly referred to as Lent by us – the focus for many is on fasting and renunciation. That is certainly not bad either. But the liturgy suggests another focus: a time of conversion and reconciliation. When we are marked with the ash cross, the priest says: Convert and believe in the gospel! And in the 2nd reading on Ash Wednesday we heard the apostle Paul’s admonition: Be reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:20 ).
That should be our topic today: Reconciliation as a building block of unity.
Vulnerable relationships
We know from our own experience how quickly relationships are attacked or even destroyed in everyday life. Righteousness, selfishness, jealousy, arguments … change relationships and often destroy unity. This applies to relationships with one another as well as to relationships with God.
Experienced sin
What is sin, we learned that as children in confession class. And based on the 10 commandments, concrete examples were given: not following the parents, hitting the other, taking something away from him, lying …
What is Unfortunate sin , we didn’t learn that in confessional lessons. But we have felt it in everyday life. When we lied to someone, we avoided them. The word sin and the word set apart have the same root. In sin, unity with God and, as a result, unity with one another is destroyed. The story of the first humans (Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel) in Gen 3 and 4 is a striking example of the destruction of unity. And since the first fall, we have had to deal with the power of evil. All the more important then is the apostle’s admonition to be reconciled to God and thus also to one another.
Forgive but don’t forget,
You probably know the phrase: forgive and forget. I cannot agree with this phrase. Certainly there are things that I can forget after the reconciliation. But I can certainly not forget many things. But I don’t have to forget them either. Reconciliation offers me a new quality of life that includes and surpasses previous arguments and injuries. Yes I know you hurt me but my love for you is greater than any guilt. That is reconciliation.
God wants reconciliation
How often does the Holy Scriptures tell us that we humans have turned away from God and broken our covenant with him. In the Old Testament the people of Israel turned away from God again and again and ran after strange idols. The most impressive example of God’s readiness for reconciliation is found in the New Testament in the parable of the prodigal son (Lk 15). The father answers the lost unity between father and son with his arms outstretched. This is how reconciliation works. God’s love is stronger than our guilt. Hence the apostle Paul’s invitation: be reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:20).
Cut up and knotted together
Finally, I would like to share with you one more wonderful experience that people can have when they are ready for reconciliation. This experience can best be portrayed in pictures. Two children sit 3 meters apart. Both hold a string in their hand as a sign of their relationship (friendship). Suddenly there is an argument. One of them cuts the cord with a pair of scissors. But the two make up again and the cord is knotted together again. This happens several times. I have often shown this to the children in confessional classes and asked the question: Has anything changed? The first time the children didn’t notice anything. But they soon discovered that the numerous knots had brought both children closer together.
This is how reconciliation works: people move closer together – with one another and with God.
Such is reconciliation
Like a feast after long grief
like a fire in the night.
An open gate in a wall
opened for the sun.
Like a letter after a long silence
like an unexpected greeting.
Like a leaf on a dead branch
an-I-like-you-anyway-kiss.
Ref .: Such is reconciliation
such must be true peace.
Such is reconciliation
so is forgiven and forgiven. (2x)
Like a rain in the desert
fresh dew on arid land.
Sounds of home for the missing,
old enemies hand in hand.
Like a key in jail
as in distress – land in sight.
Like a way out of distress
like a radiant face.
Like a word of dead words lips,
like a look of hope
Like a light on steep cliffs
like a continent rediscovered.
Like the spring, the morning
Like a song like a poem.
Like life like love
Like God Himself the true light
Prelate Dr. Stefan Dybowski
March 10th, 2021 Monthly talk, St. Augustinus Monastery, Berlin-Lankwitz
Apr 25, 2021 | POSITIVE IMPULSES
Your relationship with your God, your Creator determines your life. Starts with your concept of your relationship with your Creator. The healthier and happy relationship with God helps to build a meaningful life. Healthy relationship in the sense of the absence of fear and the presence of reason in your relationship. And happy in the sense of the absence of hypocrisy and the presence of truthfulness. Healthy relationship starts with a healthy concept. Good Shepherd is a beautiful concept on which you can develop a healthy and happy relationship with your Creator.
Don Giorgio
Apr 19, 2021 | NEWS
Like every day, I have our sisters who live in the care sector, today too I visited.
Yes, and there was such a nice conversation with our sister Franziska and I don’t want to keep this to myself.
Sister Franziska is 95 years old (I reported on her birthday party in October 2020.)
When I sat down with her today, she said to me: “Do you know who I was” just thinking of – my answer – well, I can’t know that, because I can’t read minds.
“Well, dear Sister Superior – I thought of Mother Roswitha. She was our Superior General when we came to the monastery in the 1950s ”.
I said: I’ve only seen her once, but I’ve heard a lot from her – many sisters say – she was very strict.
Sister Franziska again – no – it wasn’t like that – she followed the straight way. She had to put things in order first. The sisters were scattered everywhere after the escape and she then looked for them together.
You know – she looked stern and proud too – but her heart was warm.
We could already be seen with her.
The Holy Spirit led her – otherwise she would not have made it all.
Love was always felt in its severity.
I am really very impressed with this conversation, because I could not have heard more convincingly about it.
Sister M. Felicitas
from the Klosterberg in Cochem
Apr 12, 2021 | POSITIVE IMPULSES
Our capacity to love is a great gift. That gift can become a grace in so far as we love sincerely. Love becomes insincere when we ourselves become the object of our love. So, it is important not to let our love for each other grow insincere. We must keep guard of our relationships and our behavior to make sure that our love is sincere. Familiarity and hectic life can turn the direction of your love towards yourself. Do not let the thought about many things destroy the most important thing. Be a grace with sincere love.
Don Giorgio
