Aug 30, 2021 | HISTORY
It is 1954. At that time, I was at the post in Ścinawka Średnia. There were seven sisters in the community: six sisters dealt with the care of the sick in the health center, work in the delivery ward, care for the elderly in the center and work in the field, one sister was a sacristan.
I will remember August 2, 1954 for the rest of my life. It was the day we found out about the deportation. At 5:30 a.m. the military arrived in their cars to our house, at that time we were in the chapel. We had to pack right away, we had about 2 hours to do it. We were scared and didn’t know where they were taking us. We were packing up in a hurry. We felt panic and uncertainty. We asked the policemen where they were taking us, but the only answer we heard was that we were going “on vacation”.
We had to pack all our things: furniture and livestock (two cows, two pigs, chickens, ducks). They ordered us to take the Blessed Sacrament to the church. I would like to add that at that time the elderly who were with us in the health center were taken to another home.
A few hours after the arrival of the police, we were on our way to Wrocław. We were brought to our motherhouse, where we spent the night. The next day, they drove us to Karłowice (a district of Wrocław) to the Franciscan Fathers, where we stayed overnight. There we met our sisters from other institutions. The next day, we were loaded onto three buses marked “TRIP”. We still did not know where they were taking us and for what reason, so we tried again to ask the policemen who were guarding us, but we only received an answer that “we are going to our destination”, and later said that to Siberia. So we thought they would really take us there, and we prayed fervently for survival.
During the trip, we made a few stops in the woods for a short break. These stops were under the control of the security authorities because they were afraid that one of us would escape. We arrived in Otorowo in the evening of August 4, 1954. It was a convent of the Ursuline nuns, but for that time the sisters left their convent. When we arrived some of our sisters were there. There were 153 of us in total.
They told us to look for rooms and take places. They showed us a park nearby where we could take the cattle out.
For the first three months, we were dependent on the state authorities. The conditions were like in prison – we could not leave the camp grounds, beyond the gate, we were under the control of the police all the time, at the beginning there was no electricity, heating or hot water. Our food was very modest, the sanitary conditions were not the best, it was cramped (a dozen or so of us slept in one room).
There was a chapel in the camp, where we prayed together every day, morning and evening. The chaplain lived there and celebrated Holy Mass and evening services every day. In addition, we were under the spiritual protection of a local priest, dean from Pniewy, from the convent of the Ursuline nuns.
After 3 months, we were ordered to work for the state under the supervision of officials under the so-called productivization. Sewing rooms were created and I was ordered to sew in the piece, shift and band system. We sewed underwear, shirts, pajamas, chutes, we embroidered “tabs” for railway uniforms as well as hats and caps that I sewed. We were tearing the feathers. We worked from 7 am to 4 pm with an hour break. We worked all the time under the supervision of the guards. We received money for the work, thanks to which we could survive until the camp was dissolved.
During our stay in Otorowo, we had no contact with our family or people from the area, because the camp was closed. Some of us worked in state farms during harvesting, digging, grooming cows, pigs, spreading manure, it was work performed only under the control of security office officers.
There were secular officials working in the camp, who dealt with supplies and issued us passes.
On December 8, 1954, in camp conditions, we celebrated the centenary of our Congregation. Throughout this time, religious vows and anniversaries were normally held.
At the end of 1956, the civil authorities of the Szamotuły district informed us about the dissolution of the camp and the possibility of returning to the place of our previous stay. So I returned to my post in Ścinawka Średnia.
During our absence, our house was still a health center with a delivery room. Initially, we only received one room, we had to recover the next rooms with great effort, because they were inhabited by lay workers. The caretaker of the house turned out to be particularly unpleasant, even cruel, who stubbornly refused to leave the premises.
The rooms we recovered were devastated, dirty, there were bugs everywhere (all rooms had to be decontaminated). We had to renovate everything ourselves because nobody wanted to help us. We worked day and night to bring the house back into a state of living. This work affected our health, but we thanked God every day for being with us, for giving us the strength to bear it all.
S.M. Borgia Drobina
Aug 25, 2021 | POSITIVE IMPULSES
Are we a burden for the other? It’s good to ask this question because, sometimes the way we are, it could be like that especially when we are lazy. But actually, before we become a burden to the other, we are a burden to ourselves. What is projecting to the other, is just a reflection of what you are to yourselves. Unfulfilled aspirations, failed projects or other disappointments can create the burden in you which you eventually push over others. So, don’t let the failures or shortcomings become a burden in you. Trash it and liberate yourself, so that you can work hard not to be burden for the other.
Don Giorgio
Aug 20, 2021 | NEWS
and I was there …
how did that happen?
Five years ago I took part in a retreat in Maria Laach and then I saw the appeal for donations for the Roma camp in Slovakia by P. Basilius. Among other things, I read – that mattresses are needed and I became aware … because it was precisely at this time that the mattresses had to be replaced in our senior citizen center in Cochem – “only – because they no longer corresponded” to the norm – therefore they should be disposed of. But they were rescued and taken into the camp.
Yes, that was my first contact with this project and I was and still am thrilled with the commitment – the Benedictines, especially Father Basilius, campaigned for this cause. It was clear to me from the start that we, the Sisters of Mary, would like to support that. I got more information so I could get in here
Tell about it in our house, in the women’s community and with my friends.
At our Advent, Spring and Autumn Bazaars and all the other events in the house, there was always a stand – with a wide variety of things. The proceeds were then intended for “my Rome children”.
Of course, this further strengthened the connection and every time a transport was planned, I started a call on site and I am overwhelmed by how donation-happy the employees and the Cochemers are. So we can do something for these people in our prosperity.
After each tour everything was reported in detail and it became clear to me – I have to go there too.
I had already planned to be there for the summer tour last year … but … Corona thwarted my planning, also in autumn.
But now the time had come…. Mr. Lingenthal informed me in June that a trip is planned for the end of July. Of course I was enthusiastic about it and even more – that Father Basilius is going with me.
But I had to do a lot for my absence in my convent with my fellow sisters who had grown old plan – and organize – because they cannot be alone.
But I thought … if it should be that I should go with you – this cannot be a problem and so it was. A co-sister came to represent and started on July 27th.
Arrived in Maria Laach, the Cologne runabout was already in front of the camp and it was already invited.
After P. Basilius
The travel prayer and travel blessing had given – our journey – which was so professionally planned and prepared by Mr. Michael Lingenthal – started.
I was just curious what to expect…. the long drive, the border controls, vaccination control … .. traffic jam … etc.
We were all surprised that there were no complications on the whole trip (there and back).
After an overnight stay at the Inn – there was a meeting with the ambassador in Bratislava.
Yes, and on July 29th we got closer and closer to our goal and the tension increased.
In the communication center of Caritas we were expected and welcomed happily by the team of employees and the children.
After unloading, there was a little candy for the hard-working helpers and only bright children’s eyes.
The children soon went home.
In the evening we met with the staff there in the center, talked and of course ate together. Mr. Rado was the interpreter – not just me but everyone felt comfortable – you could feel it.
The next day our ways parted – because Mr. Lingenthal and Mr. Rado had a conversation with the mayor in Secovce.
Father Basilius and I were picked up by Sister Bernadetta (Redeemer Sisters) and the interpreter, Mrs. Kristina, in Trebisov – we were with the mayor there – Sister Bernadetta knows well and is very Rome-friendly.
After this meeting we went to Sister Bernadetta’s convent – something completely new for me, because the 3 sisters do not live in a convent – but in a prefabricated building on the 5th floor.
The hospitality with them could be felt immediately – because it smelled of fresh cake, which was then served immediately.
It was a very good atmosphere – we couldn’t speak Slovenian and the sisters couldn’t speak German – but we still got on very well.
Sister Bernadetta then showed us briefly the Rome camp in which she works.
For lunch we went back to the Caritas center.
Soon the children came and the bathing fun began for them.
Very disciplined and happy children
That afternoon we also went to the camp on site. Some children have accompanied us because they live there with their families.
On the way there I became very different,
because something like that –
in my whole life I have
not seen yet
For me they were decisive encounters –
with this poverty and the people.
I imagined the situation there was bad
but the reality was much more extreme –
you can’t imagine it …
you have to see it …
I am very happy that I was able to take the opportunity and ride with them.
Yes, I have been newly motivated to be grateful myself and I will continue to contribute to these people in the future –
even if it is only :
A drop in the bucket is up.
It is worth it….!!!!
I would like to take this opportunity to express my special thanks
To the wonderful tour company –
Father Basilius, Michael Lingenthal
And all the many, who accompanied us with their prayers.
Thank you very much !!!
Sister M. Felicitas
(from Cochem)
Aug 20, 2021 | SPIRITUALITY
You probably remember the letter from Sr. Sybilla and with it the words of the founder, Father Johannes Schneider. Unity is a relationship. It is not simply there from the start. It has to be built up and maintained. And it is also subject to the laws to which every relationship is subject, namely, it can change. It can get stronger, but it can also flatten and disappear completely. This applies to every community (state, church, parish), it also applies to personal communities such as families and friends, and of course also to religious orders. The promise of a vow or the wearing of a religious uniform dress does not constitute unity. Unity is therefore an inner relationship that connects people with one another.
Concrete growth of unity
Today I would like to give you a few spiritual impulses that you can look at and try out for yourself personally.
As a preliminary remark: start carefully if you decide to do so. Such specific exercises can be very demanding, but also very effective.
My right seat is empty …
You are probably familiar with the children’s game where a child is allowed to wish someone in the free space next to them. Of course we wanted our best friends here back then.
Unity begins with perception. Take the seat next to you (whether right or left) on the subject of your observation. Who is next to me today (in the bank in the chapel or at the table at lunch)? Did I talk to my neighbor, look at her, smile at her? Do I know how she is, whether something is oppressive for her, whether she is in pain? Or do I have to say for myself that the place next to me is really empty, at least in the sense that I don’t really care who is sitting there.
Collect treasures in heaven
In his parables, Jesus uses the image of collecting treasures several times. He compares the kingdom of God with a treasure in the field or a precious pearl (Mt 13: 44-46). And in the Sermon on the Mount he asks us to gather treasures that are not perishable (Mt 6: 19-21). The image of collecting treasures is a popular theme for retreats.
I would like to encourage you to look for treasures in a very specific way in your own community. A treasure makes a person rich. Who enriches your community? What if this sister no longer existed? We’d be missing something.
Another justice
The following thought is a bit difficult, if only because we humans are usually very sensitive to it: it’s about justice. Unity means that everyone is treated equally and the same rules apply to everyone. As young people in the family and at school, we paid close attention to this. When we felt that someone was being preferred, we felt it was unjust and demanded justice. In principle, I do not want to deviate from this attitude. To preserve a community and its unity, it is part of the fact that there are binding rules that apply to everyone and that unite everyone.
But at the latest the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Mt 20: 1-16) makes you think. Some workers mutiny: this is unjust. But with what reward do I do justice to everyone? – a question that parents, teachers, supervisors, etc. have to deal with again and again.
I found a nice answer to this in the story of Jan and grandfather. Stefanie has lost a precious chain and Jan thinks she should be punished. For him it is not fair that his grandfather forgive Stefanie. But the grandfather with his rich life experience knows more. He doesn’t want to live in a world like this because he would freeze (a fantastic visual language). Do you feel like you’re freezing in your community? And could you learn something from your grandfather on the subject of unity?
Prelate Dr. Stefan Dybowski
July 15, 2021 Monthly lecture St. Augustinus Monastery, Berlin-Lankwitz
Aug 15, 2021 | FORUM, NEWS
I would like to share a story that happened while I was working in a hospital in Naples. I will start my story with how it happened that I became a nurse, went to Italy and at a miracle in the hospital ward.
I entered the Congregation when I was 20 years old. I started my candidacy. I remember very well one of the first words that Mother superior (Mother General representative in Poland) said to me then: “The candidate will be a nurse”. These words were very memorable to me, but with time I had to forget about them…. but Mother superior did not forget them.
I started my novitiate. We had various lectures during this time. There was also one sister from Katowice (I don’t remember her name) who taught us how to give injections and how to perform basic nursing activities for the sick.
When I was in the second year of the novitiate, we were informed that the sisters were to be transported to Otorów near Szamotuły, to a labor camp. I remember when Mother superior made the decision to strip the novices from their sisters in order to protect them from deportation. They were to take their personal belongings to their family homes. I was also supposed to pack my things, take them to my family home and come in secular clothes to the sisters’ community in Nysa. And so I did.
The sisters in Nysa welcomed me kindly. Soon they put me in the habit that was left by my deceased sister. Although it did not fit me and was too big for me, I was happy to be able to wear it again. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy it for long, because soon at the gate, someone dropped us a letter informing us that they wanted to take us to a labor camp, so they ordered me to undress again. It must have happened about three times when they dressed and undressed me like this, but I knew it was the only way to save me from deportation.
Herezwit’s sister was in Nysa, she ran a tailoring course for girls. Since I was already studying sewing as a teenager in business school, I started helping her learn sewing. After a year in Nysa, Mother superior “remembered” what she told me when I was a candidate and that is why she moved me to Jaszkotle. There, in addition to working in the house, I visted the sick in the villages and gave them injections. I went from Jaszkotle to a nursing school in Warsaw for two years. After graduating from school, she returned to Jaszkotle. Then I was transferred to Ścinawa, where the sisters worked in the Health Center: in the delivery room, in the vaccination center and in the surgery room. There I was supposed to be a superior. I remember how I felt sorry to leave Jaszkotle and when we got off the train with my sister Helena, who was taking me away, she noticed that I was sad because I was going into the unknown, I did not know who I was going to work with. She started showing me the advantages of this place, saying: “look how nice it is here, the stream flows here, the birds sing so nicely” and then I replied: “but it’s so strange”. But God was with me. I started working at a vaccination point and traveled to the villages to visit sick people. There were 15 villages to handle. I worked there for 10 years.
- To this day, I can hear the ringing of the telephone and a voice in the receiver that says: “Sister Vincentia, you will go to Italy. Get ready and quickly because the director of the hospital wants one sister to come to work in the hospital ward ”. I must admit that I felt sorry to leave because I got close to my sisters and people. After all, I didn’t know Italian and I was going again into the unknown.
As I have already mentioned, I came to Naples without knowing the Italian language. I started working in a hospital, people welcomed me very kindly. They supported me not to worry about the language, but to learn patiently, at least two words a day and in some time I will be speaking perfectly. And so I did. Despite the unfamiliarity with the language, I started working in the ward right away and only thanks to God’s care and help I did not make any mistakes.
People from the hospital liked to work with us – sisters, they made us feel it more than once. They trusted us. They confided in us with their various family and marriage problems, and we gave all these matters to God in prayer.
During my work in the hospital, a miracle happened that I would like to tell you about.
One day, in the ward where I was working, there was a woman who gave birth to a baby boy. After giving birth, her health began to deteriorate. She had the so-called eclampsia (this is eclampsia that occurs as seizures or loss of consciousness in pregnant or postnatal women). This condition lasted for two weeks, she felt into a coma, she did not react to anything. Doctors did not give her a chance to survive. I felt very sorry for this woman, she had just given birth to her first child and was going to die soon. Every day she was visited by a midwife who performed nursing activities for her. One day I met her in this lady’s room. I asked “will this patient really die?” She replied that “there is no salvation for her anymore.” Then I told the midwife that I had the oil from the wonderful place of Saint Anastasia with the painting of Our Lady dell’Arco, and I wanted to anoint the patient with it. (Let me just mention that the Dominican fathers who look after this sanctuary on the day of the indulgence always bless the oils that people can take away.)
I also proposed a joint prayer for: either God give her a peaceful death or restore her health. She responded to it willingly. I remember how I knelt on one side of the bed and the midwife on the other. And just as it is done in the anointing of the sick, I made this sick woman a cross with this oil on the forehead, on the hands and on the feet.
Our prayer did not last long. After a while the lady opened her eyes and sat down on the bed. We cried out. After a few days, she returned home with the baby.
Our Lady saved her!
It was one of the most moving events that I experienced in my 21 years working in a Neapolitan hospital. I remember that time very well and with great sentiment.
S.M. Vincencia Wróbel
* * *
The beginning of the cult of the Virgin Mary with the title of Madonna dell’Arco is associated with the episode that took place on April 6, 1450, on Easter Monday, in Saint Anastasia (today in the Province of Naples).
At the edge of the field, there was a chapel with a painting (hence the names Madonna dell’Arco and Pomigliano d’Arco) under the arch of the aqueduct, with a painting of our Lady with Baby Jesus.
During a village festival, young men played “palla a maglio” (ball with a hammer) on the field. The game consisted in hitting a wooden ball with a hammer, the one who made the ball fly further won. One of them missed and lost the game, so the ball hit the linden tree, whose branches partially obscured the wall covered with the image of our Lady with the Baby Jesus. The loser in a fit of anger, picked up the ball and, cursing, threw it violently at the sacred image, hitting it on the left cheek, which began to bleed as if it were a living body. The news of the miracle quickly spread across the country, reaching Count Sarno, a local nobleman, the Great Executioner of the Kingdom of Naples. He released the young man, but after observing the miracle and carrying out a shortened trial, he sentenced him to be hanged, on the same July that sheltered the image of the Mother of God. After twenty-four hours, the tree was withered
These miraculous events sparked the cult of the Madonna dell’Arco, which immediately spread throughout southern Italy. Crowds of believers poured into the miracle site, so it was necessary to build a small church out of the offers received to protect the holy image from the elements.
http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/91177
https://www.fanpage.it/napoli/la-storia-della-madonna-dellarco-e-dei-suoi-miracoli/
