Oct 27, 2021 | NEWS
The beginning of November for many of us is a special time of remembrance of the dead. We visit cemeteries, light candles, pray for the souls of the dead. Each of us certainly has a loved one “on the other side”. Usually there are people who gave us some goodness during their earthly life. I think we can celebrate this important time in at least one more way. On the Feast of All Saints, remembering our departed, let’s try to look for their traces of holiness in our lives. Let us look in our lives for the good that our deceased relatives and our sisters have done for us, and which still lives in us. May our prayer for the dead also be thanksgiving for the traces of holiness they have left on earth.
M.M. Sybilla
Oct 27, 2021 | NEWS
The words of today’s Gospel will show us the strength of the growth of the mustard grain.
Such a grain of mustard seed became the priestly ordination of the Servant of God, Father John Schneider, which he received through the ministry of Cardinal Melchior von Diepenbrocka.
The shepherd of the Wrocław diocese from the mid-19th century wanted a religious revival in the Silesian region. He wanted to build the Kingdom of God on the testimony of the lives of people consecrated to God. In his sermon before ordaining them to the priesthood, he encouraged the neo-priests of the year of ordination in 1849, that, following the example of St. John the Baptist, with their purity and fidelity to their priestly vocation, confirmed the Word of God that they preached in the pulpits.
Cardinal Diepenbrock greatly appreciated his priests. He wanted them to multiply their spiritual goods together with religious people. For his ministry in Silesia, deprived of all monasteries after the Napoleonic Wars, Borromeo Sisters, School Sisters of Notre Dame, Hospital Franciscan Sisters, Sisters of Mercy of St. Vincent de Paul, now the Daughters of Charity, and on St. Anne, the Franciscans settled again.
Servant of God Fr. John Schneider celebrated his first mass after his ordination on July 2, 1849. Before the reform of the liturgical calendar, this day was the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He did not celebrate his first day Holy Mass in his home parish in Rudziczce, because the parish priest, Father Antoni Hoffmann, his benefactor, died suddenly in 1847, so before John Schneider joined the seminary the parish in Rudziczce was then managed by an administrator, unknown to him.
At the site of the first Mass he chose the Marian chapel behind the presbytery of the Wrocław cathedral. From the main altar of the chapel, the Mother of God looked at the neo-presbyter as she rose to heaven. The ceremony was very modest. It was attended by the relatives, the father of the first officer and his two sisters with their families. Sermon during Holy Mass was delivered by his compatriot five years older, ordained, Fr. John Klein, vicar from Ścinawy.
The rector of the Wrocław Alumnate, Father Józef Sauer, came from the parish of St. Nicholas in Wiązów, and asked the Order of the Diocese to give his family parish a good chaplain. And the fate fell on fr. John. In the mid-nineteenth century, the parish of Wiązów had about 3,500 believers. In the town, many girls worked in a cigar factory. They often fell into all sorts of addictions and bad associations. Father John Schneider gathered them when they had free time, on Saturdays and Sundays, in the parish hall. He took care of their fair entertainment and deepened their religious and moral knowledge. He also took in a large number of maidservants who worked on estates in fifteen rural settlements belonging to the parish of Wiązów. Young girls financially dependent on their employers, including a large group of young ladies, were at risk of demoralization. Fr. John Schneider wanted to sensitize them to the matters of sacramental life, cultivating prayer and respecting one’s own girlhood.
Together with his parish priest, Father Francis Elpelt, with whom he understood well, he met regularly with parents and guardians of school children. He spoke with them about the moral dangers to which young people grow up. He collaborated with the local conductor of the parish choir, encouraging talented young singers to participate in rehearsals and the preparation of services in the parish church.
After two years of work in Wiązów, Fr. John Schneider was transferred on September 9, 1851. as a vicar to work in the parish of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Piasek Island in Wrocław
Sr.M. Elżbieta Cińcio
Oct 25, 2021 | NEWS
The canonical visitation of the Superior General to the Germany Province is planned for the entire month of November. Recently, covid restrictions have changed a lot the plans for visits to the Congregation. We hope that this time it will be possible to meet every community, every sister and visit our co-workers without any problems. It is a special time for the Superior General and for the Sisters in the Germany Province. We encourage all the sisters of the Congregation and our friends to pray for the intentions of the Sisters of the Germany Province and for a blessed time of visitation.
Generalate SMI
Oct 24, 2021 | POSITIVE IMPULSES
A mentality to share the good we have, should be a constant mission. In reality, the sharing dimension is an intrinsic part of every good that reaches us. If we don’t share, that good gets stagnant in us and it will lose it “divine” nature. It transforms into selfishness. So, in order to get the maximum out of each good that comes to us, we must be just channels. Channels of goodness and not to block it in us. Let it flow to all around us. Then it’s mission accomplished.
Don Giorgio
Oct 23, 2021 | HISTORY, NEWS
In today’s Gospel, the Lord Jesus will command his disciples; Let your loins be girded, and let your torches be lit. And you, be like those who are waiting for your master when he returns from the wedding feast, to open to him immediately when he comes and shakes.
Servant of God Fr. John Schneider wanted to prepare as best as possible to meet Christ when he received the sacrament of priesthood. After passing the matriculation examination at the Carolinum in Nysa, which took place on September 20, 1845, he went to study in Wrocław with 13 classmates. Only one of the high school graduates chose medical studies, the rest enrolled in theology.
In the time of our Founder, if a candidate for the priesthood wanted to enter a theological seminary, he had to first, as a layperson, graduate from theological studies. The University of Wrocław had a faculty of Catholic theology with 199 students, of course only men, and a faculty of Evangelical theology with 72 students in the academic year 1845/46. The students lived in private stations. John Schneider rented a room in Ostrów Tumski next to the church of St. Krzyża, in the tenement house at No. 9. He suffered a lot from cold. He lived with a friend in an unburned room. To warm the stove a bit, they put a candle stump in it. When the owner of the lodgings noticed this, she started to burn them in the stove at her own expense.
For three years, from 1845 to 1848, he studied theology and served as a volunteer in the 11th Grenadier Regiment in Wrocław. He used the experience gained in the army during the revolution that broke out on March 6, 1848. in Wrocław on the wave of the spring of peoples and solidarity with social movements in France and Austria. In Wrocław, there were bloody clashes with the revolutionary-minded inhabitants of the city. The speeches were left-wing and anti-clerical. During the riots, revolutionaries attacked the apartments of members of the cathedral chapter in Ostrów Tumski. It was then that John Schneider organized a team of fellow students, leading it himself, and defended the endangered canons of Wrocław against the attackers. His brave attitude won him the kindness of the members of the Wrocław chapter and his colleagues awarded him the title of “generalissimo”.
After three years of studies at the University of Wrocław, the Servant of God entered the seminary in October 1848, which at that time was called the Alumnate and was located in the place where the Archdiocese Library building stands today. Candidates for the priesthood were trained in pastoral theology, liturgy and asceticism for 9 months.
The superiors of the Students gave Father John the following opinion: “Big, healthy. sufficient talent, satisfactory zeal, satisfactory behavior, diligent character, compatible – with good will, sermons also satisfactory, catechism satisfactory ”.
During his stay in the Aluminae, John Schneider received a clerical attire, tonsure and four lower priestly orders: ostiarate, language, exorcist and acolyte, and three higher ones: sub deaconate, diaconate and presbyterate. He was ordained to the deacon by auxiliary Bishop Daniel Latusska on June 21, 1849 in the Church of St. Cross. Along with him, 38 alumni from the Archdiocese of Wrocław and 4 from the Archdiocese of Olomouc were ordained.
He was ordained a priest by the bishop of the Archdiocese of Wrocław, Prince Bishop Melchior von Diepenbrock on July 1, 1849 in the Church of St. Cross. The day of priestly ordination of Fr. John Schneider considered it the most important in his life. It was a day for him on which, after several years of preparation, he met his Master in the sacrament of priesthood. He was prepared for this solemn moment by difficult events, marked by material poverty, requiring great denial and faithfulness to his own life vocation.
How do I perceive the difficult events that I face in my own life? Do they prepare me to meet Christ?
Sr.M. Elżbieta Cińcio
