Tuesday 31 January
Saint John Bosco, Priest First reading - Hebrews 12:1-4 The test is speaking about the necessity of perseverance in keeping our sight of Jesus. We must not lose sight of Jesus any moment of our life because He is the one who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection. To keep sight of Him we must throw off everything that hinders us in avoiding sin. Keeping the sight of Jesus means understanding the triviality of everything except Him. Keeping the sight of Jesus mean giving up everything that takes away His place in my life. Keeping the sight of Jesus is embracing the cross as He has embraced it. His path becomes our path. We must really fight against sin because we are really going against our own ego and our selfishness. Moreover, we must face the world around us which attracts us to follow its charm of being selfish. Let’s reflect: Are we losing sight of Jesus in our way because of the charm of the individualism and selfishness?
Monday 30 January
Monday of week 4 in Ordinary Time First reading - Hebrews 11:32-40 “These are all heroes of faith”. The heroes of faith, how beautiful is the title. How did they achieve that? They achieved that by letting the promise of God enter their life. They let their life be completely guided by the plan of God. They did not run away when difficulties came. They managed to see the difficulties as part of their faith. They were weak but the faith gave them strength. They were ill-treated by the world, but their faith gave them strength to go to desert where they found the truth of faith. The heroes of faith are those who are with us in our way of faith since the walk in this path is not alone. We walk with the heroes of faith. “These are all heroes of faith, but they did not receive what was promised, since God had made provision for us to have something better, and they were not to reach perfection except with us”. Let’s reflect: Do you feel that in your walk of faith, you are walking with the heroes of faith?
Good luck and many blessings
Yes, good luck and many blessings we have wished on January 26th we wished our Sister Judith on her 90th birthday. Sister Judith has been living here in Cochem for 62 years - first in the old hospital on the Klosterberg , then in the new hospital in the Avollonstraße and since a few years again here on the Klosterberg. Cochem is a small town where the Sisters of Mary simply belong. This is because many Cochem residents were born on the Klosterberg and thus had and still have very early contact with the Sisters of Mary. Sister Judith was active in nursing education for 35 years. So Provincial Superior and Superior - not unknown. Yes, and when one is known - congratulations are also sent. The District Administrator sent his congratulations along with the Mayor of the Association, Mr. Lambertz (a dear friend of our convent) - because Mr. Lambertz did not miss the opportunity to come in person to congratulate Sister Judith, to tell her story and to have a cup of coffee. The mayor of the city, Mr. Schmitz, also personally brought his congratulations and many other people of Cochem congratulated Sister Judith. In a small circle, Father Andreas Pohl, a Sacred Heart priest from the Maria Martental Monastery, celebrated Holy Mass with us in thanksgiving for Sister Judith`s life. It was a special joy for Sister Judith that our former managing director Mr. Mohr and his wife came to the service and then drank coffee together with us Sisters. Good Agathe - who has been connected with the Sisters of Cochem for over fifty years and is still loyal to us as a pensioner - was also present and as always... she baked the best cake there is and brought it with her. A day full of joy and gratitude has come to an end. We wish SisterJudith God's blessing, much courage and strength for her everyday life and the certainty. "The best is yet to come" ! Sr. Felicitas