As I do every year—I spent a few days
on vacation in Maria Laach again this time.
Maria Laach—you know it, of course…
from my mission among the Gypsy children
and certainly also—from our congregation’s history… because our fellow sisters worked there from 1946 to 1955.
Sister Borromäa, Sister Carola, Sister Antonia, Sister Theresia, Sister Ildefonsa, Sister Fidelis, Sister Elisabeth, and Sister Hildegard were in the novitiate there. I have very fond memories of them all—they were special sisters!!
The artist Brother Notker Becker OSB from Maria Laach also decorated the basilica of the Branitz Institutions with mosaics.
September 8 was a special day at the abbey….
On the Feast of the Nativity of Mary and during the jubilee year marking “100 Years of the Basilica Minor,” Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki (former bishop of Berlin, now cardinal of Cologne)
celebrated a solemn pontifical Mass in Maria Laach.
In his homily, the cardinal described Mary as the dawn—she heralds Christ and points the way to his light.
At the end of the homily, he returned once more to Mary.
From her, he said, the Church can learn to open itself to Christ and welcome him, so that his light may shine into the world. His closing words were a call for courage and trust: “Let us, dear sisters and brothers, have the courage and trust to live out this mission of ours—for the glory of God and the salvation of humanity.”
After the solemn Mass, Cardinal and Abbot Mauritius made a point of going out to the forecourt of the basilica to be among the people who had joined in the celebration.
It was a wonderful encounter… I can’t put it any other way.
And the Cardinal said to me…
that I should convey his greetings to all my fellow sisters…
which I would like to do here.
Sister M. Felicitas