Apr 18, 2025 | NEWS
After beginning our mission on the island of Flores in Indonesia in 2024, we are delighted to have been able to build our first mission house there. Initially, the sisters and three young women who want to join our congregation lived in a small house with the Steyler Missionaries (SVD). Father Tadeusz, a Polish missionary who has lived on the island of Flores for over 60 years and has built many facilities, schools, hospitals, and other institutions there, made this house available to us. He also helped us with the purchase of a plot of land and the construction of our mission station. This enabled the Superior General, Sr. Sybilla, and the Vicar, Sr. Petra, to stay in the newly built house and live with the small community during their visit to Flores from April 1 to 23, 2025.
The house is not large, but the sisters and candidates (there are now four) have their own small living quarters. There is a small chapel, a kitchen, a refectory, and one guest room. The grounds, on the other hand, are quite large, and further buildings are planned in the hope that the small community will grow and young women will want to join us. The sisters grow vegetables on the grounds, which is very helpful for their daily needs.
The sisters are already active in the parish. They help distribute Holy Communion, which is necessary during Sunday services, as the large church is often filled to capacity. Over 90 percent of the population of Flores is Catholic, and the people there take their faith very seriously. After Sunday Mass, the sisters also bring Holy Communion to the sick and elderly, and it is touching to see how much the people look forward to this visit. This has already helped us establish good contacts with the local people. The local residents and the parish are very happy that our congregation has started its mission here, and they are proud of it. They are open and helpful towards the sisters, so we look to the future with hope, trusting deeply that God’s blessing will accompany our small community and enable it to be a blessing for the people of Flores.
Apr 18, 2025 | NEWS
Due to an acute shortage of sisters and the advanced age of the sisters in the German region, the leadership of our congregation was forced to close St. Hedwig Convent in Cochem after 72 years of service by our sisters at this location. At the end, there were only three sisters living in the convent, aged 70, 86, and 94. Two of them were cared for in the residential area of the nursing home.
On March 14, 2025, a festive farewell and thanksgiving service was held in the chapel of the St. Hedwig nursing home to mark this occasion. In addition to the regional superior, Sr. Cordula, the general superior, Sr. Sybilla, and the vicar general, Sr. Petra, also attended. The facility management, many employees, residents and their relatives, the mayor and residents of the town of Cochem also came to express their regret at the departure of the sisters, but also their gratitude for their many years of service. For most people in Cochem, the sisters are an integral part of the townscape and especially of the St. Hedwig nursing home. This makes the farewell so difficult.
At the end of the service, the Superior General thanked the sisters and especially the last Mother Superior of the convent, Sr. Felicitas Pöller, for their faithful and blessed service. She wished her and the other two sisters God’s blessing for their new beginning in a new environment. As a symbol of this, she presented Sr. Felicitas with an icon of an angel with the wish that it would be a good companion for her. The Superior General also thanked all the staff, residents, priests, and friends who have always stood by our sisters with advice and active help during this long period. She said, “Although we are closing the religious community in this house today, our mission does not end. We will remain connected to you in the future and pray for you and this place, so that it may continue to be a place of faith, love, and mutual care.”
After the Mass, a small reception was held for all the sisters and guests, and there was a lively exchange of ideas and many memories of past times were refreshed.
May God’s blessings continue to accompany us all.
Apr 17, 2025 | DAILY BREAD
Maundy Thursday
Readings Exodus 12:1-8,11-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Maundy Thursday is not a mere ritual but a revolution, an eruption of divine love that overturns the logic of the world. In the upper room, Jesus does not simply share bread and wine; He gives His very Body and Blood, instituting the Eucharist as a radical act of deliverance, echoing the Exodus but now leading us from the slavery of sin into the freedom of grace. Like the Israelites, we are called to eat in haste, ready to move, for the Eucharist is food for exiles and pilgrims, not as comfort, but for courage. Courage to walk together with God and one another. At this unique table, God kneels before man, the Master becomes the servant, and power is redefined through humility and sacrifice. In commanding us to “Do this in memory of me,” Christ does not ask for repetition but imitation, a Church that lives the Mass as mission, where every Eucharist fuels a revolution of love against indifference, pride, and injustice. On this night, the altar becomes the front line of self-gift, the chalice and paten the platform where lives are transformed into offerings of love, and we, the Body of Christ, crucified with Him in the Cross, are summoned to follow the Lamb through the Red Sea of His Passion, not as spectators, but as members of His mystical Body in motion. Let’s reflect: What do I really learn from the Altar?
Don Giorgio
Apr 16, 2025 | DAILY BREAD
Wednesday of Holy Week
First reading Isaiah 50:4-9
On this Wednesday of Holy Week, the figure of the Servant of the Lord, as portrayed in Isaiah 50:4–9, invites us to contemplate not only the mission and sufferings of Christ, but also His profound innocence. Unlike the other Servant Songs that emphasize the burden and rejection He carries; this passage reveals the interior strength that comes from sinlessness. “The Lord is coming to my help; who will dare to condemn me?” — these words echo in the heart of the Passion, reminding us that Christ, though betrayed and condemned, stands guiltless before His accusers. His innocence is not a shield from suffering but a quiet source of strength and fidelity. He offers His back to the lashes and His face to the insults, not in weakness, but in serene trust. In the silence of this Holy Week, we are drawn to gaze upon the Lamb who bears no fault, and yet, for our sake, walks the path of unjust condemnation with unwavering love. Let’s reflect: How much I should be grateful to Jesus who is the Son of God and embraces the humiliation to save me?
Don Giorgio
Apr 15, 2025 | DAILY BREAD
Tuesday of Holy Week
First reading Isaiah 49:1-6
On Tuesday of Holy Week, the Church places before us the profound prophecy of Isaiah 49:1–6, in which the figure of the Servant of the Lord is revealed with ever greater clarity. This Servant is not only chosen from the womb and hidden in the shadow of God’s hand but also entrusted with a mission that transcends the boundaries of Israel. He is to be a light to the nations, a bearer of salvation to the ends of the earth. As we accompany Jesus on His final journey toward the Cross, we recognize in Him the true fulfillment of this prophetic vision. The mission of Jesus is marked by rejection, betrayal, and suffering. But Isaiah’s words unveil the deeper reality of these failures. The Servant’s apparent defeat is in fact the path to redemption and glory. Jesus, the eternal Word made flesh, embraces the weariness and discouragement so that He can transform them according to the plan of His Father. In His fidelity unto death, Jesus reveals the heart of the Father’s plan: that through the humiliation of the Cross, He would raise up a fallen world. These words of Isaiah invite us to know more the mission of Christ that the light of Christ shines most brightly through the wounds of love. Let’s reflect: How much am I aware about the profound nature of the path of Cross which Jesus embraced for my salvation?
Don Giorgio
