Dec 19, 2020 | FORUM
Jubilee Advent
I have on my desk right in front of my eyes – a picture of the cheerful sister Dulcissima. The smiling God’s handmaid, whom we say is a Child of Grace, barely survived 26 years, or 25 advents. However, not least to say that it was the Silver Advent, it was fortified for her in longing for heaven. Sister Dulcissima was raised by two Advent, spiritual wings. Maranatha! It’s a form of waiting for the birth of the Lord Jesus, and a great longing to meet with Christ coming in glory. Yes! Sister Dulcissima in Advent she waited for Eternity.
All those I have to leave, do not be afraid of death, for life eternal awaits. (…) Just don’t forget to pray that I may also bring you there where God is happy. What a joy to see that I am going to meet Him! In a letter of December 15 to Mother General Clotilde Mende, confirms this fact to the sister who took care of her, sister superior, Lazaria Stefanik, when she writes: (…). Sr. M. Dulcissima longs for heaven very much and constantly asks St. Teresa, to help her go to Jesus. Sometimes he endures suffering that is impossible for human beings and yet helps us at home.
Green glasses
The time Sr. Dulcissima was waiting for Christmas was also struggling with disease. Advent of 1933 is a time when our sister’s eyesight deteriorated. Because of this she started seeing less and less, and this caused limited possibilities in her independent movement. Then she put on green glasses to ease the head pain, and in her heart she contemplated Jesus and waited for the moment when she will see him face to face . The sister lived with hope, looked with hope, loved the present moment in hope to meetHim in eternity. It is hope that increased her desire to be joyful to meet with Jesus in her heart.
Violet days
The terrible suffering of Advent 1934 was offered for the Congregation of the Sisters of Mary Immaculate and her superiors. In prayer, she also remembered priests and the souls in Purgatory. Apparently her sufferings were very strong and severe, as mentioned on December 8 in a letter to superior, Sr. Maria Lazaria,in December adds: More and more the Savior is demanding from Sr. M. Dulcissima. The pain is gradually increasing. There will come great riots. In one country, in other country persecution will stop (…) Sister Dulcissima had a cry for help which she couldn’t forget. He saw priests and religious who were imprisoned by their enemies. Imploringly asks for help for these people. We should also be helped if they treat us like this. As nuns, we can pray, offer a lot, collect merit and give them to others. The world hangs in a thread and that hair is the sacrificial soul. For Sister Dulcissima, the next Advent of 1935 is an experience of abandonment by a spiritual friend, Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus, who had promoted so much to her, now she does not come to her throughout Advent. This is how it allowed sister Dulcissima to go her own way to the children of Bethlehem.
They intensified that there was pain in the heart and spasmodic crying day and night, and so on for three and a half weeks – almost no sleep. God’s handmaid became like helpless, little child, not only in speech, but also in all her behavior. The glow of the Star of Bethlehem While waiting for the Nativity of the Lord, Servant of God, sister Maria Dulcissima Hoffmann pleaded for the grace of hope, looked with hope, and bore hope within herself. With hope it is more than optimism. It is the way of living and giving. It is the bridge between faith and love. Let God shake us by the surprising newness of the Light He will reveal.
Let the question of the Bride of the Cross about Advent’s hope lead us to celebrating Christmas in the light of the star of Bethlehem. Let us be guided by the words of the Sister who was sanctified in her religious life: Soon there will be a Christmas celebration. What does Christmas mean for a soul? Christmas means: the coming, the birth of Jesus Christ in our Souls. Your heart should also already be adorned with graces of Holy Communion because he will also knock on you and ask for entrance. What do we want Him to give? What treasure of grace and cross he will bring us? As God wills, yes should! Just have the courage and think often: I want, I must and I can be a saint! Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus! And when Christmas comes, according to Sister Dulcissima’s words: Let us often approach the Blessed Sacrament and take a lot of treasures, strength and courage for the New Year. We will receive everything there: trust in God and submit to God’s Will.
S. M. Małgorzata Cur SMI
Dec 3, 2020 | FORUM
LOGGED IN JESUS
Helena Hoffmann, who from childhood, certainly loved God she cared for the construction of an internal chapel. God saw her deep searches and intimate desires of her heart, he perceived the longing and urgent readiness to become a religious sister. Helena’s piety and the fact that she was willing to spend time for prayer that she valued the sacraments, and above all that she often participated in the Eucharist and had a passion for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, carved in her heart the space and desire to serve God. Undoubtedly such sincere child’s trust made Heavenly Father happy!
For this simplicity, God responded with trust to the child and bestowed many favors on Helena. I don’t think she was expecting it herself. On Trinity Sunday in 1925 in front of the altar she asked for a religious vocation. And to the Congregation of the Sisters of Mary Immaculate she joined in 1927, although her parents were not thrilled with her decision. Helena, however knew what she wanted. She wanted to make Jesus happy: to build an inner chapel, to save souls – these are the urges born of the Holy Spirit. It’s Jesus who calls me to the victim, she said Mary Immaculate.
Helena, gifted with the charism of prayer and guided by God’s grace, entered Marian congregation, which from the very beginning aimed at saving girls and women against spiritual, moral and material poverty. It is Mother of God, Fr. John Schneider, founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of Mary Immaculate (Congregatio Sororum Mariae Immaculatae – SMI), entrusted the work created as a gift of the Holy Spirit to Church and in the Church. She who crushes the head of the serpent (cf. Gen 3:15) – Mary Immaculate became the main patron of this Congregation. Servant of God in Mary who believed the Word of God and was the first man to be in the center of the fight against evil, he saw help and Defense. After all, it is she who stands up to fight for the soul that Satan does today still tempts to enslave her.
Mary’s sister
Sister Dulcissima often talked to Mary, she knew that she could stand this way get rich for eternity. She was listened to the request of Father Schneider, who said that the sisters of Mary should imitate Our Lady with humility and love, and sacrifice themselves for the most abandoned souls. Obedient, she entrusted not only to Mary during her life her affairs, but she offered herself and continues to intercede: Receive the sacrifice, Mary, a treasury of graces and give souls everything they need: love, love, a thousand times love!
1st degree of specialization: Saving Souls
The charism of the Congregation and the call of Fr. John Schneider: Help save souls, it very quickly became Sister Dulcissima’s first concern. Saving souls that they stood over gaps that were experiencing a collapse of spirit. Saving the souls of priests, who have embraced the world spirit, the lukewarm souls of consecrated and lost people, children and adolescents, sick people, educators, sinners, souls in Purgatory … –
it is a wide range of intentions that have become the object of prayer and sacrifice of the Handmaid of God. Sister Dulcissima, reading her call, not only made an effort realization of the charism of the Congregation, which lived it fully and the vitality of this gift it continues to delight radiating it to this day.
24/7 care
On the bet by Fr. John Schneider asked: What deed can be nobler and more beautiful than helping to save and win souls? Sister Dulcissima responds positively, winning, saving and supporting hers today a silent presence before God of all who ask her for help. And no intentions
missing. Some of them are:
Thank you for directing my prayers to Sr. Dulcissima. I have contact with her every day, and I also invite her to visit her every day Pompeian rosary (Andrew)
I am asking for effective protection against all visible and invisible evil.
I am asking for prayer, for deliverance from all evil. I am asking for all needed graces and abundance of graces (Sylvia).
Sister Maria Dulcissima, pray for us, ask for the favors we need God in our families and our homeland (veronica).
For the grace of freeing the house from the influence of the evil one. God bless you (Sophia).
I am asking for your prayers for the release of my husband Paweł from pornography. God I pray! (Gosia).
Through the intercession of B. S.M. Dulcissima, our Helena zgoda, please Lord, for the protection and protection of the entire parish of St. Josef on the Consensus. Surround under the care of the vicar priest of our altar boys and all children Concord, give mercy to all the sick and grant them grace healings, extend your merciful hand over sinners them to convert. Bless our families, parish communities and to all those who pray for our parish, protect us in this difficult situation during the epidemic. Finally, together with Sister Dulcissima, I am asking you for my recovery (Pastor of Concord).
Sister Dulcissima, pray for all the sick who suffer pandemic give them strength to overcome this disease in you I hope (Teresa).
Prayer
I come to you, my sister Dulcissima, to ask for advice and help.
You were always in a hurry to help other people. You carried their burdens and
you led them to heaven. I know that my request will be heard by you,
therefore I am asking you with confidence, obtain for me God’s grace … and lead me straight road to Heaven. Amen.
Sr. Maria Małgorzata Cur SMI
Nov 23, 2020 | FORUM
A gift out of this world.
A wonderful medal that we receive when making our first religious vows is not only a sign of belonging to the Congregation of Mary Immaculate, but it is also an expression of our dedication to God in imitation of Mary. Can it therefore be concluded that the miraculous medal is a spiritual gift from Mary, offered to the brave women who want to express their ‘fiat mihi secundum verbum Tuum’ in their lives (Luke 1:38)? Certainly! The guarantee is the assurance that the Mother of God has given st. Catherine Labouré, revealing to her this sign of its strange presence: All who wear this medal will enjoy great favors, especially if they wear it around their necks. For those who trust in me I will grant many graces. The power of calling Helena Joanna Hoffmann, a real Silesian, boldly crosses our thresholds Congregation with a living desire to imitate Mary and be like her. Helena, as a novice, was given the name Maria Dulcissima, and when she made the first vows, as a sister of Mary Immaculate, she received a miraculous medal of her image. The desire to “be like Mary” is nurtured in prayer, where she asks, that Mary would mold her soul like the joyful song of thanksgiving “Magnificat” (Luke 1: 46-55). Miraculous medal of Sister Maria Dulcisisma has established herself as the one who carries Jesus, who – how Mary – quietly serves the gift of prayer. Her prayer changes a lot, it becomes a source of joy, it smells of the greatness of God’s Mercy and contributes to many changes in life attitudes, but also healings. In Brzezie nad Odrą, in the place where she spent her last years of service, she is called the “Angel of Goodness”. By visiting Brzezie families with their guardian, Sister Maria Lazaria Stefania, the superior, it brought faith and kindled hope where the experience of illness weakened love and trust in God. Today I still see how Sister Dulcissima came to us with Sister Lazaria. she was leaning with one hand on Sister Lazaria and with the other hand under her arm “Wooden scepter” Sister Dulcissima made signs of crosses on our foreheads and she blessed – remembers Kazimierz. ‘In the sixteenth week of pregnancy, I was diagnosed that I would give birth to a boy with a big severe heart defect. The doctors’ prognosis was not favorable. Then my grandmother gave me a wonderful medal from Sister Maria Dulcissima, which I wore until the day of delivery. At that time, I only asked my sister for strength in this difficult trial, and the suffering I experienced, I offered for the intention of my son – confesses Grażyna’. Medals and many other memorable belongings to Sister Maria Dulcissima, people brought and still bring to the Memorial Chamber of the community in Brzezie. One of the oldest female residents of Brzezie, Mrs. Lucy Bugdol (95), tells about Fr. The “extraordinary visit” of God’s handmaid in their home: Dulcissima used to visit her mother and little sister Teresa. She said that she would be a spiritual mother for her and she gave Teresa a medal. I have this precious medal. It’s a relic. ABOUT! As in many families, even in hospitals, I always borrow as soon as someone asks, but I have to be sure that she will come back to me when it fulfills its purpose. I already told my [relatives] to give it to the monastery when I die. In this way, the miraculous medal, a precious family heirloom, travels through the families of Brzezie on the Oder. Passed from hand to hand, it enlivens and strengthens her love for Mary’s presence in so many homes. And the prayer of Sister Maria Dulcissima continues:
Dear Mother of God, You must lead souls to the Savior. You know the best you can get started and how you can get it. I am sure that it is also thanks to the conviction in the effectiveness of intercessory prayer of Sister Maria Dulcissima, the promise of the Immaculate is fulfilled, which pours graces on all people who ask her for it. Let the cry bear its fruit:
O Mary, conceived without original sin, pray for us who have recourse to You, which rises in our hearts to Heaven and is repeated at the request of the Mother of God countless times by Christians around the world! May the request of Sister Maria Dulcissima be granted: Mary, You are our Advocate and Comforter, do everything well and lead us through the darkness to the eternal light!
Sister Maria Małgorzata Cur SMI
Nov 12, 2020 | FORUM
This simple November question that opens the conversation with God can be posed by looking at the resting place of our servant of God, sister Dulcissima Hoffmann.
Dozens of lamps, fresh flowers – all this testifies to the vivid memory of my sister, who was only three years old here in Brzezie. How many people stand at her mortal resting place here and now, brought by a hope that is sustained from generation to generation and never goes out. The sister is here and now.
This conviction, very vivid, brings the faithful to this place from near and far. Really many people stand in front of her tomb in person, regardless of the time of day or night. We receive a lot of e-mail messages, phone calls and prayer requests, which allows our community to be in the “Dulcissima Prayer Emergency”. And people write and share their experiences:
It often happens that the impulse to come to Sr. Dulcissima is an article in a newspaper, a heard testimony or even a random conversation.
I AM ASKING FOR HELP… In praying for a MIRACLE OF HEALING for Ahimek’s father… PLEASE… He is in the intensive care unit in Czeladź .. And we cannot be with him. My heart is breaking (Dagmara).
I would like to ask you for a novena prayer through the intercession of Sr. Dulcissima for the grace of healing for Isabella who is seriously ill and who is in a coma in a hospital. I live in Germany (Isabella).
Forgive me for my mistakes in Polish because of my polish writing difficulties… I am asking for prayer and a scrap of material touched on the Sister’s grave (Martin from Brazil).
I had to come here. I dreamed of S. Dulcissima and she assured me that she would take care of me (Emilia from Belgium).
Where is Sr. Dulcissima?
Close to God who, in his goodness, uses the person of God’s handmaiden to bring to himself souls seeking and thirsting for grace.
Lord, the deaf regain their hearing and the blind eyesight, no one has yet left unheard of from the tomb of your servant. And do not despise my prayer, but deign to hear it. Amen.
Where is Sr. Dulcissima?
She herself betrays the desire and confidence of heaven, clearly naming her expectations: See you in heaven! I am happy to go to my Father’s house and I still want to help.
It is worth making friends with Sister Dulcissima, who is here and now, close to God and still willing to help.
Prayer:
I come to you, my sister Dulcissima, to ask you for advice and help. You were always in a hurry to help other people. You carried their burdens and led them to Heaven. I know that you will hear my request, therefore I am asking you with confidence, obtain for me God’s grace … and lead me on a straight path to Heaven. Amen.
In the Brzezie religious community, we pray a novena every day through the intercession of the servant of God, Sr. Maria Dulcissima Hoffmann, including all the intentions entrusted to us.
I invite you to pray together with a novena.
Dear Sister, Dear Brother!
You can pray the novena and ask for the intercession of the servant of God, Sister Maria Dulcissima Hoffmann, directly from your tablet or smartphone. You can find the application on Google Play at: dulcissima.pl:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=xyz.appmaker.kknxod&hl=pl
Sr. Maria Małgorzata Cur
Sep 27, 2020 | FORUM
This book by Joan Chittister, an American Benedictine nun, is a provocative book, which wants to shake up, awake and restless. The author deals with the problems of the Church, orders and spiritual communities of today because they are diverging and looking for new ones. It is not always easy to bear reading this book and I have sometimes found myself as described in the foreword: “The gesture of” angry-laying-out-of-hand, the-in-the-corner- throwing can be entirely appropriate to this reading. “But I didn’t do it, I read it to the end and I’m grateful for it to this day because while reading this book, it is becoming increasingly clear: The author is not writing the book to criticize, complain or to blame. It is characterized by high esteem for religious life and looking for ways to rid it of incrustations and indurations and create new, lively ones to find life forms. The book literally breathes the author’s love for religious life: “… it is about the godly burning passion that is required to form a present of religious life to find that between the cherished old and the emerging new, which paves new paths and develops in a world that is the turning point in history is shaken by constant change. ”
It is not easy to write a review of this book because every page is filled with this passion. Therefore we think it is good to also think about it in sections which we will send you gradually.
So I would like to invite you in this first article, together with the author, to seek the meaning and mission of medals. For Sr. Joan, the most essential option for emergence is and the reason for orders in the search for God. She writes: “In truth it has never given a good reason to enter religious life at all, except ‘for looking to God ‘.” In this context, she describes clearly and critically the situation of the orders and Congregations of our time and goes into historical contexts and developments and the influence of the Church and society. She clearly sees that what was meaningful and necessary in the beginning of the formation of communities is often only today is still preserving tradition and sticking to the familiar.
Most of us entered the congregation when religious life was primarily shaped of apostolic activity, self-sacrificing service, and common prayer as a strict daily structure. That was all well and good at the time, but here the development of society is probably outdated. Sr. Joan writes: “The spirituality of productivity is over.”. And elsewhere: “If our main interest is in the work, the religious do, the religious life itself is consequently questioned as soon as their work – out of which whatever reason – becomes less important. ”Whereas in the past, medals went to the places where the State failed, i.e. to the sick, the elderly, the disabled, the poor, the dying, etc., the Society caught up a lot here. The pioneering work of the orders is done and now they are “as that needs what they should always be: a spiritual voice, a sign of a counterculture, a prophetic presence in culture. “At this point it is slowly becoming clear why the author uses the title “Under the ashes a secret fire” for her book. The image of fire and ashes reappearson. She herself is completely fulfilled, yes burns from this inner fire, but she experiences it.
Religious communities often as groups that are internally extinguished and now only ashes preserve. And now it is up to us to keep the embers and rekindle the fire. But how? Sr. Joan warns, “If the fire is to be saved for another generation, it must keep the voice of God alive in religious life in this time.. ”And that is today, in one largely secularized and indifferent to religious life, often not light. On the one hand, it demands from us an intensive spiritual search, deepening in that Gospel, but at the same time, and that is the other side, a translation and transmission of the words and texts of Holy Scripture in the lives of people today. And it demands one dealing with the problems of people today, who are often so different than they were before 30 years ago. Our actions, our reactions and answers must be different. There are no ready-made, permanent solutions, everything is changing and in constant change.Also and especially religious life. Because if the external forms and circumstances also change, our inner mission always remains the same! And that is why religious are there at all times called to be prophets, i.e. the present with all its needs and problems in the light to see God and from this point of view to offer answers and solutions, often are not understood, ridiculed or even fought. But the world is waiting for it and she also expects from us: “The task of religious life … is to translate the great questions of life in the language of all areas of life … Is religious life itself religious enough to get you back to the gospel instead of going to the institutions focus, which certainly characterized it most in the past, but in this new era anchored elsewhere and are more part of the culture than acting prophetically towards it.”
(to be continued….)
Sr.M. Petra Ladig
