Building the Women of God: MCCW Europe Conference in Schoenstatt

Sr. M. Margarite. The MCCW Europe Conference is the annual meeting of the women who belong to the Military Council of Catholic Women who are stationed on United States Military facilities throughout Europe. This year the conference was hosted in the Marienland Conference Center on Mount Schoenstatt. A total of 94 participants were part of the conference, coming from a total of 19 chapel communities located in Belgium, England, Germany, Holland and Italy.

Among the guest speakers who addressed the women during the conference was Auxiliary Bishop F. Richard Spencer, who was ordained a bishop on September 8, 2010 for the Archdiocese for Military Services, USA. The main speaker of the conference was Anne Trufant, social worker, song writer and singer, wife and mother of 7 children, who together with her husband runs two Christian summer camps in North Carolina. She was also the main speaker at the worldwide conference of the MCCW this year in Baltimore.

The need to be evangelizers for our times

The conference helped our military women become newly and acutely aware of the need to be evangelizers for our times. The world around us is dying because faith is lacking and new generations have not come to know the God of Love and Life. It takes radical trust in God to be an evangelizer. To follow this call does not mean that all suffering and confusion will be taken away. But we will come to know God as the Faithful One, who is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. We are challenged to leave “the upper room” of comfort and of thinking that they cannot make a difference. Our true identity is Christ, and his Gospel needs to be set upon lamp stands in order to guide our world of today and tomorrow. The women were also made aware that military conflicts are not just about politics: those who are serving their countries in conflict zones are also experiencing and are affected by a very strong spiritual warfare. Evil is a reality and is doing much harm to those in military service.

Women of God are therefore called to make the Gospel story come alive at home, in our communities, wherever they are. Radical trust needs to be accompanied with authenticity: the way we live should reflect what we believe in and hope for. When in the spirit of faith we do little things with great love, we build the kingdom of God.

Eucharistic Adoration

A highlight of the conference was Eucharistic adoration in the Adoration Church. It was a very intense time of prayer, in which the sacrament of reconciliation was also offered. Many of the ladies remarked that the church was filled with a heavenly atmosphere, which was enhanced with the singing of the Sisters choir and of Anne Trufant. This time of prayer was concluded with a procession with the Blessed Sacrament from the Adoration Church to the house chapel of Marienland, where the Blessed Sacrament remained exposed throughout the night until holy Mass the next morning.

Illuminated Rosary

On another evening the conference prayed an illuminated rosary in the house chapel of Marienland – each bead of the rosary was accompanied with a special prayer intention, after which a vigil light was lit and a rose was brought forward as we prayed. We had more intentions than beads! We experienced once again that when faced with great challenges and needs, our best weapon continues being prayer.

Some of the fruits of the conference are that one of the women sealed a private covenant of love with the Mother Thrice Admirable in her Shrine on the morning before she would go home again, and that many of the women responded positively to the invitation to bring the atmosphere they experience in Schoenstatt home with them, giving Our Lady a special place in their homes. We look forward to seeing the MCCW-Europe in Schoenstatt again!