Hna. M. Elizabet Parodi. “Something that always impressed me on visits to the monasteries of Mount Athos is that, upon arrival, the first thing which they offered a guest of honor was to visit the chapel of the relics of the saints. There is where the heart of the monastery beats and there the monks receive the incentive for their spiritual growth.”(Cardinal Angelo Amato, words addressed to the postulators, Augustinianum, Rome, January 19, 2012.)This comment by Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, expresses a profound truth. The saints are the ripe fruit of a community, the living face of its charism. On the journey towards the Jubilee of 2014, the witness of so many Schoenstatt children who throughout these 100 years of history have lived the covenant with radicalism and made the Shrine their “cradle of sanctity” (Founding Document, October 18, 1914), is the best gift we can give to God, to the Church, to the world.
On May 10, God confirmed us on this way: the Holy Father promulgated the decree of heroic virtues of Sister Emilie Engel.
In a process of beatification there are two key moments: the arrival at the moral certainty by the Church regarding the sanctity of a person and, and, so to speak, “the divine confirmation” of the verdict which is manifested by a miracle implored through the intercession of the Venerable.
The process of Emilie Engel has reached the first step: the promulgation of the decree of heroic virtues expresses the judgment of the Church regarding the holiness of her life. This is an event which fills the community of the Sisters of Mary and our entire Schoenstatt Family with pride and joy.
Radiating the Covenant Culture
Our Schoenstatt Family has prioritized some areas wherein, on an international level, we want to make our concrete contribution to mold and realize the culture of the covenant. With the decree of heroic virtue of Emilie Engel, the Church herself, so to say, confirms the “how”, the first and most decisive way to mold the culture of the covenant: by radiation of life.
From a wheelchair, in the transparency of a smile which crowned her body deformed by disease, in the serenity of a life of love and pain that rests in the hands of God the Father, Sister Emilie is a woman who opens a path in the Church so that the culture of the covenant is seen as a way of holiness.
Her example inspires us to open spaces in our lives for the wonderful work of God from the most genuine sources of our spirituality. A teacher by profession and a “true daughter of Schoenstatt” by vocation – as she was characterized by Father Kentenich – she is willing to help us direct our lives to what is essential, to put it in God’s hands, to “free people from their fears and anxieties in order to shelter them in God’s fatherly heart” (Father Kentenich); she is willing to help us make of the covenant with the MTA our one great love and through this covenant to generate culture, via the radiation of life.
The Blessed of 2014?
Certainly Sister Emilie is not the only Servant of God who has lived out of the covenant of love with the MTA, and whose process is already in the Roman phase. But to make her known, imploring her intercession, are concrete ways to promote the processes of all other Schoenstatt children, also that of our Founder: at present hers is the most advanced cause and, therefore, the one which allows us most to present our spirituality as a way of holiness in the Church. Why not join in prayer all over the world, begging for a miracle through her intercession? Why not wish her to be Schoenstatt’s blessed for the year 2014? Inspired by her life and imploring her intercession would be a sign of solidarity with those who preceded us on this way, with the heroes of our great family. One way to together express the desire to give the Shrine as the “cradle of holiness” for all those who want to live and realize the culture of the covenant.
Sister Elizabet Parodi (works in the Vatican in the Congregation for the Causes of Saints)
Translation: Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary
I pray she can be blessed in 2014 we will keep praying for her
Thank you so much Sr. Elisabeth for your beautiful reflection on this important step in the process for the beatification of Sr. Emilie, a daughter of the Father and the Covenant of Love.
It is beautiful to see how the Church, through our “saints” and our apostolic work, has adopted our charismatic contribution, our Covenant of Love and its expression into a covenant culture. Each one according to his vocation and united as Family of the Father. Sr. Emilie through “irradiation” – a beautiful expression – others by looking at the signs of the times and offering deeds of love that also radiate this same sanctity, as St. John tells us: “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. This is how we know that we belong to the truth.” (1 Jn 3:18-19)
Congratulations to the entire Covenant of Love Family, and especially the Sisters of Mary, for this daughter who goes out and brings us all a little closer to the heart of the Church and society.