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 published: 2005-09-27

A luminous star

Monsignor Dr. Reinhard Marx, Bishop of Trier, will visit Metternich on the 50th anniversary of the death of Sister Emilie Engel

 

Jovenes de Chile en la tumba de la Hna Emilie Engel

Youth from Chile at the tomb of Sister Emilie Engel

Jugendliche aus Chile am Grab von Schwester Emilie Engel

Schw. Emilie: dieses Jahr ist ihr 50. Todestag  

Hna Emilie Engel: se celebra el 50° aniversario de su fallecimiento

Sr. Emilie Engel: the 50th anniversary of her death is celebrated this year

Schw. Emilie: dieses Jahr ist ihr 50. Todestag

 
Begegnung mit einem Menschen, der sich ganz dem Vatergott anvertraute  

Encuentro con una hija del Padre...

Meeting a child of the Father...

Begegnung mit einem Menschen, der sich ganz dem Vatergott anvertraute

 
& mit einem Menschen, der Grenzen erfahren hat  

... con alguien que vivió con sus limites

... with someone who had to live with her limitations

… mit einem Menschen, der Grenzen erfahren hat

 
&mit einer Botschaft für heute

... y que tiene un mensaje

... a person with a message and a mission

…mit einer Botschaft für heute

Fotos: Sr. Theres-Marie Maier © 2005

 
   

GERMANY, Sister Theres Marie Maier. It is unusual for the Sisters of Mary who live in Metternich to see youth from Chile before the tomb of Sister Emilie. They simply sit on the floor as close as possible to the tomb. They remained there as if there was a live person around them, someone who they could converse with total confidence. And, in fact, Sister Emilie is alive. She lives through her edifying example and you can always talk with her. Some of the youth wrote whatever they wanted to say to her and they placed the letter on the ground, among the flowers on the sepulcher. The youth feel something of what a Sister, who is 90 years old, could say in a personal encounter: "Emilie always had time. You could always go to her door and speak with her". Another person testifies: "She knew how to listen! And she was always good to me".

"Her life instills respect in me!" said a girl, "Sister Emilie is totally normal and at the same time so big!". Sister Emilie Engel was born in 1893. Her family was profoundly religious and they permitted her to realize her dream: to be a teacher. She found out about Schoenstatt and Father Kentenich by chance in 1921 and she entered the Movement.

On October 1926, Emilie Engel was present at the moment of the founding of the Sisters of Mary. She had left her paternal home, her livelihood was secure and she placed herself totally at the disposal of the new foundation. When she came to Schoenstatt she was young and dynamic. She could get things started. .She taught the novices, she was involved with managing the community and until the end of her life, in 1955, she truly had an almost uninterrupted leadership role in the community of the Sisters.

In 1927, at the start of life in the community, Sister Emilie offered God her willingness to accept all the "sufferings imaginable", so that Schoenstatt would propagate an atmosphere of sanctity throughout the world" (1927)

God accepted her offer to the letter: he gave her all the "sufferings imaginable" and Sister Emilie learned to believe that suffering is a sign of love, a ladder with which God leads one to be close to him. She took the hand of God and she caught a glimpse and experienced his infinite love more and more.

She struggled with the problems of modern man

Her greatest suffering: was an exceptional interior pressure, fear and the feeling of being a failure, were the road to happiness for her. Her way of sanctity is the way of a child toward the Father. But this did not happen from one day to the next.

Her melancholic personality, being profoundly sensitive, always turned her against herself. She painfully experienced a lack of attention, she felt misunderstood, and she struggled with feelings of inferiority. Her interior history reflects the typical tension between the ideal and reality, between conquest and failure.

This became exaggerated when she became ill with tuberculosis. The most painful operations did not give her any relief. She was interned in clinics and sanatoriums for almost four years. She suffered the consequences of this for 20 years, until her death. He exterior beauty diminished. She became curved or crooked and depended on a wheel chair to move around. Finally she also lost her speech and she could only communicate by using a small slate or chalkboard.

The source of her vigor was: "Father, I believe you have chosen me as your favorite daughter from eternity and for all eternity. You have also shown me that I should not make Schoenstatt fruitful through my exterior talents and capabilities, rather through love and sacrifice". (October 1940)

Sister Mary Emilie experienced that the Eternal Father looked at his daughter, he truly loves her and he needs her for great tasks. Her anemic and corporal weakness was not an obstacle for her to follow the way to sanctity; on the contrary, she risked everything and she was transformed into a luminous star.

Many persons will come for the 50th anniversary of her death to receive the benefit of her light. She is still effective today.

Her 50th anniversary celebrated: October 22nd

Sister Emilie’s friends and admirers will recall her departure to heaven next October 22nd in Koblenz – Metternich. She lived her last years there and she is buried in this place. There is news of the arrival of persons from her hometown, of Swabia, of Saar, of Trier and other places of Germany. A pilgrimage from Liebrauenhohe will arrive precisely of the day of the anniversary. The date is already confirmed. The visit of the Bishop of Trier, Monsignor Dr. Reinhard Marx and the Vicar General, Father Dr. Georg Holkenbrink has also been announced.

Does Sister Emilie have something to say to the men of today? Evidently she does, since more that five hundred youth from all the world who participated in the Youth Festival in Schoenstatt, felt it was important to visit Metternich. They were from South Africa, Chile, United States, Hungary, Romania, Austria, Brazil, Spain and Puerto Rico and they were motivated by her to form their lives with the certainty of the love of the Eternal Father.

Translation: Celina M Garza, Harlingen, TX, USA


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