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 published: 2006-03-15

The End Crowns the Work

Celebrating the Centennial Birthday of a Schoenstatt Hero, Gilbert Schimmel

 

Gilbert Schimmel con el Padre Kentenich

Gilbert Schimmel with Father Kentenich

Gilbert Schimmel mit Pater Kentenich

 

Poema sobre Gilbert Schimmel – con firma del Padre Kentenich: Segundo José Engling para USA

A poem on Gilbert Schimmel, with Father Kentenich’s signatura: Second Joseph Engling for USA

Ein Gedicht über Gilbert Schimmel, unterschrieben von Pater Kentenichs mit: Zweiter Josef Engling für USA

Fotos: Jentz/Archives © 2006

 
   

USA, Christi Jentz. Gilbert Schimmel has been described as Schoenstatt’s Apostle. The Schoenstatt Boys groups pray for his intercession when they say to our MTA, "Like Gilbert do the works you bid." If John Pozzobon was Mary’s donkey then it is most appropriate to call Gilbert "Mary’s Fisherman." Although he died in 1959, his spirit lives on in the memory of the older generation and he wants to capture the hearts of newer members too.

It was the providence of God that linked Gilbert’s and Father Kentenich’s lives together. Gilbert, along with his dear wife, Joanna, first met Father Kentenich in 1954 before the shrine at Holy Cross parish (Milwaukee) was finished. The Schimmels brought other couples to Father Kentenich. Those couples eventually founded the family branch in Milwaukee. Just think, God used that first contact as a starting point from which could develop the "Monday night talks," the home shrine, the International Schoenstatt Center, and all the other Schoenstatt traditions would not have happened! Mrs. Eleanor Yank remarked, "We say we stand on his [Gilbert’s] shoulders in the Family Institute. That was the founding of the family work. They [the Schimmel’s] were deeply convinced it was God’s and the MTA’s will, but it was heroic… what they did." He and other founding members were heroic because, "They were just alone in the beginning and not all were convinced." Sometimes religious, friends, and even family did not visualize the great plan Our Lady had in store for the Schoenstatt Movement in the United States. The couples found opposition, but they were determined to stay the course. As for Gilbert, he served Father Kentenich tirelessly. He said he would do anything for Father. He even drove Father to Madison with Joanna once a week in the beginning!

A second Joseph Engling

It didn’t take Gilbert too long before he realized the tremendous task that lay ahead for Schoenstatt. He absorbed the message so much so that even Father Kentenich was quoted as saying that Gilbert, like Joseph Engling, completely understood Schoenstatt from the very beginning. This led Gilbert to a Joseph Engling consecration, one he made privately, but which was eventually revealed to the others after his terminal cancer became apparent. Mrs. Yank remembers vividly that they had met for a Monday night talk at the Movement House just days after Gilbert’s stomach surgery. Mrs. Yank walked in on the tail end of Mrs. Schimmel’s conversation with the others. They were talking about Gilbert’s condition. She told them how Gilbert said he didn’t take anything back of his life offering. Mrs. Schimmel told them, "My heart is broken, but I am so happy!" I asked Mrs. Yank what she thought he meant by "he didn’t take anything back." She said, "His attitude. That he takes nothing back meant that he must have given all for the Family Movement." I asked, "What did he understand to be the Family Movement?" She replied, "I think he meant it for all of Schoenstatt, because he wanted to be a second Joseph Engling."

The 100th birthday of Gilbert Schimmel is celebrated in Milwaukee on June 10, 2006.

From: Schoenstatt Family Magazine, USA


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