Franziska Notes November 2011

Anyone who has had the good fortune of visiting the lovely Bavarian town of Edling in the summer and contemplated the golden barley fields shining in the sun while red poppies and blue cornflowers danced with the distant Alps lending a contrasting purple haze, cannot doubt that little Fanny was nurtured by beauty. All her life she cultivated joy in herself and in the women who joined her mission. She knew that the good news of Jesus, which would lift up the sad and discouraged, that would strengthen the weak and encourage service and love of neighbor must be delivered with joy. No one will be attracted to the good news of the Gospel if its messenger is dour, depressing and proclaiming only restrictions and deprivation.
How do we find and cultivate joy in ourselves so that we can become a blessing to others? St. Paul in the letter to the Phillipians (Phil 4:4-9) tells us to rejoice and then instructs us how. We are to fill our eyes and thoughts with all that is true, noble, right and lovely. Today, modern media presents us with thousands of choices, but this demands discernment and responsibility. What kind of film, television, music and art do we support by our attention and money? Everything that enters our eyes and thought contributes to who we become. Our language and manners will subtly change according to these choices. Will we be gentle and kind, or bitter and cynical?
Mother Franziska, sending her sisters through the far reaches of the Empire to collect alms for their works, told the sisters to take time to see the noted sites in the places they stayed. They visited museums and beautiful baroque and gothic churches and saw unique formations of nature in the countries of Europe.
We have access to so much. We can ask the Holy Spirit to lead us to all that is good, true, beautiful and loving – the attributes of the Blessed Trinity made visible in Jesus. We can almost hear Mother Franziska say, “Your brain cells are too precious to waste on trash”.

Franziska Notes October 2011

As the gloomy days of Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere and the gloomy news world wide threatens to depress our spirits it is time to look again at the gift of joy. Mother Franziska had her share of setbacks, sufferings, failures and disappointments and yet she marveled in one of her letters that she was considered a joyful person. She would not have had such a large following in her lifetime if she had been a “gloomy gussy”.
True joy is a gift of the Holy Spirit… the world can bestow only momentary pleasure and sometimes even a passing happiness. The joy that we read about in Scripture is independent of outward circumstances. It comes from trusting the revealed truth that we are the children of an unconditionally loving and forgiving God. In the darkest moments Mother Franziska went to the tabernacle and cried her heart out to the Jesus present there. She tells us she always came away with renewed courage, peace, and yes, joy. How could that be? Can we imagine Jesus asking in her heart, “Do you love me?” As she answered “yes”, she could feel His loving smile and she knew that she was successful in the one thing necessary for her personal life and for the role God had given her… loving God with all her strength and being.
This is her heritage to her spiritual daughters and to all who are interested in her charism. Joy is the gift that comes from trusting in the love Jesus has for us and in His power to use us for the glory of His kingdom on earth in spite of our weakness and faults. We celebrate the great saints and the hidden saints in our own congregation and in our families. They became holy because they were not satisfied with passing pleasure and fleeting happiness. While they suffered adversity and enjoyed the beautiful gifts of this world, they never neglected to turn to Jesus and to respond to His question, “Do you love me?” with their own smiling or tearful “yes”.

FRANZISKA NOTES September 2011

No.8/9 September 2011

During this month we will be celebrating Mother Franziska’s charism in a unique and special way. On September 24 five of her spiritual daughters will be beatified in Sarajevo. The Drina Martyrs were kidnapped by partisans and marched through the winter forests of the Balkans. Along the way, they could have abandoned their religious calling and become simple camp followers serving the needs of these lawless bandits. They remained steadfast in their suffering and were finally imprisoned in a house near the river Drina. As the drunken men plotted to rape the sisters they escaped by leaping from an upper-floor window suffering great injury and eventually death by the daggers of the enraged militants.
In our Foundress’ day The prevailing thought was that people would live and die on the social level into which they were born. Simply through an unshakeable faith in the love of God for all his children, she, a peasant girl from a small village became friend of royalty, comfortable conversing with those at the pinnacle of the social strata. She was convinced that anyone could better their lot by education and hard work. She and her followers set out to serve the poor as a return to Jesus’ love for all humanity,
In our time the justified struggle for women’s rights has sometimes become a terrible perversion that degrades and abuses women in a measure hardly known in history. In God’s eyes women are by their nature sacred with a special mission to cooperate wth God in bringing forth new life and nurturing it for its glorious destiny. There is a deception that we see in our media where admiration of “beautiful people” is in reality a degradation and exploitation. Women are even told that they have the right to destroy the life within them. We pray and work that all women and girls become aware of their true dignity and surpassing beauty at each stage of life.

Biography of Sister M. Christopher Cxorba, FDC

Biography

Sister M. Christopher (Rose) Csorba, FDC St. Joseph Province

Born: August 9, 1923 Trenton, NJ
Entered: September 2, 1940 Arrochar, Staten Island, NY
Reception: August 28, 1942 Arrochar, Staten Island, NY
First Profession: August 28, 1944 Arrochar, Staten Island, NY Perpetual Profession: August 15, 1950 Arrochar, Staten Island, NY
Died: August 21, 2011 Eger Nursing Home, Staten Island, NY

I burst upon the scene for my earthly life on August 9, 1923. Born to Mary Stadler (1886-1944) and Joseph Csorba (1884-1976) in Trenton, NJ. I was the tenth of thirteen children, seven giris and six boys. I was baptized in St. Stephen's Church, receiving First Communion on April 12, 1931. Father Szabo was pastor. I was confirmed on April 22, 1936 by Bishop Moses E. Kiley.
I received my Elementary Education from the Daughters of Divine Charity at St. Stephen's School. My High School was at Junior High #4 and Trenton Central High. During Elementary School I learned to love the Daughters of Divine Charity, helping with Convent chores.
I was a typical naughty child participating in fun and games of children at that time. I was a member of the Guardian Angels and Sodality of Mary. I was a frequent Communicant in grade school. Walking to Trenton Central High I often made visits to the Blessed Sacrament at Immaculate Conception Church.
When faced with matriculation to College, I begged my parents to enter the Congregation of Daughters of Divine Charity. My mother with the generous aid of Sr. Genevieve lovingly prepared my dowry. I entered the Congregation on September 2, 1940. I was received on August 28, 1942. My first profession was on August 28, 1944. Final profession was August 15, 1950. My first assignment was sixth grade at Arrochar in 1943-44. Summer 1944 I was in the Novitiate. I taught fourth grade in 1944-45. In 1945-49 I taught grades six and seven in Arrochar. Summers I spent at Fordham University and St. Mary's in NY.
In 1949 I began teaching High School. Summer was probation time. From 1950­1960 I taught in High School and worked with boarders and spent summers studying at Fordham University and St. Mary's in NY. The summer of 1960 I spent in Old Bridge in CCD. In 1960-61 I taught grades seven and eight in Gary, Indiana. During the summer I was in Briarbank. 1960-61 saw me in South Bend, Indiana and summer in St. Mary's Residence in Detroit.

From 1962-1990 I was on the St. Joseph Hill Academy High School faculty and helping to conduct and moderate school activities such as Student Council, Swim Team, Basketball Team, Track, Math Team, Cheerleaders, evaluation of several High Schools for Middle States accreditation. I spent some summers using government sponsored National Scienc.e Foundation grants at Villanova University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Wyoming University and Yeshiva University. I also celebrated my Silver Jubilee in 1969 and toured Europe for several weeks as a gift of SJHA and a one-week cruise to Bermuda. Also with stipends from NSF I saw scenic and historical sites of the United States. One summer along with Sr. Albert in conjunction with interviewing Irish teachers for SJHA I was fortunate to visit Ireland for two weeks.
In 1990 I was appointed co-treasurer of St. Joseph Province with Sr. Albert. I retired in 1992 and spent a year in San Diego. In 1993-1999 I was assigned to Fontana, CA as a Eucharistic Minister to the sick, and two years as Superior in Fontana (1997-99). During this time I had angioplasty and colon cancer operation with a years chemotherapy at Lenox Hospital while residing in St. Mary's in NY. July 1999 saw me back at St. Joseph Hill Convent in Arrochar.
My acknowledgement of gratitude to my parents, brothers, and sisters, especially Lou, Pete, Vema and Elizabeth, Sisters Amabilis, Rita, Dolora, Jerome, Leonore, Albert, Charlotte, Mother ,Kostka and Mother Margaret, Marianne Bilyck, Kathleen Moore, Ginny Rober, Rita Boggs, Pat Karnatski, Marie Stewart, Virginia Stumer, Brother Gus, Father Henry, Sr. Bernadette Kenny, Dr. Collette Spacavieto, Dr. Chen, and Marian
Fitzsimmons. -
After my stay at Fontana, when the Convent closed in 1999, I was assigned to St.
Joseph Convent, Arrochar. Here I have spent time at rehab for poor walking procedure. Holy year, 2000, was a glorious, prayerful and grace-filled year. It is now July 2001 and I am at Carmel Richmond Nursing Home for therapy in my walk - discharged July 19, 2001.
When I shall depart this earthly life only God knows. Having kept myself for Jesus alone I run to meet my spouse. Forgiving and forgiven I look forward to join Mary, Joseph, all the saints and angels with my parents, relatives, friends and benefactor in glorifying and praising the Blessed Trinity for all eternity.
Amen. (signature on original)
Sr. M. Christopher Csorba, FDC
Feb. 11, 1903




With great affection we finish Sister Christopher’s story of her earthly pilgrimage. All over Staten Island and the United States, women are sharing “Sister Christopher stories”. She was a teacher that none of her students every forgot. Many are the girls who thought her discipline harsh who changed their minds as they realized in their higher studies of science and mathematics that the firm foundation they received from this gifted teacher helped them build with confidence and joy.

As her health deteriorated we had to assign her to Eger Health Care Center where she could receive health appropriate care. Almost to the end her wonderful mind and spirit was occupied with listening, viewing sports and other programs and in reading spiritual documents and books and writing with help to her many correspondents.

God love you, dear Sister Christopher. We will never forget you.

FRANZISKA NOTES July 2011

This month by way of exception, the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is celebrated on the first day of July. It is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on this ancient and very meaningful devotion.

Much of Mother Franziska’s years as foundress and superior general occurred during the pontificate of Leo XIII. It was he who consecrated the Church and world to the Sacred Heart. This occurred five years after the death of Mother Franziska but during her lifetime there was increasing devotion and responding calls in local dioceses throughout the world culminating in the action of the Holy Father in 1899.

Mother Franziska was so devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus that she chose it as the emblem on the medal worn by the professed sisters. She also had the names of all the sisters inscribed in a book in the Basilica of the Gesu in Rome as members of the Apostleship of Prayer. This was repeated a century later by the Superior General Sister Nicholina Hendges in the presence of sisters from all our provinces. In 1932, Pope Pius XI, citing the miseries of the time: economic hardship, unemployment, threatening wars, millions falling away from the faith, called for devotion to the Sacred Heart in the Encyclical CARITATE CHRISTI COMPULSI . He proposed prayer and imitation of the love of Jesus in practical service to those less fortunate both near and far. He promised that only prayer could be the answer to the problems of the time. A reading of that encyclical motivates us to look down at the date because the evils described are so similar to the ones we experience today. The solution is also the same. A church at prayer will bring many souls back to Christ and to their own earthly and eternal happiness.

Corpus Christi -- God with Us

CORPUS CHRISTI LONG AGO AND FAR AWAY

It was the summer of 1950. Our family had saved all during the years of World War II for a trip to Germany so that we could see the homes of our parents. The sea voyage on the converted troop ship, the SS Washington took about a week before it landed in la Havre, France. The train took us to Paris where we rested until the night train that took us to the German home of our mother, Fautenbach near Achern in Baden. We arrived very early in the morning and there was the long awaited greeting of a Grandmother, Aunts and Uncles and cousins.

We were also in time for the Mass and procession of the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. From the village church we made our way with the Blessed Sacrament, the priest and altar boys down the road of the village and out into the fields behind my Grandmother’s house. There were prayers and hymns while the priest blessed the fields and the June crops with holy water, asking God to bring a simple prosperity after the long war years of suffering, hardship and terror.

Germany was a defeated and disgraced country humiliated in the eyes of the world. These simple people were dressed in the shabby old fashioned clothes that still served as “Sunday best” even though they barely survived, as did those who wore them, the years of privation.

In the cities there were very visible scars of the bombings. The Cathedral of Munich that we visited later was blackened and the gaping hole left by the entirely collapsed roof was covered by fresh planks. Here, however, the fields were fresh with new growth, with wild flowers and garden blooms. The sun was warm and birds sang. The faith had endured and now formed the strong and sure trunk onto which the future could grow. The Body of Christ, Jesus in the Eucharist was not defeated and not ashamed to be with these people. The body that suffered and died on the cross understood their suffering and did not abandon them. The Christian heritage of Europe and the world is the sure strength that will survive all the tyrants, moral ambiguity, cruelty and death that threaten us again in our own time.

Personal Memories of Mother Fidelis Weninger

Time passes quickly and there are younger members of the Congregation for whom this long time General Superior is a name on a death certificate and in the parenthesis of the Office of the Dead.

I “met” Mother Fidelia Weninger before I saw her and when the title alluded to her office as provincial superior of North East Brazil. It happened that I was living in Frankfurt, Germany and my superior had to sisters who were both living and working in the two provinces of Brazil. Both came for their home visit during my time there. It was Sister Aquinata Eibel who spoke English, had paid a short visit to the United States with Mother Kostka and told wonderful tales of the dynamic life of the FDCs in Brazil. She spoke of cooperation with a renewing church and familiarity with several bishops who often visited their convents and were welcomed as friends by the provincial and communities.

After my return to my home in the US, I became excited hearing that the General Chapter had elected this person who was told by the moderator to change her name from Fidelia to Fidelis. One of her first visitations was to our three provinces and, because she and I both spoke German I was assigned to care for her room and needs. I was also asked to interview her for our fledgling province publication. What follows is from the memories of that interview.


While walking with her mother in Vienna the young girl saw some sisters and laughed at the very strange habit they wore. Some weeks later her mother announced that they were going to Vienna again to the profession (?) ceremony of a relative. In response to where and who her mother told her it was with the sisters of the “funny” habit.

It was at that ceremony that she heard her own call and to that very congregation. Her mother objected to exactly this choice saying, “I don’t want you to go to Brazil”. She relented, however, and at her reception her daughter received the name “Fidelia” after the great missionary of Europe. Soon after Hitler took over Austria and it became necessary for educated sisters to flee the country. They told the novice, “Ask your mother to come and tell her you are going to Brazil.” In shock she wondered and prayed how to tell her mother that the dark intuition had come true. Soon Sister Fidelia was on a ship and came to the strange land where she soon fell ill and did not have the vocabulary to ask for a glass of water.

Very quickly Mother Fidelis learned English. She arrived in October and in January gave the first talk to the community in our own language. During the times I brought her coffee or cared for her room she told of the bishops who were guiding the church of Brazil toward the “preferential option for the poor”. She told of private tuition based schools opening their facilities at night for the poor. She proudly told of our own sisters who were pioneering in parishes without priests, bringing people the Gospel and the Eucharist in prayer services. The Spanish Club at St. Joseph Hill raised funds to pay for a jeep in Salvador, Bahia and many years later I was able to see there the trunk in which we had sent baby clothes for poor mothers.

Mother Fidelis excited us about the Second Vatican Council and helped us bring our own constitutions in line with its mandates. She found priest teachers for us and encouraged us to examine the Documents of Vatican II and how to read, discuss and understand Encyclicals of successors to St. Peter.

During another visitation she was in San Diego when the news came of the attempted assassination of John Paul II. Since my scheduled allowed it, we went to a special Mass arranged in the cathedral. As she always did, we went in the front row and this resulted in a large photo on the front page of the New York Times, captioned, “Nuns pray for the wounded Pope”. Mother Fidelis was known for front pews and front pages.

To this day, her special gift to me was an enduring love for and loyalty to the universal Church and the Successor to St. Peter. It was in her time that the Congregation studied its charism and adopted the beautiful emblem of the Holy Trinity, the basic mystery of Christianity. Mother Fidelis shepherded us through the very difficult post Vatican years, may her intercession now lead us into a blessed future.

Sister M. Caroline Bachmann, FDC

Grandmother faces the machine gunner

It was a tiny peasant farmhouse in a small village near the French border but she had worked hard on the small farm and in the dirt-floored house had raised her large family. During the hardships of World War II she still managed to feed widowed children and grandchildren. Widowed, she prayed daily for peace so that she could learn the whearabouts of those sons and daughters who had emigrated to New York before the outbreak of hostilities. Everyone knew that the war would end soon and that Germany would lose and be devestated although there was still a death sentance for anyone who even whispered that thought.



French were crossing the nearbye border and tension was high when she heard a noise. Genevieve Schweizer went out armed with her broom. On the roof of her house she saw a young German soldier set up his ugly machine gun. He was getting ready for the futile attempt to "save his Fatherland", but Genevieve was also ready to save her little farmhouse. "Get down from there she shouted as she waved her broom. You have lost the war and now you want to draw fire so I lose my house also." The young man was ready to face the French army but he was no match for my Grandmother and so skeedadled down and set up his gun somewhere else. She lived a long time in her little home and saw some of her children return from America to modernize and live in the little house that her courage saved.

A thank you note....

Thank you St. Philip,

In the gospel of John 14th chapter there is a beautiful dialogue between the Apostle Philip and Jesus: Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to hij, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father…”

The disciples of Jesus lived with him every day and watched him eat and speak and sleep and do all the ordinary human things. Then there were the glimpses of unexplained actions—the healings, the walking on water. They whispered among themselves… is he or isn’t he…. Who is he? It was the forthright Philip who came right out and asked. So we who have not seen or touched or heard the human Jesus can believe that he really is God. We can trust everything he said and so we can believe that what we see as bread and wine is Jesus and therefore we have an encounter with God himself in our neighborhood church and in our hearts when we receive the Eucharist. The greatest miracle the world has ever known is right down the street and occurs every day all around the world. We are not orphans, God lives with us in an intimate, tangible way. Thank you St. Philip for asking that wonderful question..

FRANZISKA NOTES May 2011

Franziska Notes
No.8/5 May 2011

The entire world has recently witnessed the pomp and circumstance of the royal wedding in England. The carefully choreographed and rehearsed pageantry was a pleasure to watch and appropriate for the occasion. This is not where we live our daily lives however. So it is comforting to remember that our inspiration, Mother Franziska Lechner, began her life in a very small Bavarian village and a farm house. The many people and animals, as well as the capriciousness of the weather and national events demanded a spontaneity and creativity to master the unforeseen events. We can feel comfortable with Franziska Lechner. She would understand the young mother who feels frustrated with the behavior of her small children at Sunday Mass. She would understand the worry of the caregiver who suffers with a loved one descending into dementia. The month of May lets us see how God, the creator, loves the spontaneous. One day everything is dreary and cold and the tiny leaf buds are hunkered so tight it seems there is no hope of life at all. Then comes the first warm, sunny day and the loveliest flowers and tender young leaves appear as a lovely surprise. In our world we can go to the internet and order flowers to be carefully arranged and sent to celebrate loved ones who are miles away. There is also the sudden thought of picking a few violets by the way and bringing them home or pointing them out to a child. They cost us nothing but easily rival the happiness brought by the costly arrangement. As we look forward to the Feast of Pentecost let us ask the Holy Spirit, the God of surprises, for the gift of awareness and readiness to do the little things that bring joy. How sad if we wasted our lives thinking of the great heroic deeds that we never have occasion to perform, while all around are people, including ourselves, who need to be cheered by little unexpected kindness, gifts and visions of beauty.

The Legend of the Larkspur

The friends of Jesus were very sad. They did not understand that Jesus died on the cross for all people so that they could have their sins forgiven and go to live forever with him in heaven.

They sadly placed his body in a tomb that was like a cave and put a big rock in front of it. Then they went away. But a little bunny hopped onto their path and tried to stop them. “Don’t go away,” he tried to say. “Don’t you remember that Jesus said he would rise again and live forever?” The people could not hear the little bunny so they continued on their way. Now he was all alone in the dark with only sleeping soldiers guarding the tomb. It was cold and he was lonely and a little scared but he would not go away. He knew that Jesus would be alive again because he believed what he said. Then, just before the sun came up the stone in front of the tomb started to glow and then rolled away. There was a great light and in the middle was Jesus, all alive and beautiful. The little bunny hopped up to him with a happy heart. “You really kept your promise to rise again. I knew you would!” He said to Jesus. Jesus smiled at the little bunny and blessed him. “You have great faith in believing my words. I will reward you and let people remember your faith forever.” Jesus showed the bunny the little blue flower that was growing there. “This flower will always have your face in the middle so that people for all time will have the courage to believe in my word.” Now, whenever we see the little bunny in the Larkspur flower we must remember that we can trust what Jesus says.

Memories of a Summer in Hochstrass

Memories of a Summer in Hochstrass

It was January of 1961 and a few of us teachers were eating our lunch in the cramped little closet by the school cafeteria. Sister Fidelis our Provincial came in and said that she wanted to see me after I finished my lunch. The five string beans on my plate turned to stone. I said that my lunch was finisned because I could no longer swallow. She looked around and decided it really wasn’t confidential and told me that they had many American children in the nursery in Frankfurt, Germany and wanted an American sister. Since I already knew German she would give me the first chance but I was not obliged. I responded immediately that I would go. When she said I could take my time to think about it I said that I had been thinking about it since I was on the Holy Year trip with my Father the year before. At the Eucharistic Congress in Munich, after spending a week with some Brazilian Sisters and meeting the Sisters in Edling, I made up my mind to grasp any opportunity to live the FDC life internationally.

On May 7, the day of the German Surrender in World War II and after Sputnik and the meeting of President Kennedy with Krucschev in Vienna, I landed in Frankfurt. I was twenty-five years old and everyone I met in that community was “very old”. In spite of the warm greeting, I cried the entire night. “What had I done. I left behind everything familiar and every one I depended on”. The parish church bells woke me as did the superior, Sister Inviolata Eibel. “I am so sorry that I have to wake you, but it is Sunday, I am sure you want to go to Mass.”

I got used to the routine of the house, which in those days was very similar to that of Arrochar, Staten Island. I was given a group of four-year-olds, mixed German and American children. I learned German songs and how to tell American parents what “gookamal” and “stuehlehoch” means.

One day, at lunch which was dinner, I announced that I would have to make my final vows. Normally I should have presented that fact in a humble request, but it was accepted. The superior immediately made plans to send me to Vienna for the “preparation”.

I was put on a train that necessitated a change of trains in Salzburg, but I made the transition successfully. I went to the Mother House. I had been there the year before with my father, but now I belonged. The sisters were wonderful and I met my companions for the “preparation” who told me that we would be going to a wonderful place called Hochstrass because one of our group, Sister Helene., was a teacher there and could not get away because the school term was still on. Later I learned of my good fortune. The “preparation” was usually spent in Vienna where the tasks consisted of scrubbing out huge cooking pots in the kitchen. In Hochstrass we served on little wooden stools in the sunshine, picking chamomile blossoms to be used as buckets of tea for sick cows.

Soon Sister Elenara our “mistress” and the postulants who were also in her charge took a train into “lower Austria” the low mountains and great fresh air. When we got to St. Polten, a horse wagon picked us up. This was just great, we were not only going far but also back into time.

The three of us were given a room that overlooked the chapel wing and the beautiful mountains. Each night we slept with the large window opened to air as fresh as my lungs had ever breathed. One night we discovered the stars and went outside on a hill to lie in the grass and see creation as its Lord had intended. The milky way was a blanket that seemed to come down and cover us.

Hochstrass, the Convent of our Sorrowful Mother, was an agricultural school for girls and a working farm. We went across the dirt road to the cheese house where Sister Elenara slept with the postulants and there we had our daily spiritual readings. This always ended with huge slices of the bread baked on site with the fresh cottage cheese and huge glasses of real buttermilk. Sister Amabilis confessed that she expected me to be dark and from South Brazil, for there had not been anyone from North America in living memory. Sister Mathea was from Breitenfurt, and with Sister Helena that was our group. Amabilis had a charming Viennese accent and undertook to help me pronounce the vow formula in German.

Each day we left the cheese house and went into the fields to pick our blossoms. There we met Sister Karola who told us about the farm. Later she rewarded us with fresh garlic for our cottage cheese bread. It was delicious but I was not familiar with the consquences. We had confessions once and I wonder about the priest… I know he came back because he treasured his weekly reward of Hochstrass bread. One time she asked us to help carry huge baskets of cherries. She had a wonderful solution if we found the basket too heavy. “Sit down and eat a few.”

At another time she introduced us to the donuts and hard apple cider which was the customary snack for field workers. She took us to a barn where there were barrels from “1947, 48, 49 etc.” and we had to sample each one. Strange, but prayers that evening provoked a lot of giggles so that Sister Elenara whispered that we should finish the Office prayers outside.

One day they awakened us even earlier… maybe four or even before. A Sister had had a heart attack and we would be saying office for her that morning. Sister was laid out in one of the rooms, lovingly prepared at home by her sisters. The house carpenter made a simple casket that was lined with paper doily made for the purpose. The funeral was held on a beautiful summer day. The school students were in their Sunday uniform, the Sisters in their best habit all forming a procession behind the beautifully decorated with wreaths of white flowers and evergreens oxcart. The oxen were used because it was sister’s duty to care for them. Slowly, prayerfully, we walked up the narrow road to the Sisters’ cemetery high on a hill where she was laid to rest with her community. There followed a repast that included real coffee and homemade cake. I forgot Sister’s name, but not the circumstances and I felt very close to Mother Franziska who had still planned this place before she died.

There was also an exhibition of the students’ work and I saw some of the finest handicrafts of another time. Each girl made for herself an authentic “dirndle” with the patented school patterns. She also had a complete layette of children’s clothes and household linens to take into her future life.

The happy days came to an end as all things must, but the blessing they bring to our hearts can remain forever if we keep them in grateful prayer. Since Hochstrass I have not been afraid to go and live anywhere. I realized what my Uncle Karl told me, “You will find good people everywhere.” He was right and the greatest blessing of my life is the maybe hundreds of Daughters of Divine Charity I have come to meet from all over the world. How grateful I am to have been exposed to the living charism and to the graces of that summer in Hochstrass.

Holy Week Meditation

The Tale of the Eternal Wood

I pulled and pushed and it seemed that there was no way that I could budge the huge log. After moving it just a few inches I had to leave and rest but I was determined to come back and finish the job. It was a task I had set for myself and I would not give up. Each day I returned and pushed and pulled to move the heavy load.

I did not realize that someone whom I supposed to be the gardener was watching my daily efforts.

Finally, after watching me for many days he asked me why this seemed so important. "I cannot just leave this here," I said, "I can't let this be forgotten. These are all the many times I hurt people and couldn't explain and the many times they hurt me and wouldn't or couldn't tell me they were sorry. I can't let go. I suffered so much because of all these things... they cannot just be forgotten. If I don't hold on to them no one will ever know."

The one I thought was a gardener smiled and said, "Don't you know that I long ago carried all those things for you and for many others? I saw it all and felt your pain and your regret. I treasured your courage and bravery while others thought you were just superficial and a failure. You can leave this load and go on in joy and freedom because I remember it all and will store it for you until the time when all is clear and fair."

FRANZISKA NOTES April 2011

It would be a grave mistake to judge Mother Franziska’s spirit and actions solely by contemporary insights, especially into current events or social justice issues. Each day the news brings stories of struggles for freedom and of serious violations of human rights in many places of the world. We read of real heroes putting their fortunes and very lives on the line for peace and justice. Is there any thing we can learn from a woman who lived over one hundred years ago? We know that her heart went out to poor servant girls, to retired and unemployed, sick servants, to orphans and to children of all levels of society who needed a Christian education. Her concern was always with the spiritual and moral good of those her sisters were serving. She did not have access to the varied opinions and different types of struggles that we know of today. She also was not exposed to the genocides of our own century. Can she teach us anything? Where does true justice come from? The teaching of recent popes tells us that there can be no justice without peace. True peace is a gift of God. It can be gained only by prayer. Intimacy with God in prayer was the source of Mother Franziska’s untireing good work for the poor, It was in communication with the heart of Jesus that she learned how to respond to the social needs that presented themselves to her one needy person at a time. It is in this same communion with God, much time spent with Sacred Scripture and meditation on the teachings of Jesus that we develop the compassionate heart that is like our Heavenly Father’s. It is here that we learn the right way, the way of peace to face the social issues of our time. This peace begins very near, at home, and only then can we with a right heart confront the larger issues of our world. Mother Franziska would have known what to do today as she did in her own time.

The Angel on the Bus

There are no seats the driver warned. Not wanting to inconvenience the person I was meeting I decided to board anyway. I no sooner planted my wobbly legs as stiff pillars on the rocking bus floor when a lovely young woman offered her seat. To spend the trip asking many good angels to bless and bring extra sunshine on her day I asked her first name. "Jackie" she said with a smile. Her kind deed did not and will not end with sundown today. As all good deeds the kindness she showed me added a good feeling to my heart which added conviction to my good wishes to all I met during the day. As tomorrow dawns I will again think of Jackie's kindness with a warm feeling. I will remember to pay it forward to others, and will remember it for a long time.

We must never underestimate a good deed. It balances the amount of good, true, beautiful and loving in the world. These are qualities which counter the amount of sadness, evil, brutality and ugliness that are also part of life. It costs nothing to add to the beautiful and good. Sometimes a simple smile will do. We must remember that the person at the check out counter is not part of the machinery. How much they appreciate a smile and a kind word. Perhaps we can pay a sincere compliment about efficiency or neatness. We can be patient when there are difficulties or accidents... a great gift when there is a mounting tension.

There were many beggars sitting along the streets of Rome when I lived there. I put aside a particular coin for these poor people and kept a supply in an easily accessible pocket to distribute them. One day ahead of me I saw a Religious Sister of the order of Charles Foucould. She did not drop a coin into a box. She bent down and started a conversation with the poor woman holding a sad child. A moment later she went into a bar and came out with a capaccino in a cup and a lollipop for the child.

Yesterday's Gospel reading tells us Jesus counts as done for him what we do in kindness for others. I wonder how he enjoyed that coffee and lollipop. I know he was pleased to sit down on that croweded bus this morning... thanks to Jackie. May he reward her and those she loves for years to come.

Franziska Notes March 2011

On the day of Consecrated Life 2011 the Holy Father quotes Simeon who declared Jesus as a “light of revelation to the gentiles”. This light of Christ is meant to shine in our world today in the people who seek God’s will above all. The charism of a religious congregation can be pictured as a prism which transforms God’s pure white light into many various “colors”, each highlighting a particular part of the God’s infinite beauty.
From her writings we can deduce that the charism most valued by Mother Franziska, the quality she hoped would always be part of her congregation is joy.
The Holy Father speaks of the joy of seeking the will of God by living as Jesus did, totally dedicated to the Father’s will.
True joy does not mean an absence of suffering, sorrow or stress. Mother Franziska writes of a terrible disappointment that threatened the very foundation of her young community. She shares in a private writing that she could not stop weeping and did not know where to turn after a betrayal by a trusted co-worker. At the same time she knew that she owed her sisters a spirit of joy and before them made the effort to be serene and smiling.
How can we be joyous when the disappointments, hostilities, pain of life assail us? When we suffer truly deep depression it can seem that there is no way out of the endless darkness. We can reach for a tranquilizer or mood altering drug or drink or try a worldly, flashy entertainment which finally leave us even deeper in the painful abyss. Or we can turn to Jesus who loves us and who said that he would give us the Holy Spirit if we only ask. One of the greatest gifts of the Spirit of God is a joy that the world cannot understand nor extinguish. It is the joy of the Lord that Scripture tells is our strength. This is also the gift, once received, that becomes the greatest good that we can give generously to all we meet and thereby bring beauty and light to our sad and conflicted world.

Franziska notes February 2011

The culture of Valentine greetings has now spread to almost every country of the world. It is a beautiful custom to send greetings of love and appreciation to others. It does not have to mean a surrender to commercialism. The “best things in life are free” is most true when applied to signs of love. God is love and every small act of courtesy, a smile, a kind word, a gesture of help is a sign of God’s presence, whether recognized as such or not.
Mother Franziska was almost by instinct a loving person. She realized that friendliness and even a spirit of fun made her world a better place reflecting the Creator who saw all of his creation as good.
One does not need to be especially religious to be pleasant and polite but when one is conscious of the presence of God and sees kindness as a mission and ministry, the act and the world become holy. What a beautiful meditation to take the sunrise as a model of behavior for the day. Jesus said that the sun and rain fall on the good and the bad. We can begin our day with a prayer asking God to send us where our blessing of joy will give him glory.
Mother Franziska made an effort to be joyful to others even when her own heart was wounded and breaking by disappointment of direct attacks by enemies. She saw joy as an indispensible quality for a Christian and a religious. She did not wait until she felt joyful to dispense happiness. She made the effort to “give joy and make happy” and found that her own smile became genuine. Looking for the good and the bright side helped her to see the humor in many situations that would have felt humiliating to lesser souls. It is difficult to humiliate someone who can laugh at themselves.
“The joy of the Lord be your strength.” Is a blessing often used in the liturgical prayer of the Church. It can be a source of strength, zeal and courage to all who ask God for this grace and practice it daily.

How to be Like Christ

How to be Like Christ

Reflection on Isaiah 42: 1-7

An Associate of the Daughters of Divine Charity is called to live in their own circumstances, making God’s love visible, as the sisters strive to do in their convents and ministry.

Isaiah, looking forward, described the Servant Lord, Son of God. We can take from his words some ideas for our own living of this charism.

The Servant would not be crying out not shouting….
We can strive to accept irritations gracefully, responding to circumstances with gentle, kind words.

The Servant will not break a bruised reed…
We can be gracious, refrain from “preaching” when someone expresses regret.

The Servant will open the eyes of the blind…
We can politely and courageously speak out when we hear an expression of error or evil in our social circle.

The Servant will release prisoners from a dark dungeon…
We can give a gracious, forgiving response to a hurt, injury or an apology.

We live in a violent and brusque society, where gentleness and courtesy are in rare supply. A kind word, a gentle answer, a calm response can cool a tense situation and help bring peace. The ripples will go on and on. The kindness on a neighborhood street in our country will add to the balance of peace in our large, sad and suffering world. Not everyone has the leisure provided by the structures of religious life for prayer and contemplation, but everyone can spend a few moments with the Gospels and allow themselves to be formed by the image of Jesus presented there.

Franziska Notes January 2011

As a New Year begins with the birthday of Mother Franziska on January 1, 1833, we look again at her life and gift to the world. Those acquainted or associated with the sisters of the Congregation she founded, the Daughters of Divine Charity ask themselves, “How is our world related to hers? What can her charism bring to our situation?”
We are confronted by change. She was facing great political and social changes and the simple religious faith of her childhood was challenged by the voices of the enlightenment and the consequences of the industrial revolution. What she experienced in these areas was almost nothing compared to the current bombardment of ideas, often conflicting and threatening, by the mass media and the internet. What would she counsel us today?
I believe she would raise her copy of the diocesan newspaper and the devotional pamphlet that were subscribed to by all her convents. “Listen to the Church”, she would say, “Read and pray about what your Bishop is writing for the Catholics in his care. Be familiar with the documents coming from the Holy Father”.
We must be very careful that we are not receiving the teaching of the Church filtered through the mass media or even exclusively one preacher. We must have the patience to really educate ourselves so as not to be persuaded totally by the political right or left. The moral compass of today cannot be a superficial one. Reality TV is very often anything but. The love of God is our reality and it is not a quick fix. As we prayerfully read the Gospels we see that God’s plan takes time and requires sacrifice. The people who are truly devoted to the loving will of God often, like Jesus, lose their friends and even their lives. It is only in communion with God that we learn His will for us, not for the masses, but for us. That is often painful and lonely, but it is right and leads to peace.