Our Spirituality
Our Spirituality
and to witness to the redeeming love of Christ." (Const. 102)
to honour in a special way the Blood of Christ,
through which he redeemed all people.
God makes the Blood of Christ fruitful through our apostolates." (Const. 102)
Sr. Antonio Maria ThunherAs our name implies, we are a missionary congregation and work primarily for evangelization among people
and nations who do not know Christ and his Gospel.
We are also active in areas where the local Church is not viable.
Thus there are few boundaries to the scope of our apostolates.
New fields open and we try to respond to the needs of our times.
Sr. Johanna SennLike a small seed – it contains the potential for growth and development. We proclaim the redeeming love of Jesus through our prayer, our lives and our apostolates. He has reconciled us with the Father – in his blood we too can find the strength to reconcile with one another.
Our Inner Spirit
Our Inner Spirit was written by our Co-foundress Mother Paula Emunds and completed in 1908. In her writing she assimilated the spirituality and thoughts of our founder, Abbot Francis Pfanner. It was, of course, written in the spirit and the language of the time. However, this does not take away from the depth and wealth of the spirituality handed down to each member of the congregation. In the Inner Spirit Mother Paula has given us a threefold treasure:
Three Principles 
God is my father and I am His child.
This is the contemplative aspect of our religious commitment,
a call for us to develop a close relationship with God built on childlike trust.
Ora et Labora (Prayer and Work)
This is the active/missionary aspect of our religious commitment.
Unity is strength.
This is the guide for our community living and our apostolates
Three Devotions 
Sr.Benedicte Schildkamp
Devotion to the Precious Blood
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Devotion to Mary, the Mother of God
Four Virtues
Perfect surrender to the will of God 
This is our core virtue.
Incessant worship of God
both through prayer and work
Faithfulness in little things
Generosity and readiness for sacrifice
Our Prayers
Daily Prayer of Abbot Francis Pfanner
obtain for me the grace
Precious Blood of Jesus Christ:
always to be united to God
to do everything for the love of God
to realize my own nothingness
and to preserve a spirit of recollection.
Amen.
Seven Offerings of the Precious Blood
have mercy on the concerns and needs of the Church
and the entire world especially we pray:
· for your greater honor and glory
· for the spreading of your kingdom
· and for the salvation of all.
Blessed and praised forevermore be Jesus Christ
who has redeemed us with his Precious Blood
have mercy on the concerns and needs of the Church
and the entire world, especially we pray:
· for the mission of the Church
· for Pope Francis, bishops, priests, religious
· and for all your people.
Blessed and praised forevermore be Jesus Christ who has redeemed us with his Precious Blood.
· for the loving acceptance and understanding of your Word
· and for the unity of all Christians.
PONDER Corner
December 2021 - Synod 2021 - 2023 For A Synodal Church: Communion Participation Mission
As we embrace the Synodal Journey from 2021 to 2023, let us invite the Holy Spirit to be at work in us so that we may be a community and a people of grace.
By walking together, and together reflecting on the journey made, the Church will be able to learn from what it will experience which processes can help it to live communion, to achieve participation, to open itself to mission." Source: https://www.synod.va/en.html
January 2020 - Faith demands worship!
FAITH
DEMANDS
WORSHIP
"As we begin the New Year, may we discover anew that faith demands worship. If we can fall on our knees before Jesus, we will overcome the temptation to set off on our own path.
For worship involves making an exodus from the greatest form of bondage: slavery to oneself.
Worship means putting the Lord at the centre, not ourselves. It means giving things their rightful place, and giving the first place to God.
Worship means making God’s plan more important than our personal time, our entitlements and our spaces.
It is to accept the teaching of Scripture: “You shall worship the Lord your God” (Mt 4:10). Your God: worship means realizing that you and God belong together to one another. It means being able to speak to him freely and intimately. It means bringing our lives to him and letting him enter into them. It means letting his consolation come down to earth.
Worship means discovering that, in order to pray, it is enough to say: “My Lord and my God!”, and to let ourselves be pervaded by his tender love." (Pope Francis, Solemnity of the Epiphany 2020)
Full text of Pope Francis' Homily, Solemnity of the Epiphany 2020
April 2019 - Extraordinary Missionary Month October 2019
"Here is our mission: to go up the mountain to pray for everyone and to come down from the mountain to be a gift to all."
Pope Francis' HomilY on World Mission Sunday, 20 October 2019
EXTRAORDINARY MISSIONARY MONTH
OCTOBER 2019
"Baptized and Sent: The Church of Christ on Mission in the World" is the theme chosen by Pope Francis for the Extraordinary Missionary Month. Awakening the awareness of the missio ad gentes, and reinvigorating the sense of responsibility for proclaiming the Gospel with new enthusiasm, are themes that combine the pastoral concern of Pope Benedict XV in his Apostolic Letter Maximum Illud, published 100 years ago, with the missionary vitality expressed by Pope Francis in his recent Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium: “Missionary action is the paradigm of every work of the Church.” (EG 15)
How to Live the Extraordinary Missionary Month October 2019
There are four dimensions, specified by Pope Francis, to live more intensely the journey of preparation for the Extraordinary Missionary Month October 2019:
- A personal encounter with Jesus Christ alive in His Church through the Eucharist, the Word of God, personal and communal prayer;
- Testimony: missionary saints, martyrs and confessors of the faith, as an expression of the Church scattered throughout the world;
- Missionary formation: biblical, catechetical, spiritual and theological;
- Missionary charity.
Full Text of Pope Francis: Baptized and Sent: The Church of Christ on Mission in the World
Extraordinary Missionary Month October 2019 Website
People in love never stand still: they are drawn out of themselves; they are attracted and attract others in turn; they give themselves to others and build relationships that are life-giving. As far as God’s love is concerned, no one is useless or insignificant. Each of us is a mission to the world, for each of us is the fruit of God’s love.
This missionary mandate touches us personally: I am a mission, always; you are a mission, always; every baptized man and woman is a mission.
Pope Francis
November 2016 - Works of Mercy
"In a world which has been damaged by the virus of indifference, the works of mercy are the best antidote." - Pope Francis
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations* will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’
Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:31-40)
September-October 2016 - Love, Devotion and Sacrifice
Love, Devotion and Sacrifice
(By Fr. Patrick Chongo, CMM in Dachau on 27 September 2016)
We have gathered today in this place, to walk in the footsteps of Blessed Engelmar. We gather here to experience the atmosphere of his days of suffering and torment together with his fellow prisoners here in Dachau. Although we cannot fully experience what he experienced at the time, since we are here at our own volution whereas he was not, and the context is of course very different, we have an opportunity to reflect on the opportunity we still have to make a difference in this world by our witnessing to what we believe, no matter what it costs us. On the cover of our hymnal today we see three words: LOVE, DEVOTION and SACRIFICE; three key words which defined Blessed Engelmar's time in Dachau.
Are these three words (Love, Devotion and Sacrifice) also defining my own life as a Missionary of Mariannhill ? A story is told of an old Carmelite nun who everyday used to go after lunch to stand in front of the statue of St. Theresa of Lisieux and say something to her. You know St. Theresa of Lisieux died at the age of 24. This went on for a long time and other nuns observed this old nun making these visits to the statue and talking to it. One day one of the sisters quietly followed this old nun and hid herself somewhere to hear what she says to the statue. And the curious sister heard these words from the old sister looking at the statue : "Little girl I wonder whether you would have been in that place had you grown old like me. You disappeared too early before life could brutalize you. You are lucky. Pray for me ". And she turned and left.
Blessed Engelmar, born Hubert Unzeitig, on 1st March 1911, died on 2nd March 1945 here in this Concentration Camp of Dachau. He was just slightly older than the age at which St. Theresa of Lisieux died. He died from a disease called "Love, Devotion and Sacrifice". This disease would not allow him to grow old. He was soon gone. Young Fr Engelmar Unzeitig with 30 years of age and 2 years of priestly ministry, stood in front of parishioners and said I condemn the evils of the NAZI regime against the Jewish people.... and he paid dearly for this. He was arrested and imprisoned. Little did the regime know that Dachau Concentration Camp will become his new parish and that prisoners will be his new parishioners. Nothing could stop Fr. Engelmar from testifying to what he believed, both in word and deed. He died from the disease of his parishioners in the concentration camp. He died with them, while serving them. Pope Francis talks about the Shepherd carrying the smell of his flock. In the case of Fr. Engelmar's death, this is the ultimate example of smelling the smell of one's sheep: dying from the disease they are dying from, dying with them while serving them. For this he studied Russian in order to serve better fellow prisoners, who came from Eastern Europe.
Dear Confreres, we have a powerful example and inspiration before us, who now intercedes for us in heaven. Blessed Engelmar had a choice to let the dying die and look forward to hopefully leaving Dachau one day and go back to serving the Lord as a Missionary but his commitment to love, devotion and sacrifice, virtues he had acquired from his faith, would not allow him to do so. He decided he was going to enter the dangerous barracks 23 to serve the dying and he paid with his life. He had an opportunity and he seized the opportunity. We have an opportunity; do we seize the opportunity ? Blessed Engelmar, we now speak to you; you who are the Angel of Dachau, the Martyr of Charity, the Lily of Dachau, the Model of Charity, help us, with your prayers, not to be selfish with our lives and gifts, but to seize the opportunity to serve no matter how painful it becomes. Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said " LOVE UNTIL IT HURTS, LOVE UNTIL YOU FEEL THE PAIN OF DOING SO".
August 2016 - Widen the Space of Your Tent
“Widen the Space of Your Tent”
A tent ...
... is a meeting place; a place of encounter with God and one another,
... is a shelter, but a tent is also open and allows us to see the wonder of the stars and feel the spirit of the wind on the face,
... breaks down rigid barriers,
... needs firm pegs that can hold it so that it is not blown away easily .
Living in a tent calls for trust and risk, sharing and interdependence.
If we widen the space of our tent we will be enabled to look at our mission and our world with new eyes. We will see and understand beyond the “as we have always done it”; we will be able to broaden our minds, to allow ourselves to be influenced, to be exposed to the realities in which we live and minister.
May the Spirit of the Lord be our guide to understand more clearly God’s plans for our personal lives, for our Congregation and for the world. May God help us to have a deep trust in his providence and a total commitment to our mission, the very reason for our existence.
lengthen your cords,
make your pegs firm!”
Isaiah 54:2 *
PONDER Corner
As we embrace the Synodal Journey from 2021 to 2023, let us invite the Holy Spirit to be at work in us so that we may be a community and a people of grace.
