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A century of mission
(a presentation by Sister Fran Cunningham, SSSF)
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| Sister Fran Cunningham |
Good afternoon. I am honored to be invited to be with you for this celebration of the 100th jubilee of our Franciscan Sisters of Erlenbad. Your presence today is a witness to the support that you have given to our sisters for many years.
We gather today to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the European Province of our International congregation, the School Sisters of St. Francis. In 1907 September Pope Pius X approved the establishment of this province under the leadership of Mother Alexia Hoell. Thank you again for the friendship and support that you have given to the Erlenbad Franciscan Sisters during these years!
We celebrate not only the accomplishments of our sisters in these 100 years. We celebrate their fidelity to God’s mission which was the driving force in the life of our foundress, Mother Alexia.
Mother Alexia’s vision for our congregation and especially for our European province was rooted in the mission of “giving, healing and defending life.”
In her publication about the history of the Franciscan Sisters of Erlenbad Mother Archangela included a 1976 letter from Archbishop Hermann of the Archdiocese of Freiburg:
“The Sisters of St. Francis in Erlenbad lived according to the mind of the Church. …They did not wish to develop a separate spirituality which deviated from the meaning of the Word, of grace and love in the community of brothers and sisters in Christ. They wanted to participate more fully and directly in the mission of the Church…”
Archbishop Hermann described the sisters as having “a determination which never tired in the attainment of mission.”
Mother Alexia’s mission legacy to this province can be summed up in two quotes from Scripture:
“As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”
John 17:18
and
“I have come to bring fire upon the earth and how I wish it were already burning.”
Luke 12:49
There is a story told about a young Brother who went to talk with an older Brother about his life. The older Brother was noted for his wisdom and the younger Brother wanted to know what more he could do to improve his life. “Brother” he said, “I pray and I fast. What more can I do?” The older Brother reflected for a moment, stood up and stretched out his hands toward heaven, and his fingers became like torches of flame. And he said, “Why not be turned into fire?”
Christ’s fire of mission was alive and burning in Mother Alexia’s heart when she returned to her homeland to found the European Province. She firmly believed that she had been “sent” by God to begin the general congregation in America. She knew that God was sending her back to Europe to begin a new province. She always instilled in her sisters the belief that they shared in Christ’s mission. Her fire, her spirit of prayer and her profound trust in God were the gifts she nourished in the young sisters. These gifts continue to be a part of the lives and ministries of our sisters.
By the time Mother Alexia began her trips to Germany she had made it clear that her community would not be limited to one diocese nor to one country. She was eager to bring young German women to the United States to expand community ministries among the immigrant population in the young American Church. Her deepest wish was to establish a novitiate and Provincial Motherhouse in Erlenbad.
When the authorities in Baden did not approve her plan for a novitiate Mother Alexia went to Luxembourg. She established a novitiate and built a Provincial Motherhouse. Young women from Baden followed her to Luxembourg. In the years before the war 40 to 50 postulants were accepted each year. Luxembourg became the founding site of our present European Province.
Nine years later Mother Alexia moved the novitiate and provincial Motherhouse to Strassburg-Ruprechtsau. She died there in 1918. Her last request was that her body be brought back to Erlenbad where it remains.
One year after her death the Archbishop of Freiburg approved the move of the novitiate and Provincial Motherhouse to Erlenbad. And seven years later the sisters moved into their newly built provincial Motherhouse!
“I have come to bring fire upon the earth and how I wish it were already burning.”
Mother Alexia’s spirit of mission led her to open 60 missions in Baden between 1904 and 1918 in spite of the laws of the state. Four years before her death she opened homes for Catholic women who were studying in universities. A priest biographer said of her, “Mother Alexia had an unusually enthusiastic social perception and showed a great understanding for all the burning questions of the time.” (p.115)
Mother Alexia founded a world-wide community that would create its ministries in response to the needs of the times.
The community in Europe grew rapidly after her death and ministries expanded across southern German, Switzerland and Holland. Mother Alexia sent sisters to the Carolina Islands and Mother Catherine sent them to India and Honduras. Today the presence of our two provinces in India is due to the love and support of our sisters in the European Province.
“As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”
In light of changes in the community and in the world around them in recent decades our Sisters began a process of evaluating their ministries. In wanting to be faithful to their mission they asked:
What are the new needs of our times?
Are we able to meet these needs?
How can we be the Face of the Gospel?
How can we help to change the Face of the
World?
Our sisters know that mission in the now 21st century is not limited to crossing oceans and being sent to other countries. Mission is also about working with people of various cultures and languages in our own countries. Mission includes providing places for people to pray and to develop their spirituality through a variety of ways. Mission includes caring for the homeless, for the ill and the elderly. Mission is being present to persons of all ages who have no one else to listen to them. Mission is being attentive to the needs of our earth. Mission is walking with those in need in collaboration with others.
A Century of Mission has ended and God’s mission continues to call the Erlenbad Franciscannerinen. May they continue to respond in the spirit of Mother Alexia:
“We are in the world to be for it a source of new life, new meaning, and new hope.”