Helena Stollenwerk

2. MISSIONARY and MYSTIQUE Helena Stollenwerk

3. From the personal holiness of Helena, the key ideas of her spirituality, and her ardent love for the missions, we can gain some encouraging insight for ourselves today. Though Helena was a woman of the 19th century, her path is not limited to being a way in the past; it can also give us direction today on the way to go and the kind of life to lead.

4. The beginning of Helena’s life and the mission to China appear somehow entwined. The week she was born, the Church celebrated the 300th death anniversary of the great apostle Francis Xavier, who died on the threshold of China.

5. From her early childhood Mother Maria had felt the Missionary call. She wanted to go as a missionary to China. For that she had taken upon herself everything: the long years of waiting in her parental home, the difficult time in the Mission house in the kitchen, the temptations and opposition that she had encountered. What gave her strength and hope was the prospect of one day being sent as a Missionary to China or some other land.

6. Helena was a follower of the Child Jesus. Her image of Christ took on a a special form through the Pontifical Missionary Society of the Holy Childhood.

7. The members were made to understand that the money they donated should come not from left overs but from the gift they received, from money saved or earned. The children were especially encouraged to see Jesus in their Chinese and African contemporaries.

8. Her heart was in China. She felt that she had to breakout of narrow boundaries of her homeland in order to be at home in the world, in order to feel solidarity with all the people of the world. The experience of being in solidarity with all the children of the world influenced Helena’s later understanding of the mission.

9. Truly, Helena was a woman with a dream and her homeland was the whole world. Truly, Helena was a woman with a dream and her homeland was the whole world.

10. The Holy Childhood Association was a door to the wider world. The bulletins, which Helena loved to read however, described the mission work of men only. So sometimes it was difficult for Helena to accept the fact that because she was a girl she could not be a missionary. If she had been a boy, she would have studied and gone to the missions without question or difficulty. Often when she dreamt that she was picking up the “outcast children on the banks of a river,” she believed that this would be impossible for women. From this it is clear that she had to grapple with her destiny as a woman in the Church.

11. At a time when there was no opportunity for a woman to be a missionary, she did not let herself be discouraged. Her wish to be a boy did not mean that she denied her femininity but that she was not satisfied with being a woman as defined by the time when she lived.

12. Thus already in her day the young girl was breaking down stereotypes that oppress women. She had no models to rely on. She was not brought up in an age of any feminist movements from which she might receive ideas. Instead she trusted her own inclinations and dreams. God himself broke down the limits of her narrow education through her dreams.

13. …but her China turned out to be building up the community inSteyl…

14. Helena grew up in a family community made up of several generations and she was able to accommodate herself there. The sisters experienced her as a woman who could weave persons of different character into a single community. She repeated the value of sisterly love very often. If the community was in harmony, the missionary work would be fruitful.

15. She wrote to the sisters in Argentina, “ The most beautiful thing is sisterly love, reigning among all the sisters.” She wrote to the sisters in Argentina, “ The most beautiful thing is sisterly love, reigning among all the sisters.”

16. In spite of her work and responsibility, she found timeto maintain deep union withthe Lord. Helena did not develop an entirely new spirituality. As she took what she could accept from the spiritualities of her day.

17. The greatness of Helena however was in her ability to free herself from this moralistic approach that considered sex as evil, to choose spiritual path that stressed a relationship with God and an experience of God dwelling in her own heart. By doing so she gave her spirituality her own individual stamp. Her spirituality did not come from her head, but from her heart, and this gave her feelings and insights a chance to develop.

18. The image of God that she addressed in the Sacred Heart devotion was a loving and human God,a God who has shown his human heart in Christ.

19. Helena’s devotion to the sacred heart was closely connected to the Eucharist. In the consecrated host one can meet the same Christ. Devotion to the Sacred Heart led also to the devotion to the Holy Spirit.

20. The call to missionary service and eucharistic piety form a deep unity in Blessed Maria Helena. The more she grew into her missionary vocation, the deeper her love for the Eucharist became.

21. Likewise, her eucharistic devotion was her source of strength in the face of difficulties that stood in the way of her missionary vocation and later, it enabled her to fulfill her personal task in the service of the universal mission.

22. For Mother Maria, her concept of mission was taken directly from the New Testament: To be a missionary means to take on the labours of the Lord, to walk in the footsteps of Jesus (3 May 1896). It is a time of working and labouring for God (2 November 1895), of working and sacrificing for the greater glory of God and for the salvation of the poor people.

23. For her, mission is the work of the Fisher of people from Nazareth who shunned no effort, for whom no journey was too long, no suffering to great in order to win people for the Kingdom of God. According to her letters to the sisters, a Missionary sister consisted in adopting the attitudes of Jesus (5 November 1895). Particularly when all efforts appeared to be in vain, where no fruits were visible, and where things seemed to have come to stand still, it was the example of Jesus that the sisters should keep before them.

24. Arnold Janssen’s plan of founding the third branch – the Adoration Sisters has finally come true. Arnold Janssen’s plan of founding the third branch – the Adoration Sisters finally came to reality. When Arnold Janssen asked her how things stood with her vocation to the cloister, her reply was, “ I am happy as a missionary sister.” When he repeated the question a third time, she realized that it was his wish.

25. It was really hard for her to accept. But she said, “The thought that it is the will ofGod gives me the strengthand courage I need…”

26. “…I am taking this step becauseI see it as God’s holy will. I esteem and love the missionary vocation as much as ever. It is not the state in life that makes us holy but the way we live it.”

27. She is a model for every missionary, for every Missionary Sister Servant of the Holy Spirit.Helena fulfilled the mission ideal that St Arnold proposed. She joined action and contemplation together. She could work so hard because she came into contact with the Source in the Holy Spirit, who inflamed her and nourished her.

28. Helena found in prayer the strength to preserve her hope in the face of disappointment , and to accomplish all that was necessary within her power. What she lived would today be called “fight and contemplation” (Taize), “mysticism and politics”(Zulehner), “opposition and surrender” (Bonhoeffer), “ora et labora” (Benedict) The healthy tension between these two poles is the only way the world can be helped today.

29. The experience of being in solidarity with all the children of the world influenced Helena’s understanding of mission. Her letters to the sisters in Argentina were filled with practical concern for the children entrusted to their care. All her letters speak of deep solidarity with the sisters and with the people in the distant lands. In them one gets a better sense of the missions as a woman.

30. Helena did not have a grand mission strategy. She did not develop any kind of theology of mission but was always busy with concrete problems. In her heart she felt herself one with the men and women in the missions. She loved them as well as the people whom her sisters served. Love was the basic approach and her theme for dealing with the missions.

31. The sisters become the clearest sign of Christ when they love the people among whom they work. Helena repeats this time and again in her letters to the sisters in Argentina. She speaks of the love of self-giving, a love that sacrifices for others. The hearts of the people cannot be won through good preaching, but first of all through the sign of Christ-like love of neighbor.

32. Helena gives us a maxim for mission: “To God the honor, to my neighbor the benefit and to myself the burden.” Mission first of all is for the glory of God. If people see love among the sisters and feel their kindness then God will be honored. .

33. For Helena to be a missionary means to be present for others, to care for their welfare and to support them. The sisters in the mission should not be surprised if their work becomes difficult. The burden is theirs. But they will gladly accept all their difficulties because they know that God is glorified in their hardships and in their service of his people.

34. A simple theology of mission flows out of these few words of Blessed Maria Helena but they express the central idea of mission. “Whoever becomes a sign of love among the peoples of the world upholds the witness of Christ.” For this reason, the witness of Christian community among the sisters is the strongest sign of love for people to see.

35. Blessed Maria Helena met her God in the beauty and peace of nature and the inner voice of her own heart, expressed in her love for Eucharistic adoration, in her service to neighbor and her dream of offering herself totally or the China mission

36. Religious Situation: Defensive Church isolating itself, Church reform and lay spirituality movements, marked increase of Apostolic Congregations for both men and women, beginnings of ecumenismHer View: Saw in the events/trends of the time possibilities of making her gifts fruitful to God’s peopleHer Response: Gave up her own dream of going to China herself in favor of God’s will for her to prepare many others instead for mission overseas, imbued with the spirituality and charism of the founder

37. Cultural Situation: Spirit of Liberalism and Rationalism, growing faith in Science, anti-Church and anti-clericalHer View: A challenge to choose what provides a better response to the needs of the people of her timeHer Response: Awakened mission awareness through helping in the press apostolate, collaborated and supported the brothers, sisters and priests preparing for the missionary service

38. Political Situation French revolution, rise of nation states, wars, growing nationalism, Kulturkampf – GermanyHer View: Religious missionary community life, a witness to God’s love and acceptance of all nations Her Response: Matured in her service as leader, providing motherly guidance for each one while looking into the future, seeking to overcome the narrow bounds that confined women of her day

39. Economic Situation: Industrial revolutions/Scientific Inventions/Rise of Capitalism – need for markets/raw materialsHer View: A discerning look at the new developments to choose those that are fruitful for world mission Her Response: Fostered a a simple lifestyle, yet understood sisters’ need for studies to prepare for mission

40. . Helena, the simple woman from a small village, the woman of simple education, the woman who had seen almost nothing of the outside world, has through her unconditional love and fidelity to her way of life, left us a message that can inspire us in our spiritual journey even today.