For Daily Living

I M P U L S E S 3/2019 for Daily Living Father Kentenich- Childhood in light and shadow Excerpt from the new biography Secretariat Father Joseph Kentenich “Joseph Kentenich Childhood in light and shadow” Reading sample from now on, because she herself In the two previous editions of was no longer able to do so. Joseph "Impulse for daily living" 1/2019 made this act of his mother very and 2/2019, the new biography of much his own. He knew that the Father Kentenich was already Blessed Mother would take care of announced. This issue No. 3/2019 him. This conviction carried him all brings you now a reading sample. through his life. It begins with the entrance of In the biography it says under the Joseph Kentenich in the orphanage headline in Oberhausen. He was then eight years old. The family Childhood in light and shadow: circumstances were so unfavorable What was it about that consecration that his mother and the to the Virgin Mary that touched him grandparents couldn't take care of so deeply and that would have such him. With a heavy heart, his power over his life? There is no mother brought him to the sisters in doubt that Joseph personally the orphanage in Oberhausen. experienced a mysterious reality at When they arrived there, the the moment of the consecration that mother went to the house chapel would influence his life even more with little Joseph, knelt in front of than before: God. In the midst of the the statue of the Blessed Mother pain of the separation from the and gave her child to Mary, the beloved mother he had the Mother of God. She asked Mary to experience of a tremendous nearness take care of her child in her place of God through Mary: God is there. He loves me, very personally, even if he allows suffering. In the arms of Mary, I am as secure as the Child on her lap. The experience is so strong that it never lets go of him as an impression, even in times of crisis. Later hints indicate that through Mary he had profoundly experienced what God is really like. It was the encounter with the "mercifully loving Father God, who can't help himself but loving us endlessly," as he later formulated it. This core experience carried him Statue of Mary in the Orphanage through the following, not easy years in the orphanage. The experiences that he had there intellectual refuge for him. When the cleared the way to a new pedagogy. older orphans graduated and left the “From childhood I have always orphanage he and his companions observed, what education is and yearned for their freedom. One said, how in general it was practiced, and "Will we ever get big like that?!" I said, No. You can't educate like Then Joseph replied to this: "It that, you have to do it differently.’” doesn't matter, but – and he tapped It was somehow in his blood to his forehead – it depends on what observe life and think about it. God you have here!" spoke to him through people and their souls and the "soul His spiritual refuge lay in the inner attunement". He considered the certainty: My mother thinks of me; “voices of soul " as a source of she prays for me. She didn't just put knowledge for what God wanted, me here but she handed me over to possibly also because he himself Mary. To cope with the suffering, suffered much early on and he to process it, he got himself a rhyme witnessed the suffering of others at booklet, to write poetry. His first close quarters. The difficult poems -as his orphanage companion, childhood and youth experiences later journalist Hermann Müser can became a driving force behind him, remember - dealt with suffering. as he himself admits, pushed Joseph was forced early to learn how towards the priesthood: He wanted to deal with difficult circumstances to give a home to others, "although and with suffering without losing my own heart also screams for a himself or breaking from it. You home." have to face the pain, to suffer it: You don't want to push it down. To Joseph lived through difficult years. write away from his soul helped him. He was homesick and ran twice On April 24, 1897 Joseph made his away from the orphanage. Picked First Holy Communion at the age of up on the way, he asked, where then is the Erft, the river that runs through Gymnich? He was "not easy to educate” one of the sisters from the orphanage said. But another tells that she met him one day, alone in the laundry room, where he was sent as a punishment. There he kneeled immovably on the floor, he was "completely oblivious" and he hadn't even noticed me. But it was obviously not only the religious power that he felt and that helped him to survive this time in one piece. Joseph's joy in learning, in knowledge, in books, increased. The school became an eleven. It was the day on which he One day a possibility opens up. told his mother again that he Father Savels had heard from his wanted to become a priest: a priest sister, a Dominican from Arenberg, I will be. "Boy, then we're going to that the missionary society of the have to do a lot of praying." That's Pallottines in Ehrenbreitstein ran a the only thing that the mother boarding school for their vocations... answered to that. But this one There you could earn a high school sentence gave little hope to him. degree. The Pallottines, as they were An illegitimate child could not called, trained priests as missionaries become a priest at that time. The for Africa. They would also accept situation forced him painfully to boys from poor families and family deal more intensely with his situations similar to those of Joseph. family's destiny. But he remained But the mother hesitated. Although firm in his decision. The end of the joy that Joseph could become a school time in Oberhausen was priest at first was great, she was approaching. Once again Katharina hoping that he'd be closer to her. But Kentenich visited her son. Since the now she was supposed to separate First Holy Communion he's from her child again, and that for changed a lot. The thirteen-year-old a long time: Joseph would go to the has entered puberty. A married mission in Cameroon, and from uncle from Cologne, Reiner Greiss, there, perhaps never return?! Was who is particularly close to them, there no other possibility? Or should has accompanied the mother and is she, as she had suggested to Father now sitting between them on the Savels, still marry the father of the bench at the orphanage. He talks child, so that Joseph could be and talks to Joseph to explain the legitimized and become a diocesan situation. "He is a fine gentleman," priest? Then he would not need enter Joseph thinks, he just wants to a missionary society and could stay help." Yet Joseph stares sadly and in Germany ... No! Her confessor had disappointedly. Why isn't his definitely disagreed with her: If that's mother helping him? The uncle the only reason to get married, then shows very proudly his new he strongly advised against it. Now camera. - Joseph reflects: "Such a what? How little the mother could thing can only be bought in make friends with the thought, that Cologne. Here only the real Joseph should become a missionary photographers have that!"... priest is revealed by a poem of the fourteen-year-old at Easter 1900. In a When his mother returned to Hymn to Love ("Power of Love") Cologne, she cannot forget his sad Joseph expressed the request: "May look and again and again she thinks you direct the thoughts of my mother everything through. What the boy whom I don't want to offend!" has in mind is hopeless. The boarding school near the fortress But how could one fulfill his wish Ehrenbreitstein to become a priest for him, how Already on August 15, 1899 Joseph overcome obstacles? had obtained his diploma in Oberhausen. But the decision for Ehrenbreitstein was delayed well into September. At the last minute, the mother had agreed with her confessor with a heavy heart... Now everything had to be done quickly because the school year at Ehrenbreitstein had already begun. Still in Oberhausen he had to undergo a physical examination and be certified, the questionnaire had to be filled out and be signed by Joseph. All this happened on September 22, 1899. The next day Joseph was sitting with a small Joseph Kentenich: the second on front row suitcase that the mother had packed and brought to the Cologne train Now Joseph stood for the first time station in the train to Koblenz- in the inner courtyard of the Ehrenbreitstein. In the new suit, Pallottine property with the finally with long trousers, as it elongated main building, the two should be, he enjoyed the ride opposite outbuildings and the along the Rhine full of expectation former mill. Joseph looked around and anticipation of what would and looked at his new home: the begin now: the High School as the beautiful, ivy-covered terrace first important stage on the way to above near the old quarry stone the priestly vocation I've longed wall towards the mountain. He for. Opposite him Father Savels sat turned around, because opposite and looked at the boy thoughtfully.

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