Sowing the Seed, 1822-1840

Letters of Mary Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger Volume 1 Sowing the Seed, 1822-1840 Volume 2 Nurturing the Seedling, 1841-1848 Volume 3 Jolted and Joggled, 1849-1852 Volume 4 Vigorous Growth, 1853-1858 Volume 5 Living Branches, 1859-1867 Volume 6 Mission to North America, 1847-1859 Volume 7 Mission to North America, 1860-1879 Volume 8 Mission to Prussia: Brede Volume 9 Mission to Prussia: Breslau Volume 10 Mission to Upper Austria Volume 11 Mission to Baden Mission to Gorizia Volume 12 Mission to Hungary Volume 13 Mission to Austria Mission to England Volume 14 Mission to Tyrol Volume 15 Abundant Fruit, 1868-1879 Letters of Mary Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger Foundress of the School Sisters of Notre Dame Volume 1 Sowing the Seed 1822—1840 Translated, Edited, and Annotated by Mary Ann Kuttner, SSND School Sisters of Notre Dame Printing Department Elm Grove, Wisconsin 2010 Copyright © 2010 by School Sisters of Notre Dame Via della Stazione Aurelia 95 00165 Rome, Italy All rights reserved. Cover Design by Mary Caroline Jakubowski, SSND “All the works of God proceed slowly and in pain; but then, their roots are the sturdier and their flowering the lovelier.” Mary Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger No. 2277 Contents Letter from Mary V. Maher, SSND ix Foreword by Rosemary Howarth, SSND xiii Preface xv Acknowledgments xix Chronology xxi Preface to Volume 1 xxv Introduction to Volume 1 xxvii Chapter 1 1822—1832 1 Chapter 2 1833—1834 27 Chapter 3 1835 57 Chapter 4 1836 71 Chapter 5 1837 105 Chapter 6 1838 117 Chapter 7 1839 147 Chapter 8 1840 175 List of Documents 209 Index 213 Mary Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger (1797-1879) Illustration by Norbert Schinkmann, 1996. Courtesy of the Bavarian Province of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, Munich. ix October 24, 2010 Dear Reader, All the works of God proceed slowly and in pain; but then their roots are the sturdier and their flowering the lovelier. These words, first penned by Mother Theresa with re- gard to the small mission in Freistadt, Austria, describe the signature experience of her life. From fragile, even uncertain, beginnings comes great growth. This is shown to be true over and over again throughout her life and in the course of the history of the congregation of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. Today in the twenty-first century we take up these letters with a perspective Mother Theresa could never have imagined. We learn from her letters how the congregation spread in Europe during her lifetime. She could not have anticipated the horrifying events which would divide Europe and the world in the twentieth century. But she would not have been surprised that the congregation remained united through it all. East and west in the congregation, our sisters refer to themselves as “one Europe” now. Despite the pain and suffering, God’s work cannot be stopped. Mother Theresa could not have anticipated that sisters would travel from Silesia and Bavaria to establish missions in Brazil and Argentina. Fragile, uncertain beginnings, yes. But Mother Teresa would not be surprised to see the vigorous and fruitful growth of the congregation that has taken place in South America nor at how deeply her spirit and charism continue to thrive there. She would recognize in this her own experience that “all the works of God proceed slowly and in pain,” but then, sometimes only seen from the perspective of the future, what emerges has sturdy roots and abundant fruitfulness. x The same pattern is disclosed in her risk to take the congregation to North America in 1847. When she wrote a final letter to Father Matthias Siegert in Munich before she em- barked on her return voyage to Bavaria from New York in 1848, Mother Theresa was leaving behind a good beginning for the congregation on another continent. Her sisters were teaching in five schools in two states, Maryland and Penn- sylvania. They were making the brave beginning of what would be an extraordinarily fruitful apostolate. But Theresa did not know that as she left for home. She was relieved that the congregation had gained a foothold among the Ger- man immigrants for whom they had come, but her heart was filled with uncertainty. We discover in her letters that Mother Theresa had been troubled after she had arrived in New York Harbor almost a year earlier, realizing that she was not expected, that she had no invitation from any bishop, and that she could not show an approved rule for her fledgling congregation. She went through some moments of doubt thinking, “We came too soon,” and later, “St. Marys is not a flourishing colony suitable for a motherhouse.” So, as she was leaving, never to see America again, there was doubt in her mind and heart. In that last letter to Fa- ther Siegert, when she thought she might be lost on the return voyage, she wrote: May no one cast into the grave after me the accusation that I have undertaken too much here, that I have begun too grandly and extended the work of God too widely. The future will give a fuller explanation. We stand today in the midst of that fuller explanation. We see the vast growth of the congregation extending across the continent of North America from east to west and north to south. Too grandly or too widely? No one can accuse Mother Theresa of this, for it is God who strengthened the roots and gave the growth. What person today, seeing the fruits of the congregation’s life and missions in Latin Amer- ica and Asia and Micronesia and Africa, all founded from xi North America, could say that Mother Theresa was wrong to have risked that first voyage? The future has given a fuller explanation. Looking ahead we can see that the congregation faces the uncertainties of very different, yet still difficult times. We can only do what Mother Theresa’s letters reveal to us so powerfully: Go forward in ever deepening faith and hope, trusting in God’s ways. We are strengthened in this determination by the excel- lent scholarly work of Sister Mary Ann Kuttner evident everywhere in these fifteen volumes for which I am privi- leged to write this letter. Since the Second Vatican Council called us to return to the original inspiration of our founda- tion, each of my predecessors—Mother M. Georgianne Seg- ner, Sisters Mary Margaret Johanning, Patricia Flynn, and Rosemary Howarth—did her part to make available the writings of Mother Theresa and to assist the sisters of the congregation to get to know her better. In these newly translated letters we come again closer to the heart and spirit of Blessed Theresa. What a gift they are to the Congregation at this time! What strength and inspiration will flow from them as we continue to “extend the work of God” grandly and widely, even if at times we feel fragile and uncertain. On behalf of the international congregation, I thank Sister Mary Ann and all who preceded her in this great work. It is an invaluable service to the Eng- lish-speaking world. May all who read these letters be inspired and blessed to take their own part in the unfolding work of God. Mary V. Maher, SSND General Superior October 24, 2010 xiii Foreword Since 1833, the deep story of the School Sisters of Notre Dame (Arme Schulschwestern von Unserer Lieben Frau) has been slowly but surely woven into the history of the world, the church, and the lives of thousands of women from many cultures. Blessed Mary Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger, our beloved foundress, made God’s cause the only concern of her heart. Her spirit inspired others to do the same with a zeal- ous love for God and for God’s dream for all creation. For more than three decades, we have had access to thousands of Mother Theresa’s letters. Her words give us a window into her heart and her spirit. They reveal the multi- colored threads of her deep faith in God and her vision for an apostolic congregation of women committed to education and character formation that have the potential to trans- form persons and societies. Her words allow us to touch the texture of her spirituality and to see both the fabric of her unique character and her total gift of self to God and to God’s mission. Through the dedicated work of our sister translators and Sister Mary Hester Valentine, we English speakers could encounter Blessed Theresa personally by reading her letters, either in the five-volume set of over 5,000 letters which had been preserved at the Vatican for her beatification cause or in the three-volume set published in 1977 (Of Spir- itual Matters, Historical Dimensions, The North American Foundations). In January 1998, Sister Patricia Flynn invited Sister Mary Ann Kuttner to continue to develop the work on the original English translation of the letters completed by Sis- ters Lidoria Balk and Frances Therese Jungwirth. In order to strengthen the translation, Sister Mary Ann carefully re- searched historical events and persons referred to in the let- xiv Foreword ters and prepared notes that could help to provide a fuller context for the letters. A fifteen-volume set of letters writ- ten by Mother Theresa as the congregation came to life and developed (six volumes) or as it expanded into various mission areas (nine volumes) is the result of a collaborative ef- fort that spanned many years. Thanks to the persevering dedication of Sister Mary Ann, we now have the gift of a new resource.

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