Haus St. Benedikt Benediktenweg 3 D – 82327 Tutzing

Dear Sisters and Friends all over the world! March 2020

With this newsletter we wish to share with you once again some of the latest events at Haus Benedikt. New Year's Day opened the door to a new year, a new decade. We could not imagine how precarious the next few weeks would become and started as usual the sacred time ahead of us with confidence and the blessing of all rooms in our house. The dense clouds of incense that rose in chapel and rooms were for us a visible sign of the Lord’s blessings that will fill our house "until he returns and unites us in his kingdom with all people and all of creation". The star singers made . us particularly happy this time. The youngest of them read the gospel text very clearly, and then they all wished us well and even distributed little chocolate angels to each sister. We sisters gladly tuned into their Christmas Gloria and in turn thanked these far-traveled highnesses with sweets - they had already visited the old people's home in Garatshausen. In the night of 18/19. January, delicate snowflakes fell from the sky for the first time in the year and covered roofs, trees and meadows with a thin white layer. They were like an enticing greeting from eternity, into which our faithful, lovable Oblate Trinidad was allowed to enter freely and unencumbered, yet full of longing for her “dear Jesus”. It was shortly before midnight on January 19th. Throughout her life Trini had worked with our sisters in the kitchen in Manila and later in Rome. Her life was nothing but joyful, selfless service. She was 92 years old and had spent the past six years with us in Haus St. Benedikt. Grateful for her life among us, we sisters from Haus St. Benedikt, as well as sisters from the motherhouse and Bernried, and a large group of Filipino Oblates and friends of Trinidad accompanied her on their last way to the forest cemetery. R.I.P.! On January 29, all the bells rang even after the Angelus, because the name of our new bishop was to be announced throughout the diocese of Augsburg. We waited excitedly in the refectory until Sr. Kunigundis could give us the name: the previous diocesan administrator prelate Dr. Bertram Meier will be the new bishop of our diocese of Augsburg. Our future bishop can be sure of our prayers for him for strength and wisdom. The consecration was scheduled to take place on March 21, the feast of St. Benedict, but had to be postponed due to the Corona outbreak. Our Sr. Chantal celebrated her 60th day of profession in our midst on February 6th. She can look back on rich decades in our congregation. She was a missionary in Korea and Kenya, held leadership positions as superior, prioress and general councilor. Now she can spend a quieter retirement here in Haus St. Benedikt, but that does not mean that the talents given to her by the Lord would be unused. Just last year she wrote e.g. the history of our Priory in Kenya. We thank the Lord for her being with us and wish Sr. Chantal many more blessed years with reasonably good health. As always, so we celebrated also this year St. Scholastica Day with great cordial festivity within the quiet of our house. Outside, however, the hurricane "Sabine" howled and raged around our walls with gusts up to 125 km / h. Germany had been warned. The storm moved from the north through the whole country to the south of Bavaria. Schools remained closed, trains, local transport as well as many flights had been canceled. There were a number of major accidents and bad injuries, but - thank God - no deaths. In some places, the electric current was for a long time interrupted by falling trees. At Haus St. Benedict only a few flower pots broke. Another bad storm is currently raging over Germany: Within a few weeks, a third racially motivated attack occurred. Eleven people were shot dead and the 43 year old perpetrator finally shot himself and his own mother. We were deeply shaken. Our prayers for peace among people are becoming more and more fervent. In the afternoon of Carnival Sunday Mr. Stefan Frey introduced himself to us. He, a lawyer, a young, energetic father of three, is running for CSU and applying for the office of district administrator for Starnberg. The final ballot will be cast on March 29. We are hopeful that he will win the election. During evening recreation that day we then extensively celebrated carnival. Some pictures of the evening may speak for themselves:

. Carnival is always a big event Germany. However due to another violent storm, the carnival procession on Sunday had to be canceled in some places. Yet the largest “Rosenmontagszug” for all of Germany could again take place in Cologne city center and was 7 kilometers long. The individual, imaginatively designed cars represented current events in politics and society. One car picked up on the past extreme right-wing terrorist attack in Hanau. In large letters was written on a red weeping heart: "Our heart beats for Hanau". On Ash Wednesday, Fr. Philipp OSB, our spiritual, drew a meaningful black ash cross on each sister's forehead: "repent and believe in the good news!" As confirmation, there was several times during the day a heavy snow flurry and reminded us of Isaias 1.18: "Though your sins are red like scarlet, they shall be white like snow". The snow cover was so thin that it was licked by the sun after an hour. This year we have the warmest winter since measurements started! On March 2nd we had the pleasure of welcoming Mother Angela to our home. She came from Recife / Brazil to do important business here, but unfortunately is very busy, so less accessible for us. Finally important for us: we received the new bathtub for our infirmary. With the likewise new column lifter, frail sisters can easily be lifted into the water, joy and pleasure for everyone involved! Since the end of February, news of the rapidly increasing numbers of people infected by the corona virus has also multiplied in Germany and with this news the last but extremely violent storm began for this 1st quarter of the year, a worldwide storm! In Bavaria, Prime Minister Markus Söder has declared the state of emergency, because of the particularly high number of infected people. Public life is paralyzed. All kindergartens and schools, shops, public offices, restaurants etc. will remain closed until April 3. Streets and parking lots are significantly empty. We sisters in Haus St. Benedikt are still healthy - thank God. All the more we lift up to the Lord all people in this time of trial, of illness and insecurity. We are certain that God wants to touch our hearts through these events and prepare us anew for the work of his merciful love. He shows that He is the creator who loves his creation, that he is the Lord over life and death, even if we think that we can freely determine beginning and end of life. We ask for his abundant mercy and pray that after this extended and all-encompassing Lent, Easter will really be the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord. It is already outside in nature green and blooming with exuberant splendor.

Dear friends and sisters, we remain deeply united with you in our Lord’s love and thank you in turn for your signs of love. With many greetings from all Sisters in Haus St. Benedikt, especially Sr. Martha, Yours