Mother Bernarda today
Today her Spirit is alive in 14 provinces of our Congregation.
Let us hear what people today, some 150 years after her death, think of Mother Bernarda.
Cecile, is a student in Lucerne: "I felt great interest in this woman who called such a congregation into being. It was not easy for her to fight for her convictions. In her I discovered a strong, determined woman of deep faith and felt great sympathy towards her. I have a great desire to make her my personal friend." More about this: A personal letter to Mother Bernarda by Cecile in the year 2000. Jose Amrein-Murer: it amazes me no end how Mother Bernarda remained faithful to the institute founded by her in spite of most difficult circumstances and she did this without bitterness and with great creativity. It is precisely in this attitude and her tremendous trust in God that she is a wonderful example for us today. Carlo Moos: what fascinates me on Mother Bernarda is her assured goal-orientation and steadfastness with which she persuade the way she had chosen. In a world largely male-dominated she was able to defend the directions taken with great autonomy and steadfastness (Where could she possibly have learned this?) Was she not a woman far ahead of her time? It is most probably that which makes her alive for us today. |
16 – 23 years old young people share after a day of reflection with Mother Bernarda: - I see in Mother Bernarda a woman who did not allow herself to be crushed. - I regard it as very important that she kept going on the way she believed to be the right one. She remained faithful to herself. Brother Niklaus Kuster, he speaks as a capuchin who has developed an ever "more growing appreciation of Sister Bernarda....in a patriarchal-dominated time she manifested a strong, independent figure of a woman......you (sisters) can be grateful to her for the survival and success of your foundation". More to this: See also How a young sister from Zambia experiences Mother Bernarda today |
What is the Secret of Mother Bernarda?
We Menzingen sisters are asking ourselves the question:
- From where did Mother Bernarda get the strength and inner assurance to gain clarity in her decisions?
- How was she able to follow her conscience in spite of all the oppositions she experienced?
- What helped her to bear the great loneliness and illness she had to endure?
We are able only to guess:
Mother Bernarda was a woman of faith and deep Spirituality.
