Sister Maria Margareta  

Sister  Maria  Margareta                ND 6159                PDF Download

Josefa Mecking

Maria Regina Province, Coesfeld, Germany

Date and Place of Birth:              August 04, 1942   Heiden, District of Borken
Date and Place of Profession:    April 19, 1966       Coesfeld
Date and Place of Death:            August 03, 2023   Münster, University Hospital
Date and Place of Burial:            August 10, 2023   Coesfeld, Convent Cemetery

„Let me live that I may praise you“. (Ps 119:175)

Sister Maria Margareta passed away unexpectedly on August 03, 2023. She wrote her own resume which reads:

“On August 4, 1942, I was born in Heiden, district of Borken, as the sixth of ten children of the married couple Johann and Franziska Mecking. In March 1943 my parents’ house was destroyed to the ground by an air mine. Consequently, at the age of nine months, I came to live at my godmother’s house, the Beuker family in Gescher. Until I started school I did not know that my real name was Josefa Mecking and that I was not growing up in my family of origin.

When attending kindergarten I came into contact with the Sisters of Notre Dame at an early age. Until 1957 I attended the elementary school in Gescher. After leaving school, I took a job as a housemaid in a business household for two and a half years. At the same time I attended the home economics vocational school once a week. From 1959 until 1961 I worked as an assistant in the kindergarten in Gescher.

As one of the first students, I completed my training as a child care worker at the Liebfrauenschule in Coesfeld in 1961. During this time I lived in the Liebfrauenburg as an aspirant. In May 1963 I began my postulancy. My investment was in 1964, followed by first vows in 1966 and perpetual vows in 1972.

My professional activity began in 1965 in the St. Mary Kindergarten in Lünen and continued in 1967 in the St. Josef Kindergarten in Dingden. During my work in Dingden I lived in our convent in Bocholt. After graduating from middle school, I began my training as a kindergarten teacher at the Liebfrauenschule in Coesfeld. This was followed in 1973 by training as a social pedagogue at the University of Applied Sciences in Vechta.

In 1975 I began my work as a social pedagogue at the Liebfrauenschule in Coesfeld. My work was mainly focused on guiding and accompanying the students during their various internships.

In October 1988 I moved to “Haus Julia,” the newly founded novitiate community in Kloster Annenthal. After completing my ministry in the school in 2004, I was sent to the Studentinnenburse in Münster. There, I ministered as the local superior for six years.

Since June 2011 I have been living and working in Kloster Annenthal. My field of activity is the reception desk with all its various tasks. I also participate in the festivities committee, in the liturgy preparation and assist with other tasks in the house. As a voluntary service outside the community, I have been a reading mentor for a child at Lamberti Elementary School since September 2011.

When I look back on my life, I realize that I have always met people, especially women, who have shown me benevolence in my life. In times of crisis and upheaval, I had people at my side whom I could confide in, who sought to understand me and who accompanied me on my life’s journey.”

One week before her 81^st birthday, Sister Maria Margareta suffered a severe stroke. In the University Hospital in Münster it became more and more evident that she would never again be able to show any conscious movement in her life. Now we trust that God has welcomed her with open arms into the vastness of his love and his light.