Opening Liturgy and Reception at Kolping Bildungsstätte

October 2, 2022

The Opening Liturgy for the Chapter was held on October 1, Foundation Day, at St. Lamberti Church. The Chapter participants, many of our sisters from Germany, city officials, and parishioners and friends of the community were present. Rev. Johannes Arntz, the pastor of St. Lamberti, celebrated the mass and was joined by Fr. Laurentius Schlieker, OSB, from the Gerleve Abbey in Coesfeld who gave the homily. In keeping with our Chapter logo and the Gospel of the good Samaritan that was used at the liturgy, Father noted, “When we love Jesus, we will always be a ‘Samaritan Church’ in practice.” The Liturgy wonderfully represented our international congregation with the procession of flags of the 19 countries where we serve, a Brazilian Gospel procession, an African dance with the presentation of the gifts, the Indian Arati after the consecration, and German, English, Indonesian and Korean songs. The celebration ended with the Te Deum sung in each one’s own language.

A lovely dinner reception followed at Kolping Bildungsstätte which included all the chapter participants and our sisters from Germany who were able to join us.

Before supper, the facilitators presented a session on personal and communal discernment as a framework for the work of the Chapter.