The Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary inform that the Cause of Beatification of Venerable Sr. M. Emilie Engel has a new postulator. Sr. M. Elizabet Parodi is the new person responsible for the process currently underway in Rome at the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.
Sr. M. Elizabet is Argentine and obtained her doctorate in theology in Germany, at the Faculty of Theology of the Pallottine Fathers in Vallendar. She worked for years in Rome at the then Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
In recent years, he has been working in Schoenstatt, in the Mother House of his community, contributing to research projects related to the Kentenich cause and the history of Schoenstatt.
The life of Sr. M. Emilie Engel, a community member of the Sisters of Mary, was heroic. God spared her neither trials nor crosses. Her process of canonization began on October 12, 1999. Her new postulator tells us about her:
An unexpected question
It was a winter afternoon last year. My Superior General called me and asked me if I would be willing to take on the task of postulator for Emilie Engel’s cause. Sr. M. Emilie is not unknown to me. She is a founding member of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary and a very dear figure to all of us. The dedication and heroism in the virtues with which Emilie lived her covenant of love with Mary were recognized by the Church in 2012.
To conclude her beatification process, it is necessary to prove that God has worked a miracle through her intercession. That is why I asked our Superior General, Sr. M. Joanna Buckley, if there was a miracle to be investigated. Her answer: “No. And that is what it is all about. To continue to help Emilie so that her message and intercession will reach many people.”
A motivational phrase
Her response reminded me of a dialogue with a colleague when I was working as a theologian in what is now the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. One day, as we were reading some extraordinary actions attributed to the then Blessed John Paul II, I spontaneously remarked to him, “Some saints mediate extraordinary graces very often. Others are lazy.” “No,” he answered me with conviction, “the Servants of God are never lazy, the lazy ones are the devout: they barely implore their intercession.”
Emilie Engel – a Schoenstatt saint
Passionate about Schoenstatt, Emilie lived her sanctity in a covenant of love with Mary, rooted in the Shrine, to such an extent that when she died in 1955, Father Joseph Kentenich affirmed it.
“The mystery of her life became a reality in the spirit of Schoenstatt through a permanent dialogue between a paternal and solicitous ‘Ita Filia’ (Yes, daughter) and a heroic, filial and willing ‘Ita Pater’ (Yes, father); an unscrupulously profound, vital and joyful dialogue”.
He concludes:
“Put more briefly: She was a true daughter of the Father in the spirit of Schoenstatt. Very briefly: a true daughter of Schoenstatt.”
The covenant of love leads us to sanctify our encounters with others
From a young age, Emilie was characterized by her solidarity, but in the covenant of love, her heart opened more and more to others. Her life was marked by a God whom she discovered deeply as a Father in whom she trusted absolutely. But at the same time, Emilie, sober and of few words, was characterized by a maternal gaze attentive to those who were difficult, distressed, or lonely. Wherever she saw a need, she was present with a gesture, a word, even if it was difficult for her. From her simplicity, Emilie was an expert in weaving a network of links, an organism of solidarity.
Always simple, generous, and with a smile
Emilie Engel did not come to know the jar symbol in front of the altar of the Shrine as an expression of what her children give to Mary in the covenant of love. Still, every day she gave her contributions to the capital of grace, large or small – especially those that were an expression of her exterior or interior fragility – certain that in Mary’s hands they could be fruitful for others, always with a smile, an expression of her life in covenant with God: a smile without fiction, sincere, even amid pain.
Why do we implore a miracle through his intercession?
Sometimes, I am asked if it is necessary to beatify her or ask for a miracle through her intercession. For the Sisters of Mary and many Schoenstatters, she is already a saint, a testimony of the covenant of love lived. But Emilie Engel transcends us. Her person and her message are for the Church. Emilie is a gift to everyone. And for that message to reach others, she needs us to make her known. The rest is up to her.
Sr. Emilie is not self-referential for Schoenstatt. She is a testimony to Mary’s concrete education from the Shrine. Emilie Engel is a light that reflects the radiance of Christ. And in this dark world, how necessary every light is!
“Do not light a candle to put it under the table, but put it on a stand, that it may give light to all in the house. Let your light shine before men” (Mt 5:15-16).
Translation: Sr. M. Lourdes Macías
