For the last two years we’ve been at Pützchen (Bonn), next door to our retreat house, on the property of the Carmelite nuns, who have moved to a smaller convent.

We are taking part in a new scheme: “Old and Young Living Together”. This is an attempt to fight (on the socio-political level) against the isolation of many people today, especially the old. There are about 110 of us; we are trying to live with several generations together, being attentive to one another. Our little community of three Sisters is well integrated into the scheme. As a religious community we already have a great deal of experience in this aspect of common life.

The people here are not all Christians; their beliefs are very varied. It’s a challenge for us to be present and to find the way to serve from day to day according to people’s needs, e.g. talking for an hour in the dark garage on the question: “How do you pray?” At Christmas a Jewish woman came spontaneously to tell us about her anguish in the Nazi era. Some small children ring the doorbell: “Would you like to come to our circus?” Many people talk to us about their life, in which relationships have often been broken, so that courage is needed to begin again here. It’s often thanks to our presence that religion (which is not talked about in public) can be the subject of conversation.

We need to find new rituals which are not explicitly Christian, but which speak all the same of the mystery of death and life. Once a month, a good proportion of the residents take part in meditation with our Sisters in the new chapel next door, which invites us to create new forms of meditation, an expression, perhaps, of their desire to remain in silence for a moment and to listen to what their life is telling them.

We take part in reflection on the furthering of this scheme, and we are in contact with similar initiatives elsewhere in Germany.

In our house we have a room set aside for guests, people who do not belong to the group but are following the exercises of St Ignatius, or who want a time of retreat. People around us know this, and sometimes ask: “You know, I’ve got a friend who would like to come, but she has no money, and I have no room. Could she spend a few nights with you?”

The nearness of our own retreat house gives us the opportunity to have very close contacts with our Sisters there, to help them and be helped by them, and to celebrate the Eucharist together.

                            Margaret Fühles rscj
Province of Central Europe