Journeying with the Heritage of Anna Dengel into our Common Future
Sister Rosemary Adhiambo who usually lives in Ang’iya, Kenya, sent the following account of her participation in a short pilgrimage to Steeg in Austria. Forty pilgrims from different countries took part in what was called, “Journeying with the Heritage of Anna Dengel into our Common Future”. Sister Rosemary writes:
“Let me start by thanking God for the opportunity granted to me to spend time outside Africa - in the beauty of Austria. First of all, it was a wonderful experience to meet, face-to-face, some of our Medical Mission Sisters from other Units and countries of the world whose faces I had only seen in photos before. Now, we were on a Centenary pilgrimage together.
Austria is a beautiful country with high mountains and deep valleys and I enjoyed being in the small village of Steeg where our founder, Anna Dengel, was born in 1892. Being in touch with creation gave me great joy, not to mention the unforgettable experience of seeing and touching snow with my bare hands for the very first time! The flowers were lovely and the forests, deep and thick and refreshing – a landscape so different from remote, rural Ang’iya in Kenya, where I usually live. Here, the land is often parched and dry and the local people struggle to farm it.
It was like a dream come true to be in the village of our Society’s founder and I was so pleased to walk an extra mile to visit her family home. Being inside it reminded me of the words, “Old is gold.” In the simplicity of what I found there, I once more touched the values, principles and things that truly matter in life, which have shaped my commitment as a Medical Mission Sister for many years - as far away as in Kenya. As pilgrims, we also had a memorable walk to the water falls that Mother Dengel loved so much and indeed, this provided another refreshing moment on my journey.
Our celebrations during the pilgrimage were very moving and well attended and we were very happy when some of the local people, who live in Steeg, joined us. All celebrations happened in a spirit of thanksgiving as we, as a Society, continue to ‘Make the Cause Known.’ One day, the Mass in Austria was celebrated by Bishop Hermann Glettler of Innsbruck. His approach to homily was humbling because, instead of him being the sole preacher, we were invited to share our experience of prayer and this we did. Prayer, after all, gives meaning to our lives as Medical Mission Sisters, wherever we serve in mission - whether expressed in those quiet moments of meditation, when we are being a healing presence to others or through other experiences we encounter every single day.
Given another chance, I would really love to go back to Austria and visit, all over again, Anna Dengel’s house, the little Church where she prayed as a child and the scenic mountain village. Before going to Steeg, I could not imagine how a young lady from so far away, who grew up in such a different country, would go on to extend her love to the suffering people in Rawalpindi - then India, now Pakistan … Then, during the pilgrimage, I realised that the valleys in Austria, where I walked and where she had walked as a child, could not contain her love for God. Instead, like Mother Mary, she travelled through the hills beyond her own home to go and reach out to others. What courage she had! What deep love for Christ compelled her to journey so far away from Austria! It felt truly inspiring, as pilgrims, to be journeying together, almost one hundred years after Mother Dengel founded her beloved Society in Washington DC in 1925.”