On this 23 October, we asked our General Superior, Sr Veronica CJ, which Mary Ward statue is close to her heart an why. She presented the model of the new statue to be built in Nuremberg. It shows Mary Ward breaking through a wall.
Here is the video with her reflection as well as an image of the statue – thanks to Sr Monika Glockann for provinding us with the picture.
As it was rainig heavily when we took the video, the sound quality has suffered a bit. Therefore, Sr Veronica providesus with the text of her reflexion:
Mary Ward breaks through a wall
This Mary Ward statue only exists as a model so far – as soon as it is completed, it will stand in the Mary Ward School in Nuremberg, Germany.
It is an image of Mary Ward that fascinates me: Mary Ward breaks through a wall. She breaks through the wall with the right side of her body – her foot is ready to move on, her hand outstretched to give and receive, open for what is to come. The left side is still behind the wall, still holding on.
Is this not a reflection of her life, her vocation? She was forward-looking, far ahead of her time, broke through the walls of tradition with her idea of an apostolic women’s community and ushered in a new era of religious life. This required clarity, deep roots in faith, infinite trust and great courage. She was groundbreaking in the true sense of the word.
At the same time, a part of her still remains behind, still has to follow. We can interpret it as the resistance she had to struggle with, the fact that she was not understood, indeed rejected. But I also see in it the part of her that remained gently and respectfully attached to the reality of the church situation, that patiently persevered in the firm belief that the moment of total breakthrough would come in any case, because it was God’s will – but in His time.
She is an example to me, a role model precisely in this harmony of visionary spirit, of purposefulness and courageous forging ahead, and at the same time sensitive to the fact that God’s time does not always necessarily have to be our time, that we too must persevere, hopeful and convinced, when the ecclesial and social situation and also the situation of our congregation require us to proceed more carefully, more slowly and more cautiously than would perhaps be our human impulse. Many things simply take more time than we would like at first glance. “God has His time for everything” – Mary Ward tells us.
