History » 1934 - 1939 » 1935 Dedication of Engling Stone » Engling Stone with Lamp
The Engling Stone –
Dedication on Gaudete Sunday
Engling Stone with Lamp
The Holy Grail shines out
from heaven, the ocean of grace
in the cup of the Lamb of sacrifice.
Come to the Holy Grail!
These words sung by the clear voices of young boys resounded from the shrine. The new grave-memorial to our hero sodalists was being dedicated. When you come to Schoenstatt today and pause silently at the graves near the shrine, the mighty granite stone tells you that a youthful and strong generation lies beneath.
The peaceful bit of earth hides a radiant mystery. Those who sleep there are not dead, they live amongst us. Our young people still look up to them with great faith, they still enkindle the flames in their souls to give themselves for Schoenstatt. They remain eternally young, so the hearts of young Schoenstatters will always warm to them.
So it happened that the boys began with tremendous zeal to transform the graves. They beavered away for weeks behind the shrine. They dragged heavy stone blocks from the quarry behind the Home of the Federation. It wasn’t easy. They also had to excavate a new tomb. The whole area was raised and enlarged. Today it is enclosed by a strong wall made up of small stones. In the middle lie the two mounds with the simple, black crosses. Towering behind them is a large rock with a cross on top. The smaller comrades seem almost humble in comparison to this proud associate untouched by hammer or chisel.
I really enoy it. Isn’t it a telling symbol of our sleeping heroies? They, too, stood firmly, surely, in the chaos of war, and carried the cross without wavering into an uprooted era.
I love this faithful, grey guard above all because it carries our lamp in its heart. If you walk at nightfall over the lawn, its tiny light summons you to send a silent greeting to the monument to our heroes. As you approach, it tells you about a Schoenstatter who is sleeping in eternal rest in foreign earth. No cross proclaims his name, but he lives in our hearts. He is our friend and brother, Joseph Engling.
Come, let us look at the lamp. Can you see a sword against the coloured glass? “… I demand self-sanctification of you. It is the armour you will put on, the sword with which you are to fight for your wishes…” we are told in the Founding Document. These words apply to all of us. Yet hardly anyone has taken them so seriously as Joseph Englich. He took up the battle against himself with inexorable discipline, and progressed doggedly.
So he stands before us with sword in hand, but he is also protected by his shield. Can you find it in the colourful window? That was the community in which he lived. It helped him to leave behind his silence and to overcome his awkwardness, but he gave it all the riches of his soul. How much weakness and misery he hid with his shield and his noblemindedness! And, try it today, if you call to him trustingly, he is sure to help you joyfully.
Did he not wave a blazing torch? The fire of holy enthusiasm, of warm love for the Mother Thrice Admirable burned in his soul. He had given her all his strength, all his abilities, his thinking and willing, his whole being. Having become a blazing torch himself, he enkindled all who were with him. Can you see the flaming torch in the lamp?
And above his head waves the banner of Christ. He cherished the divine Child in his heart. The Child took on form and life in him, and he carried the Child to the many who waited and longed as they lined his way. He did this with infinite patience and kindness, and received little thanks. On the contrary, he met with jeering and derision. Yet he battled onwards untiringly until the enemy bullet found him. Look at the banner in the fourth pane of the lamp.
In he hands he bore the sacrificial chalice. In our shrine you will find a brook running with the wine of grace. When you drink from it, you will leave wonderfully refreshed. Joseph had a hand in this joy as well. He contributed the stones that formed this brook from the countless sacrifices he offered up every day in our little shrine. He wanted to be everything to everyone. So he gave himself without reserve with all that he had and was to his heavenly Mother, so that you and I, all of us, could become children of grace. Can you see the sacrificial fire on the shining paten in the little window of our lamp?
We withdraw from this holy stillness and return to the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Yet a light shines in our soul. It has been lit by a holy fire under rustling pinetrees.
In our hearts we bear
a joyful and holy light.
It burns in our souls,
It is reflected by our faces.
The lights in our hearts,
the burning coals in our hands,
the sun in jubilant eyes:
is called our Schoenstatt Mother.
We are her youth,
we call out from darkness and need:
We shall stay true forever,
we shall be faithful until death.
A. Hein
