“Fulda Makes Connections”
was the motto of the state garden show held in Fulda this year. The goal of the show was to make Fulda an enchanting paradise garden in full bloom and to inspire us to relax, dream, enjoy, participate, and imitate this in our garden at home.
Some wondered and asked themselves: Am I at the state garden show or at the
“Open-Air Praise of Mary” on Marian Heights in Dietershausen?
The explanation and context follow:
“The Blessed Mother
Makes Connections!”
We experience this here every Sunday in May at our Praise of Mary event. Today we contemplated the Blessed Mother as God’s Garden. She wants to and should enchant us by letting us look into the garden of her heart, which is like a paradise. We want to rejoice in the wonderful fruit of this Garden of God, Christ, and we are invited to participate, to imitate, and to cultivate the “garden of our heart.”
For the Praise of Mary event on May 21, 2023, the Schoenstatt Sisters at the Schoenstatt Center in the Diocese of Fulda invited Auxiliary Bishop Karlheinz Diez to contemplate the Blessed Mother with the faithful as God’s Garden. Sister Karin-Marie who prepares children for First Holy Communion was delighted that some of the first communicants in the area came. They placed various flowers before the image of the Blessed Mother that stood in front of the shrine and they explained the symbolism of the roses, lilies, violets, daisies, greens, and bleeding hearts.
In his address, Auxiliary Bishop Diez told us about his visit to the largest pilgrimage place in India: Velankanni. There, too, the Mother of God is always honored with a sea of flowers. And he encouraged us, like the many people who go on pilgrimage to Marian shrines, to trust in the Blessed Mother who always leads us to her Son, Jesus Christ. She brings healing and peace to hearts.
The prayers were musically framed with songs performed by the Chortissimo Thoenklang Choir from Edelzell and with songs sung by everyone present.
After the Benediction, Sister M. Isabell–responsible for the pilgrims who visit our center–invited the pilgrims to bring a rose to the Blessed Mother in the Schoenstatt Shrine. Then, in and around the Josef Engling House, the people enjoyed coffee and cake relaxing in glorious May weather. When they said good-bye, we often heard: