100 Times Monday Prayer
in the Coronation Church on Liebfrauenhoehe, Germany
There was a particular atmosphere
in the lower church of the Coronation Church on the evening of the first Monday in September, 2025. Around 50 people came to the Political Monday Prayer at the Schoenstatt Center on Liebfrauenhöhe on September 1. There many new faces among the people. A married couple from the Allgaeu region, who are currently staying at the conference center, took the advice from the sister at the reception desk to attend this special prayer service and came along.
On the altar was the Europe Candle which Sister M. Ute Breidbach made before she passed way. There was also a candle with the number 100 because today was when we celebrated the 100th Monday Prayer!
Dorothee Maisch, winner of the Helene Weber Prize, CDU politician, city councilor, and entrepreneur, was invited as a keynote speaker. Her theme was: Women do Politics! Using the five senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, she motivated us to courageously and confidently contribute our unique charisms as women in order to help shape our society today and in the future in a sustainable way.
The memorable music and appealing lyrics of the duo Fountain Street from Horb, featuring blind singer and keyboardist Felix Gruetzmacher and singer Marion Schaller, were impressive. Songs sung together, topical intercessions, the prayer for peace, and the Lord’s Prayer with the sign of peace were once again integral parts of the service.
As has become the custom, the prayers—at first by Father Lothar Penners, then Sr. M. Monika März, and now Sr. M. Ilga—concluded by asking for God’s blessing and summarizing the theme of the evening. It is a joy to ask Christ, who held the women of his time, above all his mother Mary, in high esteem and involved them in the formation and growth of the first Christian communities, to bless all those present.
During the subsequent get-together in the cafeteria, numerous points of view were discussed, in which our Schoenstatt worldview also has its place.
How it began
On Pentecost Monday, June 5, 2017, a Protestant couple and Catholic couple and two young men from Eutigen, together with Father Lothar Penners and Sister M. Monika Maerz began the Political Monday Prayer on the Liebfrauenhoehe. The Initiative-Team reported: The Political Monday Prayers in Leipzig and many other East German cities, which had a decisive influence on and accelerated the peaceful reunification of Germany, served as a model. 2017 was a federal election year, and we wanted to send a message about democracy, diversity in our society, tolerance, the sanctity of human dignity, and a sincere willingness to engage in dialogue.
Back then, we never would have imagined that we would be organizing political prayers for eight years now and that we would be holdingour 101st Monday Prayer
on October 6.