Stealth Priestess Convent. "God, Our Father and Our Mother"

Switzerland: “Prayer on Thursday” for three years

Exactly three years ago, a prayer campaign was launched in the Fahr monastery in Switzerland to spiritually accompany the church on its path to renewal. What exactly is “Prayer on Thursday”? We asked the Benedictine nuns at Fahr Monastery.

Swiss Prioress: Prayer for profound changes in the Church

February 10th – Memorial Day of Saint Scholastica, sister of Saint Benedict. This year the day falls on a Thursday again, and that is a coincidence that the Benedictine nuns in the Fahr Monastery like. Prioress Irene Gassmann and her fellow sisters launched “Prayer on Thursday” three years ago.

“It is a prayer that is intended to accompany the process of change and renewal in the church,” she explains to us in an interview. “There are so many questions. People want changes in the church. There are so many news reports of abuse of power in the church, spiritual abuse in the church. And then I felt: prayer is also needed. It takes people who stand up and name it, activists. But prayer is also needed.” She has noticed a lot of gratitude from believers, says the prioress, gratitude “that they can all do something. Because everyone can pray.”

“It takes people who stand up and name it, activists. But prayer is also needed.”

The prayer is called “Step by Step” and every Thursday for three years the Benedictine nuns and everyone who joins them, ten or twenty guests each, have prayed it in the Fahr Monastery for the renewal of the church. They always do it in the same form, as an extended Compline, very solemnly.

“There is an entry in the darkness with the Paschal candle,” describes the prioress. “The service is at half past seven. Most of the time, at least in winter, the church is pretty dark. We're moving in, we sisters. And then I carry the Easter candle, a sister carries the lectionary. We move in in silence and then pray a prayer for light and then start a light hymn by Silja Walter.” After an introduction to the Sunday Gospel by the Prioress and the classically sung Compline in alternation, the Gospel is proclaimed. Silence. Another song. Then two sisters take turns praying the prayer “Step by Step”, which was created here in the Fahr Monastery.

“We all know how things are going with our church. “Injustice happened and is happening.”

“God, Our Father and Our Mother,” it begins with a quote from Pope John Paul I, who will be beatified in Rome next September, “God, Our Father and Our Mother, we all know how it is is around our church. Injustice has happened and is happening, power has been and is being abused. 'But it shall not be so with you,' says Jesus.

We ask for your mercy. Through one baptism, women and men are equal and full members of the church. By working together in all services and offices, they can contribute to a church that goes into the future renewed. We ask you for strength and confidence.”

One of the sisters puts in incense, “it is really like incense descending on us to you, O Lord! Then we pray the Lord's Prayer together and at the end we sing a Magnificat by Silja Walter, a strong and joyful Magnificat, a hymn to the Virgin Mary. And then the blessing request.”

“Prayer on Thursday” is making waves

The “Prayer on Thursday” spread from the Fahr monastery church and is prayed in several dozen other churches, chapels and community centers in German-speaking countries. In the corona pandemic with its lockdowns, the enthusiasm has been somewhat dampened, the prioress regrets, which was temporarily noticeable even in the Fahr monastery. “And when we were able to open the church again for the first time and people came, I felt what power it is to have just three or four others who specially come and pray with me, what power there is when people come together and pray together.”

Prioress Irene Gassmann has no doubt that this strength will radiate anew even in difficult times. She sees the “Prayer on Thursday” as a contribution to accompanying the world synod that Pope Francis initiated. “That is actually exactly what is expressed in this prayer: a church that goes into the future renewed. Or also: It takes trust that new paths and changes will create more good things than by remaining in the current state. We need new ways of looking at one another in the church of the future. How can the church be renewed so that it is alive and credible.

Source

Cathcon: Saint Benedict and St Scholastica will not be mocked.