For the first time in the history of the pilgrimage site, a priest was consecrated in Maria Eich on Saturday.
Archbishop Reinhard Cardinal Marx celebrated the consecration service for Christian Rentsch, prior of the Augustinian monastery.
Planegg
- "Now all the world cheer to the Lord" it was heard on Saturday morning in Maria Eich. For a “celebration with our Christian”, Father Felix Meckl welcomed the visitors who had come for Brother Christian's priestly ordination. The sunflowers in front of the altar shone with the sun in the cloudless sky. The weather made it possible to hold a church service without entry restrictions and masks. The guests from the family and from Münnerstadt, the home of Rentsch, from his student association, from the convents of the order to Vienna and from the catchment area of Maria Eich, grouped themselves loosely on the numerous benches in front of the Freialtar. Many joyfully greeted Father Matthäus from Berlin and Father Wilfried, who used to work at the pilgrimage church. Schola and organist provided the music for the solemn service.
The ordination candidate and his order had expressed the wish to choose the religious festival “Maria, Mother of Consolation” as the date, which the Archbishop of Munich-Freising, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, was happy to comply with.
Again and again, the consolation and hope that Mary gave to people through her Son Jesus were addressed.
In the first reading it said in the words of the prophet Isaiah: “In the time of grace I will lift you up… - How can a woman forget her child, a mother the birth son?
And even if she forgot him: I won't forget you. "
Messenger of consolation from God
Cardinal Marx defined the priest as a messenger of God's consolation. In the words of the Apostle Paul, the various tasks of believers in the one body of Christ were addressed in the second reading: “He who is called to comfort and admonish, comfort and exhort. The gospel of the Last Supper recalled the command of Jesus to the apostles “Do this in my memory” as an invitation to the priest to celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass, at the same time to the admonition “the greatest of you should become like the smallest ”. As with his ordination as a deacon, Brother Christian placed this concept of service at the center of his understanding of ministry.
In the sermon, the bishop took up the idea of God's consolation, which goes deeper than the compassion and help of people.
God does not comfort "from above", the Creator himself suffers with those affected and gives the indestructible hope that the suffering will be abolished.
"God does not play a person - he becomes a person." According to Augustine, the most important thing in Christianity is humilitas - laying down on the floor: "When I realized that God in Jesus has laid himself down with me, I became a Christian." The priest should give an inkling of this devotion from Jesus.
This became clear when the candidate stretched out on the floor in front of the altar before the ordination in prayer.
Declaration of readiness
The invocation of the Spirit of God was followed by an introduction by the friars and the declaration of readiness to serve the Word of God, to celebrate the sacraments, to those in need and to promise obedience, prayer and the endeavor to unite oneself ever closer to Christ . Thereupon the archbishop solemnly laid his hands on brother Christian's head and entrusted him with the commission of Christ to the apostles, just as he had received it. All the priests present followed his example. "Through the communication of the Holy Spirit with the laying on of hands and prayer, the consecrated are expropriated and enabled to act in the person of Christ", defines the lexicon for theology and the church.
The new priest received robes and vessels for the celebration of mass, which he then celebrated in concelebration with the bishop. Before the eagerly awaited “Primizsegen”, for which, according to a Bavarian proverb, one likes to walk through the soles of a pair of shoes, the newly consecrated Father Christian said words of thanks and once again affirmed: “I am consecrated for the service of the body of Christ - and you are all!”
