The IHS community has been running the sisters’ house in Ambach for ten years
Created: 12/28/2022, 06:00
By: Sabine Hermsdorf-Hiss
Strolling in: (from left) Gabriela Grunden, Kyrilla Schweitzer and Heidrun Oberleitner-Reitinger.
© Hermsdorf-Hiss
The community IHS has been running the nurses' house in Ambach for ten years.
The picturesque house once belonged to the farmer's wife Agathe Gröber.
Ambach – Many stories begin with the famous “Once upon a time...” This also applies to those of the sisters' house in Ambach, which has been running the IHS community, a recognized community of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, for ten years now.
For ten years the sisters' house in Ambach for the IHS community
The story begins in the early 1920s.
The picturesque house on the Seeuferstraße belonged to the farmer Aghate Gröber.
"She was single and concerned about her life in old age," says Dr.
Gabriela Grunden, theologian, pastor, spiritual guide and systemic coach.
Gröber knew the “Family Sisters in Munich”, a community that had been founded in 1914 and looked after working-class families in need.
The farmer made contact.
She quickly agreed with the sisters: "If you take care of me when I'm old, I'll leave the house to you."
After Gröber's death, the property in Ambach was used, among other things, for members of the order looking for relaxation.
The sisters Emerita, Jovita and Rosa in charge of the house were known for their hospitality and openness to all who wanted to find peace here.
Even Father Rupert Mayer has already accompanied retreats here, i.e. spiritual exercises that should lead to intensive reflection but also to personal reflection.
prayer and meditation
But the sisters were also getting older.
The order discussed how the house should be continued and came across the community IHS, which supports the project with the association for "Christian Spirituality and Holistic Health".
Their goal is to provide spaces and help people to rediscover their own inner resources.
Many are looking for a place where they can find time and peace to make good decisions.
Through experiences in nature, conversations and spiritual accompaniment as well as meditation and prayer, people find courage again and discover traces of God in their own lives.
The community tied in with the basic idea of the family sisters.
Since then, the house has always been well attended by a wide variety of course participants - "from craftsmen to academics".
"There are many seekers with many questions," says Grunden.
"We listen, accompany and invite to prayer and meditation."
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Before the pandemic, church services followed by coffee and cake were organized for the elderly on a monthly basis.
"About 15, on average around 85 years old, were always happy to come, also to cultivate contacts," says Kyrilla Schweitzer, religious education teacher, theologian and retreat leader.
During Corona, the Eucharistic celebration could only be carried out to a very limited extent.
Women run the house and do voluntary work
Grunden moved to the nurses' house on the lake in 2012 and lives here together with Schweitzer (66), the pastoral advisor, pastoral worker, bereavement counselor and systemic coach Heidrun Oberleitner-Reitinger and the musician and high school teacher Katja Möhle.
The women run the house together and do voluntary work.
"We felt welcome here," they agree.
“The nuns paved the way for us.” However, there was still a small language barrier to overcome.
Grunden and Schweitzer come from Münsterland and Westphalia.
"The first Bavarian sentences," they say and have to laugh, "were 'Mei, bin I miad' and 'Here I am dahoam'." And the latter in particular has become a reality in Ambach over the past ten years.
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