Setting out for a foreign country with a foreign culture, a different language, an unknown script and very few Christians –could that go well? Sr. Maria Bertilde gives an inspiring and authentic account of the beginnings of the first sisters in Korea. In the last three General Chapters that I have attended, there has always been talk of our ʺunity in diversity.ʺ This idea also runs through Sr. M. Bertilde’s descriptions. She sees what was and is Korean tradition as an enrichment for the entire congregation. The idea was to create a ʺKorean branchʺ and not a ʺGerman offshoot,ʺ as she repeatedly emphasised in her remarks.
After Sr. M. Alexandra’s autobiography, this is an important testimony that we now have in our hands. I am very grateful to Sr M. Bertilde for taking the trouble to research her own memories and other sources and finally putting everything in writing.
I am sure that these lines from one of the Korean pioneers can encourage and enrich us as we set off into a future that is also characterised by many uncertainties. Not only for the sisters in Korea, but also for the sisters in Germany and other countries, reading this story, which is characterised by courage and trust in God and positive confidence, should be a gain.
Sr. M. Paula Wessel
–Provincial Superior in Coesfeld-
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