Max Brunner’s Support for a War Memorial

“Last Sunday I was again in Schoenstatt, probably for the last time. Everyone had gone. You don’t see zealous worshippers in the chapel any more. Life has become quiet around the chapel. You can pray from the bottom of your heart and collect all the forces of your soul, as it were. Involuntarily you have to think of the other Sodalists on the battlefields in the East and West, as well as at home in all Germany’s regions. All fight, pray, struggle, win. This is the life-giving source, this is the citadel of the courtly service the Sodalists do for their Queen. So it is also a happy idea to remind the Sodalists of our heavenly Mother through the letter pages and cards. I am absolutely in favour of the plan to erect a war memorial; you honour heroes through a memorial. Our Sodalists are doubly heroic, so it is only fitting to give them a double memorial. With their own bodies they are protecting any number of families and town; they protect us who are still in the Fatherland. And while they fight the outward enemy, they constantly conquer the inner enemy. They sealed their oath of loyalty with their blood; but although they have fallen, they remain the victors. So it is surely only fitting for us to erect a monument to our heroes out of gratitude and respect, in order to hand down a witness to their heroic spirit to future generations.”