History » 1920 - 1934 » 1932 Two Ancient Towers
Where Two Ancient Towers stood ...
From: Altera Maria, 2. Year, Nr. 2 of 2. July 1932, p. 54 f.
The sun set in fiery splendour. It was so beautiful, so radiant and so huge that its brilliant red was reflected far and wide in the heavens. The tops of the pine trees reached up a little higher in order to be bathed in its glory. The ancient tower stood there very worried by all this splendour. The moon had just appeared and immediately looked for its ancient friend, the ruins of the former Schoenstatt convent. But – what was that? There was only one tower! And it looked really sad and discouraged. What did all that mean?
“Good evening, my ancient friend!” There was no answer. “Well, can’t you hear any more? What has happened to you?” But the tower seemed so worried that it ignored everything. Once again the moon said, “Good evening!” Finally it received an answer with a great sigh, “Good evening!” “Tell me,” said the moon, “what have they been doing with your brother?”
The ancient tower began to speak, “My twin brother collapsed today. We have remained faithful to each other for 700 years, we experienced everything together, and now he is gone!”
The moon could not grasp what had been said and asked: “How – the tower – collapsed? Please tell me what happened.”
“It happened this afternoon at ten minutes to twelve. I don’t think I will ever forget the date – the 21 March 1932! They wanted to support my brother. You know that we have grown so tall, and we find it hard in our old age to stand, the stones are so heavy. To keep us standing, they wanted to support us. But they had just started when my brother must have felt dizzy and he began to sway. A man called out to those who were standing around so that they moved away, and my faithful companion immediately began to collapse.”
“Did he fall down straight away?” “He collapsed very slowly. He carried his head – the people call it a dome – absolutely upright until the last moment, when he really couldn’t carry it any longer. And his mortal remains – you can see them down there. If you were to shine a bit more brightly and look behind the house, you would be able to see them.”
The moon did so. He shook his head constantly in disbelief, because he could not grasp that the ancient tower had to stand on its own now. Then he asked, “Tell me, did nothing happen?” “No,” was the answer, “but you should have looked into the Novitiate, into the study room of the Novices! They let out a cry that gave me a real fright. At the time they were having spiritual reading. One of the Novices saw my brother collapse and told the others. They immediately thought the whole house was going to collapse. They screamed, jumped up from their chairs and ran out of the room. And when they visited me to give me their condolences, their faces were still ashen with fright.”
“I can well imagine that,” said the moon. The tower closed its tale. “Now I have to stand here all on my own. Perhaps my dead brother could give the people a little sermon for Lent. (Note: This happened on the Monday in Holy Week 1932; there is always a full moon in Holy Week.) Everything has to drop that is not firm, or that is rotten and useless.”
The moon was sorry for the suffering of his faithful old friend and thought how he could console him. He couldn’t think of anything else than to shine very brightly for the unfortunate mourner, and he did it all night. I think the ancient tower was most grateful to him for that.
