OUR SPIRITUALITY
S. Zdenka Schelingova
Sayings:
On her aspirations: Lord, my soul stands before you like a beautiful spring day. What are you going to do with this spring day? Will you send hot, cruel days that make the blossoms fall from the trees, so that its fragrance disappears, and the songs of the birds are silenced? Let what has to happen, happen. But protect me against one thing: never permit my soul to become lazy and callous. I want my life to be filled with effort, work, and challenges. Without constant quest my soul dies to you, to myself, and to my neighbor.
On God’s calling: We are not asked to perform great, remarkable deeds that make headlines, inviting people’s admiration. We are called to small, ordinary works that seem unremarkable and are hidden from the eyes of others. God, however, sees them.
On her commitment to Christ: I will do everything for him, whether he cares for me as for a flower or transplants and finally plucks me.
On her work as a nurse: From the altar of the Lord I go to my work…. I take up my duties in the ward. I am not afraid of anything, I seek to begin everything with joy. I can proclaim the Lord’s message better by my example than by my words, just as we have to recognize Christ himself in the way he lived his life.
On Christmas: God doesn’t ask for anything but our love. He has come to give us that Life which He himself is. He has come closest to us in his suffering. Let us then accept him with grateful heart, as he is also ready to be born in the hearts of men.
On parting with Helena Kordova in prison: Let’s not cry. You will be free one day–not I, however, never again. And if things happen as I think they will, do come and put some white roses on my grave. I like them so much.
On highest love: Where there is the highest love, nails, thorns, and the cross will not be missing.
On love: My way is determined by love of God and trust in Him. I reach God through my love, and therefore even my pains must be lost in love.
On love: Love is like a soft carpet, covering all the roughness of the way.
On the way of love: Let him who walks the way of love not be anxious.
On the path of love: I am constantly longing for perfection and seek the way to it, yet I know only one path: love. All deeds, even the most valuable, are empty, nothingness, without love.
On her love for the priest she helped to escape: If only I knew where that man has fled to and where he lives now. He used to call me “Angelica.” You have no idea of the love that can develop between people shut up behind prison walls.
On love between people: No one will ever be able to comprehend, without personally going through the same experience, how very deep the love between two persons can grow, provided they stand for each other to the very limit.
On suffering: Let us not be afraid of suffering. God always gives the courage and strength needed for the present moment. This is grace. I will always believe that. Nothing shall intimidate me, neither strong winds nor thick clouds. Should it happen all the same, it will be over quickly. In the end, my trust and my security will be strengthened.
On self-denial: For love of you, Christ, I offer to your most holy will my own will and my liberty. I do not want to be stubborn, nor hold on to my own desires and longings. I renounce my obstinacy and my pride.
On herself: My tongue shall not speak proudly about myself, nor without love about others. I do not want to be a garden rose, admired by people, but a simple wild flower, pleasing in the sight of God.
On attachment to self: As long as we are chained to ourselves, we cannot move. Once we are detached from everything, there will be no knots.
On God’s presence: God is present with his helping hand.
On true value: Christ is the hidden treasure. What a pity that so very few souls find Him, because they love only what shines, glitters, and dazzles on the outside.
On her desire to fulfill God’s will: I desire to fulfill the will of God without consideration for my own self, without expecting consolation or rest.
On her willingness to do God’s will: I am not afraid to suffer for your sake. I fear one thing only: my own will. You will give me what I need and show me how I can detach myself from unnecessary things.
On weakness: He fills our emptiness of spirit and soul with his love. I am small and weak, and yet you want to offer your gifts to others through me. I will distribute your gifts to those souls who come to me to be nourished.
On poverty: To be poor for love of you is the greatest wealth. Human souls would not fear poverty if only they knew how much they would gain by giving everything to you. I can be happy even when I am poor.
On making mistakes: Faith and the conviction that God forgives us our faults help us not to feel rejected and discouraged when we do make mistakes. It’s a grace to know this, and to experience it again and again. Let us not blame others, nor the circumstances or the bad times if we have made mistakes, but only our own imperfection.
On vocations: All vocations have their roots in love alone.
On joy: What joy it would be for me if I could spend the days of my life in a manner pleasing to Christ.
On sacrifice for others: Yes, there is always somebody for whom I can relive the sacrifice of Christ. Therefore all my pains and sufferings have to be fully dissolved in love. Whoever loves much, ceases to suffer.
On suffering: However much we have to suffer, God gives us the courage and patience to face up to it and to bear it. No storm can intimidate me, however black the clouds it may blow in my direction. I have great trust that my beloved Sun is there behind the clouds.
On suffering: Each of my thoughts and heartbeats will bear witness to my sharing in the sufferings which you, Mother of God, bore during your lifetime on earth.
On the Sorrowful Mother: For more than a thousand years our mothers and fathers have called upon you, our Sorrowful Mother, the Patron of Slovakia. In you we have put our trust and hope. You have protected us and preserved us from decline. Since you have suffered with your Son, you can empathize with the sufferings of our people. Again and again you have taught us not to despair under the cross of life.
Prayer to Mary: Mother of God, come to me at the end of my life and assist me in my last struggle…reconcile me with Christ.
On approaching death: Dear Lord, I come to you with a humble and contrite heart. My feet, in becoming stiff and cold, remind me that my pilgrimage is coming to an end. My hands are weak and trembling. My eyes are dim and full of fear. Should my soul have to fight with the angel of darkness who hides your mercy and fills my soul with despair--terrified by phantoms and dismayed because it clearly views all my omissions--then have mercy on me! And if I shed tears, accept them as signs of reconciliation. Mercifully accept me when finally my soul stands before you, and sees your glory for the first time.
Chronology of Her Life
December 25, 1916 – Cecilia Schelingova is born in Kriva, Orava, Slovakia, a farming village of 600 inhabitants. She is the 10th child in family of 11 children.
1929 – Holy Cross Sisters begin to minister in Kriva, running education and medical services for the community. Cecilia is a good student and a leader in the school of the Holy Cross Sisters. She is also a fearless prankster.
1931 – At 15, Cecilia joins the Holy Cross Sisters at Podunajke Biscupice provincial house. She receives four years of nurse’s training.
1937 – Cecilia makes her first profession as Holy Cross Sister and is given the Slavic name Zdenka. She is assigned as a nurse to the hospital in Humenne located in the center of Eastern Slovakia.
1942 – S. Zdenka begins serving in the government hospital in Bratislava as X-ray technician.
1945 – Germans are expelled from Slovakia after World War II.
1945 – National Front Coalition Government is formed.
1948 – The People’s Republic, a totalitarian communist regime, replaces the coalition government.
1948 – The government privatizes the Catholic Church, makes priests and sisters dependent on the state, and promotes atheism. Priests are made to sign an oath of allegiance to the state, so many priests and seminarians flee to the west. The government says that those who assist anyone in escaping will be considered guilty of high treason. The Church excommunicates the communists, but asks priests and sisters to comply with the government.
1950 – All convents are dissolved by the People’s Democracy. Wearing habits is disallowed, and sisters are put to work in factories and moved from town to town. The provincial superior of the Holy Cross Sisters asks sisters to comply with the authorities and offer no resistance.
1950 – Stefan Kostial, priest, is caught and imprisoned trying to leave country.
1950 – On her own initiative, S. Zdenka risks giving aid to prisoners who are placed in the Bratislava government hospital, including several priests and a lawyer imprisoned for subversive activities. She helps with preparation of documents needed to escape. Later she admitted she was collaborating with others to help at least five priests escape certain death.
February 20, 1952 – Stefan Kostial escapes from prison via Bratislava hospital. S. Zdenka drugs the guard, contacts people to help him flee across the Danube into Austria, and herself is arrested and imprisoned the same day.
June 17, 1952 – S. Zdenka is tried and convicted for crimes of high treason. Judge Pavol Korbuly sentenced her to 12 years of prison. She confesses to having performed the actions charged, but she denies the accusation of high treason. She says she acted out of compassion only to spare the lives of the priests. After her death, Pavol Korbuly would repent of his merciless treatment of Sr. Zdenka.
1952 – Apolonia Galis, a lay woman, visits Sr. Zdenka in prison at Rimavska Sobota, brings her family news. Apolonia Galis would later become a Holy Cross Sister.
1952-54 – S. Zdenka repeatedly tortured in prison in a futile attempt to turn her into an informant. She is visited twice in prison by family members.
1954 – S. Zdenka is diagnosed with breast cancer, has amputation of one breast without anesthetic or follow-up medical treatment.
1954 – Helena Kordova, fellow inmate, volunteers to care for S. Zdenka.
1954 – S. Zdenka is transferred to Pardubice, a Bohemian prison, and receives radiation treatment in Pancrac prison hospital in Prague. Apolonia Galis visits her there.
April 15, 1955 – Mortally ill and apparently of no further use to the Communists, S. Zdenka is released from Pancrac prison hospital as the result of a petition by Apolonia Galis.
April 19, 1955 – S. Zdenka returns to Bratislava where Apolonia Galis is waiting. She visits with the provincial superior of the Holy Cross Sisters at Bratislava government hospital. Subject to fear of reprisal by the communists, the provincial superior forbids her to stay in Bratislava with the other sisters. S. Zdenka is deeply hurt by the rejection of her own community. The Holy Cross Sisters at Trnava refuse to take in their dying sister. Apolonia Galis takes her into her own home, but S. Zdenka’s deteriorating health requires that she be taken to the local hospital.
July 31, 1955 – S. Zdenka, 39, dies of cancer in the Trnava hospital.
August 2, 1955 – S. Zdenka is buried in Trnava, but later transferred to Podunajske Biskupice cemetery.
1960 – Helena Kordova is released from prison.
1970 – S. Zdenka is rehabilitated posthumously by the state, and the verdict against her annulled.
1998 – S. Zdenka is proposed for beatification by Rome.
September 14, 2003 – S. Zdenka is beatified as a martyr of the Church by Pope John Paul II.
Novena to Blessed S. Zdenka Schelingova
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