We Speak with Marianne Fuchsluger
Where do you live?
In Austria. To be more precise, in Lower Austria, which is on the eastern side of Austria. Our house is around 80 kilometers to the north of the known pilgrimage site, Maria Zell.
Could you briefly introduce us to your family?
My husband’s name is Leopold. We have five children: Gabriel, Erich, Reinhard, Roswitha and Andreas. My husband works as a school janitor and I take care of the house. Even though none of our five children are married, only two still live at home: the oldest and the youngest.
What was your family like when you were young? And your education?
Let’s say that my family was a normal Catholic family. We were raised in an atmosphere of faith. Living the Commandments and going to Mass on Sundays was never questioned. We also prayed before and after meals. During the year, religious feasts were celebrated splendidly. We children also participated in the school Mass twice a week. We lived it with the eyes of faith. This way of living was obvious to us. We did not speak so much about God; Christianity was rather lived in the acts. Everything that had to do with the faith was taken very seriously. Thanks to be God, we received a solid, religious education. Parents were still considered to be an authority which could not be contradicted. I nevertheless felt loved by them. I had good models in my parents and also especially in the parish priest, who was very demanding in class, but who also knew how to explain things in a very vivid way (which compensated for his severity).
What things did you receive in your education which you later used to educate your own children?
Well, we have always tried and do still try to give our children a good example. Ever since they were little, we have taken them with us to Church. We said the prayers slowly so that the children could understand their meaning. We often spoke to them about God and creation. We also tried to draw them near to the religious feasts and their meaning. The boys began to be altar boys and to sing when they were very young. Unfortunately at that time there were not any groups of children or young people in our parish, for which I am very sorry. We thus took our children every day to a private school in a convent about 25 kilometers away to receive a religious education from Catholic nuns. Andreas, the youngest, was lucky since there was a group of Catholic scouts in the village when he came along.
Is it difficult to educate now? Why?
Yes. A religious environment is lacking, also in outside the city, in the country. Before Christian values reigned at school, at least in the village, and the teachers were the first to live them.
Now there are very few students and teachers who truly live their faith. Examples are missing. It is also not good when children do not have religious friends. In this way they are necessarily pushed into a position of exclusion and isolation. All the commandments and virtues are questioned by the adults and ridiculed, beginning with the politicians. We parents have been made to believe and we are made to believe that only professionals can carry out a correct education. But in the end we must recognize that the television, videos and computers have a very powerful influence on children and young people, which can be negative if we do not pay attention.
What was your youth like from the religious point of view?
On one hand I did not personally have difficulties, since I was surrounded by the faith. Yet at that time I felt very alone because I did not have friends who lived their faith with joy. I had true problems with the people who went to Mass but who nevertheless did not live their faith. I simply could not understand their behavior and I was very hurt by this. It is precisely during the youth when we need strong models. This can be any faithful Christian, but also every young person. That is what I missed at that time. Thanks be to God that at that time I knew good priests.
When I went to a professional school when I was twenty, there was a priest who questioned everything and he himself did not have faith. This was a very bad time for me. I would have needed a Christian community to strengthen my faith.
What do you remember of your Christian life?
I went to the Church with pleasure. God was always important for me. That is why I always tried to live the commandments. I also participated in all the different types of pilgrimages.
I could never stand it, and it hurt me greatly, when someone got angry with the Church or with the faith or when they made fun of it.
Nevertheless, today I know that it was too little. I knew God too little. I thought that it would be impossible to love someone whom I didn’t know. Before I lived the commandments out of fear of punishment, now I live them out of love for Jesus Christ, which makes it much easier. When it is out of love, everything is done naturally and with pleasure and you are willing to do much more than what is mandatory.
What difference do you see between the world then and now?
In the first place, the change of values: instead of the fixed commandments, non-obliging rules are suggested. One’s personal freedom cannot be limited.
In the second place, marriage and the family used to be protected by the State, today they are attacked like never before. Children used to be seen as gifts; now they are a bother for the woman’s profession and a financial annoyance. Maternity has acquired a negative significance. From the baby to the hundred-year-old man, all the ages are considered in financial terms; that is to say, expensive courses, nursing homes are proposed. Consumerism, welfare, freedom and free time are the topics today. Human relationships become more and more impersonal. All activities, regardless of whether they are private or not, are considered only from the point of view of financial gain.
What is the religious environment like in Austria?
This is a delicate question. A priest once worded it like this: before we would speak about the people who didn’t go to Church. Now we speak about the people who go to Church.
I personally can only speak from my own point of view. In general the situation is very lukewarm. The young people have very little faith. It is already missing in their education. Without doubt there are differences from one religion to another. They can also be seen from one parish to another. In certain groups of the Church it can also be considered “modern” to ridicule the Holy Father and to speak badly about the bishops and priests. Great confusion reigns as well among the Catholics. Many prefer to adapt themselves to society and to swim with the crowds, rather than remain faithful to the Church. Christian marriages are now rarely celebrated. There has been an explosion of the esoteric and of the oriental methods. But thanks be to God there are also resurgences that cause great joy and new communities and conversion. The Catholic television and radio channels give great hope. People thus have more possibilities of acquiring knowledge about the faith and of growing in it.
Can it be said that the world does not take God into account?
There are probably no longer many people who do. People make a god according to their own needs. “He has to be like this and this for me to believe in Him.” “If there is a God, then He wouldn’t permit this.” In a certain way they tell God what He must be like.
Have you always lived your Faith like this?
No, but I don’t mean to say that God was missing from my life. Nevertheless, I knew Him too little. I could not imagine how I could love someone whom I did not know personally. I knew that it was my duty to live the commandments and do what a religious life consists in, but I was lacking the profound relationship with Jesus Christ. Today He is the center of my life and as a result I always have a great interior joy within me. I reached the knowledge of the fact that He gave us the commandments out of love and as a gift, thanks not to an intense reflection, but rather to a great grace from God.
What is your experience with God like at the moment? In what does your spiritual life consist?
My experience is that God loves me infinitely. He gave His life, His blood, only to save me. He knows my weaknesses and He always forgives me. He is a living God, who is always with me, even when I do not remember Him. He is always waiting for me once again with his arms open. Everything good in life is a gift from Him. But He has different measures than us in life and He thinks in terms different from those of “time”. Unfortunately, I am still too weak in the faith and my love for Him must still grow.
We, that is to say, my husband and myself, try to live the spirit of the Home of the Mother, above all by daily praying the rosary, the Angelus, and the offering to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the morning, the participation in the Holy Mass, if possible in the Church and if not through the radio, the reading of the Scriptures and religious books, etc.
Do you pray for your children? Do you believe that the prayers of a mother are heard? Do you have some proof of this?
Yes, I pray a lot for my children, since it is sometimes the only thing that we can still do for them. I pray that they do not lose their faith, that their soul may be kept from death; but also that they make seek and find a life full of meaning. I pray for them so that they may recognize the will of God and accept it with joy. I naturally also pray for their physical protection.
The question is if my prayers are heard? I believe so against all human reasoning, simply because Jesus Himself has promised us it. He is the Truth. I have also already received various confirmations of it. Before my son Reinhard went to Spain, I entrusted him to the Mother of God and to St. Therese of the Child Jesus. When he left, I didn’t feel any sensation of fear for him. When, weeks later, he wrote me telling me that he had ended up with the Home of the Mother, I knew whom I had to thank. When he later entered the community (which he kept from us until the last day, that scoundrel!) it was also not a surprise for me. But since I have five children altogether, I am going to have work until the end of my life.
Where do you receive the strength to work for God?
From prayer, from the Holy Mass, from the love of Christ, from recognizing that God so wants it. Also a little in thanksgiving for all the good that He always gives me.
Speak to us about the Virgin Mary and your relationship with her.
Ever since I was little, my relationship has been that of a daughter with her mother. I felt very protected by Her. When you are little, you have many fears and it is beautiful when you can go with all your fears to the Mother of God. In my village Church there is a beautiful wooden altar. Not too far form this altar I would sit with my family in a Church pew. I loved to sit there and look at Mary. I later lost some of my closeness to Her, but thanks be to God I have once again returned to a close relationship with Our Lady, even though I would desire it to grow even more. I give Her my children, my family, my friends and worries. She is my intercessor. In addition, She is for me a great model of faith, maternity, love and humility. I would love for her to give me a share, even though small, of it.
Is the presence of Mary important in life?
Yes. Jesus certainly gives us Mary as a Mother for a reason. She carries out her task with us in an often hidden and discrete manner. We all need her protection so much! I am also convinced that Our Lady is the one who calls all the brothers and sisters from the whole world to the Home of the Mother. She is essential for the entire Church and humanity. It is precisely in these times that She once again shows us the path that leads to God, through her numerous apparitions. Her great love leads her to always pray to the Lord for us men. Thousands of times we call on her, “Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.” I desire that, for all of us in this last and most difficult hour (which, in spite of our family and friends, we shall have to suffer alone), Mary be at our side, accompanying us to the Lord and asking His mercy. Only in His great and unconceivable love has Jesus been able to give us His own Mother.
