A Sign of Faith

It is edifying to me that there are still those whose faith is deep & abiding enough to think to build such a beautiful monument as a public showing of Catholic faith. My father many years ago told me as a boy about such monuments to Catholic faith he saw in Germany. It impressed him that people came to care for these places and pray at them. This is a translation taken from Echo Newspaper of Bensheim, Germany

A sign of faith

Portrait: Markus Pietschmann has set up a self-built wayside cross in Gross Rohrsheim - Cross consecration on 21 May

Gross-Rohrheim.

| | 

Markus Pietschmann has handcrafted himself a wayside Cross, and it has placed it on the road in the  Jahn-strasse in Gross-Rohrheim. On 21 May, it will be consecrated. Photo: Sabine Weidner

"I was raised Catholic and field wayside crosses I have always liked - a given for me," says Markus Pietschmann. 
fields and roadside wayside crosses are visible signs of our ancestors and their religious faith. They are regarded as monuments, places of refuge and places for prayers. Even 50 years ago, no one in rural areas passed by a wayside cross, without having to cross themselves. , the 34-year-old man said: "Only around Biblis, Wattenheim, Gernsheim and the other predominantly Catholic places in the marsh are such places of rest and peace." Granted However, Gross-Rohrheim has been Protestant since the reformation. Shortly after the war in the years 1945/1946, when a group of German refugees from Catholic areas in eastern Europe established themselves here, the Catholic faith took root. There was recently celebrated the 15th Consecration feast of St. Theresa of the child Jesus Catholic Church.  Pietschmann was there as a singer in the "choir of the parish." Another weakness of the industrial mechanic who also supports the Quartet is the football club Alemannia Gross- Rohrsheim. Sporty Markus Pietschmann and is also active in the local gymnastics club. Yet how did he get the idea of such a large piece of handwork with this cross? "I've looked at all the roadside crosses and thought in Gross-Rohrsheim something is missing, a quote for the cross I had already picked out from the choral literature," says the young man from Gross-Rohrheim. The project is to produce a home made cross. A coincidence led him to the Christmas market in Einhausen to a stonemason. With his help, he even learned how to immortalize characters on the curved sandstone. In a quarry in Lower Franconian Miltenberg he acquired the main piece of sandstone for his wayside Cross. However, only a roughly cut into a three-meter square block - the parts were given with chisels, hammers, files and grinding into their material form. The base is adorned with the inscription: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." "In the barn, it looked much bigger than out here," Pietschmann said a few days after transport. He has found at the flea market the figure of Jesus. Filigree works with a height of 2.40 meters, a cross width of 85 centimeters and a base side length of about 80 centimeters, and two volutes (worm-like flourishes) to the junction of the base and cross structure, it is now on the extended Jahn Street, in Gross-Rohrheim. On he has the cross, which originated in countless hours in the local barn, placed on a foundation plith with his property - for all walkers, hikers and cyclists. "And someone has already been the first one to place flowers on the cross," he says. Even the cross has served its purpose. Allows people to rest and commune with God . A special moment to bless the cross will on 21 Mai (Saturday). "Then a priest Fr Ludger Maria Reichert will come, there will be a brief reflection, the FC-quartet singing and the choir of the parish," says Pietschmann. , and we will have a little party startng at 16.30 clock.