Helmut Schlegel
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Helmut Schlegel OFM |
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Schlegel in 2017, before a performance of his oratorio Laudato si' in the Frankfurt Cathedral
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| Born |
15 May 1943 Riedlingen |
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| Organization | Centre for Christian Meditation and Spirituality |
| Website | www |
Helmut Schlegel OFM (born 15 May 1943) is a German Franciscan, Catholic priest, meditation instructor, author, librettist and songwriter. He is known for new spiritual songs (Neues Geistliches Lied), set by various composers.
Born Helmut Alfons Schlegel in Riedlingen, he joined the Franciscan order in 1963 and studied philosophy and theology in Sigmaringen, Fulda and Munich. He was ordained as a priest in 1969 in Fulda. He extended his studies by courses in meditation and holding spiritiual retreats (Exerzitien), also in psychology and logotherapy.
Schlegel worked for ten years in Wiesbaden as chaplain and as minister for young people (Jugendpfarrer). From 1988 he directed the Franziskanisches Zentrums für Stille und Begegnung (Franciscan centre for silence and meeting) in Hofheim am Taunus. In 1998 he was elected the provincial superior of Thuringian Franciscan province. In this function, he was also for six years the president of the German Franciscan missionaries, organized as Missionszentrale der Franziskaner in Bonn. From 2007, he has directed a centre for Christian meditation and spirituality of the Catholic Diocese of Limburg (Centre for Christian Meditation and Spirituality (Zentrum für christliche Meditation und Spiritualität)) at the church Heilig Kreuz in Frankfurt-Bornheim.
Schlegel worked also in the diocese's Arbeitskreis Kirchenmusik und Jugendseelsorge im Bistum Limburg, dedicated to new church music for young people. Schlegel wrote the texts for new spiritual songs (Neues Geistliches Lied, NGL), first in collaboration with the composer and church musician Winfried Heurich. Their song "Der Herr wird dich mit seiner Güte segnen" (The Lord will bless you with his goodness), with music by Thomas Gabriel, was acknowledgeded in a worldwide competition in 1983 as the best entry in German. It was included in the Catholic hymnal Gotteslob as GL 452. Schlegel wrote around 180 NGL, with melodies also by Stephan Sahm, Joachim Raabe, Rudolf Schäfer and Sieglinde Weigt, among others.
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