Thought for the Day – 18 April
When we read biographies of the great saints and heroes who sacrificed their lives to build and cultivate Christianity in the far corners of the globe, we might wonder how they ever did it. How could they give up their comfortable place in civilised countries to come to this mostly uncivilized lands? Undoubtedly it was love… love of God, love of man and love for souls. St Marie of the Incarnation well knew her responsibility before God for the souls of others. She was a woman who loved immensely, first God and then her fellow man. She was a wife and mother, a religious and mystic, a teacher and a missionary. But perhaps Bishop Laval (St Marie’s Bishop and Spiritual guide) sums up best, the holy life of Marie of the Incarnation. He wrote: “Having chosen her to establish the Ursulines in New France, God gave her the full spirit of her Institute. She was a perfect Superior, an excellent Mistress of Novices, capable of undertaking any religious enterprise. Her exterior life, simple and well disciplined, was animated by an intense interior life, so that she was a living Rule for all her Community. Her zeal for the salvation of souls, especially for the conversion of the Indians, was great and so universal that she seemed to carry them all in her heart. We cannot doubt that, by her prayers, she greatly called down God’s many blessings upon the newborn Church.”
St Marie lived for God – she put Him first and everything else fell into place – THIS is the way – and we know it!
St Marie of the Incarnation, pray for us.
AnaStpaul 