A Woman for our Time - FCJ Sisters—Faithful Companions of Jesus ...

A Woman for our TimeVenerable Marie Madeleine d'Houët … snippetsA newsletter issued by theFaithful Companions of JesusStella Maris Broadstairs Kent EnglandMarch 2012Issue # 14No one ever claimed that Marie Madeleine, Foundress ofthe Faithful Companions of Jesus, was ‘pretty’, but everyone was struckby her presence. She radiated happiness and brought peace and joywherever she went and her going le ‘an aching void’.All her life she was a wonderful storyteller with numberless tales, ‘racy accountsand such true ones of her experiences, and anecdotes of all sorts ofthings that she made every one laugh – she was a wonderful story‐teller,and kept us spell‐bound… ‘ She would play on the harp and sing, socialskills she never lost and unashamedly in everything her heart was turned toGod. ‘I remember’ writes Mother Aloysia Reading, ‘when she would play onthe harp and sing this beauful hymn: “O céleste flamme du saint amour!Embrassez nos âmes, la nuit et le jour.” At the end of each verse, she wouldpause, to speak to us of the Love of God, but at the last verse, above all, hervoice seemed to become sweeter, more harmonious –there was somethingcelesal in her tone and in her countenance… “Yes” she would say, in anoutburst of love, at the conclusion, “let us love forever, a God so good, soamiable!”’In addion to favourite hymns she had favourite prayers. To EuphrasieDelaporte she said: ‘You must build a lile solitude deep in your heart,where you will establish Jesus and Mary. Here you will oen come in themidst of your occupaons. In your troubles and difficules, in wearinessand despondency, come here, as Moses did to the Tabernacle.’Some Scripture verses she never red of repeang and such washer own joy in them that she would beg others to use them too.She suggested to M. Philomena Parsons the words of the Cancle:‘Say oen: My Beloved is all mine, and I am all His.’ Anotherverse of the Cancle she spoke of to many: ‘Draw me aer Thee,O Lord, we will run in the sweet perfumes of Thine ointments.’These words fell from her lips ‘inflamed with the love of God –laying stress on we will run, saying we should not run alone, butdraw others with us.’‘‘Oh, how I delight in that psalm Quam dilecta! How lovely are Thy Tabernaclesetc…’ she said to M. M. Josephine de Pres and Soeur Marie Piletrecalled her devoon to Psalm 121 ‘I rejoiced at the things that were saidto me: We shall go into the House of the Lord.’ ‘What have I in Heaven?and besides Thee what do I desire upon earth!’ (Psalm 71) was anotherrecommended to Euphrasie Delaporte.Why not visit our web-site and learn more aboutthe congregation that Marie Madeleine founded?www.fcjsisters.orgClearly as Marie Madeleineadvised others, ‘oen speak toour Lord in the centre of yourheart and try to acquire thehabit of aspiraonal prayer’ inher own comings and goingsshe did just that.Each early FCJ seems to havehad her own memory andMarie Madeleine obviouslythought carefully as to whichprayer she would suggest asappropriate to each Sister:‘With what fervour she used tosay: My Jesus, mercy!’(M. Aloysia Russell)‘My good Master!’ Her favouriteand habitual aspiraon – butsaid with such fervour!(M. Suzanne Chanteur)‘I have heard her say in atone I cannot forget:‘Jesus! Infinite Goodness!’(M. Victoire Thiery)‘O my God!How great Thou art!’(Sr. Anne Marsollier)Repeat oen and with fervour:Holy, Holy, Holy!Lord God of Hosts!The earth is full of Thy Glory.(M. Josephine Cuniffe)There is a homecoming this year! In September and aer 108 years in England, the mortal remains ofMarie Madeleine d'Houët, Foundress of the FCJ Sisters, will be interred in the church of St Dominique in Paris.The next two edions of our newsleer will be devoted to this event and the reasons surrounding it.In this edion we share some ‘snippets’ about Marie Madeleine, for which we thank Mary Campion McCarren fcJ.

Prayer for healingGod, our Creator, Jesus our CompanionHoly Spirit, Source of WisdomMarie Madeleine believed in your power,hoped in your promises and lived foryour glory and service.We ask her to pray with us for …Through her prayer may yourhealing presence be shownand your name glorified.We make our prayerIn the name of Jesus the Christ.AmenVenerable Marie Madeleine Victoirede Bengy do Bonnault d’Houet1781– 1858Foundress of theFaithful Companions of JesusSomemes Marie Madeleine exhorted gatherings of Sisters, asaround Pentecost ‘the reflecons made aloud for us on the words:Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful… were full of fervourand uncon. “Repeat them oen,” she used to say. “Entreat thisHoly Spirit to come to you …’ Also the fervour with which shecommented on these other words, which she urged us to repeatconnually: Send forth Thy Spirit, and Thou shalt renew the face ofthe earth. (M.M. Therese Juat)Comings and goings around the house, school and garden was onething – comings and goings on the scale that Marie Madeleineknew was another. Amidst so many dangers by carriage, boat, andlater bus and train she was vividly aware of her Guardian Angel.Remember this, she would say: Your Guardian Angel is always withyou, ever ready to intercede for you and give you help. Or again:Courage! The Holy Angels will take care of you. Leaving M. IrmaBarbe in the infirmary one night she said to her: I leave you withyour good Angel… and on another occasion she said to Soeur DelphineLebeau at midnight: Let us kneel down and invoke the Holy Angels.No‐one can have read anything of Marie Madeleine without readingthe words Courage and Confidence! They were in truth hermoo. It would seem that she imbibed them from Fr Joseph Varinbut made them her own.In the word of the Psalmist she knew in whom she put her trust,and insisted always that Jesus ‘says with the most lively tenderness“Courage and Confidence, my child…Courage and Confidence, myFaithful Companion.”’ M. Stanislaus Lawless, who knew her so well,writes that ‘she only expected from each of us what we could do orgive and she knew so well how to urge us on and how to consoleus. She so oen said: “O my Sisters, Heaven is well worth the sacrificeswe make!”’More ‘snippets’ ...It was Marie Madeleine’s constantawareness that ‘Heaven is our home’which spurred her onwards in all herundertakings. ‘Discouragement,’ shemaintained, ‘is the daughter of Pride;nothing is more injurious to the Mercyof God than mistrust of His Bounty…Let us hope for all from the Goodnessof God. He is such a good Master...Take courage and God will blessyou.’ (M. Catherine Carew)Indeed, trust, confidence in God, shesaw as fundamental: ‘You must havegreat courage…we must never allowourselves to be overcome by sadness –a vice that is prejudicial also to thosewho see us in that state’ (M. JosephineCaron) and to her dearly‐beloved EmilieGuers she wrote ‘Have confidence!Place the maer in God’s hands.Tomorrow is not today!’Mother Emilie (born in 1807) wasindeed a woman aer M. Madeleine’sown heart. In 1849 Marie Madeleinewrote to M. Josephine Pet: ‘LikeMother Emilie you must have a faceand a heart of a person twenty yearsof age.’ Four years later she wrote toM. Emilie:‘My dear daughter, remain alwaysyoung, it is a happiness for me toknow that you feel so fresh and vigorous.’Not that M. Emilie always found iteasy. In 1854 the foundress wrote:‘Tell me that you feel as if you werebut forty years of age – or even 30!By what you say I imagine I can see acountenance of 60 or 70! Reassureme on this point!’It may be salutary to ask what controlwe exercise over our faces,over our expressions!But more to the point – what shortscripture verse or aspiraon wouldMarie Madeleine choose for me orsuggest I choose for myself in allmy comings and goings?