My friendship with Philippine

My Friendship with Philippine

Rose Philippine Duchesne was beatified in 1940. Four years later, at age thirteen, I began high school as a weekly boarder at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Charles, Missouri. The school was first opened by Philippine in 1818. Each night, I was one of the students who went to close up the shrine where Philippine was buried. Sometimes we would be wrapped up in the nuns’ black shawls to go out and say goodnight to our “Mother Duchesne.” I think I learned to pray as we knelt around the marble tomb with only flickering light from the amber and green vigil lights that decorated it. For me, Mother Duchesne was a real mother: tender, loving, interested in all that I did each day and ready to help me. Those nightly conversations began a real friendship with Philippine that continues even today.

Sent straight from Rome to Chile after my final profession, Philippine Duchesne accompanied me in a special way. It was her courage and fortitude that carried me through the first year when I struggled to control 157 middle school children without knowing the language. Philippine had managed to start schools without a command of the language and so I turned to her for strength and to keep my sense of humor. Then, an earthquake destroyed our convent and school. Living without running water or electricity, the thought of what Philippine had suffered made it easy to stay cheerful. Philippine faced so many great hardships and stayed serene. Our friendship deepened as she helped me to find more time for prayer. My twenty years as a missionary in Chile owe much to the example of our Saint.

I wrote this reflection some time ago and then it was used for the Bicentennial Year of Prayer. It had a picture of the shrine, but too late tonight to try to look for it.

Remembering Philippine

Philippine left all to come to America and bring the Society of the Sacred Heart to the new world. She arrived in 1818 and founded the first Sacred Heart school in St. Charles. I will not go into her life here, but want to share a few quotes for you to reflect on today. These quotes today are from the wonderful calendar that can be bought at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Omaha. The store is online, if you wish to order one; it can be used year after year as in has the date but no day and their is a page for each day of the year.

This is from a letter to her sister in 1829:

"You want news of me. Well, I consider myself still young because I do what I did in my younger days, but I often receive the compliment, "My but you are old!" I trust I shall not survive you, as I have already survived two sisters who were younger than I," ( This was dated two days before Philippine's 60th birthday.)

Here is a quote from Philippine: "Profit by little trials that come to you, for through them we make real progress."

Old Woman Saint

Sister Judy Brown was a novice with me; she wrote the following that I want to share with you today about our St. Philippine Duchesne when she finally was able to go to be with the Indians at Sugar Creek and then had to return to spend her last ten years at St. Charles:

Old Woman Saint

And creased face went to Sugar Creel,
Your eyes speaking hope,
Your ears compassion.
Others preached,
You prayed.
Others taught wise truths,
You played with children,
Smiled at them and held a small
Bird in your lap,
Hid a frightened child in your skirtfolds,
Wound your ancient time-piece once
Again before child's-gaze,
Amazed.
You blessed the prairie Church
with your true presence.
Then with your old body
And beads smooth-worn
Went home to die,
You, with your old hands.

Sailing with Jesus

I have had this image of sailing with Jesus. There is no one else in the boat, just Jesus and me. I know I am headed to my final destination, but I am very calm and peaceful as Jesus is doing all the work. The sea is calm, the wind gentle, and I feel full for joy. I am content just to be there with Jesus. We are not even talking but just are happy to be out in this boat together. I am sharing this today as it has been so powerful and brought me such deep peace.

I am still thinking of all I have to be grateful for each day as I prepare for Thanksgiving. I am also spending time with our Saint Philippine Duchesne as we will end our bicentennial celebrations on November 18. Here is the quote I drew at our prayer service at the end of the Busy Persons' Retreat:
"Do not look back to the past nor forward to the future. Claim only the present, for it holds God's will."

lLet us be concerned and pray...

Today is the feast of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. I was looking at the Mass and the opening prayer, the Collect, seems so apt for us to pray with today that I am copying it here:

"God, our Father, who called St. Frances Xavier Cabrini from Italy to serve the immigrants of America, by her example, teach us to have concern for the stranger, the sick, and all those in need, and by her prayer help us to see Christ in all the men and women we meet. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

I wish all of our congressmen and women would pray this, too.
Let us pray for our country and for all those who are suffering , especially the immigrants, and those who have lost all their possessions in the wildfires here in California, those who have suffered from the hurricanes, etc. It is also important to pray for the meeting of the Bishops this week. They need to listen to the Holy Spirit and make many changes in their own lives to have credibility with so many today.

Where do I abide?

This struck me when reading Richard Rohr's meditation a couple of days ago and so I am sharing it here.

Self-hatred is also the hatred of God, because God and ourselves are united. —Thomas Keating [1]

There is only one thing you must definitely answer for yourself: “Who am I?” Or, restated, “Where do I abide?” If you can get that right, the rest largely takes care of itself. Paul answers the questions directly: “You are hidden with Christ in God, and Christ is your life” (Colossians 3:3-4). Every time you start hating yourself, ask, “Who am I?” The answer will come: “I am hidden with Christ in God” in every part of my life. I am bearing both the mystery of suffering humanity and the mystery of God’s glory, which is precisely the mystery of Christ. (Allow yourself to be shocked by the universality of Scriptures like 1 Corinthians 3:21-23, 15:22-28 or Colossians 1:15-20.)

God looks at us and always sees Christ, and God thus finds us always and entirely lovable. God fixes God’s gaze intently where we refuse to look, on our shared, divine nature as God’s children (1 John 3:2). And one day our gaze will match God’s gaze. We will find God entirely lovable and ourselves fully lovable 

This is something to thank for today. 

Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Both the first reading from the Book of Kings and the Gospel (Mark 12:38-44), have widows. Jesus points out the poor widow who came to the temple and put in two small coins in the treasury. Jesus calls his disciples and said to them, "Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. tor they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood." 

The other widow in the Book of Kings was also generous as Elijah asked her for a drink and then for a bit of bread. She tells him that she has nothing baked. There is only a little flour in her jar and a little oil in her jug and she was collecting some sticks to be able to prepare something for herself and her son and when they have eaten it, she says they will die as there is no food to be had. Elijah said to her, "Do not be afraid. Go and do as you propose. But first make me a little cake and bring it to me. Then you can prepare something for yourself and your son. For the Lord, the God of Israel, says, 'The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the Lord sends rain upon the earth.'" And so it came to pass; she and her son and Elijah were able to eat for a year.

I think I like this story as I saw something like it happen in Chile over and over again. We had a soup kitchen in our yard where we fed about thirty or more preschoolers each day. I was superior of the community in Coquimbo and would go over to see the children. Whenever the school was closed, the older brothers and sisters would come with the preschoolers hoping to be given something. Somehow, a miracle happened each time and we were able to provide some soup for all - the women who prepared the soup (the priest sometimes brought us the head of a cow as the base for the soup), had great faith and would tell me that they had prepared the same amount as usual but it just multiplied to serve all the children who arrived with their little brothers and sisters. Often, the bread also seemed to multiply so that all received a piece. It certainly increased my faith to see what was happening.

Attitudes of Gratitude

Have you begun to think of what you are most grateful for today? I have a little book that I sometimes pick up as I love the title: Attitudes of gratitude: How to Give and Receive Joy Every Day of Your Life. The author is M.J. Ryan, the editor of A Grateful Heart. 

M.J. Ryan says in her introduction: "Happiness, the sheer joy of being alive, is within our reach. All we need is an attitude of gratitude. Gratitude creates happiness beacause it makes us feel full, complete; gratitude is the realization that we have everything we need, at least in this moment ….It's a magic key-all you need to do is use it, and the world is suddenly transformed into a beautiful wonderland, in which you are invited to play...."

We finished the Busy Persons' Retreat Friday afternoon and I am grateful for the beautiful women who made it and who also inspired me to reflect more on my own life. I have so much to thank for and I am going around hearing God saying to me:
"I love you, Helen" and I reply "I love You, too." God speaks as I breathe in and I answer as I breathe out. It really can be a powerful prayer as you walk, drive, wash dishes, etc.

Nearing the end of our Bicentennial Celebrations

Using the daily calendar that has a quote from Philippine for each day of the year, has helped me to stay with her in a new way. She cares for our holiness and will give us her gift of prayer and fortitude, if we persevere in asking her. She only wanted and I suspect still wants to spread the love of the Heart of Jesus to every part of our world. I know she must be trying to help all immigrants now and must find what we are doing to keep refugees from entering our country inhuman. 

I really wanted to begin thinking of a special practice for Thanksgiving. Would it not be helpful to gather each evening, maybe over dinner, and each would share what she or he is most grateful for that day. It would make us all reflect on so much that happens each day to be grateful for and how often we forget to thank! I suggest we all try to do this. We only have a dozen days to prepare for Thanksgiving! 

What silence armors us against

Again I am sharing thoughts from Wendy Beckett's "Meditations on Silence. She says that what "silence principally armors us against is Babel; the endless foolish chatter, words used to confound thought, words misused to ward off friendship or attachments, words as occupation. The biblical Babel was a metaphor for the loss of human ability to communicate as a consequence of the rise of different languages; but the foreignness of other tongues is a smoke screen. To express what on means, and to hear what another means, this is a rare thing....We have an absolute need for quiet, for the heart's wordless resting on God."

Living with fifty other women is a joy, but it also makes me appreciate silence!

Desiring Silence

Desiring Silence is one of Sister Wendy Beckett's "Meditations on Silence" which I really love. I suspect that when I was using her little book last June, I may have shared some of this one, but it is worth repeating. She begins by saying, " Profound silence is not something we fall into casually. This may indeed happen, and a blessed happening it is, but normally we choose to set aside a time and a place to enter into spiritual quietness. (Those who never do this, or who shrink from it, run a very grave risk of remaining only half fulfilled as humans.) Craigie Aitchison's view of Holy Island pares this choice down to its fundamental simplicities. Brown earth, blue sea and red sky; Holy Island a stony gray lit by glory. There is a small ship to take us across, if we choose to ride in it. There are no fudging elements here; all is clear cut. This is not silence itself but rather the desire for silence. Silence, being greater than the human psyche, cannot be compressed within our intellectual categories; it will always elude us. But the desire to be silent, the understanding of the absolute need for it; this is expressed in Aitchinson's wonderful diagram of life within sight of the holy."

Deepening our love relationship

I read the other day that it is good to deepen our love relationship with Jesus by forming the habit of thinking every time I breathe in that God is saying, "I love you"; every time I breathe out, I am saying to God, "I love You, too." I think I added the "too" and also I hear God saying my name as well as I love you. I have been trying this and find it very helpful. It centers one, makes me feel peaceful and so I hope to continue this practice as I walk around or make my bed, etc. 
We had our usual first Sunday of the month as a silent day. This was so welcome after our busy last two weeks of October. Since I am seeing four for the Busy Persons' Retreat this week, I suspect I will only get around to answering letters, etc. next week. Retirement out here keeps one very busy!
Let us pray much for the elections - that those who are elected will work for the common good; let us also pray much for the Church and for the Bishops' meetings next week.