Montfort’s First Disciple
“May the pure love of God reign in our Hearts with Divine Wisdom.”
First Disciple
We rejoice on this day after the ceremony of Beatification, so beautiful in its simplicity stamped with grandeur, which gathered us yesterday in St. Peter’s Basilica, around the Successor of Peter.
I myself, a son of that West country, am happy to celebrate in our national church of St. Louis des Francais. Celebrate our new Blessed Marie Louise Trichet and with all of you, dear pilgrims. And celebrate especially with all of you dear Daughters of Wisdom and the members of the Montfortian Family. Pope John Paul II summarizes her person and her life of the beatified Marie Louise Trichet; He summarizes her in that profession of faith of St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort. “May the pure lone of God reign in our hearts with Divine Wisdom”. On the morrow of the Beatification, gathered in joy and thanksgiving, we welcome her person and her work as a gift from God and a call to love.
Dear pilgrims, friends and members of the Montfortian Family, let us give thanks to the Lord who, in his infinite goodness, has given us in the person of Blessed Marie-Louise Trichet a model of a holy Christian life and a vibrant example to all of loving service to one’s neighbor and most especially to the poor. The new evangelization will only be accomplished through the power of such Christian love.
Wisdom of God, . . .
Among the most significant examples of holiness in the French XVII and XVIII centuries, St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort is, without any doubt, one of the greatest missionaries of all times. One of the most intuitive and most profound. It is he who, like a hurricane, enters into the life of Marie Louise. Sweeps away in a whirlwind of love all temptation to vanity, ambition or selfishness, to draw her on the path of Wisdom which passed through the folly of the Cross. The grace of her vocation presents itself as an absolute: she leaves everything to choose God Alone and dedicate herself to the unfortunate who invade the hospital of Poitiers by the hundreds: the sick, the vagabonds and beggars.
Father de Montfort does not have only friends in the city of Poitiers. He upsets, shocks, disconcerts, irritates the Christians installed in mediocrity and a too superficial clergy. But he remains faithful: “Let them revile me, tear my reputation or put me in prison: how precious are these evils, how great they are since they are the consequences of Wisdom and where She wants to dwell”. To get rid of this preacher who is really too much out of the ordinary, they say that he is insane. “You will become as insane as that priest”! says her mother to Marie Louise.
. . . Folly of the Cross
Wisdom of God, folly of love. Blessed Marie Louise Trichet sends forth her message of faith and love which is rooted in the folly of the Cross, unquenchable source of charity, royal path to the Wisdom of God. Immersed among the sick, the neglected, the miserable of all sorts, Marie Louise receives the grace to live in her heart a marvelous spiritual experience. Contradicted in her projects, henceforth alone in Poitiers, after the departure of Father de Montfort and the dispersion of her first companions, she is now at the foot of the Cross, like Mary and St. John, to receive the infinite love of the pierced heart of Christ.
In human solitude rendered fruitful by an ardent heart-to-heart relationship with Christ, God opens Marie Louise’s eyes. The veil falls away, she enters into a supreme covenant between the love of God and his servant. She has left everything, and she is filled with the absolute Presence and contemplation of Wisdom. Totally dedicated to Christ, like St. Paul she welcomes “Christ Wisdom, who was sent by God to be our wisdom, to be our justice, our sanctification, our redemption. ” Hence-forth, everything in her takes its source and find its accomplishment in Christ. She welcomes the grace that transforms her and assimilates her little by little to her Lord. She welcomes Jesus on a long road of fidelity, a road of wisdom, a road of eternal life.”
Zeal Rooted in . . .
Mystic and woman of action, at the dawn of a new millennium, Blessed Marie Louise Trichet is of surprising actuality. Her tireless zeal remains for you, Daughters of Wisdom and the whole Montfortian Family, a vivifying source for the accomplishment of your apostolic life. In fact her message of wisdom in daily life transcends time. Foundress, educator, she wants to live like Mary and the Apostles, like Jesus himself. In the school of St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, she makes the prodigious discovery: the most beautiful projects, the most magnificent achievements have real value only if they are rooted in Christ, the eternal Wisdom of the Father.
Wisdom of God, folly of love. Blessed Marie Louise Trichet sends forth her message of faith and love which is rooted in the folly of the Cross, unquenchable source of charity, royal path to the Wisdom of God. Immersed among the sick, the neglected, the miserable of all sorts, Marie Louise receives the grace to live in her heart a marvelous spiritual experience.
Contradicted in her projects, henceforth alone in Poitiers, after the departure of Father de Montfort and the dispersion of her first companions, she is now at the foot of the Cross, like Mary and St. John, to receive the infinite love of the pierced heart of Christ.
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H er charity becomes industrious.
Look at Marie Louise in Niort where she takes on the hospital. She immediately undertakes to reform the structure and personnel to render the first more efficient and the latter more human. The task is immense. It is way beyond the possibilities of Marie Louise and her Sisters. How can she respond to the ceaseless calls to charity and the growing needs of the poor when the forces of her new-born community are so modest? For Marie Louise, no hesitation is possible: she must draw in her wake of charity all those who are ready to help the poor, by showing them the immensity of the needs, which she tries to do by herself, without limits.
. . . the Love of God
After having misunderstood it, Father Charles Besnard recognized the fruitfulness of her apostolic zeal; “She made them feel that, being unable to fill their needs by herself, she had recourse to their compassion, that they could not use their hands more usefully than in working for the poor. She gave them each a task that they made a point of religion in fulfilling exactly. The gentlemen administrators never tired of admiring the good she accomplished. The poor looks upon her as their liberator and their mother. They bless a thousand times the day the Lord had sent them MOTHER JESUS, for that is what they called her”.
Humility, poverty, detachment, patience and kindness, union among the Sisters; such are the fruits of charity. They are also the characteristic elements of the Institute of the Daughters of Wisdom and the visible signs of the presence of the God of love among the poor. Her love of Christ springs deeply. Marie Louise Trichet tells us again today nothing is impossible for love. For it is love that leads her to dedicate herself without reserve to the poor and the little ones, to restore them to health and give them a taste for life, to educate them and open them to faith. In the prayer of contemplation, the Foundress discovers the secret of all authentic apostolic life: union with Christ, Eternal Wisdom of the Father. Apostolic successes are, above all, the fruits of faith and love.
On the Threshold of the Millennium: . . .
To convert men and build with them the City of God; such is the dual aim entrusted by Christ to his Apostles before returning to his Father. In a society where the little ones and the poor are scorned, and productivity and profit are held up as commandments of success, our Blessed Marie Louise Trichet proposes a message of poignant actuality. She invites us to follow Jesus’ invitation as it is transmitted by the Gospel of St. Matthew that we have just heard. “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke, become my disciples, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light”.
In her time, Blessed Marie Louise Trichet, like St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, responded to the expectations of her contemporaries. Today, precisely to respond to the calls of our brothers, without distinction of race or color, culture or profession, the Holy Father invites us all to a new evangelization. The task seems crushing and frightening to us, but Jesus is there: “Come to me. . .and I will give you rest.” Jesus, Eternal Wisdom of the Father, gives us his life and his love. With him, we enter into the infinite Wisdom of God.
. . . the Good News is Proclaimed to the Poor
Men and women of our time, especially the young, are faced with the dramatic demands of cultural mutations which, for many, take on the accents of an anguished call. What will our response be? To these young and to everyone, let us respond with generosity and faith. Let us give them real reasons to live. And let us be a credible witness. Let us take the road with them; Additionally, let us share their worries and their hopes; let us show them the way of true wisdom open to all men.
The renewed proclamation of the Gospel is addressed, in fact, to the whole man and to all men, to each one taken as a person and as a member of a community of brothers. Recent facts attest to it; in spite of decades of oppression, privations, humiliations and torture, man is still there in his infinite grandeur and liberty, for his heart is open on the infinite. Nothing, not even the most totalitarian regimes, not even the most dissolute morals can stifle this aspiration for the absolute. Augustine understood it. And his words, highlighted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church’ resounds with a new echo today; “You made us for yourself Lord, and our heart is restless unless it finds its rest in you.”
In this paschal season, with Christ the “New Man”, let us build this new civilization of love in which man will be able to place himself in truth among his brothers, in the image of his God, as Jesus reveals him to us; God of Wisdom, of tenderness and goodness, Father of infinite mercy.
A New Model . . .
For fifteen years John Paul II has been going around the world, tireless bearer of hope and peace, in the name of Christ. Ceaselessly he urges Europe to return to its origins to find its Christian roots. Yesterday, in St. Peter’s basilica, in beatifying Marie Louise Trichet, he wished to give us a new example, to give us a new model of Christian life to stimulate us to new ardor and with a renewed fervor to proclaim the Good News of the Gospel of Christ.
. . . of Christian Life
Dear Daughters of Wisdom and all of you collaborators and friends of the Montfortian Family, by this beatification you receive from the Successor of Peter – and you know how much your Founder revered him – and the whole Church a confirmation of your spiritual and pastoral intuition, of your religious charism and your ecclesial mission. Dear Daughters of Wisdom, on her death bed, your Foundress gave you her last instructions: “Always take good care of the poor.” Two centuries later, in the two Americas as well as in the Greater Antilles and Europe, in Africa as in Asia and Oceania, you welcome them all: abandoned children, dear and blind, orphans, young migrants, mentally handicapped, lepers, AIDS victims, the elderly. Faithful to the inspiration of Blessed Marie Louise Trichet, this is your vocation: be living examples of the infinite love of Christ, Eternal Wisdom of the Father.
And make people want to journey with you with confidence and in love. On the eve of her death, they presented the image of the Blessed Virgin to Mother Trichet. She was so happy! “Oh my good Mary, I have loved you so much. I always wanted to die between Jesus and Mary”. (3). Blessed Marie Louise Trichet, intercede for us with Mary, Throne of Wisdom and Mother of Mercy. With your Daughters of Wisdom, help the crippled, the oppressed, the wounded and the lame; those that the world neglects must touch you the most! Amen!
FOOTNOTES
(1) Cf. Benedetta PAPASOGLI, Marie Louise Trichet, un chemin de Sagesse, Ed. Monfortane, Roma, 1992.
(2) Catechisme de l’Eglise Catholique, Marne, Paris, 1992, n. 36.
(3) Rene LAURENTIN, Petite vie de Marie-Louise Trichet, Co-fondatrice des Filles de la Sagesse avec Saint L.-M. Grignion de Montfort, Desclee de Brouwer, Paris, 1993, p. 169-169.
