Answers TELE –WORK Nº2 (PART III)

OVER TO YOU:

HOW DID SAINT MARY EUPHRASIA DESCRIBE HER JOURNEY FROM TOURS?

Consult the ANNALS p. 61 or contact us.

“Imagine, St. Mary Euphrasia tells us, three pour religious in a diligence, in the midst of bandits wearing red bonnets, for it was the time of the revolution: all we heard were cries of war, deranged cries, the men were delirious. They were however very honest as far as we were concerned. As at that time I was carsick, as later on I was seasick, they got me out of the diligence, even giving me a helping hand to get down, saying that we had been recommended to the; that they were in charge of us. I walked around in the middle of them for a quarter of an hour with Mary of St. Philip. That is how we came to found …”

During the journey, the driver came to avert us to the fact that we were courting great danger, that one side of the road was a dangerous precipice and the other the Loire, that the bridge was narrow and without any parapet…

Finally Mother Mary of St. Euphrasia arrived in Angers, never more to leave – it was the eve of Pentecost, 21st May 1831, and the five religious she had left in the House received her with unutterable joy.

Over to you:

DID THE SISTERS IN NANTES REFUSE THE HELP REQUESTED OR NOT? HOW DOES THE BOOK OF THE ANNALS PRESENT THE STEPS MARY EUPHRASIA TOOK REGARDING THE SISTERS IN NANTES?

You can ask us for the text as a reference.

Reply: They accepted Mary Euphrasia’s request but the Ecclesiastical Superior was against it. The book of the Annals, p. 80 says:

“Still weak, she left, accompanied by her Assistant. They arrived in Nantes on 1st March …

The Count de Neuville, in an effort to help our Mother obtain the favour she was going to reclaim from their charity, offered a sum of 2000Frs so that one religious would be granted to Angers to govern the Penitents. Our dear Sisters of Nantes received Our Mother with much cordiality, and promised her a Mistress of Penitents. They wrote straightaway to the Superior who did not judge it right to diminish the number of subjects in the House, finding it already overworked

Our Mother was therefore obliged to return without anyone. The Lord allowed this extreme abandonment to give our holy founder, M. de Neuville, the idea of the Generalate. He shared it with our Mother: who felt great consolation at this great project” p.80

(The Annals that we quote here attribute the idea of the Generalate to M. de Neuville; it is one version that must be compared with others. For example: Mary Euphrasia’s letter of 23rd September to Sr. Mary of St. Dosithée: “You, my beloved daughter, you believed in the Holy Work and you have seen it in its beginnings, at the time even when no-one saw it, so hidden was it in humiliation and pain …Remember my St. Dosithée, that it was to us two that God gave the first thought of the Generalate? I will never forget that moment…) p.86

Sr. Mary of St. Vincent CORNET continues:

“But she was forced to name our dear Sr. Mary of St. Philippe (MERCIER), whose health was very fragile, as first mistress of the penitents. She was placed in the class on 2nd May. I was named at the same time as the disengaging sister, mistress of work, and to take catechism. I was then five months in the Novitiate. Mary of St. Philippe was very zealous and suffered all it was possible to suffer, as a reward for her work, all she gathered were thorns. The insubordination of these children got worse and worse.” P.80

OVER TO YOU:

TO OPPOSE THE PROJECT OF THE GENERALATE SR. MARY OF ST. PAUL BODIN RECALLS ANOTHER EXPERIENCE OF A GENERALATE THAT OLC HAD? DO YOU KNOW ABOUT IT?

Response: here are the details contained in a letter sent to Mgr. Montblanc, Archbishop of Tours.

Tours 19th May 1833

Monsignor,

It is with the greatest pain that we learned that an administrative government in the form of a Generalate is operating in our House of Angers. However good, however praiseworthy the reasons that support and provoke this erection may be in themselves, we dare, Monsignor to confidently assure you they are not less prejudicial in their consequences, and dangerous in their effects; and this is not conjecture but experience of fact.

There follows the dates of the Briefs of Approbation, the intention of the Founder, the dependence on single bishops etc….

The memorial makes mention of two things: an experience of this type in Paris and the advancing of professions.

As far back as 1802, the re-establishment of our Congregation having been solicited, almost immediately, some enlightened persons thought it would derive more advantages from unity in its government; that of the State which desired this unity for the religious corps, was a new reason for wanting it, and the affair was planned and then proposed to the whole Institute. Our House in Paris was to be the Central House and Headquarters.

The Superior and 18 of her Sisters signed up to the project which only came to light in 1807, and the imperial decree which authorised it, erecting the Generalate, is dated from Fontainebleau, 30th September 1807

The Congregation, alarmed, rejected this proposition as harmful and prejudicial, refused to submit to the decree, and gave the right to the Houses which refused this new form of administration.

Later on in the Memorial, it mentions the return of the House of Paris with its two foundations to the Institute:

“Thus this apparent improvement that let the good operate in peace faded away; fruit of a too ardent zeal even in the opinion of those who conceived and followed it and who then put it nicely that they had wanted to run before they could walk.*

Mother St. Paul’s second concern: the advancing of professions.

“Now it is easy to know how many out of the young persons who were admitted to pronounce their vows on 8th March and soon after Easter were in breach of the rule. I departed on 23rd May 1831 and left only one novice and one choir postulant, this latter could not therefore have fulfilled her time of probation, only having taken the habit after my departure, and the others even less so because they only entered after …

This foundation having come out of our House, we must be even more keenly afflicted to see it distance itself away like this. (p.103)

OVER TO YOU

FACED WITH THE THREAT CONTAINED IN MONSEIGNOR DE MONTBLANC’S LETTER TO RECALL MARY EUPHRASIA TO TOURS WHICH HUNG OVER THE HOUSE, THE SISTERS REMEMBERED THAT AT THE TIME OF HER NOMINATION THE OBEDIENCE FOR ANGERS HAD BEEN GIVEN WITHOUT A TIME LIMIT …THEY LOOKED FOR IT BUT COULD NOT FIND IT …

Where was it?

You may contact us.

Response: the Annals say:

“We searched everywhere for this piece of paper but could not find it. We were so upset … However, Our Mother had the idea that our Sister Mary of St. Stanislas, who was then in Le Mans, might have this obedience among her papers! So she wrote to her. And in fact, this dear Sister found it and quickly sent it back to us.” (p. 107-108)

OVER TO YOU

AFTER HAVING LOOKED AT SOME OF THE STAGES MARY EUPHRASIA WENT THROUGH IN ORDER TO INCARNATE AND BRING TO BIRTH “THE HOLY WORK”, I LOOK AROUND ME SO AS TO DECIPHER IN THE PAINFUL AND VIOLENT EVENTS I SEE HOW I COULD EXPRESS, IN ATTITUDE AND WORDS THAT “THE SON OF GOD HAS AS HIS PLAN TO ACCOMPLISH IN US THE MYSTERY OF HIS INCARNATION” (John Eudes, O.C.I p. 311); THAT “THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH” (Jn. 1:4)

Response:

Free

*Translator’s note. I have used an English expression that captures the sense of the French phrase rather than translate the French literally.