In the Footsteps of St. Louis Marie de Montfort

"Footsteps Online"

Autumn 2002 (Volume 7, Issue 2)

Towards the Tercentenial

Founding Stories Are Important....

So often they seem to anticipate the future of a group. That is certainly the case with the founding story of the Daughters of Wisdom whose Tercentennial we celebrate on February 2nd 2003. It is an occasion to revisit our history with thanksgiving, but it is more than simply a celebration of the past. It is about making us realise that 300 years of history have passed without diminishing the freshness of that 'today' when Montfort gave Marie Louise the habit of a Daughter of Wisdom. As Pope John Paul says in 'Novo Millenio Ineunte':

Launch Out into the Deep!
These words ring out for us today,
and they invite us to remember the past with gratitude,
to live the present with enthusiasm
and to look forward to the future with confidence.
Jubilee is not only a remembrance of the past,
but also a prophecy of the future…… ( pp 4,5)

 

We are all, as members of the Montfortian family, pilgrims and companions together on this journey of remembering, living and looking forward, and we are invited to return to our founding story, at the centre of whom is Jesus Christ who accompanies us on our pilgrim way.

How may we best live this time of great blessing? Here are some suggestions:

  • By reading reflectively the lives of Montfort and Marie Louise with a beginner's mind, with the eyes of someone seeing anew, and an open heart. Perhaps our founding stories have become too familiar ... too rooted in history and in the past ... whereas a beginner's mind frees us to see our story, ourselves and other people anew ... to be able to perhaps meet Montfort and Marie Louise as if for the first time ... to be able to make new beginnings. As a group our deepest life wisdom is to be found in these stories ... all the past experiences of Montfort and Marie Louise are still carried with us, moment by moment, into each new encounter, experience and mission TODAY. So, pick up the stories of Montfort and Marie Louise (as previously reviewed in this publication), read and reflect on them with others with new eyes and heart and savour the wisdom held therein. Ask yourself, 'Where does wisdom lie in this person, this experience, this encounter? What is it saying about how I live today?'

These new beginnings are not a denial of history, nor of the wisdom gleaned: they are a release from history and a source of joy and hope in seeing the Spirit at work in women and men through the ages. The alternative is to be chained to a past we think we know too well.

So, in your reading and reflection, be involved ...

  • By making a period of spiritual preparation in solidarity with the Daughters of Wisdom by praying the following prayer, alone and with others:

O God, after 300 years of wisdom mission,
we come before you in a spirit of prayer and thanksgiving.

THANK YOU for the desire awakened in the hearts of Louis Marie and Marie Louise.

THANK YOU for their acceptance and their choices of life through darkness and light.

THANK YOU for the double passion for Wisdom and for the poor that they have transmitted to us.

THANK YOU for Friends who share this treasure of Wisdom.

O Jesus, our unique Wisdom, you invite us to promote life. Show us the ways of justice and renewal that you wish for us.

O Blessed Virgin Mary, take us by the hand so that we may move forward on this journey, guide us and lift us up when we are doubtful and discouraged. Help us to be with others the voice of the poor in society and in the Church.

St. Louis Marie de Montfort and Blessed Marie Louise of Jesus, watch over our Congregation and ask God to bless it. AMEN

Other forms of spiritual preparation will include a retreat (fully booked) and overland pilgrimage to St. Laurent sur Sèvre, France.

  • By joining in the local, national and international celebrations which will be held wherever Daughters of Wisdom live in community and which will be advertised in the local press nearer the time. We are a Montfortian family and we welcome all who are associated with us as Daughters of Wisdom.
  • By practical gestures and initiatives in support of the poor, particularly projects involving women and children.
  • Thank you to all who responded to my last article with comments and suggestions it was very much appreciated. We continue to welcome your thoughts and reflections.

May this celebration be for us all a time of new life and growth.

(Sr. Shirley Martin D.W.)