Pentecost 1623: Luisa, a restless young widow, receives the ‘Light’ that opens up a new horizon for her – ‘you will be in a place where many will unite to serve’ – and convinces her that ‘God is enough for her’. That electrocution makes her a permanent pilgrim: from the aristocratic salon of Marillac to the wards of the poor, from the castles of Paris to the alleys of Bicêtre. Her heart knows no boundaries, because ‘other shores’ simply become the place where Providence calls her to serve.
Luisa does not let herself be broken by fragility (precarious health, widowhood, inner doubts). Resilience becomes an educational style: she welcomes, listens, supports. Empathy: she knows how to ‘look through the eyes of the other’ – from country nurses to the young Daughters of Charity. Creativity: she invents the ‘home work schools’, reorganises the Hospitals, experiments with ‘weekly conferences’ with the sisters to discern and form. In her, maternity expands into mission: ‘our homes are Bethlehem and Bethany together’.
‘Let us be led by God, Father of the poor”: this is not just a slogan. Luisa sees the providential hand as much in the great turning points (the meeting with Vincent, the ‘miracle’ of Fontainebleau, the royal approval of 1646) as in the small everyday details: the unexpected visit of a benefactor, the shared piece of bread, the healing of a sister. Her freedom stems from this total trust.
The Spirit arouses in her a ‘threshold’ charisma: living between the cloister and the street, between contemplation and service. With Vincent she dares an unheard of model: the nun with the white cap who goes around ‘like the village maidens’, without enclosure, ‘because the hospital is our monastery, the street our choir’. From this audacity was born a family that today is planetary: Missionaries, Daughters of Charity, AIC, Volunteers, Vincentian Youth, lay men and women who feel part of a single tree.
The jubilee anniversary invites the Vincentian Family to gather in unity the five great lessons left to us by Saint Louise. First of all, the faith capable of passing through crises: her doubts, illnesses, apostolic labours did not bend her, but purified her; thus we too are called to let ourselves be evangelised by our personal and community frailties. Next comes the vocation to be weavers of networks: Luisa builds bridges between monasteries, hospitals, confraternities and benefactors; today this translates into cultivating pastoral and social alliances, making charisms, ministries and civil competencies dialogue. Third legacy, the pedagogy of empathy: for her, the poor must be served in the entirety of body, mind and dignity; we are therefore spurred to offer integral paths that combine assistance, training and the promotion of rights. Fourth legacy, the spirituality of Providence: the audacity to believe that God provides makes us free to attempt missionary paths that, humanly, seem impossible. Finally, Luisa gives us docility to the Spirit: always keep the ‘windows’ of creativity open to welcome new forms of consecration, voluntary work and youth work. In short, her life becomes a compass that orients our synodal journey, because ‘love is infinitely inventive’ and never stops shaping history.
O God
who kindled in St Louise de Marillac
the fire of active love for the poor
and made her the mother of a multitude of servants of charity,
grant us also,
Missionaries of the Congregation
and members of the whole Vincentian Family
to renew today our yes to your Spirit,
so that, in the 400th Jubilee Year, our lives may proclaim:
‘Love is infinitely inventive’.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
