PhilippineGrain of Wheat Fallen into the Earth ...
Philippine had only opened up the furrow, and with what difficulties, sown the seed ... But one day the Sacred Heart would return and harvest it ... . Her role was to open up the way through the brambles. She is God’s pioneer (Msgr. Baunard).
Philippine’s way was one of hiddenness. She landed in Louisiana, driven by the intuition of proclaiming Love to the ends of the earth, and at the age of 49, she began a patient journey of sowing. She went forward in a discerning way, through requests and offers received, in a courageous dialogue with men of the Church who were given to her as companions, and with feminine intuition. In spite of the abundant fruits and rapid growth of the mission, she seemed to see only its hidden and suffering face. She carried the cross with Jesus, while the Resurrection was already at work around her.
Our land today is rocky through its rejection of God and a culture of indifference but also fertilised by the thirst of humanity and the desire for ecological change. What furrow should we open up? What seed should we sow? Would the acceptance of fragility, modest and tentative participation in the searching of today’s citizens, be crosses to be carried with Jesus, ways of burial necessary for a harvest that we shall not see with our own eyes?
Marie-Paule Préat, RSCJ, Province of Belgium – France - Netherlands Image: Microsoft clipart
