Today is Nov. 18, optional memorial of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, virgin.
“Blessed the man who follows not / the counsel of the wicked / Nor walks in the way of sinners, / nor sits in the company of the insolent, / But delights in the law of the LORD / and meditates on his law day and night” (Ps 1:1-2).
St. Rose Philippine Duchesne’s life exemplifies the soul that delights in God’s law, finding in it her strength, joy and unshakable purpose. Her early years were marked by her fidelity to prayer and her refusal to be swayed by the secular ideals swirling around her.
During the French Revolution, when many abandoned the Faith, she did not follow “the counsel of the wicked.” Instead, she chose to embrace Christ’s way, nursing prisoners and helping those in need. She would later write, “You may dazzle the mind with a thousand brilliant discoveries of natural science; you may open new worlds of knowledge which were never dreamed of before; yet, if you have not developed in the soul of the pupil strong habits of virtue which will sustain her in her struggle of life, you have not educated her, but only put in her hand a powerful instrument of self-destruction.” Like the psalmist, she meditated on God’s law, grounding her life in his presence even in the midst of upheaval.
When she joined the Society of the Sacred Heart, Rose Philippine’s heart began to beat with a new call — to carry the Gospel to distant lands. She wrote, “How truly blessed we shall be if at the price of even very great sacrifices we shall have made God known and loved by one more soul!” She founded multiple missions, including the first free school west of the Mississippi and the first Catholic school for Native Americans.
Despite her tremendous accomplishments, she knew the purpose of her life was really to give her heart to Christ. “We cultivate a very small field for Christ. But we love it, knowing that God does not require great achievements, but a heart that holds back nothing for self.”
Rose Philippine’s life invites us to consider: Do we seek our strength in God’s law and his presence, as she did? She writes: “Do not look back to the past, nor forward to the future. Claim only the present, for it holds God’s will.” Do we live too much in the past or in dreams of the future?
Today, we ask St. Rose Philippine’s intercession, that we, too, might become “blessed” by rooting ourselves in God’s law and by delighting in his presence.
Almighty God, who filled the heart of Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne with charity and missionary zeal, and gave her the desire to make you known among all peoples, grant us to follow her way and fill us with that same love and zeal to extend your Kingdom to the ends of the earth. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
My Daily Visitor spiritual reflections are a dose of daily Catholic inspiration from Our Sunday Visitor magazine.
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