In prayer and silent contemplation

Where can we find the strength to put ourselves generously at the service of others? In prayer and in the silent contemplation of Christ. A prayerful encounter with Jesus fills our hearts with His peace and love which we can then give to others.

Today's tweet from Pope Francis seemed so, so appropriate for today's saint! Today the worldwide family of the Society of the Sacred Heart celebrates the feast of St Philippine Duchesne, our second saint and first missionary and pioneer. 

Philippine was a woman of great apostolic zeal, and of action, who did not become a missionary by accident. She might not have alluded to it much, but for the rest of her life she remained faithful to, and grounded in, the great apostolic vision she received during a night of eucharistic adoration in 1806, revealing to her new lands to 'be opened up to the light of truth' in the future. And when I checked the Society's liturgical calendar yesterday, I was struck by the fact that the largest part of the short biography in the introduction was devoted to her own account of this 'blessed night'. And in this biography, as in her life, this graced vision was pivotal: the preceding two paragraphs led to it; everything in the final one, and in the reflective comments, flowed from it.

What is Philippine saying to me, and to all of us, about the importance of returning, and returning again, to the primordial graces, insights and calls we have received, and keeping them at the centre of how we live our vocation years and decades later?

Yes, a woman of great apostolic zeal - but that is not the name by which she came to be known. The native Americans among whom she lived in her early seventies called her The Woman Who Prays Always. They knew she spent long hours in prayer, but I'm sure this name was also a recognition of the quality of loving, contemplative presence she must have brought to all her interactions with them: a recognition that those long hours with God were what had filled her heart with the love and peace she freely, generously gave away. 

So, I'm sure that today, on her feast, Philippine's message to us all is a hearty echo of today's papal tweet...

Where can we find the strength to put ourselves generously at the service of others? In prayer and in the silent contemplation of Christ. A prayerful encounter with Jesus fills our hearts with His peace and love which we can then give to others.

Happy feast everyone; and may Philippine bless us with her prayers, that we too may become people of prayer and silent contemplation, overflowing into all our encounters...