Constant gladness

Grant us, we pray, O Lord our God,
the constant gladness of being devoted to you,
for it is full and lasting happiness 
to serve with constancy 
the author of all that is good...

These opening words from the Collect on Sunday struck me, as I heard them, as being very appropriate for the feasts we celebrate this week in the Society. Firstly, they seemed right for Philippine Duchesne - and they contributed to the focus, in my feast-day blog, on the source of her deep joy. In the midst of trials and setbacks, Philippine did experience a constant gladness in being devoted to God, and to making known the love of his Heart. But the prayer also seemed especially right for today, the 224th anniversary of our foundation. 

On this day in 1800, during a clandestine Mass in a Parisian attic, Madeleine Sophie Barat and her first few companions pledged their lives to what would become the Society of the Sacred Heart. And on this day they unknowingly began more than two centuries of constant, joyful, prayerful, loving service of the author of all goodness... Two-plus centuries and thousands of women of every background and character, but all vowed to the same charism and mission... Two-plus centuries of constant gladness, through wars, revolutions and instability, and through times of peace, growth and reconciliation... across all continents and time zones, and across numberless changes in society, technology and geopolitical borders. 

Two centuries and a quarter of bringing Love to an often loveless, blessed and broken world, in an unbroken chain of loving and creative fidelity; of generosity and sacrifice, and deep, deep, prayer; of education and accompaniment and care, in a multitude of places and settings... And the constant, unending gladness, the grace, the privilege, and full and lasting happiness of doing this, and of being part of all this.

 Thank you, Sophie, Philippine and all our foremothers - and happy birthday to us!