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minds are made up: we will not accept this, save at
the extreme requirements of obedience.” In the end,
Bishop de Laval left the Constitutions of 1647 intact,
with the exception of five articles dealing with minor
points. Saints can differ on practical matters, without
their mutual charity being affected.
“I go around the world in spirit”
In May 1653, Marie of the Incarnation made an
interior holocaust of herself to God for the spiritual
good of all the inhabitants of Canada. On that occa-
sion, she composed this prayer, which reveals the
intensity of her missionary zeal: “It is through the
Heart of my Jesus, my way, my truth and my life,
that I approach You, O Eternal Father. Through this
divine Heart I adore You for all those who do not
adore You; I love You for all those who do not love
You; I adore You for all the willfully blind who, out
of contempt, do not know You. Through this divine
Heart, I want to satisfy for all mortals... I go around
the world in spirit to seek out all the souls redeemed
by the most precious Blood of my divine Spouse, in
order to satisfy You for all of them through this divine
Heart; through It I embrace them to present them to
You, and through It I ask You for their conversion…
On this adorable Heart do I present to You all the
workers of the Gospel so that You may fill them with
Your Holy Spirit… I present to You all these souls. Monument to Marie of the Incarnation,
Make them one and the same with You.” in front of the entrance to the Ursulines monastery,
Mother Marie had toiled much and long. Pro- by sculptor Emile Brunet
longed penances and ill-treated disease had ex-
hausted her. She could no longer kneel, her eye- eternity. You are: that is Your essence and Your
sight was failing, and all food was repulsive to her. name. You are life, divine life, living life, uniting life.
And yet she rejoiced at the thought that soon she You are all bliss. You are superadorable, ineffable,
would be able to see God face to face. Before she incomprehensible unity. In a word, You are Love,
died, she looked back on the graces of her life: God and my Love.”
had showered her with mystical favors, the work of The Christian woman in Saint Marie of the In-
the Ursulines was making excellent progress, and carnation achieved her full accomplishment with re-
she was filled with joy with the reports from her son markable balance in her various states of life: wife,
Claude: having joined the Benedictine congregation mother, widow, company director, nun, mystic, mis-
of Saint-Maur in 1641, he had been promoted to the sionary, always in fidelity to Christ and always in
office of prior in 1652 and then, in 1668, to that of close union with God. On the strength of her experi-
assistant to the superior general. On the brink of ence, she wrote: “God never leaves those who call
death, Marie of the Incarnation sent her son, whom Him their friend and prefer Him to all things and to
she had not seen for forty years, a tender message: themselves.” We can invoke her to obtain, through
“Tell him that I am taking him with me in my heart.” her intercession, the grace to do all things in God,
Marie of the Incarnation died on April 30, 1672, at the with God and for God. v
age of seventy-two, having spent forty-three years
in Canada. She was proclaimed a saint on April 3, Dom Jean-Bernard Marie Borie, Abbot
2014 by Pope Francis, through the process of equi- and the monks of the abbey
pollent canonization (based on a constant reputation This article is reprinted with permission from the
for holiness, with the dispensation of a miracle). Her Abbey of Clairval, France, which every month pub-
feast day is celebrated on April 30. lishes a spiritual newsletter on the life of a saint in
In an “Exclamation”, the Ursuline named God in English, French, Italian and Dutch. Their postal ad-
the way she experienced him: “No, my Love, You dress is Abbaye Saint-Joseph de Clairval, 21150
are not fire, You are not water, You are not what we Flavigny sur Ozerain, France. The website is: www.
say You are. You are what You are in Your glorious clairval.com

www.michaeljournal.org MICHAEL March/April 2024 31