The Life of the Venerable Mother Mary of the IncarnationAnonymous
Religion
The Life of the Venerable Mother Mary of the Incarnation
Anonymous
Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France); Indians of North America; Marie de l'Incarnation, mère, 1599-1672
"Well, then," she said, "the past ought to be to you a security for the
future. Prove yourself the worthy child of God, the best of Fathers; keep
His commandments, trust in His Providence, and you will find that He
never disappoints those who fear Him. If I bid you adieu for the second
time, it is again to obey His voice. If you really love me, you will
rejoice that I have been chosen to labour for His honour among the
infidels." She continued for some time thus to speak to him in the
language of faith and love. As she raised his thoughts to heaven, his
better feelings prevailed, and when she concluded, he knelt at her feet
in tears and asked her blessing. He arose quite changed, burned the
exciting letters, and, in the simplicity of his heart, offered to God the
sacrifice of that holy mother whose loss he understood better now than at
their first separation. That sacrifice was to him the source of immense
graces and a fruitful seed of future sanctification.
Five days after leaving Tours, the missioners arrived in Paris, and were
at first lodged near the house of the professed Jesuits, whence they
afterwards removed to the Ursuline house of St. Jacques, where, as the
Venerable Mother remarks, "they found themselves once more in their
element." To their great joy, they succeeded in obtaining permission for
one of the religious of this monastery to accompany them to Canada, but
their satisfaction was of short duration, for the Archbishop soon
recalled the permission, and could not be induced to renew it.
A still more severe disappointment awaited the Mother of the Incarnation
before her departure. Her son, the object of so much solicitude, the
cause of so much sorrow, had just gladdened her heart by most
unexpectedly expressing a desire to become a Jesuit. To leave him in the
novitiate of a religious house, cut off from the troubles and temptations
of the world, and with nothing to divert him from the concerns of his
salvation, would have been the very crown and climax of her happiness--
but the way of the cross was to be hers. The Father appointed to examine
the young candidate thought him disqualified for religion; anxious,
however, to soften the pain of an absolute refusal, he suggested that
there might be a better chance at a future period, when the novitiate was
less crowded. An ever-ruling Providence had destined the youth for
another Order, and when God's time came, the disqualifications complained
of had disappeared; the present trial was, however, none the less painful
to his mother.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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