Canonization of MOTHER marie eugenie

Letter #5 from The Canonization Committee, March 30, 2007

From Spain, where the congregation's Canonization Committee was meeting, we received this letter which we share with you.

Malaga, 30 March 2007

Very dear Sisters,

The first word that comes in writing this letter is THANK YOU. Thank you for all your messages expressing unity, encouragement, trust, simple and fraternal love. In addition to all we receive at this time of preparation, the Canonization draws us closer together and we feel this strongly. A common desire to walk in the footsteps of Marie Eugenie in our daily life resides in all of us, Sisters, Brothers, Friends.

We are in Malaga continuing our preparation for the much awaited Canonization! According to the information received from the Provinces, we will be more than 5,000 pilgrims in Rome. This number was totally unexpected! Our joy is contagious! The person of Marie Eugenie is appealing and the Spirit is making of this event a time of grace for each and everyone of us. Let us give thanks to God and let us be faithful. The work of these past days is intense but it makes us already feel what awaits us.

We have just written a letter to the Provincials and to those responsible for the organization of the Canonization in the Provinces giving them details regarding the 3-days pilgrimage, the places where the celebrations will be held, the meeting with the Sisters and the Friends and all that concerns visas, pilgrims’ kits, souvenirs…

The commissions are also at work. The Liturgy Commission, coordinated by Blandine, will meet this week-end in Auteuil. The Logistics Commission will meet at the end of April in Rome where we expect to have Regina Victoria and Cristina with us right after Easter. Catherine Sesboüé takes care of everything that has to do with communication and our Assumption Fathers are giving us a good helping hand!

The initial program has undergone some changes: there will not be any Audience with the Holy Father on the 4th of June. However, on Sunday, after the Celebration of the Canonization, at the moment of the Angelus, the Pope will address each group of pilgrims that has come to Rome for this great event.

Seeing the great number of Assumption pilgrims, we have had to modify the time of the Meeting of the General Council with the different Assumption Congregations, with the Alumnae/i, the Friends and all the pilgrims who would like to join this meeting. This meeting will take place at the Sala Nervi or Paul VI Hall at 6:30 p.m. The four other Assumption Families will be present in Rome and to our great joy and that of the Assumption in Heaven, the Missionaries of the Assumption of the Cape will also be among us. Some Bishops in whose dioceses the Congregation is present as well as numerous priests from the four continents will also be joining us.

We count on all of you to supervise and accompany the pilgrims. The presence of Sisters beside the young and the adults will be very important for the ‘success’ of the pilgrimage. We have a mission to fulfill on their behalf: to transmit to them the love of the Church that dwelt in the heart of Mother Marie Eugenie of Jesus.

To celebrate holiness is to undertake the same path. This great throng of Assumption pilgrims in Rome shall well be the image of the people of God who, moving towards the fullness of time when God will be all in all, make of this earth “a place of glory for God”.

The forthcoming two months will be a time to intensify the preparation for this great event which will mark our personal lives and the life of the whole Congregation. From heaven Marie Eugenie of Jesus will surely bless our efforts and will help us to go further in love, to keep our gaze fixed only on Jesus and on the extension of His Kingdom in us and around us.

We already wish you a Blessed Easter. May the mystery of the death and the Resurrection of Jesus enlighten us and grant us a taste of the true Easter joy:

« The joy of Easter is, first of all, a solemn, deep joy, a joy of eternity. For the Apostles, for the disciples, for the whole nascent Church, after having seen our Lord in such suffering, in such anguish, the hour of the Resurrection was undoubtedly a time of joy, a joy which, as with all passage from pain to a great joy, must have something solemn and profound in it.

... Easter is a great day, a day in which we ourselves must try to go from one life to another life. You know that is the meaning of the word Passover. How the Apostles were transformed! How, from weak beings before the day of Easter, they became strong, full of faith, ardent! How they began to be soaked in the spirit of the apostolate that would confirm in them the grace of the Holy Spirit! We have already received the Holy Spirit in such a way that Easter can produce all its transforming and forward-moving effects.

Try to allow the Spirit entrance everywhere, that He penetrate everything…that He reign everywhere, enlighten everything, transform everything, lead all on the paths of eternity, on the paths to heaven.

… The joy of Easter, a deep joy, a joy that transforms us… a joy that consists in renewing ourselves in the joy of our vocation, in wishing the same good to all, the same dwelling… »
(MME, Chapter 13 April 1879)

It is this same joy that we wish you on this Easter Feast in this year of grace of the Canonization of Marie Eugenie of Jesus.

With all our fraternal affection,

Katrin, Maria Paola and Cristina María

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Official Logo for Mother Marie Eugenie's Canonization

Pope Benedict XVI and the Basilica of St. Peter, Rome

Pope Paul VI proclaiming Mother Marie Eugenie blessed at Beatification: Rome 1975

Blessed Marie Eugenie's tomb in the chapel of the Mother House, Paris