She invested so much of her vocation in supporting priests…
On Sunday October 20, Pope Francis canonised a third French Canadian-born saint, Mother Marie-Léonie Paradis.* The following Friday, five Madonna House members — Fr Brian Christie, Janine Gobeil, Martha Reilander, Alexander MacAdam and Giulia Velocci — made a pilgrimage to Sherbrooke, Quebec to attend a Mass of Thanksgiving for this event.
Mother Marie-Léonie founded the Institute of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family in New Brunswick in 1880. At the invitation of Bishop Paul Laroque, the motherhouse was transferred to Sherbrooke in 1895.
Their mission is to support the material needs of priests, and over the years they have served in seminaries and residences in Canada, United States, and in Rome. At this time, their houses of discernment and formation are in Honduras.
Ours was a short pilgrimage, really only a weekend, but it was filled with the encounters and unforeseen events so typical of pilgrimages.
On the way, we stopped in Alexandria, Ontario to visit one of our members, Diane Lefebvre, who had recently moved to a retirement home there.
After lunch, some adoration time in the church across from Diane’s building, and the blessing of Diane’s new home, we said our goodbyes and made our way to the Marie Jeunesse community in Sherbrooke, Quebec, who graciously hosted us for the weekend.
Marie Jeunesse is a young community of consecrated lay men, lay women. and priests, with a mission to evangelize youth. Their Friday evenings usually involve some kind of activity or prayer service for the young people visiting them. We were looking forward to being with Marie Jeunesse and their young friends, so we ended up joining the landscape painting activity that was scheduled.
The following day we had planned to join the community for lunch, but after morning Mass, we ran into to four former guests of Madonna House in Combermere. They were as surprised and delighted to see us as we were them.
Thanks to Patricia, one of them, who knew her way around town, and to benefactors, we ate lunch at an economical Lebanese restaurant, because, by the time we had finished catching up on news, it was too late for lunch with the community.
After the meal and great conversation, Patricia brought us to Notre Dame de Beauvoir, a well-known shrine in Sherbrooke. There we met a woman working at the gift shop, who enthusiastically related how Mother Marie-Léonie had been instrumental in her conversion and in finding her this job.
Early in Fr. Brian’s priestly life, he had become aware of Blessed Marie-Léonie Paradis from relatives who spoke of her relationship to his mother’s side of the family. Knowing that she had invested so much of her vocation in supporting priests, he felt she would take a particular interest in supporting him in prayer.
Besides the Mass of Thanksgiving for the newly canonized saint, highlights of the pilgrimage for him, were a visit to the sisters’ chapel where Mother Marie-Léonie’s heart is preserved and encased, and the chance to meet several sisters from the community.
He felt they embodied the heart of their foundress and were an encouragement to him simply by their fidelity to their vocation to serve as Christ did when he so humbly washed the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper.
When we introduced ourselves to the sisters, we found that Madonna House and the Little Sisters of the Holy Family had already crossed paths. Two of the three sisters we met had lived in Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan and would make poustinias ** at Madonna House during the years we had a foundation there.
Janine, too, had a personal connection: her great grandfather was a first cousin to the new saint, and she was thrilled to have been invited to participate in the pilgrimage. What especially struck her was the pride and great love for this humble little nun shown by the many people attending the Mass of Thanksgiving for her canonization.
“The church was packed,” said Janine, “and there was great joy permeating the air. One line in the homily stayed with me: ‘St. Marie-Léonie lived a life that can be lived by anyone. Her life of service, charity, and compassion can be lived today.’”
Archbishop Luc Cyr of Sherbrooke, the main celebrant, pointed out in his homily that St. Mother Marie-Léonie’s acts of service, particularly for priests, were driven by love and a desire to please God. This, he said, was “fear of the Lord,” a gift given by the Holy Spirit to a person of faith.
He distinguished it from the Jansenistic fear of God exhibited by the people of that time, which was not of God. He said those people feared that God would judge, punish, and, condemn them if they had not been good.
Fear of God in the right sense of the word, drove Mother Marie-Léonie to dedicate her life to God through acts of service, always conscious of practicing charity, which made her a person with a big heart.
After Sunday morning Mass with the Marie Jeunesse community, we left Sherbrooke, intending to make a quick stop at Saint-Benoit-du-Lac, a Benedictine monastery about 45 km away. An unforeseen challenge was the GPS’ inability to locate the monastery. Giulia was praying we would find it and meet one of the monks, and just as we were about to give up, her request to Our Lady was answered.
Around the monastery’s parking lot, snow flurries were falling on small, fragrant roses that were still in bloom. It reminded us of Our Lady of Guadalupe and her promises to Juan Diego, as flowers bloomed out of season.
When we entered the monastery, many people were going in and out, including a monk who stopped to greet us in the foyer. It turned out that he, too, had heard of Madonna House from one of our former guests, who had spent a year with them after leaving Combermere.
We arrived back in Combermere on the evening of Sunday October 27, having driven through falling snow. Finding our way back through Quebec had not been easy, but Providence looked after our every need. The small inconveniences endured during our pilgrimage were certainly worth our beautiful and fruitful encounters with the Church in Quebec.
Said Giulia, “Several months prior to this event, I had not even heard of Mother Marie-Léonie Paradis. I returned to Combermere after this pilgrimage with a renewed determination to love and serve my brothers and sisters in Madonna House and elsewhere, even when unforeseen and sometimes painful circumstances occur.”
*Editor’s note: The other two French Canadian saints are St. Marie-Marguerite d’Youville and St. Brother André Bessette.
** A poustinia is usually 24 hours in solitude with God in a room or cabin with only a bible and bread and water for tea.
