9 December 1991
Madagascar

My dear Sisters,

You may remember in the life of St. Bernadette how, when she asked Our Lady who she was, Our Lady replied: "I am the Immaculate Conception." Young Bernadette had difficulty, not only in understanding the phrase, but in remembering it. All the way home she kept repeating it, lest she would forget it: "I am the Immaculate Conception." As a child, these two words, Immaculate Conception, were big words, difficult for her to understand and difficult to remember. Bernadette had no difficulty, however, in understanding the message which Our Lady gave her, nor would she ever forget the beauty of Our Lady's person, her smile and her gentleness.

It is not difficult for us to remember the two words, Immaculate Conception, nor do we find it difficult to accept the mystery proposed to us by the Church, that Mary alone of all human creatures was conceived free from original sin through the merits of her Son's life, death and resurrection. Perhaps it is difficult for us to find a way in which this great mystery can have an effect in our little lives. God does not reveal mysteries to us only that we may praise Him; all the mysteries of our faith are intended to shape the way in which we live our daily lives.

Of all the saints who have drawn out for us the practical implications of the mystery of the Immaculate Conception in our lives, I think St. Louise must be placed in first rank. You know how devoted she was to this mystery. When you enter the chapel of the rue du Bac, you see up over the high altar the first words of her prayer: "I believe and confess thy holy and Immaculate Conception." That prayer is very beautiful. Note how St. Louise has made it concrete for you. It is St. Louise who spells out for you the practical meaning of the Immaculate Conception: "Obtain for me from your Divine Son humility and charity, great purity of heart, mind and body, perseverance in my holy vocation, the gift of prayer, a good life and a holy death." In those few phrases, St. Louise spells out for you what practical devotion to the Immaculate Conception should mean.

Mary could say at all times with perfect truth the words which the present Pope has as his motto: "Totus tuus." "I am fully yours." That is the meaning of her Immaculate Conception. She was fully God's property at all times, and He knew He could use her freely for His purposes. Her whole life was an expression of what she said to the Angel Gabriel at the Annunciation: "I am the slave of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to your word." The mystery of Mary's Immaculate Conception is the marvel that one human person, by the grace of God, was at every moment of her life completely open to God, as the mountains are to the sun and the wind and the rain. May Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us sinners who have recourse to her today, so that we can exclude sin from our lives. May she pray for us so that we may become fully hers and fully God's.

On this beautiful feast day some Sisters will pronounce their vows for the first time. By your vows you yield yourselves totally up to the love of God, as do the incense grains to the fire. Through your vows of chastity, poverty, obedience and service of the poor, you overcome the resistance which the selfishness of your hearts opposes to the love which God has for you. By living your vows faithfully, you become more free and, although your lives may seem to be small, like the little grains of incense, they are in fact giving forth much fragrance in the Church of God. You are, in St. Paul's phrase, "the good fragrance of Christ." (2 Cor 2:15).

Your vows put certain limits on your freedom. You accept those limits lovingly and gladly. If your vows limit your freedom, they also give you a new freedom. Your vows keep you from being over absorbed in things, so that you may be more concerned about people. They are a wall of fire and the fire has its origin in the love which God has for you and for the poor whom He wishes you to serve. Ask often from God the grace of being able to see fidelity to your vows as a response to the love He has shown you in calling you into the Company. Reflect often on the fact that because relatively few are called in the Church to pronounce vows of chastity, obedience, poverty and service of the poor, your vows must be considered as a privileged way of loving God. Your vows are about loving God with your minds and hearts and bodies. Your vows should help you to become loving persons. Often ask yourselves the question: Into whose lives am I bringing love? A married woman who lives her vocation brings love into the lives of her husband and children. To whom does the Daughter of Charity bring love? The poor, but also into the lives of those with whom she lives in Community. At the end of a day it can be helpful to reflect on the way we have touched other people's life and ask ourselves the question: What person has been enriched by the love I have shown through the living of my vows today?

To a Sister who had told him of her appreciation of the vows she made in the Company, St. Vincent wrote: "My Sister, I praise God for the good dispositions He gives you to make yourself more and more agreeable in His eyes. You will reach this happy state if you practice well humility, gentleness and charity towards the poor and towards your Sisters. I pray Our Lord, Who has given us the example of these virtues, to gift you with this grace." (Coste VII, Fr. ed., pp. 454-455).