My dear Sisters,

Two Sundays ago I spoke at Mass to you and to the Sisters from the Provinces of France, who had come here on pilgrimage to honor in a special way Our Lady and St. Louise. It so happened that the Gospel of that Sunday was an account of the Transfiguration of Our Lord. Since that time my mind has gone back to dwell on the experience of the three disciples on Thabor. This morning I am thinking of it again. Before the disciples had that marvelous vision of Jesus Christ on Thabor, they would have had a long laborious climb. Presumably, it was only when they had come to the top of the mountain that they had that vision of Christ, which so rejoiced their hearts and which made Peter eager to remain there always.

This morning all of us can look back on the long climb which the Community has had to reach the joy which we are celebrating here this evening. Some months ago each Sister after prayer and reflection presented to her Sister Servant her request to renew her Vows. The Sister Servant presented them to the Visitatrix, who presented them to Mother Rogé and her Council. Then on 2 February, Mother Rogé came to Rome and presented me with a book containing the requests and asked that the Sisters whose names were in it should be allowed to renew their vows today. Such has been the arrangement, which goes back to the time of St. Vincent and St. Louise and which has been continued unbrokenly since. Each year the Community, at the end of this long ascent of the mountain towards Renovation, receives from God a new vision of Christ and of His presence in the poor. So today the fragrance of so many lives ascends to God "like incense in His sight." (Ps 141:2). "It is good for us to be here." (Mt 17:4). "This is the day which the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad." (Ps 117:24).

I mentioned a few moments ago that your lives were like fragrant incense in the sight of God. This morning you will have noticed that we began Mass by incensing the altar, and later we incensed the offerings which you presented. The offerings at the Mass this morning had a special significance, because of the Renovation of your Vows which preceded the presentation of the gifts. Then the fragrance of incense filled the Chapel. And that too had much significance this morning. The fragrance that filled the Chapel was achieved by placing just a few hard grains of incense into a burning charcoal. When the hard grains of incense first contacted the fire, they resisted. Then they surrendered, and the result was the perfumed smoke that filled the entire Chapel. It is so with our lives. Our vows call for surrender to the fire of God's love. Our hard hearts protest at first, but when they have surrendered to the love of God, we become more closely united with Him, Who is Love. It is He Who sees to it that the fragrance of our consecrated lives fills not just a Chapel, but the Church which is the Body of Christ.A grain of incense is very tiny, but put it in contact with a little fire and see what is produced. So it is with you. The offering of yourselves to God for the service of the poor may seem a small thing to you, but God will see to it that what you have done this morning will bring fragrance to His Church and joy to His poor.

To come back to the mountain of the Transfiguration. St. Luke makes the point that it was while Jesus prayed there that the disciples had a new vision of Him. Your vocation is to bring spiritual and bodily necessities to the poor in whom you recognize a presence of Christ. It is from the experience of a vision of Christ that you go to the poor. For that reason we must always keep climbing the mountain of prayer.

Jesus Christ prayed at other times, as the Gospels tell us. The experience on the mountain of Thabor, as on another occasion on another mountain, emphasizes for us the depth and the prolonged nature of His prayer. Both St. Vincent and St. Louise have left us in no doubt about the importance of mental prayer or meditation. St. Vincent's phrase about leaving God for God to serve the poor is a celebrated one. With equal insistence, however, he emphasized the importance of daily meditation. In our own day, the present Pope has on more than one occasion told priests and religious that we can be so busy about the work of the Lord as to forget the Lord of the work.

All that you do for the poor must spring from your vision of Christ. In every gesture of love for the poor, you bring heaven down to earth, and you are preparing, getting things ready, so that Christ can come again, take possession of His kingdom and hand it over to His Father Who will be all in all.

On Thabor Jesus talked with the prophets Moses and Elias, and then Peter began to talk to Jesus about the possibility of remaining there always. Prayer is a loving conversation with God, we with Him and He with us. It is from the experience of talking with God that we talk to others. Since I came here to Paris, I have read the farewell address of Cardinal Marty, which he gave in Notre Dame. Speaking to the people of the city, he remarked on the loneliness which so many experience in a city such as this. "Loneliness is our Parisian misery....Deaf to the clamor of the city, but also the appeals of the neighbor. Break the silence. Look around you, listen and talk to one another." It is not enough, however, just to talk to people to lighten their loneliness. We can only lighten their loneliness when we speak to them, not only with our lips but with our hearts. We can only speak to others with our hearts when we have spoken to God with our hearts in prayer. We can only listen to others when we have listened to God in the silence of prayer. It is St. Vincent who apropos of prayer reminds us: "God is glorified as much by silence as by hymns which are sung in His honor." (Coste XII, Fr. ed. p. 57).

There is a great need of silence in the lives of those who wish to bring joy and peace to others: "O my Sisters," St. Vincent said, "When we are silent, we can hear God speaking to our hearts." (Conf. Eng. ed. 14 June 1643, p. 108).

As you go to the poor, think often of that pain of loneliness which so many experience in cities today. Indeed what the Cardinal said of Paris could sometimes be said of our communities. In some communities "loneliness is our...misery." Hence the importance of accepting the Cardinal's imperatives: "Break the silence. Look around you, listen and talk to one another."

Today we celebrate and honor Mary's unconditional surrender of herself to God. "Most Holy Virgin," prayed St. Louise, "you are our example in everything, but principally in what concerns our vows...make me honor you as my holy Mother and learn from you the fidelity which I owe to my God for the rest of my days." (Sainte Louise de Marillac, Fr. ed. 1961, pp 845-46). You know what a profound spiritual significance the feast of the Annunciation had for St. Louise. That is why we celebrate the fact that so many Daughters of Charity all over the world are trying, in the measure of their ability, to do the same today by renewing their vows.