I always find it interesting to learn about the American saints, especially those who brought Catholicism to the United States when we were still forming as a country. Theodore Guerin was born in France in 1798. Her father was murdered when she was 15 years old, at which time she took care of her mom and younger sister. Even in the midst of fragile health and the challenges her family faced, she entered the Sisters of Providence in 1823. Sister Theodore Guerin and five of her fellow sisters were sent to Indiana at the invitation of the bishop of Vincennes, Indiana. They arrived in the frontier town of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, in 1840, to teach in the Catholic schools and to care for the sick and the poor. She helped establish the motherhouse of a new order there in Indiana. Mother Theodore and her community persevered amongst many challenges and difficulties. She died in 1856 at the young age of 57. She was buried in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana. She was beatified in 1998, and canonized eight years later.
Today we hear the famous passage from Luke’s Gospel when Jesus sends the 72 disciples out to be missionaries. They have little provisions with them and they know that they are going to face challenges and hardships, but spreading the Gospel message is an important part of their journey as disciples of Christ. I think of Mother Theodore Guerin who faced a lot of adversity and challenges as a nun coming to a foreign land as a missionary. May we all have that same missionary spirit.
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