Feast Day of St. Marguerite Bourgeoys Prayer Service 2023
Reader 1: Marguerite, a woman of great love, faith and courage, trusted in God with all her heart. As we joyfully gather to celebrate St. Marguerite’s Feast Day, may her life and example inspire us to live our lives in the same way…with great love, faith, courage, and trust in God
Reader 2: One of Marguerite’s characteristics that most impressed her contemporaries was her boundless confidence in God. It was this that had given her courage to start out for the cold, lonely, and dangerous life of the New World carrying nothing but a few of the basic necessities of life in a small bundle in belief that if what she was undertaking was God’s will, God would provide. This was an opinion Marguerite shared and an important aspect of her insistence on the practice of poverty in the Congregation which she saw as a condition of trust in God and so absolutely necessary to the fruitfulness of the work of the community. (A CND Spirituality for our Years of Grace and Glory, “Marguerite Bourgeoys’ Final Gift”, by Patricia Simpson, CND, Nov. 2006)
All: Marguerite, be here with us. Pray for us so that, like you, no matter where we are called on mission, no matter where our journey takes us, we may always love, serve, and trust God with all our hearts!
Song: The More I Follow by Kathleen Deignan, CND
The more I follow You without fear, the more will You protect me.
The more I do Your will, the more will You make known to me Your love.
The Holy One is a faithful God; a father God is he,
For God has sheltered me with his hand: He will not prove untrue to me.
The Holy One is a mighty God: a mother God is she.
For God has fed me with her own hand: She will not prove untrue to me.
The Holy One is a blessed God, a brother God is He.
For God has led me with His own hand: He will not prove untrue to me.
The Holy One is a magic God, a mystic Trinity, who draws me into a deep embrace
and will not prove untrue to me.
Reader 3 We have a tendency to believe that we need to be in control of our lives and, oftentimes, of the lives of our family, our friends, and our neighbors. We build up burdens upon ourselves and when we are completely stressed, then we run to God.
Reader 4: But God says, “come to me,” “trust in me,” “have faith the size of a mustard seed,” before you are worried and weak. God wants it all. God can handle it and can give us the grace we need and the strength we need to follow God’s will. Trust in God and, above all, have faith. from https://blog.franciscanmedia.org
All: Trust in God at all times, O people; pour out your heart before God.
God is a refuge for us. Psalm 27:5
(pause for silent reflection)
Reader 5
Marguerite trusted in God when…
–she experienced stumbling blocks in her vocation when seeking acceptance
with the Carmelites
–she formed a small community of three in the footsteps of Mary which disbanded
–she responded to the invitation to go to Montreal to teach children in the colony
Reader 6
Marguerite trusted in God when she crossed the Atlantic…
–caring for the sick and dying
–comforting the fearful
–and once, when facing the possibility of being seized, strengthening others… “If we are
captured, we will go to England or Holland where we will find God as we find Him
everywhere.”
All: Trust in God with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge God, and God will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6
(pause for silent reflection)
Reader 7
Marguerite trusted in God when she and her Sisters faced bitter Montreal winters, dangers in Ville Marie because of native uprisings, and fires that destroyed the Mother House and took the lives of two young Sisters—one who was her niece.
Reader 8
Marguerite trusted in God when she searched for companions to accompany her to Canada to begin her new Congregation in Montreal so that they could help and support the colonists, welcome the fille du roi, teach the children, encourage externs to meet and pray, and go out on mission.
All: So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; for I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10
(pause for silent reflection)
Reader 9
Marguerite trusted in God in her later years when:
–she suffered depression for four years due to the accusations of mortal sin by Sr. Tardy and
others, still “…never doubted the mercy of God. I will always hope in Him…”
–she prayed and shared meals in the infirmary with Sr. Catherine Crolo, her one surviving close friend
–she received the grace of complete abandonment as she approached her death with peace, joy, and song
All: May the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in God, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
(pause for silent reflection)
Reflection Question
Marguerite was a woman of FAITH, LOVE, COURAGE, and great TRUST in God. These are a few of the many qualities she possessed.
Reflect on these qualities—or others that you’d like to add—and how one or a few may pertain to your life at the present moment.
Example: At this time, do I feel that God is calling me to:
–deepen my FAITH
–reach out to someone in LOVE AND COMPASSION
–be COURAGEOUS
–TRUST where God is leading me
–be DARING about a particular issue or circumstance
–extend myself in HOSPITALITY and WELCOME
–EMPOWER OTHERS through liberating education
After quiet reflection time, what would you like to share with the group from your personal reflection?
Sharing
Reader 10: INTERCESSIONS
(adapted from THE ENERGIES OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD by Joyce Rupp)
When we come face to face with the challenge of self-giving, when we are asked to go the extra mile, to take the risk of reaching out to another, to offer forgiveness to the heart that rejects us…
Response: Spirit of God, fill us with the energy of your love.
When we experience turmoil in the world, when fear and anxiety take over our spirit, when we feel heartache and loss…
Response: Spirit of God, deepen in us the energy of your peace.
When someone needs a simple gesture of thoughtfulness, when a look of love is all another asks from us, when our sisters and brothers cry out in hopelessness and distress…
Response: Spirit of God, create in us the energy of your kindness.
As we face the shadow of our inner world or peer into the darkness of our outer world, as we struggle to believe in our own gifts and blessings….
Response: Spirit of God, strengthen in us the energy of your goodness.
Reader 11
In those difficult times when fear threatens to drown our trust in you, during those experiences of growth when we are tempted to doubt all the ways we have known you….
Response: Spirit of God, renew in us the energy of trusting in you.
As we walk on the edges of life and death, as we struggle with the disciplines of spiritual growth, as we yearn to be faithful amid the many changes of inner and outer growth…
Response: Spirit of God, move us with the energy of your guidance.
And now I invite you to add your own intentions in silence….
Spirit of God, you are the stirring in our hearts.
You urge us to get going. You prompt us to follow.
You encourage us not to give up. You call us to open
our minds and our hearts to receive your energizing,
transforming radiance. Make us receptive so that we
will follow your loving movement within our lives.
Like Mary and Marguerite, we trust in your powerful
presence within us. AMEN.
Closing Prayer
All/in-person group or Reader 12/Zoom: O God, you called Marguerite Bourgeoys
to leave her homeland and all that was familiar to her,
and to face the hardships of life in Ville Marie.
You called her to be open to possibilities,
to be courageous in taking risks,
and to always trust in you.
Inspired by her life and example,
we ask for the grace to respond to your call to us today
to intentionally live and deepen interculturality and intergenerationality,
honor, respect and protect our common home,
and intensity our prophetic presence to the peripheries.
Like Marguerite, may we always hear the cries of our wounded world and respond with fierce hope, with prophetic action, in mutuality and collaboration together for the life of the world.
Amen.
Song: Prayer of the Congregation by Kathleen Deignan, CND
O dearest Mother and Foundress, we seek not comfort or wealth.
We only ask that in your name, God may be greatly loved and oh, so faithfully served.
O teach us the wisdom of littleness: to be simple, humble and poor,
to be open to God at the core of our hearts, and to wait on God’s word evermore.
And teach us the way of mobility–to be swift and grateful and true,
so that in our lives we may visit again the ones who are waiting for you.
And teach us the mystery of charity to hold our neighbor in heart,
to sing of the Spirit alive in our midst, and to carry the word of God’s love.