Piedecuesta (Colombia), 08/17/2020, Sr. Cecilia Remolina Vargas.- Marie Poussepin, a woman with a lucid mind, who knows how to "see what is right in the eyes of God", acts with audacity, creativity, with a willingness to seek solutions that are appropriate to the needs of her time.
In this year 2020, in which we were celebrating the 25th anniversary of her beatification, we want to honor her as a woman with special features, an intelligent woman with a particular intuition for detecting the paths she should follow, strengthening her to give meaning to her life and mission of announce of the Gospel. In Marie Poussepin, there is a clear and well-defined center: Jesus Christ; we must announce Him, for Him, we must live practicing the virtue of Charity, which takes into account God and our neighbor, because the only way is love, without which life is impossible.
Mature, balanced, prudent, with a sense of duty and justice. She is interested in her brothers and sisters, always leaning towards the poorest. A woman of faith, of prayer, of contemplation, of assiduous reading of the Word of God, woman of hope, manifested in daily life, open and audacious, but at the same time humble and trusting in Divine Providence. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, she followed what her heart felt in order to do charity in her environment in need of human and spiritual help. With these valuable traits, she undertook her work of educating poor girls of her time and looking after the poor sick people who, because of the war, were left without shelter, and she knew how to welcome them with her creative charity.
She is for us an example to follow with the values of the time, different but similar, according to the pedagogy of our Founder Marie Poussepin. The monthly retreats that we have received have enlightened us, made us think about continuing the work of Providence with the traits that we have received in inheritance. In the month of June retreat, Sr. Lucienne Bonkoungou gave us some light on how to do evangelization in the time we are living. I transcribe some paragraphs that enlightened me:
“Apart from her apostolic engagement, Marie Poussepin, with a spirit of clear-sightedness like Solomon and a remarkable discernment, transformed the traditional industry and commerce of her native town. She knew to put together the spiritual and the temporal in an efficacious charity.
In our days, this apostolate, which is teaching, requires from us an awakened and critical spirit to face the values supported and taught by our States. Then the urgency is no more the simple education in faith, even less, the instruction already acquired, but the education of human values which are at danger.
We can, among other things, look at some themes which are values to be safeguarded like “paternity and filiation”, “sexual difference”, “gender”, “education on emotions” and non – sexual education… , which are related to the unity, dignity, and integrity of human beings and family, but which are approached from an angle which tends to destabilize them.”
After this very valuable reflection, I see that this is the path to follow in the instruction of children and young people, an integral education, by the pedagogies of Marie Poussepin, mainly accompaniment.
I thank the General Government, which has given us the opportunity to celebrate this year by deepening the life and work of our Foundress, with the contribution of several of our sisters who have given us elements for updating the mission, in which the service of charity in the Church is made alive.