Jesus is Son of God and Son of Mary

 "We should carefully note the order of the words here, and the more
firmly they are engrafted in our heart, the more evident it will be
that the sum total of our redemption consists in them. For they
proclaim with perfect clarity that the Lord Jesus, that is, our
Savior, was both the true Son of God the Father and the true Son of a
mother who was a human being. 'Behold,' he says, 'you will conceive in
your womb and give birth to a son'--acknowledge that this true human
being assumed the true substance of flesh from the flesh of the
Virgin! 'He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most
High'--confess too that this same Son is true God of true God,
co-eternal Son forever of the eternal Father!"
by Bede the Venerable(excerpt from HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 1.3.22)

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2 January – Blessed Maria Anna Blondin SSA
Also known as
Esther Blondin
Sister Marie-Anne
Marie-Anne Blondin

Memorial
2 January
18 April (Canada)

 Religious and Foundress of the Sisters of Saint Anne, apostle of the
Holy Eucharist and Divine Providence, Teacher – born Esther Blondin on
18 April 1809 in Terrebonne, Quebec, Canada and died on 2 January 1890
at Lachine, Quebec, Canada of natural causes.

Esther Blondin, in religion “Sister Marie Anne”, was born in
Terrebonne (Quebec, Canada) on 18 April 1809, in a family of deeply
Christian farmers. From her mother she inherited a piety centred on
Divine Providence and the Eucharist and, from her father, a deep faith
and a strong patience in suffering. Esther and her family were victims
of illiteracy so common in French Canadian milieu of the 19th century.
Still an illiterate at the age of 22, Esther worked as a domestic in
the Convent of the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame, that had
been recently opened in her own village. A year later, she registered
as a boarder in order to learn to read and write. She then became a
novice in the Congregation but had to leave, due to ill health.

In 1833, Esther became a teacher in the parochial school of Vaudreuil.
Little by little, she found out, that one of the causes of this
illiteracy was due to a certain Church ruling, that forbade that girls
be taught by men and that boys be taught by women. Unable to finance
two schools, many parish priests chose to have none. In 1848, under an irresistible call of the Spirit, Esther presented to her Bishop,
Ignace Bourget, a plan she long cherished – that of founding a
religious congregation “for the education of poor country children,
both girls and boys in the same schools”. A rather new project for the
time! It even seemed quite rash and contrary to the established order.
Since the State was in favour of such schools, Bishop Bourget
authorised a modest attempt so as to avoid a greater evil.

The Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Anne was founded in Vaudreuil
on 8 September 1850. Esther, now named “Mother Marie Anne”, became its first superior. The rapid growth of this young Community soon required
larger quarters.  During the Summer of 1853, Bishop Ignace Bourget
transferred the Motherhouse to Saint Jacques de l’Achigan. The new
chaplain, Father Louis Adolphe Marechal, interfered in an abusive way
in the private life of the Community. During the Foundress’ absence,
Father changed the pupils’ boarding fees. Should he be away for a
while, he asked that the Sisters await his return to go to confession.
After a year of this existing conflict between the chaplain and the
Foundress, the latter being anxious to protect the rights of her
Community, Bishop Bourget asked Mother Marie Anne, on 18 August 1854,
“to resign.” He called for elections and warned Mother Marie Anne “not
to accept the superiorship, even if her sisters wanted to re-elect
her.” Even though she could be re-elected, according to the Rule of
the Community, Mother Marie Anne obeyed her Bishop whom she considered
God’s instrument. And she wrote:  “As for me, my Lord, I bless Divine Providence a thousand times for the maternal care he shows me in
making me walk the way of tribulations and crosses.”

Mother Marie Anne, having been named Directress at Saint Genevieve
Convent, became the target of attacks from the Motherhouse
authorities, influenced by the dictatorship of Father Marechal. Under
the pretext of poor administration, Mother Marie Anne was recalled to
the Motherhouse in 1858, with the Bishop’s warning: “take means so
that she will not be a nuisance to anyone.” From this new destitution
and until her death on 2 January 1890, Mother Marie Anne was kept away
from administrative responsibilities. She was even kept away from the
General Council deliberations when the 1872 and 1878 elections
reelected her. Assigned to mostly hidden work in the laundry and
ironing room, she led a life of total self-denial and thus ensured the
growth of the Congregation. Behold the paradox of an influence which
some wanted to nullify! In the Motherhouse basement laundry room in
Lachine, where she spent her days, many generations of novices
received from the Foundress a true example of obedience and humility,
imbued with authentic relationships which ensure true fraternal
charity. To a novice who asked her one day why she, the Foundress, was
kept aside in such lowly work, she simply replied with kindness :
“The deeper a tree sinks its roots into the soil, the greater are its
chances of growing and producing fruit.”

The attitude of Mother Marie Anne, who was a victim of so many
injustices, allows us to bring out the evangelical sense she gave to
events in her life. Just as Jesus Christ, who passionately worked for
the Glory of His Father, so too Mother Marie Anne sought only God’s
Glory in all she did. “The greater Glory of God” was the aim she
herself gave her Community. “To make God known to the young who have
not the happiness of knowing Him” was for her a privileged way of
working for the Glory of God. Deprived of her most legitimate rights
and robbed of all her personal letters with her bishop, she offered no resistance and she expected, from the infinite goodness of God, the
solution to the matter. She was convinced that “He will know well, in
his Wisdom, how to discern the false from the true and to reward each
one according to his deeds.”

Prevented from being called “Mother” by those in authority, Mother
Marie Anne did not jealously hold on to her title of Foundress, rather
she chose annihilation, just like Jesus, “her crucified Love”, so that
her Community might live. However, she did not renounce her mission of spiritual mother of her Community. She offered herself to God in order
“to expiate all the sins which were committed in the Community” and
she daily prayed to Saint Anne “to bestow on her spiritual daughters
the virtues so necessary for Christian educators.”

Like any prophet invested with a mission of salvation, Mother Marie
Anne lived persecution by forgiving without restriction, convinced
that “there is more happiness in forgiving than in revenge.” This evangelical forgiveness, the guarantee of “the peace of soul which she
held most precious,” was ultimately proven on her death bed when she
asked her superior to call for Father Marechal “for the edification of
the Sisters.”
As she felt the end approaching, Mother Marie Anne left to her
daughters her spiritual testament in these words which are a resume of
her whole life : “May Holy Eucharist and perfect abandonment to God’s
Will be your heaven on earth.” She then peacefully passed away at the Motherhouse of Lachine, on 2 January 1890, “happy to go to the Good
God” she had served all her life…. Vatican.va

Saint Quote:
Man cannot perform a more holy, a more grand, a more sublime action
than to celebrate a Mass, in regard to which the Council of Trent
says: "We must needs confess that no other work can be performed ...
so holy and divine as this tremendous Mystery itself.  God Himself
cannot cause an action to be performed that is holier and grander than
the celebration of Mass.
--St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787), The Holy Mass

Bible Quote:
Fight the good fight of faith.  Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto
thou art called and be it confessed a good confession before many
witnesses. I charge thee before God who quickeneth all things, and
before Christ Jesus who gave testimony under Pontius Pilate, a good confession:  (1 Tim. 6:12-13)

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Prayer to the Queen of Carmel

O glorious Virgin Mary! Queen of Carmel, Mother of God and of poor
sinners; special Protectress of all those who wear thy holy Scapular,
I supplicate thee, by the glory that has been accorded thee by the
Incarnate Word in choosing thee for His Mother, to obtain for me the
pardon of my sins, amendment of my life, salvation of my soul,
consolation in my pains, and in particular the grace I now ask,
provided it be conformable to the will of thy divine Son. Amen

O Queen, who art the beauty of Carmel, pray for us.

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