In darkness and light, a true mother,
you walk with us.
Amid crashing waves and on dancing beaches,
you hold us up.
Through fearsome forests and meadows blessed
with bird-song, you guide our steps.
With frail health or robust energy, you climb
the hills of our memories,
Never too busy to listen, or sit beside us in
comfortable quiet,
All the while, leading us to Mary’s open,
waiting arms,
All the while, showing us her Son living
within us, transforming us with his
Presence.
Honestly, how many of us would be eager to give allegiance to a leader who rode alone on a donkey down Pennsylvania Avenue on Inauguration Day? What message would that leader wish to send the electorate about the next four years?
As Jesus entered Jerusalem in what seems to be a triumph, the people are ecstatic as they cry “Hosanna to the Son of David;/Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; /Hosanna in the highest.” Jesus lived his life among us with great determination and intentionality. As THE prophet and the herald of the reign of God, he chooses to enter on a donkey! AH! But even as a child I realized that a donkey would never have been my choice for a king to come to my Jerusalem.
The 400th anniversary of the birth of Marguerite Bourgeoys on April 17th affords us a wonderful opportunity, with the help of the archives, to revisit the contribution of one of this country's founders. Upon closer inspection, it is clear that her values remain firmly anchored in the collective consciousness and that her educational mission continues to this day.
Like Maisonneuve and Jeanne Mance, who preceded her by a decade, Marguerite Bourgeoys arrived in Ville-Marie in 1653 as a lay person inspired by the ideas of the France’ Great Century. The colony that welcomed her was very modest, but its inhabitants’ vision was ambitious and inspired by the Catholic Revival movement. That powerful movement proposed a social and religious life based on the principles of humanism, respect for others and self-improvement, all values that the first teacher in Montreal would use to establish a new society in the Americas.